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Chapter Forty-Six

RAIN

I felt like things had finally gone back to normal.

Sunday night, I fell asleep curled up against Aspen's back.

She was hugging my arm up against her chest, holding it tightly.

This was my last thought as sleep took over.

Monday morning classes would come too soon, too fast, but at least I had this.

"Hunt!"

Jack's voice was so loud. Jerking awake, I opened my eyes to find myself sitting up.

"Hunt!" he screamed again. "Hunt, Hunt, Hunt!"

It was dark in my room, so my eyes immediately jumped to the clock: 3:12 a.m. It took me far too long to realize the meaning of this. It was the middle of the night, so what was Jack going on about?

"Morrigan-Hunt!" Jack insisted. "Rain-Hunt. Hunt, Hunt, Hunt, Hunt!"

And then it hit. "The Hunt's coming?"

"Mm?" Aspen muttered, rolling over in bed.

I threw off the blankets and rushed to the window in my room. It overlooked the atrium, but my eyes went up, right to the glass ceiling. The moon was bright enough to illuminate the thick clouds rolling across the sky, and they were moving fast . Shit, it had to be a cold front blowing in.

"Aspen, are we expecting bad weather?"

"Mm, rain on Monday," she said .

"Shit," I breathed, scrambling to find shoes. "Baby, when?"

"Hm?"

"When is the storm hitting?" I demanded.

"Hunt!" Jack said yet again.

And that was what finally woke Aspen up. "What? The Hunt?" She looked towards the window. "Now?"

"Hunt, Hunt, Hunt Hunt Hunt!" Jack cawed. "Morrigan! Rain!"

"I'm going!" I hissed.

"Crap!" Aspen groaned, jumping out of bed just to hurry into her room.

Just as I found my second sneaker, she was back. Where I was wearing my favorite crow-themed pajamas, she had on a long tee and soft shorts. On her feet were some canvas shoes, but I didn't slow down long enough to admire her wardrobe. Hell, her legs were distracting enough.

Instead, I lifted my arm for my bird and turned for the door. "Aspen, stay here," I demanded.

"You need magic, Rain!" she insisted.

"And the Hunt is out there!"

"So I'll stay out of sight," she shot back, hurrying forward to give me a shove. "I'm dating the Morrigan. Kinda part of the gig."

That was all I needed to hear. Hurrying into the hall, I was aiming for the elevators, but Jack barely touched down on my arm before taking off again. Where he landed was beneath the little green lever I'd never really paid attention to. It was right beside the emergency stairs.

"Aspen, pull the lever," I told her, hitting the door for the stairwell at full speed and doing my best to gallop downwards without killing myself.

I was almost halfway to the third floor when the lights started flashing in the stairwell, but I couldn't hear the normal alarm that deafened everything. I could, however, hear the door clank open above me and Aspen's feet echoing as she tromped as hard as I was.

Together, we spiraled down. Jack flew, the lucky bastard.

Needless to say, I was panting by the time I hit the bottom floor, and the moment I stepped out, I could hear the wind.

Shit, it was too loud! Racing around the corner, I saw one of the exterior doors flapping in the wind just enough to let a whistle in before clanking back shut.

I grabbed the handle, pulled, and began twisting the deadbolt when Aspen burst out of the stairwell - and she wasn't alone.

"Check the boys' side," Ms. Rhodes ordered, turning the other way. "Aspen, stay out of sight! "

"What?" I gasped.

Lights were flashing in the hallways down here too. Silently. The alternating brightness and shadows made it hard to focus, but it matched the lightning flickering outside the large windows that made up the center of this building.

"Ms. Rhodes came out when I pulled the alarm," Aspen said. "But none of these doors are locked, Rain. I can help!"

"You can stay out of - " My words failed as the clouds began to shift into something moving, writhing, and definitely coming this way.

"Fuck, I hate the Hunt," I muttered, moving to the next door on this side and locking it quickly. Then I turned for the atrium. "Aspen, stay! Please?"

She nodded, so I was off. I didn't even have to hold the door for Jack, because he flew in so quickly.

I'd just reached the boys' side of the building when a peal of thunder announced a hunter landing.

The first, I was pretty sure. I tried not to look.

My only focus should be on the doors, but seeing clouds turn into horses and then grey, dried-out warriors from myths steered the things around like some Lord of the Rings movie?

Yeah, I looked.

Riders went towards the gym, the Forge, and also the opposite sides.

Over to where Aspen had been grabbed. On the complete other end of the property was where we'd had the Solstice celebration.

What bothered me was these riders moved like they knew our spots.

Like they could smell or sense the fae's presence there.

But only one thing mattered to me. I slammed into the frame of the first door and began turning the lock.

I got it, but something in the darkness turned our way.

Lightning flashed overhead, illuminating it.

The grey monster became a thing of darkness, and slowly, step-by-step, aimed his horse towards me.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," I breathed, aware my sword was out in the Forge, I was in here, and the Wild Hunt was between us.

"Rain..." Jack soothed - or maybe encouraged.

So I moved to the second door, spinning the lock.

This one didn't want to latch. The knob stopped at a weird angle, but adrenaline was starting to kick in.

I pulled as hard as I could, but the damned thing didn't want to budge.

Just when I was sure the hunter would get here first, something banged beside and behind me.

I jumped. The door jiggled. My next panic attempt got the lock secure just as Torian came around the corner .

"The Hunt," he breathed.

"Get the fuck out of sight!" I hissed. "I'm not fae, you fucking idiot!"

But his eyes were locked on the atrium. No, through it. "Aspen?" he asked.

"She's out of sight, so you should be too!"

"Fuck the Hunt," he snarled before racing for the atrium door.

"Court!" Jack insisted.

"But the cafeteria doors," I countered.

Caw! He shook his head. "Court!"

Yeah, well, he usually knew what was going on, so I followed, but just as I made it into the atrium, there was a loud, solid boom. I paused. Ten feet from the door on the girls' side of this green space, Torian froze. In unison, we both looked towards the sound.

Boom!

The Huntsman himself stood at the glass wall of the atrium and was banging on it with his fist. Over and over, he pounded. The fourth time his hand hit, the symbols I'd once seen Torian fixing began to glow. The next, they started to blur.

"You are not welcome here!" Torian roared, storming towards the glass.

"Torian, no!" I insisted.

But the guy either had balls of steel or no brains. Both? I wasn't sure, but when Jack took off to follow, I did the same. My eyes darted over to check on Aspen, thrilled to see she was still there, tucked safely against the elevator alcove where nothing on that side could see her.

"You are not welcome here!" Torian said again, slamming his palm up against the glass exactly opposite the Huntsman's.

"Rain!" Jack demanded.

"I don't know how to help!" I insisted, pausing just behind Torian.

"I got this," he assured me.

His hand began to glow with a pale green color, quickly glowing brighter. The runes, sigils, symbols - or whatever they were called - clarified. Outside the glass, the Huntsman looked down, his milky eyes reflecting back the shapes, but his lips curled into a smile.

"My orders are from the crown," he said, slamming his hand against the glass one more time.

Like something straight out of a cartoon, a line appeared, and then started growing. It zigged and zagged upwards, then the bottom began to grow as well, but Torian didn't even flinch. The guy simply lifted his chin and smiled, pushing even more magic.

His hand turned brilliantly white. "Try to get past me, asshole."

"You are not on my list," the Huntsman told him. Then his eyes jumped up to me. "Nor you." But he turned, somehow looking directly at where Aspen shouldn't be visible. "She is."

"You cannot have her!" Torian screamed.

I was trying to think of what to do. "Jack, what about the crows?" I begged.

"Morrigan!" he insisted.

Which was when Keir burst into the atrium. "Rain!"

The Huntsman completely ignored him.

"Get out of here!" I insisted. "Keir, get out of sight!"

"Fuck that," he grumbled, not stopping until he was behind me. "They've already seen Torian. Shit, he's fixing the wards!"

"This place is mine!" Torian told the Huntsman.

The strange grey man didn't respond. He just turned his head and leaned in, looking like he wanted to press his face against the glass in an attempt to lay eyes on Aspen. My gaze jumped over there as well, but she'd pulled back, now so far into the shadows that even I could barely find her.

"Morrigan!" Jack demanded.

And my shadow stepped away from my feet.

Sliding along the ground, the thing elongated, lit by the moonlight above and the flickering emergency beacons along the hall behind us.

With each flash, it grew thicker, more solid.

Just as it reached the glass, the damned thing stood up, but it didn't stop.

It walked right through the barrier, aiming for the Huntsman.

"Fuck," Keir breathed. "Shadows go through glass."

"Yeah," I realized. "They do!"

Thrusting both hands down, I poured out my magic and shoved it at the Wild Hunt.

If they needed something to make them leave, then I would gladly give it.

Swirls of fog raced forward. Some turned into hounds, wolves, or even horses.

A stag's antler stood out in the swirling darkness, but also wings and so many scurrying feet.

Like a mob made from my will, the darkness pushed forward, but my own shadow wasn't under my control. Instead, the thing gestured around it, strange dark holes appearing in its face as the head turned back to me.

Eyes.

Awareness.

Fuck, it meant the darkness out there!

"What are you saying?" I asked .

"Just do something! " Torian hissed. "He's trying to drain the wards. Rain, his power is Wild!"

Which meant he could eat Torian's magic the same way I did. Fuck. Shit. Oh my god, this was so bad, and I was not trained in how to handle shadows in darkness. Wait, or maybe that was what my shadow was trying to say?

Closing my eyes, I reached as far inside myself as I could to find that pool of magic Ms. Rhodes always talked about. There. Once I had it, I tried to immerse myself in it like dunking my body in a swimming pool, gathering as much of it around me as I could.

"Rain..." Jack cawed softly.

"She's working on it," Keir told the crow. "Tor, how do I help?"

"Shield the goddamned windows!" he snapped.

I opened my eyes in time to see the rainbows appear between us.

It made the Huntsman's head twitch, but nothing else.

Then I took all the power I had and turned it loose.

My conjuration was more of a directive than a fae spell.

I wanted the Wild Hunt to go. I needed them drained, hurt, or even forced away from this entire building.

I wanted them to catch the tail end of the storm and just keep going!

And in the middle of the night, there was nothing but shadows. The entire world was covered in the shadow of itself. In the back of my mind, I could feel it all waking up, shifting, and trying to obey my order, but I wasn't enough. I didn't have the power to give all of it form.

"I need more!" I called out.

"Hold the windows!" Torian told Keir even as he turned to me. "And please don't fucking die, Rain."

Then he pressed his wrists together, the fingers of both hands spread like fans facing in opposite directions - and shoved.

A torrent of blinding magic slammed into me, creating a warmth in the pit of my stomach, and the power kept coming.

Like an endless stream of magic, Torian poured what he had - so fucking much of it - at me, and I soaked it all up, immediately turning it around and giving it to the night.

"Kill them all," I breathed, slowly turning my eyes on the Huntsman. "You may be as Wild as me, but I own the night, you dumb shit."

The man's lip curled slightly. "Ride with me."

"I'd rather die."

"Then give her to me and I will go."

"Not before the night catches you." I took a step closer, moving slowly enough that Torian could keep pouring magic into me. "I am their champion, not yours. Time to catch the wind, asshole."

And just as Torian's blast of light ran out, the shadows outside rushed in. Like some child's nightmare, the darkness converged, snatching at the Huntsman like a cat after its prey. The man's feet slipped out from under him, but the Huntsman never hit the ground. The darkness swallowed him first.

The last thing I was able to see was that the man had perfectly straight and beautiful teeth. I could tell because the asshole was smiling.