Sip frowned. Over my shoulder she asked, "What's wrong?"

I tried the door again, grabbing the handle harder, but nothing happened.

"I have no idea," I said. I started to throw my shoulder into it, but Sip's hand on my arm stopped me.

"Let me try," she said. I moved out of her way and she stepped forward, putting her hand on the doork.n.o.b. Instantly the entire outline of the door shown brightly, telling us that the lock we had put on was now off.

"Just gotta know how to talk to it," she said, beaming.

I scoffed as Sip swung the door open.

Then we both stood there dumbfounded.

Apparently there was a good reason that I, as an occupant, couldn't open the door. Because I wasn't an occupant. All my stuff was gone.

Chapter Four.

"What. Is. Going. On?" I demanded to the empty room.

Neither of us had budged. It was as if the inside of my room was an illusion, and if we walked in then all of my stuff vanishing would be real. As long as I stayed outside I could pretend that all of my stuff was about to appear right back where it should be.

I felt like I was about to hyperventilate. Sip, who hated for anything to ever be wrong or anyone to ever be upset about anything, was trying to comfort me.

"Maybe it's gone for cleaning? Maybe we're in the wrong room?" She made a show of checking the room number, but obviously we were in the right place. Sip was the only eighteen-year-old at Public who decorated her life in neon.

"Sip," I cried, staring around at her half of the room, which hadn't been touched, "our room was already clean."

Sip's neon posters and bedspread were all still there. She was a neat freak at the best of times, and I had done my best to keep up with her. Maybe sometimes I just walked into the room and kicked off my shoes or threw my jacket on the bed, but she followed behind me like a tiny, personal Dirt Devil vacuum and put everything in its proper place. Nothing needed to be cleaned.

I moved into the room and sat in the chair at my desk - what used to be my desk - and put my head in my hands. "I think I might be sick."

Sip perched herself on the side of my desk and started rubbing small circles on my back.

"Don't worry," she soothed. "It will be okay."

"Do you think it was the pixies?" I asked. The pixies were malicious little things.

"I don't know," said Sip. "I just can't believe they could have gotten past our locks."

"So, Sip finally got sick of you and kicked you out? Evil little dictator that she is," came Lisabelle's drawl from the doorway. "See, she looks so nice. Now we know it's just an act."

"Lisabelle," said Sip, "this is serious. Besides, were I to do a bad thing, I would never get caught." She winked at her friend.

Lisabelle's mouth slashed into a grin.

"But seriously, what happened? I'm all for minimalism, but this is ridiculous."

"We don't know," I cried, staring around. Tears were forming at the corners of my eyes and I tried to will them away.

It wasn't that I had had anything especially dear to me in my room. Luckily, all the things I had that had been my mother's were either at my stepdad's house or with me. I never left them anywhere else, and besides those items, there had been nothing that wasn't replaceable.

"Alright," I said, standing up. "We have to find out what happened. Let's go to dinner, so I can talk to a professor. Now."

Lisabelle checked the neon pink clock Sip had hung on the wall last semester. "It's 4:45. Only grandparents eat at 4:45."

"Grandparents and people who had all their stuff stolen," I shot back. "Now move, Grandma. Besides, I missed lunch and you know how I get when I'm not fed regularly."

"Honestly," Lisabelle muttered, "it's hard to tell the difference." Shaking her head, she knew better than to argue, and the three of us filed out of the burgled room.

"I'm going to get Lough," said Sip. Running a hand through her spiky blond hair, she trotted down the stairs ahead of us. The floors were segregated by gender, and Lough lived on the floor below ours.

"What?" Lough sputtered when he saw me.

I told him everything.

"Are you kidding? Who would do that?" he asked, his voice rising.

"Can't you dream it and find out?" asked Lisabelle, raising her dark eyebrows.

Lough didn't say anything, but the corners of his eyes pinched. He hated the fact that dream givers weren't very respected in the paranormal community. Unlike darkness mages, who were also rare but always very powerful, a lot of dream givers had trouble with simple spells and tasks.

We hurried downstairs to the door of Airlee, from which we had a clear view of the Tower, the tallest building on campus. The bottom floor was taken up with the campus dining hall, while the upper floors were cla.s.srooms. There were lots of buildings on campus, but the Tower was the largest and most imposing. It was made of colored gla.s.s that you could see out of, but not into. It was beautiful as it stretched up to meet the sky. Outside Astra Dorm, it was probably my favorite building at Public.

We trudged the rest of the way through the snow in silence. Lough was irritated, Sip was tired, and I was worried. As usual, it was impossible to know what was going on in Lisabelle's mind.

The dining hall, another familiar and welcome place, was one large room with lots of small tables. One side was filled with different food stations spread out on large counters, allowing students to pick and choose what they wanted to eat.

So early in the evening there were no professors in the hall, but I wasn't even sure who to go and talk to. We were still on break, and as far as I knew there was no campus police force, although at that point it seemed like there should have been.

"Let's eat, and then we'll figure it out," said Sip. "By the time we're done, maybe more professors will have gotten here."

Reluctantly I went to fill my plate. My mind was whirling, but there was only one question. Where was my stuff? Okay, so two questions. Had I been kicked out after all? That couldn't be, not with the protections that I knew had been placed on me all through the Christmas break.

"Tell me more about the demons," said Lough as the four of us sat down.

I was too angry to talk. Instead, I shoveled food into my mouth while Sip and Lisabelle explained what had happened and how Lisabelle had taken on half a dozen demons by herself, and won.

I watched students trickle in, watching out for the first professor. Even if it was Zervos, I intended to go and talk to him. I wanted my stuff back.

As luck had it, Professor Korba, tiny pixie extraordinaire, was the first professor to arrive. Being so small, he usually flew around, which let him move at a faster pace and look a bit taller. He came up to my elbow.

I nearly bounded out of my chair in my rush to get to him. Sip made an irritated noise at my poor manners, but I ignored her.

He didn't even have time to pick up a tray before I was there.

"Professor Korba," I greeted him. He spun around in mid-air, letting out a little squeak.

"Ah, Ms. Rollins, so nice to see you," he said. "I trust your holiday went well."

"It was fine," I said, not wanting to waste time. "I have a problem."

Professor Korba's eyes shot up. "My dear, that's not good. Perhaps, though, it might be best if you waited until tomorrow, when the proper people will be present."

I shook my head. "I can't wait until tomorrow. And if you will forgive me, but what proper people?"

Professor Korba cleared his throat.

"Just let me get a cup of tea, my dear, and then you may follow me to the podium."

He indicated the place in front of the podium where all the professors usually sat for dinner.

Instead of following him to get his tea I headed to the professors' table, and he joined me shortly thereafter. Everything else in the dining hall, from other students coming in to my friends still sitting at their table chatting, fell away, and I started to tell my story.

"I've been robbed," I said, as Professor Korba sat down.

"Oh, no," he said, although he looked remarkably calm about it. "What was taken?"

"Everything in my room," I said.

I would not cry. I wouldn't. "I don't know who did it. Sip and I came home and it was just like that."

Something in Professor Korba's face changed. He no longer looked worried or surprised.

"My dear," he said, "I thought they sent you a letter."

He took a sip out of his white teacup as he waited for me to process what he was saying. I frowned, shaking my head.

"I'm sorry. I don't understand."

Professor Korba sighed. "Did you not get a letter?"

"No? A letter from whom?" I asked. "Where would I have gotten mail?"

"You do not collect mail from your home?" he asked, confused.

Panic was starting to rise in my chest. I had missed a letter that had gone home. Maybe it had said that I was expelled.

"Did I get kicked out for what I did last semester?" I asked breathlessly. "I wouldn't have gotten a letter if it was sent home."

I felt like there was a very heavy weight on my chest keeping me from breathing. Professor Korba looked at me kindly.

"No," he said, "nothing like that. Really, Charlotte, we would never kick you out. Only two students have ever been expelled from Public, and you are not nearly as bad as either of them. Ms. Verlans, on the other hand. . . ." His eyes danced and I saw that he was making a joke. At least he still had his sense of humor.

"Please, just tell me what's going on," I begged.

"Well," said Professor Korba. "You are no longer an Airlee student."

The weight on my chest got ten times heavier.

"I'm sorry," I said. "What? So, I am kicked out?"

Professor Korba sighed, fiddling with the handle of his teacup.

"No," he explained. "I didn't want to be the one to have to tell you this, but I guess since you didn't get the letter . . . well, you are elemental, so, obviously, you cannot live in Airlee."

I stared at him.

"Wait, so I've been moved to Astra Dorm?"

My question came out louder than I meant to, and the students who were sitting close to us glanced in our direction.

Professor Korba beamed at me. Obviously this didn't upset him as much as it upset me.

"Exactly."

"So, my stuff was moved to Astra?" Somehow that didn't ease the tension in my chest.

"Yes, that's it exactly, now, all you need to do is go over to Astra after dinner. There, I believe, you will find your belongings and Mrs. Swan. If either of those things are not in Astra, feel free to come find me."

I looked at him blankly for a minute, then nodded. "Sure."

A million questions tumbled through my mind, chief among them who the blazes was Mrs. Swan, but Professor Korba obviously had a mind to drink his tea, so I was forced to give him a tight smile and get up and walk away.

Without another word I headed back to my friends. They could see from the look on my face that whatever had happened wasn't good news.

"What's wrong?" said Sip. "You look confused if I do say so myself."

"Well, no one else is going to say it for you," said Lisabelle dryly.

"Do you hear something?" Sip asked. "No? I thought not. Must just be hot air."

"I'm being moved to Astra," I said as I sat down. "Well, actually, I guess I was already moved. They sent a letter to my house, but obviously I never got it. My stepdad probably ripped it up into tiny pieces and then burned it for good measure."

Lisabelle's black eyebrows shot up. "That's very interesting indeed," she said. "I guess it makes sense, though." She continued to eat.

"What do you mean it makes sense?" I sputtered. "I'm part of Airlee Dorm. That's where I lived last semester. That's where all my friends live. Do you know how many Astra students there are? ONE. What am I supposed to do? Live there alone?"

Lisabelle shrugged. "They couldn't let you stay in Airlee. It would be like a vampire being an Airlee student. Ew." She grinned.

"She does have a point," said Sip. "And at least she didn't compare you to a pixie. Besides, you'll have that whole gorgeous building to yourself. That's not a bad thing."