Page 78 of Pixie Problems

With a thought, I sent them downwards. The Hunt had to be stopped. The students had to be saved. I was Bracken's daughter and the fae's champion. I was supposed to be the knight in some shiny goddamn armor!

But as we crested the rolling hill that blocked the view of the gate from the school, I saw the mass of grey. Too many of them. At least twenty, maybe more, and they were packed close.

"Stop, stop, stop!" Ms. Rhodes ordered.

I ignored her, rushing forward. "No!"

The Huntsman turned and dropped whatever he was holding. I saw it bounce, yet my mind refused to accept it. Nothing should move like that. It couldn't be true. I had to stop this, change this, or something.

So I shoved with all I had.

The sun faded. The clouds thickened. The wind picked up and snow drifted upwards. "Morrigan!" Jack cried out.

The Huntsman just laughed. It started slow and deep, gaining volume with each chuckle that fell from his lips until it was a full-on cackle.

"Guilty!" he called out right as my shadows swirled, caught up in the growing breeze.

The hunters began to move, running with the wind. The ones with horses swung onto them. Others met theirs mid-stride. Only the Huntsman lingered, staring right at me.

"Ride with me?" he said, almost begging this time.

"Go fuck yourself," I spit back.

"Rain!" Bracken pleaded.

"It would be a wild ride," the Huntsman said, turning for a horse that rushed in from the side.

Like some kind of trick rider, he grabbed the saddle and swung onto it, racing away with his clothing billowing like storm clouds as the weather picked him up and allowed him to fade away.

One body stayed.

It didn't move.

"No," I breathed, taking a step forward. "No, no, no!"

"Grab her!" Ms. Rhodes demanded, running forward to check the too-still form.

Arms closed around me, hugging me from behind. "Don't look, kid," Bracken whispered, trying to turn me. "He's gone."

"No!" I screamed, trying to pull away.

So Bracken stopped being nice. A push with one hand and a pull with the other spun me around. When he gripped my shoulders, it was too hard, but there was no way I could break free.

"Listen to me," he said. "Rain, stop thinking and just listen!''

"What?" I snapped.

"You saved us!"

That was enough to make me go still. "But the guy..."

"But us," Bracken said, twisting me enough to show me all the people staring in shock at the scene now behind me. "Look at them, Rain. Sentinels, teachers, and veteran warriors. Fighters, all of them. People with experience who could barely keep the Wild Hunt from slaughtering us en masse."

"But I'm supposed to do this," I whimpered.

"And you did," he said. "Rain, you did. You also lived, and that's more impressive than you know. We only lost one today."

"We didn't lose anyone last time!" I felt my throat getting tight with the realization this couldn't be fixed. "Isn't there some magic..."