Page 168 of Pixie Problems

The air grew thick. The lights in the room began to sputter like the bulbs were going out. In the distance, a sound was growing louder.

"Court," Jack said softly.

"What's that?" Briony asked, turning her head like she was trying to listen.

Torian growled under his breath. "The Hunt isn't funny! He's - "

The first scream came from the girl beside the door. The guy next to her didn't bother to make a sound - he simply ran. The motion made me look, just in time to see the Huntsman slowly march into the room. His desiccated eyes scanned all of us, jumping from person to person. While they were milky and dead-looking, I could still tell who he focused on and when.

"The fuck?" I breathed, jumping to my feet.

I hadn't heard a storm! And yet, the thought barely crossed my mind before the sound of wind and thunder filled the halls outside the classroom. The Huntsman made it another step as I pulled at my shadows, reaching for some kind of weapon, since my sword wasn't allowed in here. Beside me, Torian grabbed a handful of white light from the air, clenching it in his fist.

Everyone else was scrambling. Books were pushed off desks, chairs toppled over, and students tried to find someplace to hide. Under the lab desks was a favorite, but much too obvious. At the back, I heard the supply closet door bang. A glance showed someone trying to get under the sink, because the Huntsman was between all of us and the exit. That meant I needed to -

"Rain!" Jack cawed. "Rain-Jack!"

"Help me!" I begged my bird.

But it was the Huntsman who replied. "Why do you need help, Rain?"

Fuck, he knew my name!

Jack didn't even seem bothered, though. "Rain! Rain, court! Morrigan."

"I'm trying!"

I got the last out just as Jack flapped to the table before me, turned, and looked me right in the eyes. I wanted to look away, but couldn't. I needed to stop the Huntsman before he started dragging off the faeling students in here. I had to do something, but Jack was making those rattling noises like he was trying not to laugh and staring straight into me.

"Rain!" he demanded.

There was an audible little pop in the back of my mind as the glamour burst. Sucking in a breath, I looked back to the Huntsman just to see our teacher standing there, lookingveryconfused. Oh shit, that meant...

I grabbed Torian's arm with one hand. The other wrapped around his fist, sucking up the magic he was ready to throw. His head snapped over to me, so I pushed, trying to get him out of the glamour as well.

But who could've done this? Who would think such a thing was a good joke, and how many of us had they dragged into this? Had it just been Torian and me? Some way to make us look stupid? But the sounds were real. The scurrying and frightened whispers proved everyone else was freaking out the way I wanted to - except Torian.

"Torian, it's glamour!" I hissed.

He blinked hard, squinting his eyes shut in the middle before looking back at the rest of the room, then over to the teacher. Yet under my hands, he'd gone still. Too still. It was as if every muscle in the guy's body had just forgotten how to move.

But that didn't last long.

"Fuck!" he roared, slinging out a hand even as he pushed past me.

The room fell silent except for Torian's feet. He didn't even bother to get his things before he left. My head whipped between his stuff and the guy walking out of class like he had some assumed pass for the halls or something, and I couldn't quite figure out what was happening.

Then our teacher said, "Rain, it was him. Go make sure he can't do it again!"

"Right," I breathed, quickly gathering up my stuff, Torian's stuff, and my bird. With crap ready to fall out of my overfull arms, I rushed out of class, scanning both ends of the hallway. I saw Torian just as he rounded the corner.

I had to look like a moron as I tried to walk-jog after him, stretching mylegs just as fast as I could. The stuff in my arms was sliding. Jack was trying to hold a paper steady in his beak, and luckily, Torian noticed.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he demanded the second I rounded the corner, all but appearing in my face.

"I got your things," I said, shoving my arms towards him. "Some's mine. Some's yours. Help?"

He laughed once, grabbing at the least stable items. "Rain, go back to class."