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The room fell silent except for Torian's feet. He didn't even bother to get his things before he left. My head whipped between his stuff and the guy walking out of class like he had some assumed pass for the halls or something, and I couldn't quite figure out what was happening.

Then our teacher said, "Rain, it was him. Go make sure he can't do it again!"

"Right," I breathed, quickly gathering up my stuff, Torian's stuff, and my bird. With crap ready to fall out of my overfull arms, I rushed out of class, scanning both ends of the hallway. I saw Torian just as he rounded the corner.

I had to look like a moron as I tried to walk-jog after him, stretching my legs just as fast as I could. The stuff in my arms was sliding. Jack was trying to hold a paper steady in his beak, and luckily, Torian noticed.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he demanded the second I rounded the corner, all but appearing in my face.

"I got your things," I said, shoving my arms towards him. "Some's mine. Some's yours. Help?"

He laughed once, grabbing at the least stable items. "Rain, go back to class."

"What the hell happened in there?" I demanded. "C'mon, I deserve that much. One second, I'm trying to keep you from getting pissed..." I paused as he passed back my notebook. "...The next, the Huntsman's in my face. Torian, don't you get it? I'm faking this!"

"I am too," he growled, leaning in just a little too close. "I didn't even realize I'd done that. I just wanted them to realize it's not funny. It's not a fucking joke! The Huntsman has Aspen on his list ! I didn't even know he had a list, but she's on it, and do you know what it means?"

"Not really, no."

"She. Will. Die. " He leaned back, all of his rage gone, leaving behind his real problem: fear.

"She has us," I assured him.

"And we're kids, Rain." He grunted. "I can't even control my magic anymore, and you barely know yours!

What the hell are we supposed to do against the bloodhound of the fae world?

Try to ask nicely? Well, in case you missed it, he's fae !

We don't care. We don't have humanity . Nothing matters to us but power, and the more power we have, the more safe we are.

The more we can control, the more power we get.

All that matters is that. Nothing more and nothing less.

Anything else is a failure - and I can't fucking do it! " He ended in a scream.

Yeah, screw this. Tossing my things on the ground, I grabbed the guy's hand on one side and his arm on the other, making him actually look at me.

"She's ok," I said gently. "You're ok. I'm ok and Jack's ok. Hawke, Wilder, and Keir are ok. We survived, Torian."

"Did we?" he asked.

So I squeezed his hand gently. "We're alive, and that means we can fight another day. Besides, you've got me."

"I..." His jaw clenched and the guy looked away. "Rain, I did that."

"The glamour, the protections on the glass, or feeding me magic in the middle of the night?"

That made him look back. "What? "

"Well, I mean, the glamour was kinda shitty, but the rest was pretty amazing."

"The fucking glamour was an accident! Don't you get it? I can't control it. Ever since…" He grunted. "Ever since I saw Aspen like that, I can't stop! I wake in the middle of the night thinking she's gone. Thinking I'm alone again!"

He tried to turn away, but I refused to let go. "It's not your fault," I told him.

"That's where you're wrong," he snapped.

"It's all my fault. The only chance I have of fixing this is my power, and my control - but I have no control!

I have never done that before, but now I can't control it.

I can't stop it. They call me a monster, and that's fine.

They say I should die, and it doesn't bother me, but her?

She is my sister , Rain. The one thing I can't bear to lose, but she is on his list ! "

"Yeah," I breathed, quickly snatching my things, then catching Torian's hand again before he could leave. "Well, to me, that sounds like PTSD. Now, I'm not a counselor or anything, but I know someone who is, and I kinda think you should talk to him." Then I turned him up the hall.

"What?" he asked, letting me guide him forward.

"Torian, you need to talk to Liam. See, it doesn't make you tough to ignore your mental health. It just makes you fucked up, so let's go do that, ok?"

"But it doesn't fix anything!" he insisted.

"It does," I countered. "You said you can't control it, right? Well, this? This is human magic, Torian. It's how we fix shit, and maybe it's the hard way, but I didn't think you were scared of a little work."

"I'm not."

Which made me smile. "So talk to Liam." I slowed just as we reached the glass-walled administrative area. "And I'm not going to tell Aspen about this, but you should."

"She knows," he said softly.

"Ok." I rubbed his arm. "And so you know, the Huntsman scares the shit out of me too, but losing Aspen scares me more. Kinda proves you don't have to do this on your own."

"Yeah." He stood there for a second, and then nodded like he'd made some kind of internal decision.

"I'm glad you picked her, Rain. If you'd picked me, I would've thought you were like everyone else, but you're not.

" He tried to smile, but only a little flicker at the corners was visible.

" You're exactly the Morrigan we needed.

" His eyes jumped to my shoulder. "You did very good, Jack. "

Then he turned and walked into the office, stopping at the desk.

I waited in the hall for a moment, making sure Torian wasn't going to walk back out.

It didn't take long before my dad stepped into view.

The man's eyes saw me through the glass, confusion took over his face, and then he summoned Torian into his office.