Page 98 of Pixie Problems

Chapter Twenty-Eight

RAIN

The week passed slowly. Aspen was spending most of her time with Torian, but I understood. She'd had a very traumatic experience, and he was the only family she had. It also seemed to help. Whatever the two talked about when they were locked away made both of them look more relaxed when they rejoined the rest of us at lunch.

And slowly, more people were returning to our classes. I kept going the whole time, but only because I didn't know what else to do with myself. When I stopped for too long, I started thinking about the chaos of that battle, and the way I'd felt so confused. Lost, even. I was supposed to be this big and impressive thing, but I didn't have a damned clue what I was doing.

Thankfully, Keir showed up at the gym the next day, and every day after. Suddenly, my detention class was more like therapy. Not that we talked about it, exactly. It was more about pushing myself, making sure I could actually use this steel blade my zez had given me. The physical exertion kept my fears at bay.

But over the weekend was the worst. That was when Silver Oaks held the memorial for Fin. No one cried, but there was a stillness in the student body I never could've imagined before. Too many of us kept looking over our shoulders - at the sky. It was clear and blue the whole time, even though it was cold.

But living among a few hundred sullen students was a lot. Jack tried tokeep me amused, even going so far as doing tricks. Evidently, he could do a pretty good string of somersaults! And yeah, it was cute, but I really found my peace when I took him outside to fly.

Not to the atrium. That felt gloomy. Instead, I wandered around the same grounds where we'd fought so he could mingle with the other crows. What bothered me the most, however, were the lingering marks that made it clear this hadn't been a dream.

Hoofprints had dug into the cold mud. I found scuffs where the ground had been gouged with a body, a blade, or something else. On one hand, it proved how many people had been out in the smothering sleet. On the other, it felt like affirmation.

Wehadfought back.

When running away had been the sensible option, so many had run out to help instead. Hunters had been pulled to the ground. Those creepy horses of theirs had stumbled, leaving ruts where their hooves had slipped. Evergreens had broken branches from someone crashing into them, and blood still stained the ground a strange shade that bleached the color from the dried grass beneath.

I did my best to hang on to that. We'd made a dent. A group of teachers and teenagers had pushed back what the fae feared the most. The Wild Hunt was an unstoppable force, but we'd stopped them - for now. Yet the one thing I couldn't forget was that theywouldbe back.

On Monday, most of the students returned to their normal schedules. According to the whispers I overheard, the ones still missing were injured. Most had been students in Aspen's botany class, but she'd done her best to help. Hearing secondhand how she'd frozen the ground, made the hunters' weapons brittle enough to shatter, and pulled all their attention to her?

No wonder she was having a hard time. She'd sacrificed herself, but instead of praising her for it, everyone seemed to act like she'd somehow done something stupid. I preferred to think she'd trusted me, knowing I would never leave her out there to fight alone.

But after class, she was gone again. To prove I hadn't been forgotten, there was a new plant on my desk. It was big! The thing had deep indigo flowers, which were almost trumpet-shaped. They hung from tendrils that would likely grow long enough to be called vines.

"Hi, plant," I whispered, reaching out to caress a leaf. "Do you have any cool tricks?"

One of the arms twitched, sending a thorn at the wall beside my door - which was not where I was standing. Abigthorn, because the bit stickingout of my wall was over an inch long. Twice as much had been embedded into the drywall.

"Well, ok then," I muttered. "So, can we be friends?"

It shifted to trail one of those tendrils across my wrist, almost like a caress. Jack flapped over to slide to a stop on the desk beside it, rattling in a comforting way.

"Court!" he announced.

"From Aspen?"

He slung his beak up and down, confirming it. I had no clue how he knew these things, but Ms. Rhodes kept talking about the inherent abilities of wildlings. Things that gave them special powers they couldn't turn off. Clearly, Jack had a few, so I was just going to trust him.

I managed to get changed into something comfortable, since I now had an entire wardrobe, and was debating what to do with myself when there was a knock at my door.

"Court!" Jack declared.

But not Aspen, because she wouldn't knock. And yet, when I opened the door, I was still confused to see Hawke on the other side. As if in explanation, he lifted his tablet. The cover of my math textbook was on it.

"Studying?" I asked, almost confused.

"Yeah, um..." Letting out a sigh, he slipped past me and into the room. "It was an excuse. I'm going to kill someone if I don't get out of my room - "

"Problems with Wilder?" I asked, showing I knew his little secret.

But Hawke just waved that off. "No, he's ok. Worried about Aspen, of course, but Keir's avoiding his room, and Torian's being overly protective of Aspen. They want space, so Keir's in my room, and..." He trailed off with an annoyed growl.

"So studying sounded good." I nodded to show I understood. "I think I left my tablet in Aspen's room. Let me get that and - "