“…need to wait it out. That’s all.”
The whisper would have been barely audible to anyone else walking down the hall if there had been anyone else. The half-drow’s hearing picked up on it loud and clear, without any other background interference to confuse it.
“They can’t know. There’s no way. This is paranoia, Maleshi. Just let it go and focus.”
The silver figure in Cheyenne’s mind stopped, Mattie’s keys jingled, and the knob on her office door squeaked before the woman disappeared inside. She could still see her professor’s aura through the half-dozen walls of offices between her and Mattie, but she didn’t need to keep watching.
Her black Vans moved silently down the hall, and although Cheyenne normally would’ve knocked, she didn’t bother. She didn’t even stop outside the open office before slipping in and closing the door swiftly behind her. The firm bang was louder than she’d intended, but she wasn’t trying to be quiet anymore.
Mattie let out a little shriek and jolted where she’d stopped beside her desk. She whirled to face her grad student. The woman didn’t look all that surprised to see Cheyenne standing there, but that was probably because she’d just been startled by the slamming door.
“Okay.” Cheyenne spread her arms and gave the woman a second to catch her breath. Instead, Mattie kept holding it. “I get that right after class wasn’t a good time, so I’m here now. Ready to tell me what the hell happened this morning?”
The air finally hissed out between Mattie’s tightly closed lips and ended in a wheeze. She blinked furiously and turned toward her desk again, trying to act like she had it together. Like something hadn’t snapped in her the last time she’d spoken to her half-drow student. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, kid.”
“Nice try. I can only play along with that one for a limited time.” Cheyenne slipped her backpack off her shoulders, set it on the floor by the bookshelf against the wall, and headed toward her professor. “But it’s office hours now, right? This is where you train me and my drow magic that neither of us knows that much about. Where we talk about all the stuff we wouldn’t be caught dead saying in public. Remember?”
“Cheyenne, if you have a specific question you’d like to ask about your abilities or how I can help you bring them under control, you know that’s what I’m here for.” Mattie rummaged hastily through her briefcase and tossed a stack of scattered papers onto her desk. She didn’t turn around, and she wasn’t really focused on anything in her briefcase or on the desk.
Her pulse was racing again, and that moldy, sweaty-orange smell was starting to reappear too. The halfling didn’t doubt her senses when it came to whatever her professor was trying to hide, which was apparently quite a bit.
“Drop the act, Mattie. Come on.” Cheyenne slowed when she saw the woman stiffen beside the desk, her back still turned. “We both know what almost happened in your class. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if I didn’t have to yell at you to get your attention. Honestly, I can’t even begin to guess why that happened or what’s going on with you. Maybe you’re as clueless as I am—”
“Careful.” Mattie’s warning came out as close to a low growl as Cheyenne had heard the woman’s voice go. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Stopping just behind her professor and calling that the safest bet, the halfling folded her arms and cocked her head. “Okay, so which one is it? You have no idea what I’m talking about, or I have no idea? ‘Cause one of those is a weak excuse, and the other one sounds like a warning. I hope you know by now that I don’t do well with warnings.”
For a moment, Cheyenne held a boring staring contest with the back of her professor’s head.
Mattie finally let out a long, heavy sigh and turned to face her student. The woman’s naturally tanned skin had a grayish tint to it now, and her usually glinting green eyes were a lot more glassy—the kind of glassy that came with so much fear that it turned into numbness. She swallowed and pressed her hand on the top of the desk. It looked like an attempted power stance, but Mattie’s grotesquely neon skirt didn’t completely hide the woman’s trembling legs. “The last time you were in my office, Cheyenne—”
“You mean, yesterday?” The halfling lifted an eyebrow. “It wasn’t that long ago. That makes it even weirder that you thought I wouldn’t notice.”
Mattie closed her eyes to collect her thoughts and gather her self-control again. “When you stopped by here yesterday, things changed. As I told you before, I’m happy to help with your training with drow magic. That’s as far as I can go. Anything beyond that, I’m not equipped to handle.”
“Not equipped?” Cheyenne gave her professor what felt like plenty of time to go into more detail, but it was probably only seconds. It was enough for Mattie to clam up again, at least. “Okay, I’m calling bullshit.”
“I’m serious, Cheyenne. Improving and developing magic is one thing, but—”
“No, we’re past that. I was already planning on being here today to ask you more questions, but my priorities got rearranged when you zoned out in front of a bunch of human grad students and started casting…whatever spell that was. Did you even know that was happening?”
“We’re not gonna have this conversa—”
“Yeah, we are.” The halfling stepped forward one more time, and while Mattie still held her ground with one hand on the desk,
