Page 110 of Pixie Problems

"Did anyone make any sense of that?" Wilder asked.

But Hawke was looking at Jack intently. "Rain has been alone?"

Jack nodded as big as he could.

"Ok..." Hawke said. "And she should not be kept from the court?"

This time, Jack said no, the headshake small and quick.

"So what was the right option?" Hawke asked.

"Rain-Court-Court!"

"Rain, Aspen, and Keir?" Hawke tried.

Caw!Jack nodded, hopping in place at the same time because he was happy.

"Seriously?" Wilder asked. "How does that make sense, Hawke?"

"Well, Jack is the bird," Hawke explained. "Rain is the person, but Morrigan is her magic. Or her being magical. Court seems to work for all of us, both as a group and as individuals. Dad is pretty self-explanatory, and same with Hunt."

"But he said something about the Hunt," Wilder pointed out.

"Yeah, I think he's saying we're all off ever since it happened, which makes sense," Hawke said. "Our schedule is off and - "

"Monster fuckers!" a girl called out, cutting Hawke off.

All of our heads snapped to the sound. Sitting there, one of the jester girls was smirking like she'd just won an award. I was pretty sure it was Camila, the same girl Hawke had snarled at in the lounge. Around her, the other faelings all laughed.

"Monsters?" Torian asked, pushing to his feet. "You stupid..." The air in the room began to stir, knocking napkins from tables and moving people's hair.

But beside me, Aspen had her jaw clenched. It didn't take long before the breeze chilled. Up above, something crackled, making the hair on the back of my neck lift. Then thunder rumbled, but it was higher-pitched than I was used to. Smaller, maybe?

"Hey," I breathed, pulling Aspen's hand into my lap. "Ignore them. They're just wannabes, right? None ofuscare about what they say, and what anyone else thinks doesn't matter."

"I'm talking about the fucking Winter bitch!" Camila yelled next, aware she was getting a reaction.

"That fucking - " Torian lunged forward, clearly intending to go after her, but Keir was right there.

At the same time, Aspen growled and frost began to coat her skin. Hoping to snap her out of it, I cupped her face, forcing her to look at me. Keir was blocking Torian. Wilder and Hawke were scrambling to get around the table, over to our side.

"Morrigan!" Jack screamed, jumping over to Keir's shoulder so he could stare at Torian. "Court-Morrigan. Rain-Morrigan!"

"Rain-Court," Torian muttered, relaxing as he turned back to see his sister. "Aspen, Rain can't be hurt. Let it go."

As if she'd been in a trance, Aspen sucked in a breath and finallylookedat me. "Rain?"

"How do I help?" I begged.

"I need to... Um, can I magic you?"

"Magic away," I told her. "Supposedly, I can take it."

So she twisted, catching my hand with her other one, so now both of hers were pinning my palms between them. I couldn't even describe what followed next. What she poured into me was neither cold nor warm. It wasn't dark, but quickly changed into shadows.

Between one second and the next, I went from feeling my magic to brimming with it. I'd never really been able to identify the "levels" Ms. Rhodes talked about - until now. This was like going from hungry to stuffed in a millisecond!

It also made me realize how little power I'd been working with this whole time.