Page 204 of Pixie Problems

Keir grabbed my arm and towed me along, all of us going as fast as we could. "Fuck locks!" Keir said. "The Hunt is coming and I will not let them touch Wilder!"

"I think I set it off," Wilder said, daring to glance back. "I didn't know it wouldwork so fast!"

"Hunt!" Jack screamed. "Hunt-Shadows! Hunt-Morrigan! Hunt-Jack!"Caw!

Like some general giving orders, his cries worked. From every tree on the property, dark birds took to the wing, and all of them were heading towards the clouds. These crows might not be warriors, but they were an army. My fucking army.

And we weren't going to make it to the gym in time.

Chapter Sixty

RAIN

Icould hear the notifications from our phones. None of us had the chance to answer them. We were all running so hard. My legs were starting to burn and my lungs had forgotten how to work a few yards back. Now, only sheer panic was fueling me.

Yet when the edge of the storm reached us, I knew.

The first winds blew past us, dropping the temperature and blocking out the sunlight, but that wasn't all. The thundering of hooves made it clear we were too late. Now, right here, was where we were going to make our last stand.

"Incoming!" Keir bellowed, stopping hard just to turn back and face the oncoming storm.

I dug my feet in, ready to reverse and help him, but Keir wasn't charging. He was braced up, pulling at all the magic he had to make the most amazingly iridescent colors. Beside me, Hawke grabbed Wilder, pushing him into the middle of our group, and then Keir's shield slammed down around us.

I turned, checking for hunters as I pushed the item Jack had tossed at me into my pocket. My fingers brushed the hard edges of the crow stone I was supposed to be constantly charging and pulling from. It was just enough of a distraction to nearly make me miss the first hunter land.

The rider and horse started as mist, but the moment the beast's feet touched dirt, it solidified. The rider found his form a moment later. Palegrey fog swirled off them like steam from a cup of coffee, but we'd already been spotted.

"Will this thing hold?" Wilder asked.

"It'll hold as long as I do," Keir said. "You keep Rain going."

"I need my sword!" I hissed, turning to see another rider land, then more a little further away.

That was when a scream pierced the air. I wasn't sure if someone had been caught or merely realized the shit that was going down. Either way, this was bad. It was so bad I couldn't even find enough profanity for it. Just bad-bad.

"Jack!" Hawke yelled.

"Morrigan!" Jack cawed from somewhere far above.

"She needs a little help here!"

"Shadow!" Jack yelled back.

"Well, at least he's starting to make sense," I said, reaching for the magic inside me.

But before I could even start pulling out my Wild magic, my silhouette on the ground stood, opened its "eyes" and looked at each of us. Then it bobbed its head in something like a nod and...

The fucking thing turned inside out!

"What the actual fuck?" Wilder asked.

"Can't see back there," Keir said, having missed all of that.

"Yeah, um, Rain's shadow just totally peter-panned," Wilder said. "No, I do not know what that means either."

"Not really helping," Keir said. "And that fucker sees us!"

So I began reaching for the shadows of the trees outside our bubble. I wasn't sure if my own magic would be able to pass, or if that would break Keir's magic, so I didn't want to risk it. Still, if I could control the night, then I could definitely use some of the shadows scattered all around us.