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Chapter Thirteen

RAIN

" R ain!" Keir's voice pushed through the darkness, but I couldn't tell which direction it had come from.

"Jack!" My bird sounded like he was chiding someone, possibly me.

Then there were the screams. So many of them, yet most didn't have words. It was simply panic. I turned, unable to remember which way I'd been facing when all of this happened, yet the sounds didn't spin with me.

"Aspen!" I called out.

But it was Keir who answered. "Rain, where are you?"

"Here!"

A hand grabbed my arm. "Rain?" This time, Keir sounded like he was right beside me.

"Is that you?" I asked.

"Do you have her?" Aspen called.

"You have to let it go," he told me, ignoring everything else. "It'll keep getting darker until you let it go ."

"I don't know how!"

"It's ok," he soothed. "I've got you."

His fingers tightened, and then one hand moved.

It pressed against the side of my neck, followed that upwards, and then cupped my cheek.

A second later, Keir's mouth followed. Without sight, I only knew it was him by the smell and the feel of his body, and the way his hand softened on the one arm he was still holding.

This was definitely Keir, and he kissed me hard enough that I stopped thinking about everything else.

At first, his mouth found the corner of my lips, then the center, before begging me to open.

The tip of his tongue flicked across the seam, demanding entrance, and Keir didn't seem scared of me at all.

I wasn't sure if my eyes were closed, but the privacy of the darkness, the strange acoustics distorting the screams, and the way my mind was suddenly getting very, very clear? He had to be doing something, so I gave in and just let him in.

His tongue swept through my mouth. Mine met it, tangling together in the most sensual way. There, surrounded by everyone and concealed with my own darkness, we kissed as hard as any one had ever kissed me - and I forgot to be so angry.

In all this time, Keir had never taken advantage of me, not even when he could've.

The way he'd asked Aspen's permission - or approval - before kissing me at midnight?

Even though he'd already promised and would pay for it somehow if he didn't? All of that said something, and it was a very big thing.

I could trust him.

I could like him.

All of this was ok, so I didn't need to fight anymore.

I didn't need to care about whether Torian approved or how Aspen would take it.

And sure, maybe I was making a mistake by trusting this guy so much, but that was ok.

Fucking up wouldn't leave me alone in the world.

I had dads now. I had friends. I had Aspen.

.. And now I had Keir pulling me even closer.

So I simply kissed him, trusting he would make everything better.

The shadows had to be mine, but he'd stopped them last time.

He'd talked me through it. He'd handled everything, and all I had to do was follow his lead.

As my tongue bumped and swirled with his, I simply let it happen, forgetting all about Torian, my shadows, and everything else in the process - even that I was much less drunk than I'd been a minute ago.

The screams faded. The light brightened slightly.

The whole time, I kept kissing, kept focused on the way Keir's mouth took control of mine and guided me.

The feel of his grip was perfect, giving me something to lean into, but just when I was sure I had control again, I heard the last thing I wanted tonight .

"Rain le Fae!" someone screamed, making both of us jump and flinch to face her.

"Handling it," Keir called back, refusing to let go of my arm.

"This is not handled!" The teacher wasn't one I knew, but she looked pissed.

"Dispel it!" Ms. Rhodes ordered me, entering right behind the other woman.

"Rain," Keir breathed, all but ignoring the teachers. "Pull it back in. Let it go. I'm not sure how it works for you, but you are the one controlling the shadows, and the faelings are scared of them."

"Not you?" I asked, that tension inside me releasing a little at the comfort in his tone.

"Not me," he swore. "Not Aspen, or the court. We trust you."

I turned to look. Sure enough, Aspen was right beside me, standing firm even as darkness rolled over her feet and legs.

Torian was still a few feet away, staring from the spot my shadow had sent him to.

Wilder and Hawke were at the side, shoulder to shoulder, but their eyes were on Keir.

Everyone else was clumping together, trying to avoid the darkness.

"Outside!" the unknown teacher demanded. "All of you!"

"Excuse me?" Torian drawled, giving the woman a scathing look.

"You are not above the rules, young man," she shot back, but Ms. Rhodes clasped her shoulder before the woman could say anything else.

"It's ok, Ms. Hawthorne. I think Torian, Aspen, Wilder, Hawke, Rain, and Keir will gladly step into the hall, won't you?"

"Fuck," I muttered, because that wasn't really a request.

"You got this," Keir assured me, his words little more than a whisper. "And the shadows are almost gone. If you leave, they'll vanish, right?"

"How the fuck would I know?" I asked - and yet the darkness was fading.

Like fog being burned off by daylight, it wasn't necessarily coming back to me. Some was, but most was simply vanishing. Suddenly, the dissipating shadows around me spun as a breeze picked up.

"Jack!" my bird called, swooping down from the trees.

I lifted an arm, catching him just above my wrist. At the same time, Keir turned me for the exit on the girls' side. Aspen moved to my other shoulder, putting me between my two closest... Friends? That word didn't feel right, but it was the best I had.

Behind us, Wilder and Hawke turned to follow. Torian, on the other hand, caught someone's eye. A second later, he smiled, then he tossed his phone into the crowd. My eyes went with it, not surprised at all to watch the guy from our biology class catch it.

"You've got the playlist, Jeff," Torian said as he moved between Hawke and Wilder.

Unfortunately, Ms. Rhodes and Ms. Hawthorne weren't the only ones waiting in the hall. Out there, Liam and Bracken stood with their arms crossed. Three other teachers were with them, all of them looking as if they'd been interrupted somehow.

"Rain?" Liam asked, pausing when Ms. Rhodes lifted a hand.

"What happened?" she asked, her eyes jumping across all of us.

"That girl ," Ms. Hawthorne shot back, "filled the atrium with her darkness! Joan would've never - "

"Pearl," Ms. Rhodes said, her tone stopping the woman mid-sentence. "I asked the kids." Then the headmistress looked back at us and lifted a brow, making it clear she was still waiting.

"I got angry," I admitted. "It was a stupid disagreement, but my shadow appeared, and then the shadows were pouring out, and - "

"Which shadows?" Liam asked.

I groaned because he had a point. "My shadow." I pointed to the ground - then paused. "Where the fuck is my shadow?"

"Language!" Ms. Hawthorne snapped.

"It's gone!" Aspen breathed, her eyes on the ground, searching like I was.

"Jack!" my bird said.

"Where is it, Jack?" Hawke asked.

That was answered with a string of caws and rattles. When Hawke shook his head, clearly as confused as I was, Jack launched himself into the air, flying over to the glass wall - and then up.

"Rain!" he demanded. "Morrigan! Jack! Jack-Jack! Court!"

"He has a new word?" Ms. Rhodes asked.

"He got it earlier," Aspen explained. "He used it when Wilder came to pick me up, so - "

"That bird!" Ms. Hawthorne broke in, sounding exasperated. "And if you are trying to corrupt the Morrigan..."

"Stop!"

I wanted to say it, but the shout wasn't from me. This was Bracken, and he marched right between us and the teachers. Bracing up with his feet apart and his arms loose and ready, the man suddenly looked like some mythical warrior as he planted himself before me .

"That is my daughter you're talking about, Pearl. Rain is the Morrigan, but she knows nothing. Not even how to manage her shadows. She's talked to us about the shadow problem, and we've been trying to devise a course of study for her. Or do you know how to train a Morrigan?"

"Well, no!" Ms. Hawthorne huffed. "But we can't have Wild magic unleashed in a closed area with so many fae! What if it nullifies them? What if it weakens them? Bracken, this is serious!"

"I'm sorry," I muttered.

"It was my fault," Torian said right after. "I was annoying Rain, and she warned me, but I didn't even think about her shadows." He looked back, his eyes meeting mine. "I'm sorry, Rain. I honestly thought I was helping."

"I wish you'd just trust me." I shrugged. "But I'm sorry my shadow flipped out and shoved you. Are you ok?"

The corner of his lip curled. "Yep. Keir's soft to land on."

"And you're not," Keir grumbled. "Just..." He looked at me. "Did your shadow stand up?"

"Yeah..." I breathed.

"And where is it?" Aspen asked. "Rain, it's a part of you, so you should feel it."

"Uh..." I turned back, looking for Jack.

What I found instead was my shadow stretching through the glass until its feet ended up under mine.

Thankfully, I wasn't the only one who saw it.

When Torian murmured in surprise, it made me feel better.

If he - one of the most powerful and best-trained kids I knew - was shocked by this, then I wasn't screwing up as badly as I thought.

"I didn't know it could stand up," I hurried to explain after it had snapped back to normal. "I mean, it moved a few days ago, but before that, my own shadow didn't do anything. And now, all of a sudden, it was like it took over."

"Rain!" Jack declared, swooping back down to land on my shoulder. Then he rattled loudly enough to make everyone else pay attention. "Morrigan. Jack. Rain, Rain, Court, Rain. Morrigan!" He ruffled his feathers. "Morrigan-Rain. Morrigan-Morrigan. Court!" Caw ! "Rain. Rain-court. Rain, Rain, Rain!"