Page 165 of Pixie Problems

Jack nodded. "Hunt, Jack."

"Wait!" Aspen begged. "Jack, is your dad still alive?"

"Jack..." He ruffled his feathers.

"Pretty sure that's Jack saying he doesn't know," Rain told us, but the wall was now holding up her head.

"You're wiped too," I realized.

"I'm fine," she insisted, but I felt the edge of her near-lie.

Which made Torian laugh. "I shoved enough power into you to make a mountain walk. What the hell did you do, anyway?"

Her eyes closed in a blink that didn't seem to want to end. "I woke up the night. I mean, nighttime is just a really big shadow of the Earth, right? So I figured - "

"Fuck me," Wilder breathed, cutting her off. "The whole night?"

"As much as I could," she said, wrenchingher eyes open.

Aspen just tapped Rain's foot with her own. "Baby, you need to sleep. Tor's going to want to run over this about a million more times. Since Ms. Rhodes said any room, I bet Keir would share a bed."

"She can have mine," I agreed. "The other suite is open."

"Yeah, don't use it," Wilder said. "You know you wouldn't rest."

"And I bet Rain's a really cute thing to cuddle with," Hawke added, giving me a very not-so-subtle wink.

"I can go home," Rain suggested.

"I'll walk you," I offered.

"Oh, yes!" Aspen agreed. "Throw him in your bed!"

"Bad idea," Torian told his sister.

"Hush," she told him. "It's a great one, and I happen tolikeKeir. I'm also dying to see what he sleeps in."

"Alone?" I said. "My underwear. With a friend, I have pants."

So Aspen leaned in to Rain. "I bet he has those sexy ones that do the sexy thing." She grinned. "Let me know which type count as sexy, ok?"

"Aspen!" Rain moaned.

"Bed," she told her girlfriend. "Rain, go sleep with someone to remind you that you're not alone."

"I'm supposed to do that for you," Rain reminded her.

"And I'm going to do that for my brother. Hawke's going to curl up with Wilder. We're short a bed in here, we're all wiped, and Keir's room is about as far away as Torian's or yours." Aspen looked at her for a long moment, but something about the way the girls were watching each other convinced me to keep my mouth shut. "Please? I worry about you, but if you're just down the hall, I know you're close."

"And they want me out of the room," I added.

"Not true," Hawke said. "I want to go back to sleep. The teacher will be around in just a minute, and then I'm going to sleep until noon, just because I can."

"Classes are canceled," Aspen assured him, "so you actually can."

"Classes are always canceled after the Hunt," Hawke reminded her.

"Middle of the night," Torian pointed out. "Most people slept through this one."