Page 55 of Pixie Problems

Thankfully, pushing it showed some possibility. Well, if a tendril of darkness counted as a possibility. But it was better than the nothing I got with everything else. Ms. Rhodes thought my problem was I didn't know how tofeelthe magic yet, so I needed to spend my time trying to identify a hum, or vibration, or fullness in my body which hadn't been there before.

But second period was math. Aspen was in there, and she checked to make sure my new class had been ok. I told her it was fine, because it kinda had been. Not good. Not bad. Learning magic was cool in a way, and hard in all the others.

After that came History. Wilder and Hawke were in that class, and Ms. Rhodes taught it as well. Both guys offered me warm smiles - which was a new thing - but nothing else. Yet by the time I reached Biology, my eyes were getting heavy. Torian moved his stuff, making it clear I should sit beside him, then told me to put my head down.

I may have napped through most of the class, but the teacher didn't bother me. No one did! And when the bell rang, Torian walked me to the cafeteria, going so far as to follow me through the line. When he startedrequesting fruits and flowers formymeal, I was ready to snap his head off, though.

"It's for the magic," he quickly assured me. "I'm not sure if it helps with yours, but it won't hurt, and you look drained."

"Oh."

I should probably apologize, but ever since my shadow had thrown him, Torian and I had been a little weird. He was still nice, but much more distant. In truth, I kinda missed his arrogant little comments, so I was pretty sure I'd fucked up. At the same time, he had too, so I didn't really want to be the one to break first.

We made it to our table right as the entire court burst out laughing. I glanced behind me, wondering what I'd done that was so funny, but Aspen waved me down.

"Not you," she insisted. "Just rumors going around today."

"Ok?" I sat down beside her.

Torian claimed the chair on her other side. But when Aspen opened her mouth to explain what she meant, Wilder shoved to his feet, waving towards the drink area. "Keir! Over here!"

"Yep!" Keir called back.

Torian groaned. "So he's sitting with us?"

"He is pure fae," Aspen countered. "Besides, he's Rain's, and she needs her own person."

"She has you!" Torian huffed.

Right as I said, "I have you as my person!"

Which made Hawke snort, nearly choking on the flower he was eating. "Did not expect that to be what the pair of you agree on."

I groaned, but Keir's arrival kept the group from picking on me. Even better, Keir asked the one thing that could make the court forget about everything else.

"How bad was your first magic lesson?"

"She slept through Biology," Torian replied before I could.

Aspen quickly bent to dig in her bag. "Here!" she said, thrusting a pair of Pixie Styx at me.

"Ok?" I looked around the table, aware everyone else here was a pure fae. "What's with the sugar?"

"Jack!" my bird said, as if that was some kind of answer.

"What he means," Hawke explained, "is that the greatest source of magic on Earth is sugar. Sunlight works, so do other things, but it all basically adds up to be sugar."

"But my magic isn't like yours," I countered.

"I bet it will work," Torian assured me. "Call it a hunch."

"Which," Aspen said, "brings me back to the new rumors. Torian, did you know you're a jevadu?"

"A what?" I asked.

Keir let out a heavy sigh. "Supposedly, jevadu are a wildling that looks almost like us," he explained. "I've been told they're like a magical vampire with wings."

"Vampires don't have wings..." Yep, I was trying hard to imagine this thing.