Page 82 of Pixie Problems

I nodded. "I'll help you learn as much as I can. I mean, if you want to be able to help Aspen when she needs it."

I swore his body heaved as my offer sank in. "Why?" he asked.

I had to struggle not to smile. "Because it's what friends do, man. Think of it as me repaying you for giving me a seat at the table. It's nice to have some actual, real friends, even if you are just a little boy."

"Asshole," Torian muttered, but it was with a half-smile on his lips. "And I'll take it."

I let go and patted his shoulder. "Good, because that's all I have left if I want to be able to hack at anyone who comes around the corner."

The words were barely out of my mouth before Aspen sucked in a breath and pointed. "Rain! Hawke!"

"Where's Wilder?" Torian asked.

I turned to see Hawke all but dragging Rain back towards us, and she looked bad. Not wounded, but distraught. Her lips were pressed together, and everything about her body looked like a woman who wanted to stop and have a breakdown.

"Rain?" I called, snagging my sword from the grass before hurrying towards them. "Are they gone?"

"They're gone!" Hawke called back.

"Wilder?" Aspen begged.

"Helping Ms. Rhodes," Hawke assured her. But the guy pushed Rain at me before hurrying over to Torian. "Are you ok?"

"Aspen's burned out," Torian said softly. "I was, but Keir helped."

Hawke nodded, then turned to Aspen. "Here."

He offered his hand, and she clasped it. The strange thing was that I saw white glow from between their fingers, not Hawke's grey. That meant Aspen was doing something, but that wasn't possible, was it? She was taking his magic directly? Not being healed, but pulling from him?

"Keir?" Rain said, the worry in her voice making me forget all about the weirdness back there.

"Yeah?"

She stopped, pulling away so she could face me. "I..." Her voice cracked. "Fin..."

My heart sank, a rush of chills racing across my skin. "What?" I asked, not wanting to hear the answer.

She simply shook her head. "I wasn't fast enough. They killed him. Wilder's helping Ms. Rhodes thaw the ground."

"To bury him," I said for her. "Fuck!"

"I'm sorry!" she wailed, the sound of her agony clear in the words.

"No, no, no, baby," I soothed, pulling her into my chest and hugging her hard. "It's not your fault. I just didn't think they'd get Fin. I thought that bastard would weasel out of it somehow. Dammit! I..."

The problem was I didn't know how to feel. I wasn't sad. Shocked? Definitely. Guilty? That was there too. But I didn't evenlikethe guy, and yet I hadn't expected this. Not any of it.

So I told her again, "It's not your fault. You did good, Rain. You saved Aspen from the Huntsman himself!"

"But I didn't hurt him!" she blubbered against my chest.

"You hurt him more than I could," I countered. "You fought with all you had, baby. You fought, and that's what matters, ok?"

"He was calling her," Hawke said into the pause that followed.

"What?" Torian demanded.

"The Huntsman," Hawke clarified. "He kept asking Rain to ride with him. More than that, he fuckingtalkedto her!"