Page 53 of Pixie Problems

"Well, ok then," Ms. Rhodes decided. "But it sounds like the thing listens to you, Rain. So for now, we'll try that. As for your shadows, it seems they operate with a mechanism similar to my own Summer magic. You can unleash it, but the more focused you are on the result, the more exact the effect will be."

"How do I do that?" I asked.

She lifted a hand. "That's what we'll learn in here this semester."

"What about my Literature grade?"

"We'll discuss those books while you work," she added with a smile. "Rain, I've seen your transcripts. You enjoy reading, and you've always done well in your English classes. I feel confident that if I assign the books to you and discuss the concepts in each, you'll gain the knowledge that class is for. I also won't test you on it, but I think I can give you the same grade you got last semester. Is that fair?"

"Uh-huh," I quickly agreed. Because a free grade? Hell yeah, that was more than fair!

"But there's a catch," she informed me. "In exchange for giving you an easy B, I expect this class to cover much more than the mechanics of magic."

"Like what?"

"Like how you're dealing with your new family," she explained. "How things are going with the person you're dating. The complications with those guys who follow you and your suitemate around. Then there's the part about how your shadow has eyes."

"Yeah," I mumbled. "I mean, the eyes are weird, and the rest is complicated. See, I know they have things they can't talk about. But the hardest part seems to be someone acting like a self-absorbed jerk."

"Torian?" Ms. Rhodes guessed.

I nodded.

The look on her face was hard to decipher, but confusion and surprise seemed closest. "Does this have anything to do with you kissing Keir?"

"Look, I don't want to get anyone in trouble," I told her. "They're my friends, and a lot of the stuff we talk about is kinda personal. I also know you can taste lies because you're a pure fae, and people say you're like five hundred years old, so I've probably already messed up, and - "

"Five eighty-six," she broke in.

"What?" I gasped.

"I'm five hundred and eighty-six years old," she clarified. "Yes, I was the General of the Summer Army. Yes, I have met the Mad Queen, both before and when she went mad. I fought beside Joan le Fae, bowed to the Crow King, and fought beside the trolls. Your grandfather, I believe, was there, Jack."

He shook his head. "Jack!"

"Great-grandfather?" she tried.

That made him sling his beak up and down.

"One of the greatest of the wildlings," Ms. Rhodes went on. "And Rain, I do know everything that happens in my school."

"Yours?" I asked, catching that part.

Ms. Rhodes smiled proudly. "Mine. When the Queen went mad, I collected every jewel, golden trinket, and valuable thing I could carry and left Faerie - which included as many people as I could bring with me. Then I used those to start Silver Oaks Institute. I refused to turn my sword on my own people, and for me, that would've been a death sentence."

"So you don't hate the Winter Court?" Because I'd been warned some did.

Ms. Rhodes chuckled. "Child, my wife was Winter. My son is Winter. His daughter is as Summer as I am." Then she leaned back, her face becoming smooth and stoic. "My wife was also killed in the first raid of the Winter Court." She paused, the tip of her tongue sliding across her lower lip. "That was the day we left."

"We?" I asked.

"My family," she clarified. "My son runs the school in Europe. My granddaughter runs the one in Africa. You see, there are multiple gates to this world, and each one has a school beside it. We set it up that way."

"Oh." Ok, that was a lot to take in. "But why schools?" I asked.

"Because children are the one thing all fae prize."

"'Cept the Mad Queen," I countered.