Grey Dawn by Clea Simon Read Free Book Online

named Beth, she recalled – into the chair in front of her desk.
    â€˜Beth, how may I help you?’ As she spoke, Dulcie folded her laptop closed, but left her hand on its top. It was probably her imagination that made its faint vibration feel like a purr. The warmth was encouraging, however: a promise that she could soon return.
    â€˜It’s about the final paper.’ Dulcie kept her smile in place. Of course it was. This was the time in the semester when she started to hear excuses, weeks in advance, for why the final assignments simply could not be done.
    â€˜I do have a letter from my doctor.’ The student started rummaging in her bag, and Dulcie realized that she’d missed what the young woman had said. Something with cramps – the full moon, and all that. Lucy would have had an answer, Dulcie thought, her smile becoming real. She’d have encouraged this young woman to harness her lunar cycles for some kind of celestial boost.
    â€˜Okay,’ Dulcie didn’t dare try that kind of response, and instead took the note handed to her. ‘Well, just try your best.’
    With that, Beth left. ‘So much for wanting to work on the material,’ Dulcie muttered, as a gust of air – as soft as the brush of fur – smoothed past her face. It could have been a breeze whisked up by the student’s departure, but Dulcie didn’t think so. ‘It’s all about the grades, Mr Grey. I don’t think they care about the reading at all.’
    Only silence greeted her, and so Dulcie reopened her laptop. ‘I know,’ she said, as she waited for the system to awaken. ‘I’m trying not to get discouraged.’
    â€˜I have been summoned to assist you on your journey,’ said the Stranger, his face shrouded in the shadow of the coach’s deep recess. ‘For dangers abound on this Road, as the bilious Moon rides to her turbulent zenith, and I would be your Friend.’
    â€˜What?’ Dulcie sat back. She had no recollection of transcribing this. True, deciphering those torn and stained pages had taken all her concentration; she hadn’t been able to read while figuring out words, letter by letter. Something this evocative, however, she was sure she would have remembered.
    â€˜I did not summon you.’ Breathless, still from the cold, which had whipped her flaming midnight locks –
there was a question mark here, and Dulcie had added in brackets: [redhead? Brunette?] –
and brought stinging tears to her eyes. ‘And if I did not, then what Spirit demanded your Presence at this spot, on such a night with a Moon—’
    â€˜Excuse me?’ Another interruption. Dulcie couldn’t help herself. Her sigh was loud, audible for sure to the slim young woman in the doorway.
    â€˜Yes?’ Dulcie heard the peevishness in her voice. ‘I’m sorry,’ she tried to soften it. ‘I just got caught up in my own reading. Please come in.’
    â€˜Thanks.’ The young woman collapsed into the chair, her dark hair falling over a pale face. Up close, Dulcie could see that she looked frail rather than simply slim. She seemed exhausted, as well, her large, dark eyes heavily shadowed. ‘This has been a nightmare.’
    Strange words, but she undoubtedly was referring to the assignments. ‘Is it the class work? Is it too much for you?’ Dulcie didn’t usually offer such fill-in-the-blank answers, but right now she didn’t want to hear more excuses. Besides, this student really did look to be at her wit’s end.
    â€˜It’s not the class.’ The girl surprised her as she pulled herself upright, pushing her hair back as she did. ‘It’s my room-mate.’
    â€˜Ah.’ Dulcie waited. She’d had a little experience with room-mate issues – at any rate, until she and Suze got a double sophomore year. But they’d never stopped her from finishing her work. That’s what