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Chapter Twenty-Nine

RAIN

B y Wednesday, everyone seemed to have returned to their normal programming. Well, their schedules, at least, even if there was still something off. The halls weren't filled with laughter. I saw too many people glancing over their shoulder or flinching from a friend's casual touch.

Because we were all stressed.

Wilder assured me this was normal. It seemed my first experience with the Hunt had only been scary to me. Everyone else had considered it easy. But since Aspen still hadn't been spending the night in our rooms, I was starting to worry.

Not that she was ignoring me, though. I had another plant waiting in my room after school yesterday, then one more was waiting in the bathroom this morning.

I assumed they meant she'd returned at some point, but I must've been sleeping when it had happened.

I also liked the yellow thing that was like a miniature tree. It made the bathroom area feel alive.

But my responsibilities hadn't lightened at all. If anything, I felt the weight of them now more than ever. So, after Bracken released his last weapons class for the day, I headed for the room where Bracken stored his weapons. I intended to grab my sword, but Keir followed me.

"We can practice in here, you know," he said. "Also means you have your weapons handy. "

"Oh." I looked over at the side with Bracken's wall of weapons. "I don't know how to use most of these."

"You will," Keir assured me with a devious little smirk.

But another voice responded with, "Show-off."

Keir and I both turned to find Hawke leaning against the open doorway, looking as if he'd been there a while. Keir just shook his head and laughed, but then gestured for Hawke to come the rest of the way in.

"Decide to come play?" he asked.

At the same time I asked, "Why aren't you in that magical responsibility class?"

Hawke pointed to Keir. "Yes." Then to me. "Because Ms. Rhodes said I proved myself in the attack. Kinda like early release, I suppose."

"Someone's watched too much TV," Keir joked.

Hawke just shrugged - but didn't deny it. That meant it was probably true.

"So," he said instead, "since Jack is still napping on the training dummy, I thought I'd see if you two need some help."

"Pretty sure I got this," Keir assured him.

Hawke lifted a rusty-colored brow. "How are you supposed to learn to be her support if you're always sparring against her?" Brazenly, he walked over to the wall and grabbed a pair of brass hammers - the combat kind. "Bet I can hold both of you off."

"Doubtful," Keir shot back.

Hawke's smile turned sly. "Rain's going to be too worried about hitting you with iron."

"Steel," I corrected.

"Don't care," Hawke said. "It's still iron."

And then he rushed in. I yelped and pushed my swords up, into the proper guard position, but Keir was unarmed. Hawke didn't seem to care. The guy lashed out - and hard! When one of those hammers connected with my eltam blade, I felt the impact all the way up my arm.

But Keir wasn't standing helplessly. He spun, grabbing some kind of axe-spear thing off the wall, and moved to my left.

That put him on Hawke's right, which was his stronger side.

Unfortunately, Hawke was correct. When Keir lunged to strike, I backed up, making sure he had room. Hawke immediately took advantage of it.

The guy spun, shifting well out of Keir's range. Another step put me between them. I tried to turn, only to find Hawke's hammer right in front of my forehead.

"Bonk," he said with a shit-eating grin. "I win."

I just groaned, letting my weapons sag. "I'm so bad at this."

"You're new to it," Keir countered.

"Nice use of the truth," Hawke praised. "But she does suck. Rain knows how to follow your lead, Keir. The part you forgot is that the Morrigan leads. You get to be her bitch - not the other way around."

"I'm trying to get her caught up," Keir countered.

Hawke shrugged. "And now you have me." His eyes shifted to mine. "Keir knows what he's doing. Don't worry about him. Just come at me like I'm the Huntsman himself."

"And if I cut you?" I asked, turning my steel sword to prove what I meant.

Hawke held up his arm, a little friendship bracelet dangling on his wrist. "Had someone make me a nice-nice. It will deflect one impact from anything. Even iron."

"Aspen?" I asked, almost hoping it had been her.

"No," Hawke admitted, but both he and Keir had heard something that made them look at me. "Why?" he went on.

I tried to wave it off. "Nothing. I'm just worried about her."

"Why?" Keir pressed this time.

"Nope, I'm not playing bash-'em-up until you spill, Rain," Hawke informed me.

I grunted in annoyance, but I understood. These two were trying to help. The problem was I didn't know how to say it.

"She hasn't been in her room for days," I tried, hoping to leave it at that.

"She's crashing with Tor," Hawke said.

"And he'd know," Keir added. "He's been using the other suite."

Which made me look over quickly. "What? So she's sharing a bed with him?"

"Fuck," Keir grumbled, turning away and shoving a hand through his hair. "Not like that! "

"Rain," Hawke said, stepping closer, but pausing as his eyes landed on my sword. "Can you put that thing down for a minute?"

"Uh, ok?" I moved to the hooks Bracken had made for it. "Why? Is this bad?"

"It's..." Hawke paused. "Dammit."

"What?" I begged.

"He can't say it's good," Keir quickly explained. "Literal block. False words will not come from our mouths without serious pain, and usually mind control."

"So it is bad," I realized.

Hawke just stepped closer to grab my upper arms. "Aspen's working through it. Torian helps. When she has nightmares, he makes them go away. When he does - and he'd rather I didn't even hint that such a thing was possible - she helps him. They're working through it, nothing more, nothing less."

"Oh."

And while I got that part, it didn't make it feel better. Aspen was my girlfriend! She was supposed to turn to me when she needed help. No, not just me, but I currently felt like I'd been cut out, and I didn't like it at all.

"What if she dumps me?" I asked next. "I mean, I know things like this can change a person's world, and what if she decides I don't belong in it, or like, I dunno, I remind her of what happened? Guys! How the hell am I supposed to help her if she is never around when I am?"

Keir just looked at Hawke. "Make sure they're both at lunch tomorrow?"

"Can do," Hawke agreed.

Keir nodded. "I'll say something to Torian."

My mouth flopped open in surprise. "Wait, so you two are friends now?"

"I wouldn't go that far," Keir assured me. "We're on the same side, and I bump into him a bit. I mean, I am crashing in his best pal's room."

"That's me," Hawke bragged. "I mean, just so you know, I'm nothing but Tor's bestie."

Keir chuckled as if that little dig had been intentional, but Hawke was smiling like he knew it. Clearly, these guys had gotten to be friendly - if not actual friends - since the Hunt had attacked.

"But she's ok, right?" I asked yet again, aware they weren't really giving me what I wanted.

Hawke murmured, not liking my question. "Rain, she's working it out."

"I heard she attacked the Hunt," I explained. "She saved her class! That's why the Huntsman grabbed her, because she was fucking up the hunters who were trying to get the other students, you know?"

"No shit?" Keir asked. "I haven't heard that."

"You also don't spend a lot of time with AP botany students," Hawke reminded him. "Although from the way Aspen tells it, there was a lot less heroism and a lot more scrambling to hold her own."

"Aspen?" Keir asked. "She's fucking powerful."

"No control," Hawke said.

"Hey!" I hissed.

Hawke just lifted a hand. "He's on the court, Rain. It's ok for him to know this. Wilder and I talked about it, and who knows? Maybe Keir can even help, since we haven't been having much luck showing her how to make it habitual."

"Hard to do when any magic Aspen does is like a fucking nuke," Keir said. "I'm sure that doesn't help her confidence at all. I mean, if she makes a mistake, it's the catastrophic kind."

"Yep," Hawke agreed.

So Keir nodded. "I'll help as much as I can. I mean, she's my friend too."

"Thought you'd see it like that." Then Hawke leaned towards me and fake-whispered, "I like this one. We should keep him."

All I could do was roll my eyes. "How about you both focus on teaching me how to not suck next time the Hunt shows up?"

"You," Keir said, "did not suck."

Hawke pointed at him, but was looking at me. "That. Now, I can make you feel good about it, or bad. You choose."

"I want to hear both," I said, pretty sure he was giving me shit.

"Well, I'm sure you did well because you can use iron," Hawke drawled smugly. "I mean, never mind that you faced down the motherfucking Huntsman himself as if you had some brass balls." He looked at Keir. "That's the phrase for piqu jiwa thu , right?"

"It is."

So Hawke continued as if there hadn't been a pause. "I was ready to piss myself when I saw him. That fucker has damned near dried up, and now he's the sort of thing that makes nightmares worse! There's nothing fae about him!"

"No kidding," Keir said. "I can't believe they used to look normal. Why the fuck would anyone want to become one of those?"

"Because they weren't always like those, " Hawke said. "On Faerie, the Wild Hunt were normal-looking. The horses were the finest the kingdoms could give. The hunters were those who'd proven themselves in battle. Heroes, not..." He blew out a hard breath. "Not whatever they are now."

"Is that because of Earth?" I asked.

"I dunno," Hawke admitted. "Maybe? "

"Bracken said they're not getting enough magic. They ride the storms because it has some - "

"Wait," I begged, interrupting Keir. "What makes magic? I thought it was sunlight."

"It's Earth," Keir explained. "Living things, acts of nature, and all those moments you want to pause to take in? The birth of a puppy, the rising sun, a gentle rain? All of it is magic, in a way."

"The bustle of traffic is not," Hawke added. "Fresh tar, drying concrete, or even the hole in the ozone layer are not magical. They're the opposite of it, which is why fae tend to be a little bit of environmentalists."

"And here I thought the issue was just iron, but isn't the center of the Earth made of iron?"

"And it's a very long way away," Keir assured me.

"Can't even feel it. But it's more the song of nature, I suppose.

That irregular rhythm of a world doing what worlds do.

When people - ours or yours - try to interrupt that?

It changes those magical moments to something else.

I mean, early mornings with a deadline aren't so magical.

Nor are sleepless nights because of worry. "

Which brought me right back to Aspen. "So, what do I do if Aspen dumps me?"

Both guys turned quickly, my question seeming to come out of thin air, but it all made sense to me. Never mind how they'd skipped over that part! It made me think they'd been doing their best to avoid the subject. It was kinda how fae worked.

But Aspen had clearly been avoiding me. I also knew she could change her mind about us. That girl was too good for me, and it was always possible the whole Hunt thing had made her realize it.

I'd been too slow, hadn't known enough, and didn't really make a dent with my magic. I was supposed to be this big and impressive thing, but Keir and Hawke had actually done more than me. Without them, I would've gotten myself killed or something!

"Why would she do that?" Hawke asked.

"Yeah, I'm with him," Keir agreed.

I pressed my hair back and groaned. "I don't know, ok?"

"Lie," Keir said.

"Because there are a million stupid reasons," I said instead. "But I want to know what I'm supposed to do if it happens. I mean, you said you'd help me, Keir. So tell me how to deal with this aspect of dating a girl, ok?"

He sighed, but nodded. "Ok, if she dumps you, then you leave her alone. You accept it, apologize, and give her space. If she doesn't change her mind in a day or so - and the 'or so' part there means a few extra hours, not days - then you get to enjoy being single."

"Harsh, man," Hawke told him.

"Truth, though."

"Yeah, kinda is," Hawke agreed. "And girls usually don't change their mind, Rain. Still, I think you're ok. Aspen talks about you, and she said she's been trying to make sure she hasn't completely abandoned you. I think she means because she gave you some impressive plants."

"There's a new one in the bathroom today," I admitted.

"Lemme guess, tall and yellow?" Hawke asked.

I nodded.

"That's an Icebreaker."

I lifted both brows. "What?" Because I figured that since we were dating the ice had already been broken between us.

"The plant name," Keir explained, "although I've never seen one. I heard they can live without light for up to six months and nothing will kill them."

"And they're useful for making repellents," Hawke said. "The oil from them will sting and burn anything fae."

"Yep," Keir said, "I've got to see this thing. Gonna invite us over to see the rare plant, Rain?"

"Just you," Hawke told him. "I already had my girl time. She's also starting to sound like she at least knows a few math terms."

"Then let's do this," Keir said. "Rain, get your weapons."