“Not good,” Thruor opined. “How dark did he feel to you?”

“Fairly, and Kanesha said he’s known for not having a sense of humor.”

“Unseelie sidhe,” she opined. “He won’t directly hurt anyone, but his presence may draw trouble. And he may bring harm without intending to.”

I shivered. “Evil, then?”

“No more than your father.”

I laughed. “Chaotic? Or just…dark?”

“Dark. Sometimes chaotic. Selfish to a point. Sidhe are a lot like cats – they struggle with morals.”

I nodded. We were sitting in a diner, in a high walled booth. I picked at the bowl of pasta I had ordered, not so much because I wasn’t hungry as because… “He doesn’t seem to be there for me, but really, that school doesn’t need any more problems.”

“We’ll have you out of there soon enough.”

“Not without Kanesha, we won’t.”

But, of course, she would be transferring too. To some peeling classroom in Southeast with no working air conditioning.

“Trust me.”

Mike had given me exactly that tone. And the two had certainly had time to talk. They had an idea, and I was going to let them run with it.

“On the other hand, without me there, who’s going to keep an eye on the fairy?”

“He…probably, like I said, won’t deliberately hurt any of the students. And sooner or later he’ll get bored and go away.”

That did help me relax. But he hadn’t felt like a trickster type. Maybe he just… “Maybe he just actually likes teaching.”

“More likely…Sidhe like to hang out with young humans. They don’t tend to grow or change themselves, less even than we do. They like the fresh viewpoints, the…youthful energy.”

I nodded. “So, he might be on the dark side, but he probably likes kids. That helps make me feel better.”

I forced myself to eat more of the pasta. It was pretty good, I thought. Good mac and cheese with bacon in it – what more could a girl want?

Security and answers. And security was something, I realized, I was meant to give to other people, not enjoy myself. “Well. I’ll keep an eye on him anyway. And on anyone who might come looking for him. He seemed…worried.”

“Possibly hiding from the courts. Possibly he annoyed somebody of higher rank.”

“I’m worried he’ll use the school as a shield.”

Thruor shrugged. “If he is, it will work. Sidhe won’t harm children.”

“Changelings?”

“Changelings are only taken as infants, and they’re released as soon as they become teenagers. The Sidhe have no need for adult humans. Well, except for…”

I blushed. “The occasional roll in the hay. I’ve read the stories. At least he wasn’t looking at me like that.”

“He knows he’d get fired if he did.”

She had a point. “I’m going to finish this and then go home, I think.” I was, abruptly, tired – my own fault for tending to push my stamina.

But I was a lot less worried about the fairy now.