Page 143 of Rebellious Royals

"Yeah, but - "

Mira scoffed, but Zinnia waved her off. "Can you help? Right now, I'm desperate enough to try anything. I barely got into the Enchanter classification, and if I can't do this, they'll knock me down to a Glamour."

Leaving her things, Aspen moved to sit beside Zinnia. "So, no matter what anyone says, Summer and Winter work the same. The technique is identical. The only real difference is we tend to start with ice and water-type defaults, while Summer seems to prefer electricity and air."

"Storms," I realized, leaving my stuff to go watch. "Blizzards or thunderstorms?"

"Basically," Aspen agreed. "Storms are a good representation of an emotional outburst, right? A light rain for sadness, a hurricane for a tantrum, and everything in between. Turn therain to snow, and you get what I start with, but my brother's the one who had all the tantrums."

Which made Zinnia giggle. "Somehow, I believe you."

"So what you want to do," Aspen told her, "is calm your mind first. That's the control. Now, some say to think of nothing, but I can't do that. Instead, I try to think of something neutral. A nice, calm spring day in a meadow filled with flowers, or such."

"I could do a beach," Zinnia offered.

"So imagine a beautiful beach," Aspen told her. "Don't even start until you feel like you're there. Until it's real enough you could make it into a glamour. Then, pull the magic from the warmth of the day, chill of the breeze, or the crash of the waves. You just need to use something inside your mindspace. Once you have enough of it, think of the item as a ghost waiting to be filled. You know, like one of those clear plastic molds or something. Feed the magic into it, wrapping the enchantment around each molecule or sparkle of power you put in there, and keep pressing it together until it's solid. Then open your eyes."

"And when she needs to see while she works?" Mira asked, sounding almost annoyed.

"She'll be able to," Aspen said. "But it's easier to block out all the crap around us at first. Then, once she has it, she can add in a little more and a little more until it's easy for her."

A few chairs over, a guy yelped in excitement. "I did it!" We all turned to see him holding a key up excitedly. "I actually did it!"

Zinnia groaned. "Ok. No pressure." Then she closed her eyes and began to breathe slowly.

Mira just looked over at Aspen almost snidely. Her attitude wasn't outright mean, but she clearly seemed to think Aspen had no place helping with any of this. Yet when Zinnia called the glowing green ball and began to form it, things actually started happening.

The gaseous green orb shrank, condensed, and slowly but surely changed into a key. Then, for what felt like too long, it hung between Zinnia's hands. At first, I couldn't see anything happening, but soon enough I realized the surface was shifting from the green of her magic to a metallic black shade. In truth, it reminded me of ancient and very tarnished silver.

Then she exhaled and opened her eyes, letting the floating key drop into her palm. "Holy shit," the girl breathed.

"Looks like you've got it," Aspen said as she pushed her chair back, clearly intending to stand.

"But how?" Mira asked. "C'mon, we all know you're Winter. How can you even train someone to use Summer magic? That shouldn't be possible."

Aspen shrugged. "Seasonal magic is all the same. The season only determines when it's strong and when it's weak. I mean, my brother taught me."

"But he's both, isn't he?" asked the guy who'd already made his key.

Aspen nodded. "Yep. Summer's always been easier for him, though."

"Just proves there's really only one court," I said, moving back so Aspen and I could get out of their hair.

But that made Mira look up. "What?" she asked.

"Here," I clarified. "There's one court: ours. Not one for Summer, one for Winter, and one for Wild. We all work together because it's better that way."

"One court," Mira repeated, her attitude fading quickly. "Seriously? How does that even work?"

"The same way two courts do," Aspen said. "Torian is the leader of Summer on Earth. I lead Winter. Rain's the Morrigan, chosen to be a champion and spokesperson for Wild."

"Morrigan!" Jack cawed, proving he was listening in.

I canted my head, making it clear I'd heard him. "See? I also have more words than he does."

Which made both of the girls laugh. The one thing they didn't do was thank us, but Zinnia made it clear she would remember the lesson. Aspen wished for her to get a good grade, and then we were back to our own studying.

The next day, we headed to the atrium for a change of scenery. I wasn't shocked at all when Keir and Hawke found us there, nor when they jumped in to help us both with this class. After all, Hawke was supposed to be my tutor, but I felt like all of our best intentions had been destroyed the moment the Huntsman had called Aspen a princess.