Irina senses the shift immediately. “She was mauled, wasn’t she? By a berserkr, right?”
“What?” I stop in my tracks. “Why would you think that?”
“I… I had a dream a few nights ago.”
Irina suddenly clamps her mouth shut. It makes me wonder if it was anything like the nightmare I had about Emilía’s murder. But why would Irina dream about that? I was the one who found her body. Helga made it clear not to tellanyone, so how would Irina even know there was an attack?
Nils narrows his eyes. He’s suspicious of her too.
“What? I’ve been practicing for my Dreams and Divinations class.” Irina rubs her arm like the uncomfortable silence is getting to her. “At first I feared it was a premonition, but when I didn’t hear anything about it, I chalked it up to a nightmare. Figured she was staying with a friend, but…”
I pause. “Actually, Irina—”
“Emilía is missing,” Nils interrupts quickly.
I stare at Nils, trying to hide my surprise.
Why ishelying about this? He knows damn well Emilía is dead.
“Oh…” Irina covers her mouth. “Uh, then ignore everything I just said. I probably sounded unhinged.” She gives a half laugh, but the frown stays on her face.
I wince. Maybe I should tell her the truth, but… Nils clearly doesn’t think it’s a good idea. He must be trying to protect me. Or Irina. Who knows what it would do to her? Especially if she really did witness what happened to Emilía in her dream.
I know firsthand how traumaticthatcan be.
I also know how awful it feels to be lied to. To be told what you saw didn’t really happen. I was soangrywhen I found out my social worker Helly was lying to me for most of my life.
But if I want to find out who killed Emilía, I can only do that at Skallagrim.
If I’m sent home, I’ll be separated from Bea.
I’ll go to jail.
“Yeah, so we’re trying to help find her,” I say weakly, thinking of Emilía lying in the grass, unmoving. I hate myself for having to lie to her roommate, but now that Nils did, I can’t contradict him. He’s the only person who believes I’m innocent, and I need his help if I want to find out the truth.
Irina frowns. “Did you know Emilía?”
“She gave me a tour a few days ago.”
“Oh,” Irina says, nodding. “I don’t think I’ve seen you before, actually. Are you new?”
Nils laughs. “Surprised you’d notice, Irina. You always have your face buried in a book.”
She turns to him, pouting. “So what? I love to read.”
“I can tell,” I mumble, lifting the stack of books in my arms. I don’t know how far we are from the library, but we need to find out a lot more about Emilía. As we walk through the quad, the back of my neck prickles. It feels like someone is following me—just like the night of the attack.
I glance over my shoulder, but the walkway has cleared out.
How strange.
“How were things with Emilía?” Nils asks Irina.
“Fine, you know. We aren’t really that close or anything. And actually, I started seeing even less of her lately. Sometimes she wouldn’t show up for class, which wasn’t like her.”
Nils adjusts his grip on the books. “Did Emilía seem stressed out or different from usual?”
“I guess so.” Irina shrugs. “She’s been really busy helping prepare for the Unity Celebration. When she’s not doing that, she’s been spending time on the student council or studying, so I haven’t seen much of her the last few days.” Her voice is dripping with resentment.
