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Chapter Forty-Four

RAIN

W ilder started working with Pascal that evening.

His goal was to make sure Pascal could at least contain his magic, if not actually use it.

What surprised me most was when the Winter Duke went out of his way to casually point out - in the middle of an afternoon practice session - that Pascal's power wasn't weak at all.

According to Aspen, that wasn't normal. Typically, fae who manifested their power later on had paltry magic.

The theory was they'd needed to build up enough to "break out.

" Pascal's magic didn't fit with that, though.

Keir wondered if he may have had an unconscious bias against Winter, so he had been blocking himself.

Hawke suggested that maybe looking like a Summer sidhe had twisted his expectations of himself, causing an accidental block.

Thankfully, they said none of that around him.

Yet his manifestation wasn't a secret. Ms. Rhodes asked my opinion of his newfound powers the day after he'd knocked us all down in practice.

Then she changed his schedule. According to Aspen, that put him in her Control and Focus class.

Needless to say, people noticed, and we were all worried about the attacks.

So when Aspen and I left our math class and heard, "Pascal, you icy freak!" we moved to help.

"Got a problem with ice?" Aspen demanded as she rounded the corner, shoving up into some guy's face.

It was the most aggressive I'd ever seen her!

My girlfriend had always been a bit erratic in her reactions, but this was the complete opposite.

She wasn't having a mood or acting on a whim.

When she shoved herself between some college guy and Pascal, she looked truly terrifying - in the best way I could imagine.

"I..." The guy shook his head, clearly confused.

But Pascal gently clasped Aspen's shoulder, easing her back. "It's ok, Aspen."

"I... He..." The guy looked from Pascal to me, then over to Aspen. "He's got Winter magic now," he finished lamely.

"And I'm pretty happy with it," Pascal said. "Aspen, this is Finch, one of my friends."

"Oh." She stepped back. "Sorry."

"Nope, all good," Finch told her. "I didn't even think about it. I mean, we all know Winter's been getting shit lately. Hell, didn't you get jumped already, Pas?"

"Once," Pascal agreed. "My queen saved my ass. And to think, I'm supposed to be the one guarding her!"

"Shit," Finch chuckled, jerking his chin at me to make it clear I was included. "I think these two ladies can handle their own, bro. I'd say it sucks that you're in freshman-level magic courses, but I bet that's better than all combat all the time."

"I dunno, I like combat," I pointed out.

"But magic ," Finch reminded me with a wink.

"And not all of us get private lessons with the dean, Rain." Pascal bumped my shoulder. "I got taken out of tracking, but I think I can live with it."

"Now to play catch-up," I teased. "Been there. Done that. So worth it."

"Which gives me hope," Pascal said as he stepped back. "Now don't be late, you two. I've spent more time in the office than I care for."

But Aspen turned to me with a grin. "I expected that to be bullying. Instead, they're happy for him, Rain!"

Sadly, our classes didn't slow down because of everything else going on.

The court had already been excused from more than we should've been, and we knew better than to push it.

Torian made it clear we would not use our positions to our advantage.

If we wanted others to respect us, we had to work as hard as they did.

That sounded great right up until our math class announced a test on Monday. In unison, Aspen and I groaned - and we weren't the only ones. Our teacher sent a list of what would be covered to all of our tablets. Unfortunately, math was my hardest class.

So Friday night, Aspen and I pulled out some paper, pencils, our phones to use as calculators, and our tablets.

Loaded down, we headed to the girls' lounge to actually get some studying in.

At first, I was doing ok, and my answers to the practice problems actually matched.

Aspen wasn't having as much luck, and I had no clue how to explain the bits I wasn't even quite sure I really knew.

But at the group of couches behind us, a girl's snarl of profanity made us both look over.

"It's ok, Zinnia," her friend soothed. "This part is supposed to be hard."

That caught my attention, so I paused to watch.

Across from me, Aspen's brow was furrowed as the girl who'd been called Zinnia grew a large glob of glowing green stuff, then tried to warp it into something.

I couldn't tell what, because just as a shape began to form, the ball popped, sending shimmering lime-colored sparkles into the air around them.

"I'm going to fail this class, Mira! She said this is a requirement to move into the next section!"

"We've got all weekend," Mira assured Zinnia. "Look, you just have to push harder."

"Um?" Aspen lifted up and paused somewhere between sitting and standing.

It was enough to make the pair look over. "Sorry," Zinnia mumbled, reaching for her stuff like she was about to leave.

"I was going to offer to help," she said.

"It's a Summer enchantment," Mira pointed out. "We all know you're not Summer."

"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 the rain 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.

But it actually worked! When we got our test results the next Tuesday, both of us had earned a B! I'd even gotten a B+, and it may have been the best grade I'd ever received in math. Even better, people had started smiling at us.

That went on for a few days. Initially, I thought it might be just me, right up until Aspen sat down at lunch and asked what was going on.

Sure, many of the people willing to wave or offer a greeting were courtiers.

I recognized their faces, but in truth, I didn't know them very well.

The odd thing was that Aspen was getting smiles from random strangers.

The next day, we figured out why. At lunch, I was telling my friends how I'd taken Jack to the atrium to stretch his wings last night and had tripped over a plant, landing face-first in a cluster of Elysian Burst plants.

The bubbles had come out of them so hard and so fast I'd thought I must've farted, right up until one landed on the back of my head and popped.

Jack was rattling in amusement beside me, and then his head whipped over. "Courtier!" he muttered.

We all looked just in time to see a larger faeling shove at a lean guy. I couldn't hear what they were saying, not at first, but when the smaller guy staggered back, half a dozen students stood and moved in - from various different tables.

It didn't look like they were friends. I couldn't rule it out, but some were sitting with Poppy, some with Pascal, and most of the rest were just at other tables in the middle of the room. But the girl who pushed in between the muscular faeling and the leaner guy?

Mira.

"It doesn't matter what season his magic is!" she yelled, her voice making the dining hall fall silent. "Haven't you heard? There's only one court here. The Summer Prince and the Winter Queen rule side by side with the Morrigan. That means we're all equals, whether you like it or not!"

"Oh, betraying your own kind?" the big guy asked.

"Fuck kinds," Nevaeh told him. "You want to tell me how you're going to define me? Am I Summer because my fae parent was, or Winter because I inherited the wrong half of Mom's magic? Or maybe these royals have the right of it."

"And I'm sick of the bullshit," the lean guy said. "I didn't ask to be Winter. Fuck, I don't even know my parents! But you know what? I don't care." And he stood a little taller. "I support the court. Not the Winter Court or the Summer Court. I support our court!"

"Whoa," Keir breathed.

On the table, Jack was nodding his head proudly, but he didn't call out any of his words, interrupting them.

Even more surprising was that the group dissolved after a few more seconds without a single punch or conjuration thrown.

Instead, the students just went back to what they'd been doing before, offering smiles to the others who'd stood to help.

Winter, Summer, and even Legacies had been in there. Clearly, something was happening, but this wasn't something we were doing. At least not intentionally. I'd still take it.

"Court," Jack said, nodding his beak at Aspen first, then Torian. "Court!"

"Who knew that would be something people actually wanted," Hawke said.

I chuckled once. "You know, integration always works better when people have to live side by side. I think studying together, living together, and fighting off the Hunt together is turning out to work in our favor."

"I could do without the Hunt for a while," Torian grumbled.

And around the table, the entire court nodded, but Jack had to get the last word. "Court!" he said again. "Courtiers, court." Then he hopped over to peck at a roll on Hawke's plate.

"Yep," Hawke said, offering it to the bird. "I think you've earned it, Jack. This? Yeah, I'm ok with people actually approving of what we do for once."