Page 7

Then the crazy bird ducked his head and flopped over on his back with his little feet pointing in the air.

The iridescent eltam band on his leg was covered in rainbows from the light in my room, but everything else about him was completely black.

Like a little shadow tucked between us, decorated in fae metal, he was pretty damned cute for a large bird.

Obediently, Aspen and I both reached over to tickle between his feathers.

"He missed you while you were gone," she said. "I swear that crow sulked the whole time, as if I'm that bad to spend time with!"

He just turned his head and nibbled on her fingers, but I was grinning at them both. "I'd take you everywhere if I could, Jack. Sadly, we went to see the Sparks, and they already hate you."

"More after your shadows tried to choke out the missus," Aspen teased .

I huffed out my breath. "Yeah, probably. And I'm honestly still trying to figure out if I'm freaking out about that or not."

"Jack!" my bird said, shaking his head when I looked at him. "Jack-Rain!"

And somehow, that made me feel better. "So I shouldn't worry about it."

He shook his head again.

"I'd trust him," Aspen assured me. "Besides, it all sounds pretty harmless. I mean, when my magic went out of control..." She made a face, making it clear it had been bad.

"Ice everywhere?" I joked.

"More like plants, but yeah," she said, a hint of a giggle slipping in.

"Mm, because my girlfriend's a badass." And I leaned in to kiss her.

"So's mine," she agreed, her lips parting just enough so she could tease my lower lip with her tongue. Then she pulled back and flicked her brows up in some parody of flirtation. It was enough to make me laugh instead of pull her down onto the bed with me.

Then I remembered something else. "Oh!" I sat up, making Jack squawk at my movement. "So, if it's not magnetic, it's not iron, right? Won't burn?"

"Right," she agreed. "And the more that's between us and it, the easier it is. That's why we can use phones and such. Why?"

"Because I got another keychain," I told her. "This one has a magnet. Liam's idea, but we checked all the zippers and buttons on my new clothes."

Aspen giggled. "Your new dad was helping you find clothes I could take off?"

I paused with my mouth halfway open. "Well, he said so it wouldn't hurt to be close to me. I mean, you haven't exactly tried to take anything off yet."

Her smile slipped. "I..."

"I was just..." I tried.

And our eyes met. Her cheeks were just a little pink.

I could tell my face was burning. Clearly Jack could see it too, because he rolled over and walked himself to the edge of the mattress.

There, he took off, flying low until he landed on his roost across the room.

Immediately, Aspen and I turned to face each other.

"I wasn't trying to imply..." she started.

"Friends first," I told her, reaching out to twine my fingers with hers. "No pressure, no expectations, right? We're just going to take this thing one step at a time and enjoy all of it."

"I hope so," she admitted. "I like what we have, Rain, even if it's just a lot of kissing and cuddling. I mean, Torian keeps trying to offer tips to me - " Her mouth snapped shut.

But I was laughing. "Keir does the same with me! He keeps saying that if I need help finding the clit, he's more than willing to talk me through it."

"Ugh, I like him," Aspen groaned playfully. "I always thought he was a dick, because when he's around my brother, they cannot be civil."

"He's not, though," I assured her. "He's sweet, and he's explained so much of the fae stuff to me." Then I ducked my head to catch her eyes again. "And things with us are still ok? Me being a Morrigan, you getting in trouble because of all that, my new dads, the shadows, and everything?"

"Best friends forever," she promised. "Girlfriends in a whole new way, right? Oh, and you should invite that big blonde boy of yours to be your date for the New Year's Eve party."

"What?" There was another party? But what I asked was, "After what happened at the last one?"

Aspen's lips split into a devious little smirk. "I kinda think that's an even better reason for him to be your official date. I mean, I'm definitely going to be the unofficial one - even if you did kiss my brother."

This time, I was the one groaning. "It was supposed to help him out with Harper. That's it! She was trying to be the typical mean girl, and usually when a guy moves on, they give up, you know? So I leaned on him at the party, and it completely backfired."

"And Harper tried to kill you for it!" She lifted our joined hands to her lips and kissed the backs of my fingers.

"I have never been that scared before, Rain.

I was so sure you were dead, and then you were still standing, and the crows were all taking off and screaming.

Then the jesters started throwing magic, and we kept trying to stop it, and we couldn't get enough breathing room to drain them, and - "

"Is draining someone normal?" I asked.

She swallowed. "I can't talk about that."

All I could do was nod to show I'd heard. "Which means it's not normal. Can any of the jesters do it? More importantly, how do I block it?"

"No one can strip you," she explained. "You're the block, don't you see?

If Winter magic is negative and Summer magic is positive, yours is a grounding rod, nullifying them both.

You just suck in our magic and convert it to those shadows.

The only ones who can drain you are the wildlings, and I can't think of why they'd want to. "

I heard all of that, as well as the things she was trying to steer me away from. "Aspen?" I asked. "Will you ever be able to talk about this stuff? The things you skip over and try to avoid, is it because I'm human?"

"No," she said. "It's because those of us from Faerie know things that could be dangerous to the people around us.

" She bit her lower lip, then chewed on it lightly.

"The whole court has secrets, Rain. We can't help it.

That's why we had to get out. Now, we're just trying to make sure those secrets don't ruin everything here too. "

"Will Harper being gone help at all?"

She shook her head. "Harper was a bitch, and her mom will probably find a way to get her back at Silver Oaks, but no.

The problems are bigger than school. It's all of fae society, you know?

They have unfair prejudices, and their parents carried them here.

I'm kinda hoping you'll help, though. Having a Morrigan on our side?

That's something none of us dared to hope for, and yet you're here. "

"What can I even do, though?" I asked. "I couldn't even make my own shadow behave!"

She simply shrugged. "The fables we have say the Morrigan will right the wrongs and bring back balance.

They don't say how because none of us understand your magic.

Plus, I was a baby when I left, so I didn't get all the good stories.

I only remember the nursery rhymes. Jack's the one with all the answers. "

"And he has a vocabulary of like five words now."

"Jack!" he said, right on cue.

So I thrust my arm out at him. "See?"

"And you're not an adult yet," she reminded me. "The heroes of our stories aren't usually seventeen-year-old girls. Especially not when our people live to be over a thousand. You've got time, Rain. You've also got some pretty powerful friends, and I assure you we will take care of you."

"Ok," I agreed. "And so you know, I'm going to learn all of this so I can take care of you back. Not because it's a debt, but because it's what friends do. Especially girlfriends."

"And you are a very good girlfriend," she breathed, leaning in to steal one more kiss.