Page 159 of Rebellious Royals

"Not here," Aspen hissed from further back in the line. "I feel like too many people are watching us."

Which made me glance around. She was right, but not the way she thought. No one was looking at us specifically, but everyone seemed to have their heads on a swivel. The way students had jumped when the mirror crashed? The yelps of fear? Yeah, I was pretty sure we were all a little traumatized.

Two days ago, multiple attacks had happened simultaneously. The court had all rushed to help Wilder, but other students had been forced to fend for themselves. How many people had been taken by surprise? For some, this was probably the first time they'd had to make the decision to ignore it, risk jumping in, or maybe even seen violence firsthand.

Which meant the attacks were working. People were scared. Most probably knew someone who'd been injured recently. All of us had either seen it or heard enough to feel like we had. The result? Everyone at Silver Oaks was just waiting for it to happen again.

I thought about that as I made my way through the line, picking out a meal that would be light enough for the twisting in my stomach, but fuel me enough for an afternoon in the gym. On impulse, I decided to add a few of those sugared flowers to my plate. After all, the sugar would give me a little boost, wouldn't it?

When we finally reached our table, Jack fluttered over to claim the back of a chair for his perch. That made Torian lean to grab another for himself. Aspen pushed around him, claiming the spot beside me. Keir took the other side. Hawke and Wilder filled in the gap, and it was like we were all waiting for someone to break the silence.

Wilder did. "I thought Ms. Linden was Summer," he said, looking over at Aspen.

"She is," Aspen agreed.

I glanced at the wall closest to us, looking for Shadow. It wasn't there, so I looked down. Nothing. Well, my shadow was lost under the table, but Shadow wasn't doing anything to show itself this time.

"What?" Hawke asked when I straightened again.

"Checking on Shadow," I explained. "See, when all that was going down, I saw it on the wall. It looked... Different."

"Different how?" Keir wanted to know.

I waved that off. "Please tell me someone else saw that shield Poppy conjured?"

"Yeah," Keir said, dragging the word out.

"I was going to ask if you'd taught her that, Keir," Hawke told us.

But Keir shook his head. "Nope. Poppy Hawthorne is quite a bit stronger, magically, than me."

Torian didn't even bother to look up. "She's not."

"Look," Keir told him. "I know you think that's going to make me feel better, but just because I have more experience in defensive use of magic - specifically my mess of magic - doesn't make me as strong as you seem to think. I can't do half the shit some of these faelings can, ok? I'm also fine with it."

"No," Torian said, finally lifting his head. "Listen to me, Keir. You are trying to judge your power on the wrong scale. That's like calling Rain weak because she can't make a glamour. That's not what she's supposed to do, ok? But you? You don't fumble, you never even have to plan before your shields are up, your healing is helping, or anything else. Never mind that those shields don't shatter. Your concentration doesn't waver. Your healing doesn't fade after a few minutes."

"I've worked hard to get here," Keir told him.

Torian nodded slowly. "Because powerful abilities tend to push back. Trust me on that." Then he tipped his head at Aspen. "She fought for years to get control. It took a crown to help her find it. Granted, she would've with time, but having a fewpoundsof ancient focus stones makes it a lot easier."

"Ok," I said, looking over at Torian, "so why was Poppy's shield iridescent today?"

"I didn't see it," he admitted.

"The colors were like an oil slick," Hawke said. "Where Keir's magic tends to be the full spectrum of the rainbow, Poppy's was more greens, blues, and purples than pinks and oranges, but they were still there."

"And Ms. Linden's mirror shattered white," Aspen mumbled.

"It also flared white when she conjured it," Wilder pointed out. "I thought it may have been pale green, and it happened so fast I didn't think anything of it. Not until she dropped it."

"Her hair," Torian said.

But while they all talked, I sat there, trying to put the pieces together. Something was going on. It felt like something big, but that could've been my paranoia trying to make mountains out of mole hills. But I felt like I was missing something. Something at the edge of my mind. Something that would make this all make sense.

"Those pale streaks just bleached out right in front of my eyes," Aspen said. "And while cool, I've never seen that happen to anyone without their control."

"Could it have been someone else doing it to her?" Wilder asked.