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Chapter Sixty

RAIN

I could hear the notifications from our phones. None of us had the chance to answer them. We were all running so hard. My legs were starting to burn and my lungs had forgotten how to work a few yards back. Now, only sheer panic was fueling me.

Yet when the edge of the storm reached us, I knew.

The first winds blew past us, dropping the temperature and blocking out the sunlight, but that wasn't all. The thundering of hooves made it clear we were too late. Now, right here, was where we were going to make our last stand.

"Incoming!" Keir bellowed, stopping hard just to turn back and face the oncoming storm.

I dug my feet in, ready to reverse and help him, but Keir wasn't charging. He was braced up, pulling at all the magic he had to make the most amazingly iridescent colors. Beside me, Hawke grabbed Wilder, pushing him into the middle of our group, and then Keir's shield slammed down around us.

I turned, checking for hunters as I pushed the item Jack had tossed at me into my pocket. My fingers brushed the hard edges of the crow stone I was supposed to be constantly charging and pulling from. It was just enough of a distraction to nearly make me miss the first hunter land.

The rider and horse started as mist, but the moment the beast's feet touched dirt, it solidified. The rider found his form a moment later. Pale grey fog swirled off them like steam from a cup of coffee, but we'd already been spotted.

"Will this thing hold?" Wilder asked.

"It'll hold as long as I do," Keir said. "You keep Rain going."

"I need my sword!" I hissed, turning to see another rider land, then more a little further away.

That was when a scream pierced the air. I wasn't sure if someone had been caught or merely realized the shit that was going down. Either way, this was bad. It was so bad I couldn't even find enough profanity for it. Just bad-bad.

"Jack!" Hawke yelled.

"Morrigan!" Jack cawed from somewhere far above.

"She needs a little help here!"

"Shadow!" Jack yelled back.

"Well, at least he's starting to make sense," I said, reaching for the magic inside me.

But before I could even start pulling out my Wild magic, my silhouette on the ground stood, opened its "eyes" and looked at each of us. Then it bobbed its head in something like a nod and...

The fucking thing turned inside out!

"What the actual fuck?" Wilder asked.

"Can't see back there," Keir said, having missed all of that.

"Yeah, um, Rain's shadow just totally peter-panned," Wilder said. "No, I do not know what that means either."

"Not really helping," Keir said. "And that fucker sees us!"

So I began reaching for the shadows of the trees outside our bubble. I wasn't sure if my own magic would be able to pass, or if that would break Keir's magic, so I didn't want to risk it. Still, if I could control the night, then I could definitely use some of the shadows scattered all around us.

"Go," I breathed. "Hold them back, save the others..."

"Power, power, power," Hawke told Wilder. "Just hit her with it, babe. She sucks that shit up."

"Sorry, Rain," Wilder said.

And then a chill raced down my skin. Unlike Aspen's magic, Wilder's was cold. Not horribly, but enough to make my skin prickle. It also made the shadows outside our bubble grow darker, thicker, and within seconds, they began to change.

What had previously been a tree or the shadow along a building turned into wolves, trolls, and an entire dragon. Every fairytale I'd ever read was filled with monsters, so I pushed those images out with my power, making my own equivalent of Jack's crow army.

"No one dies today," I breathed, and then shoved it all forward.

The shadows ran. The power drained out of me so quickly my knees buckled, but Hawke caught my shoulders. I was panting, and not just from the race we'd had to get this far. My entire body felt spent, yet I refused to look away, worried that dividing my attention would lessen my power.

But a little pop of air announced the reversal of my shadow. Where it had inverted into itself a moment before, this time it started as a single speck and unfurled. But from the center of its darkness, the thing held exactly what we needed.

My steel sword was in one hand, shoved out at me. Keir's new eltam blade was in the other, right beside Hawke's carbon fiber and bronze spear. It wasn't enough though, was it?

The thing only had one weapon for each of us. My brain registered that, wanting to demand it get the set I was used to working with, but I knew better. I should be grateful we had any weapons to fight with. But the shock of all of this made me hesitate a second too long.

Without needing to be asked, Wilder took Keir's sword and passed it over the guy's shoulder. "Peter Pan brought this," he explained.

"My..." Keir's back flinched. "Ok. Cool. How are the rest?"

"We're all armed," Hawke said, pushing the leather-wrapped hilt of my sword into my hand. "Rain, what do you need?"

I wrapped my fingers around the hilt - and paused. My pocket was glowing. The color was almost purple - that ultraviolet shade my stone liked - but now was not the time.

"I've got half a campus of shadows moving," I said. "They're looking for others."

"Then let us out, Keir," Hawke said. "Wilder, stay right fucking behind me, do you hear me?"

"On your ass," he agreed. "Normally your job, but I can switch things up."

Keir huffed out a laugh, glanced back to check on us, then pulled down his shield. "Rain, with me!"

He ran, and from the angle of it, Keir knew something I didn't. Sure enough, we passed a few more trees and came up behind Poppy and two boys cowering in the branches. All of them had green glowing hands.

"It's us, it's us," Keir said as he came up behind them. "Poppy, who all is out here? "

"I think they found Nevaeh!" she said. "I heard her scream!"

"Where?" I demanded.

Poppy just pointed. When I leaned around the tree, I saw a mass of writhing horses, hunters, and a few flashes of color that made me think students were in the middle of that.

"Shadow?" I asked, glancing down at my feet. "If you can get Ms. Rhodes and bring her back here, that would be pretty fucking cool."

It nodded and streaked off. Not ran. Not darted. The damned thing elongated in the blink of an eye, then launched like an arrow. Thankfully, it was aimed back towards the school, but it would still take far too long for help to get here.

"I think they have someone," I told Keir.

"I see Nevaeh," Wilder agreed. "Rain..."

"Oh, we're doing this," I said, securing my grip on my sword. "If you stay, keep these people safe. If you come..."

I didn't bother finishing the sentence, because the truth was, I had no clue what came next.

All I could think about was the look in Aspen's eyes when the Huntsman had grabbed her by the hair.

That sort of fear was the thing that haunted my nightmares.

It was the kind I never wanted to see again, so I ran before I could chicken out.

My feet weren't the only ones that moved, though.

I saw Keir to my right. Hawke was at my left.

There were still more feet behind me, and more than just one set.

Together, the group of us ran, charging at the Hunt, and I raised my voice in the kind of battle cry I thought an Amazon would be proud of.

A hunter turned, stepping into my path like he had all the time in the world. I didn't slow. With my free hand, I thrust shadows at him, but my steel sword was the real threat. Dropping my shoulder, I put my weight behind the hardest swing I'd ever made.

The blade sank deep.

The hunter screamed in a way no voice should manage.

I didn't dare slow down.

"Hit her!" Wilder yelled.

Warmth smashed into my back, feeling like Summer magic, and it allowed me to send a volley of shadow-spikes at the next hunter.

He dodged just enough that only one hit him.

The damned thing bounced off harmlessly, but it was enough.

The hunter gestured, pointing at us in some near-military gesture, and the rest of the hunt turned.

"Run!" Nevaeh screamed .

The girl was on her knees. A hunter had his hand in her hair. Two guys were beside her. One had been pushed face down into the dirt. The other was standing, both of his hands up, but turning just enough to keep a hunter from grabbing him.

"The ground!" Poppy screamed.

White and green shot past me. On one side, the ground turned to ice. On the other, it became wet, slippery mud. The first hunter turned, lost his balance, and hit a knee. Another grabbed at his horse, using it to get him across the mess, almost like a tug-boat.

So I flung shadows at the beast. In truth, I didn't know if these were real horses, and I only knew one thing about livestock. They could stampede. So when the shadow was close enough, I made it burst in front of the horse's nose.

The thing reared, spun, and bolted, proving me right. A few other animals skittered, looking like they wanted to run with it. The hunters moved, giving the faeling on his feet enough room that he ran, aiming right for us.

And then I hit their line.

My sword clashed with a flat grey blade.

Tendrils of mist - both black and grey - wafted up with each collision, but I wasn't winning.

I swung, he blocked, so I swung again. As long as I kept this fucker on the defense, I had the advantage, right?

Weeks and weeks of practice had my feet moving, but real combat was nothing like sparring.

My breath ran out too fast. My arms were burning with exertion. I knew I was failing, but I refused to give up. Unfortunately, the hunter saw it too. Pulling back, he added force to his swings, battering me hard.

Then a spear slammed into his side. Hawke pushed in, shoved his foot against the silent hunter, and then kicked the asshole off his weapon.

"Stab him, Rain. The iron does more than anything else."

I didn't give myself the chance to think. I just impaled the fallen body and looked for Keir. There! Unable to even speak, I pointed, so Hawke grabbed my arm and pulled me that way.

"Wilder!" Hawke yelled.

A rush of power hit me, removing half the exhaustion.

In truth, it was more like a hit of adrenaline than anything else, but I'd take it.

Right about now, I'd take anything I could get, because Nevaeh was on her feet.

She was helping the other guy, and darkness was pulling the hunters, tugging at them like a dog with a toy - and about as useless, if I was honest.

"Nevaeh!" I screamed. "Over here! "

She was almost carrying the other guy, dragging him along at something barely even a jog, but I could tell he was trying. Yet just as they made it past one man, another turned.

And that was when I heard my name. "Rain!"

A wall of power slammed into me, making me feel invincible. My pocket was shining like a beacon, making the eyes of the hunters turn to me. All of it was enough to convince the guy to move as fast as he could, so Hawke and I charged in, hoping to hold off the hell we were in.

"Go, go, go, go," Hawke said, helping to propel Nevaeh and her friend behind us.

I turned, getting my sword up in time to block a hit, but we were now the center of attention. Maybe it was the light? Possibly it was the fae man beside me. Yet when another hunter charged towards us, I wasn't sure how the fuck we could handle it.

Then Keir hit my side, blocking a blow I hadn't seen coming.

I slashed at the hunter's leg, hitting hard enough to part the grey cloth he wore.

The clack of Hawke blocking someone else's weapon sounded behind me, so I pushed, I pulled.

I tried anything and everything to make my Wild magic actually useful out here.

Then my name rang out again. "Rain!" And this time, I recognized the voice.

That was my zez. A smile claimed my lips, and I hit harder, faster, and aimed even better.

"You just pissed off my dad," I told the hunter before me. Then I swung again.

But the hunter merely grinned. He didn't say a word, but he looked like I'd just given him everything he'd ever wanted.

And from behind him, I heard, "Ride with me."