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Chapter Two

RAIN

Y ep, I was late the next morning. My alarm went off and I hit snooze - a lot.

In her suite, Aspen's alarm began to chirp, but while lying beside me she flicked a hand, silencing it.

It was only when Jack began to rattle and caw that we had to finally wake up - and then we only had fifteen minutes to get dressed!

Thankfully, I'd planned ahead, so I made it.

Aspen was a split-second faster than me, yet when we stepped into the hall, the line for the elevator was already much too long.

Without sharing a word, we aimed for the stairs.

On my shoulder, Jack was chattering like he was also annoyed at the early hour.

"Did you get your Pixy Stix?" I asked when we reached the second floor.

"Plenty," she said. "I'll save a couple for you." Then she moved to the door. "One hour, Rain. We just have to survive one hour." Which meant she was nervous about this.

"It'll be fine," I told her soothingly. "We've made it this long, right?"

"Yeah, but - "

I caught her arm and pulled her closer. Mostly, that was to avoid the people passing behind us, but the truth was I wanted to touch her. I also shouldn't, and kissing was out. Instead, I lowered my voice.

"The Hunt screwed up your birthday. It was terrifying. You don't want to talk about it," I said, giving her the lines she could use when others asked about it. "That's all. Everything else is just like it used to be, and we only have a couple more months until graduation."

"Not even," she pointed out.

"Close." And I jerked my chin at the door. "You got this, Asp."

"Court!" Jack said softly. "Court-Jack."

"Encouragement is exactly what I needed, Jack," she said, reaching up to stroke my bird's back before giving me one last smile and slipping into the flow headed through the door.

But I'd taken far too much time reassuring her, and not enough heading down the stairs. When I stepped out on the first floor, the bell for our first period class rang, proving I was late, and I still had to go down one more floor.

On the bright side, I wasn't the only one.

Stretching my legs, I made it to the door that led down to the Never.

Someone held it for me. A girl dipped her head in some sign of respect, or maybe just recognition?

Another guy glared at me like he hated my guts.

I noticed, but I didn't slow down until I was opening the door to the private room for my first class of the day.

"Good morning, Rain," Ms. Rhodes said before I was all the way in the room.

"Sorry I'm late," I mumbled as I claimed my chair.

The dean of Silver Oaks Institute simply pushed a travel mug of coffee across the table toward me. The mug was black with a silver-and-green school logo. The smell wafting up from it was the perfect mixture of chocolate and coffee. In other words, exactly what I needed.

Then Ms. Rhodes lifted her own cup and leaned back. "I was early. Apparently someone decided to vandalize the boy's elevator this morning."

"Oh?" I asked.

She nodded, watching me a little too carefully. "The words 'Summer Is Coming' were written on the back wall. Taken with the incident we had over spring break, I don't like what this implies."

"What incident?"

"Drift Vale's room froze over, with him in it."

I paused with the drink halfway to my mouth. "Is he ok?" Not that I knew him, but that sounded bad.

"He is now," she assured me. "Luckily, his suitemate woke up when his side got too cold. If he hadn't, Drift might have frozen to death overnight."

"Is all of this because of Aspen?"

She canted her head slightly. "I can't be sure. There's a chance it could be because of Torian. No, I don't think it was their magic, but I can tell you there are rumors flying."

I nodded quickly. "We know about some."

"Torian and Aspen talked to me over the break.

" She lifted a finger. "And they will stay Torian and Aspen, with no titles, while they are attending Silver Oaks.

That prevents any issues about not showing the proper respect from those who have opinions about such things.

" She raised a brow to make the point. "Which is mostly to protect you and the human instructors. "

"So this just got complicated," I realized.

She nodded. "Very. Rain, the truth is, I don't actually know everything going on. I do know a lot, but there are forces at play I didn't expect. Your shadow is a good example of that."

Right on cue, I looked over at the dark silhouette most people took for granted. Mine lifted a hand and waved, proving it was aware of the inspection. From the back of my chair, Jack leaned closer to tilt his head at the thing, looking it over.

"Jack calls it Shadow," I said. "He acts like it's a thing of its own."

"And I can't find any mention of another Morrigan having magic like it," she admitted.

"I've been looking through the histories.

We don't have them all, but I've asked for copies from every source I can think of.

Plenty of Morrigans used shadow magic the way you do.

None of them were bonded with the crow who activated them or had an animated shadow. "

I nodded, showing I heard what she was saying. "So we're winging this?"

"To put it mildly," she told me. "Yes, Rain, we're winging all of it. Now that Aspen has claimed the Winter Crown, Torian is the heir to both thrones. That causes complications we aren't ready for."

"Because you should've had more time?" I guessed.

She huffed out a laugh before taking a long drink.

"As the dean here, I should give you a line about how prepared we are.

As an advisor to the Morrigan?" She paused for another, smaller sip.

"This is why I didn't want to act like teacher and student for this hour.

It's the one time we have to check in and talk - without any barriers. "

My eyes narrowed, because she'd just skipped over my guess. "And?" I pressed.

Ms. Rhodes sighed. "Rain, I didn't know Aspen Fox existed until last year.

Torian was the only known heir - of either throne.

And no, I didn't know it was him until he got here.

We only knew the Mad Queen had a child. One child to rule both thrones.

Aspen complicates a lot of things, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. "

"But someone had his room frozen," I reminded her. "Frozen, Ms. Rhodes. That sounds like Winter magic to me."

"I'm sure it was supposed to," she agreed.

"And people know the Huntsman called her 'the princess.'"

"Mhm," she agreed, watching me carefully.

"So are they trying to make it look like she caused it? Or..." I paused as another, worse idea hit. "What kind of magic does Drift have?"

"Winter," she said. "He's a college senior, at least half fae, and a foundling." Which meant he probably didn't know or remember his parents. "He's one of the seventeen people here at Silver Oaks who use Winter magic openly."

That last word caught my attention. "What do you mean, 'openly?'"

"Bracken tends to use Summer magic," she clarified. "He can use Winter, but he doesn't. He's not the only one. Nevaeh only uses Winter, even if she's tied to the Summer Court, so she does count."

"And Aspen and Wilder," I guessed.

She nodded. "Plus a few administrators and a handful of students. Most are weak in their power. Aspen and Wilder aren't."

"Drift?"

She tipped her head at me. "He's not weak. I wouldn't call him strong, but his magic is significant. Last year, he set the snow in the dining hall for our Thanksgiving meal. Mostly glamours and enchantments, but impressive ones."

"Not conjurations," I said, proving I was keeping up.

Which was a bit surprising, because a year ago, I had no clue the fae were real.

Last semester, I'd learned a lot. This semester, I'd been trying hard to master my own magic.

Well, Jack's magic, but he'd given it to me.

That was what made me the Morrigan. I was just a normal human, but one who was chosen by the highest-ranking wildling here on Earth: Jack.

He might be a bastard prince, but clearly that still counted.

Aspen had been a bastard princess, and now she was the Winter Queen.

In other words, I was winging the fuck out of this, but it seemed I was still doing ok. That in itself was a relief.

"So," I said, leaning forward, "is this some attempt to make people hate Aspen?"

"They already hate her - and her season," Ms. Rhodes admitted. "That's a holdover from their parents. Rain, everyone wants to think their 'tribe' is the best one. The problem is, the Mad Queen killed too many Winter users. There just aren't enough left to offer Aspen any tangible support."

"She has the court!" I snapped.

"Jack!" my crow added. "Shadow!"

I flipped my hand his way. "And them."

Which made Ms. Rhodes chuckle. "While true, there's still the problem of numbers.

Now, Torian insists Aspen shouldn't acknowledge her ancestry.

If she's asked, he thinks she should say she's not the princess - because she's not, so she can actually say that.

He's willing to avoid things his own way.

After all, they thought he was a jevadu last semester. "

"Because he was protecting Hawke," I clarified.

She nodded. "And now he's protecting Aspen. But here's the thing. You are the Morrigan. No one in the court is pure Summer. That is going to cause issues, Rain. You need to make friends with a few Summer users. You need to make sure you aren't showing a bias."

"Torian is the Prince of Summer!" I shot back.

"And he can't let that be known."

I sliced my hand through the air. "No."

She leaned back. "Excuse me?"

"No," I said again. "You just told me some Winter guy was bullied last week. He was attacked in a way that could be called funny if they got caught, but which could kill him if not, right?"