Once Rico and Dawn were alone in his room, she grinned nervously at him. "I'm glad you're not freaked out by me wanting to talk."
He laughed, sitting down on his bed, and patted the spot next to him. "Well, you don't sound like you want to break up with me."
Her grin widened with relief at his casualness and she sat next to him, snuggling against his side. "No, definitely not."
He put his arm around her and squeezed gently. "So, what's up?"
She considered moving slowly into the subject, since she still felt a little anxious, but she pushed away that urge. They were here now. She had to tell him. She took a deep breath. "You remember I told you I was going to a party last night, with Naomi and Corrie?"
"Yeah, of course. Did you have fun?"
"Actually, I have no idea." She gave him a weak smile, glad she could at least start with this part. "I don't remember anything that happened after the first couple of minutes there."
His eyes widened. "Oh, shit. I knew you should have stayed in with me and Duncan. We could tell something bad was going to happen out there. Are you okay now? You didn't get hit on the head or anything, did you?"
She shook her head and leaned into him, pressing her forehead against his shoulder. "No, I'm fine. Um... I think so, anyway. It was... apparently some kind of faerie magic."
He shifted his arm around her shoulders, but didn't let go. "I thought that magic didn't affect you."
"Apparently we were wrong about that. Or maybe it wasn't faerie magic after all, but Tom seemed to think it was the faerie's fault."
"Wait, you know who it was? Specifically?"
Dawn swallowed. "There was... one particular faerie at the party. Tom wasn't surprised to hear that he would do something like that. But apparently I was dancing with him."
Rico was silent for a moment. Dawn's stomach churned. Finally he said, "You don't remember that?" It sounded casual, but Dawn was pretty sure that underneath that, he was hiding unhappiness.
She shook her head into his shoulder. "I don't remember anything after showing up and grabbing some candy. I must have eaten some. But first I got my back painted with body paint—it was kind of gross when I woke up, but it's all washed off now—and then apparently I was dancing with that faerie guy. Oh, and he was glamoured as a girl."
"Really? That's kind of messed up. Damn, if he's pretending to be a girl, it'll look pretty weird if I try to fight him."
Dawn laughed involuntarily. "Oh god, please don't. Tom's already going after him. And at least Tom is a faerie—if you confronted him I'm afraid he'd hurt you."
He squeezed her shoulders again. "Don't worry, I wouldn't really do that. Why is it Tom's business, though?"
"Well, we talked to him to see if he could figure out what exactly had happened. And I guess he thinks he has to protect me because of Aunt Pru." She took a deep breath and finally lifted her head. To her relief, Rico was smiling. "You're not mad?"
He grinned. "Why would I be mad? It's kind of weird that you danced with another guy, but it sounds like you didn't even know what you were doing."
"No, I didn't." She smiled, relieved. "I mean, I guess not. I was obviously not acting like myself, according to Corrie and Naomi. It's just really weird to think I would do any of that stuff, no matter what happened to me."
Rico bent his head and kissed her gently. "I'm just glad you're okay. It kind of makes me want to take you and Duncan with me, leave Chatoyant College, and go to a normal school, though. I mean, aren't we at least supposed to be safe on campus?"
Dawn grinned, thinking—or at least hoping—that he was joking. "It doesn't look like it works that way. Besides, the best thing we can do is probably to take magic classes and learn as much magic as we can, to protect ourselves."
"Good point. Duncan won't like that."
"He probably should take magic classes, though," she said, shaking her head. "Isn't the whole point of going here so he can protect himself from magic? He should learn about it."
"I think he's coming around to that point of view, actually. But this is really depressing, talking about protecting ourselves. Let's change the subject."
Dawn laughed and straightened up further, still leaning against Rico's side. "Sure. Did you know Roe likes Troy? We kind of shoved them together this afternoon."
He grinned. "Really? That's cool. They'd make a cute couple."
"You think Roe is cute," she accused him teasingly.
"Well, I bet you think Troy is cute," he teased back. She tried to argue, but he kissed her before she could say anything.