Page 73 of Pixie Problems

His eyes were nearly golden, and much too intense. Still, his words hit even harder than that look. Aspen wasoutside!Not just her, but her entire class. Tag, the students heading to their next class, and who-even-knew how many teachers. Worse, the alarms weren't ringing yet, so I ran.

Decaying leaves and shed sticks crunched under our feet. The last few traces of snow had melted enough to not even be slippery. Pushing as hard as I could, my lungs were starting to burn when the pair of us hit the doors to Bracken's gym, wrenched them open, and rushed inside.

"The Hunt's here!' Hawke bellowed.

One of the guys yanked at the green box beside him. Immediately, the alarm began to ring, but it wasn't as bad out here as it had been in the mainbuilding last time. Hard to miss, yes, but soft enough we could still yell over it.

"Rain, your sword!" Bracken ordered. "Hawke! Keir!Sentinels!We have people outside!"

Everyone began moving. Some were heading for the inner rooms. Most of those were the younger students, like me. Others rushed for the weapons storage. I went the other way, aiming for Bracken's own weapon closet. Wrenching open the door, my eyes landed on it.

Hung with one of theeltamblades, my new steel sword was set on the opposite wall from all of Bracken's. It was almost a shrine, or maybe a trophy wall. I wasn't sure, but at least they were low enough I could grab both.

With the blades in my hands, I hurried out to find Bracken giving orders to the sentinels. Without stopping, he caught Keir's eye, then nodded towards me. Keir turned, picked up something from the ground, and jogged over.

"Put this on!" he said, but Bracken was leading the rest of his group towards the door.

"Zez!" I screamed.

Bracken paused to look back. "Listen to him, Rain. Stay fucking safe!" Then he turned, but paused again before leaving. "I love you, kid." And then he was gone.

"No!" I roared, moving to follow him, but Keir grabbed my shoulders.

"Put the fucking armor on!" he demanded. "The faster you move, the sooner you can help."

"I don't know how!" I snapped.

So he grabbed what looked like a leather T, and dropped it over my head. "Lace up the other side." Because he was lacing the one he was closest to. "This is enchanted out the ass. Only theeltam, though."

He meant the little studs all over the surface. They weren't touching me, so hopefully I hadn't just nullified all of them. Still, it was something, and I had a feeling Bracken had planned for every eventuality. Clearly, my zez was some kind of fae prepper.

Once we had the thing laced on, Keir grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him. "We're going to go out there and push back the Hunt, Rain. We won't be the only ones. If you see someone get grabbed, call it out. If you can use shadows on them, try it. Most of all..." He pointed to my steel sword. "Just beat the shit out of them with that. They don't like it any more than I do."

"Ok," I agreed.

But he kept looking at me. "I am not leaving your side. Not now, and not ever. So let's go save some people, ok?"

"Aspen's out there."

"Fuck!" he roared.

But he finally let me move, so we ran. Outside, the world had changed completely. The storm was here, and with it came rain - the frozen kind. I could hear it tinking off the building and crashing into the trees.

"Jack!" I called.

"Morrigan!" he replied from above.

And a dozen other crows took to the wing, cawing with all they had. There was no way they'd be able to fly in this mess for long. That meant it was up to us.

"Where is she?" Keir asked.

I pointed the way I'd seen her going. "Over there, I think."

"Let's find her."

Once again, we ran. Sleet pelted into our faces. This time was worse than when Hawke and I had raced to get inside. Out here, grey shapes moved in the haze of freezing rain. I couldn't tell if they were friends or foes. At least not until I saw the horse!

"That's a hunter," I breathed, pulling Keir behind me.