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Chapter Three

TORIAN

A ll day, I'd been hearing the whispers. It had started in the elevator on the way down to the Never. There, I'd noticed far too many people watching me. Mostly college students at that hour, which made it even more unnerving.

When I headed to second period, an eleventh grader made a strange hand gesture at me. It looked almost like he was pointing a finger gun to the side as he made a rolling circle, then he pressed his almost-a-fist to his heart. It was quick - and weird - but impossible to miss.

In third period, a girl across the room dipped her head at me.

She wasn't flirting. No, I was used to girls doing that.

Most of these suck-ups thought my pure fae ancestry meant something.

Well, power, but they had no idea what sort of power I had.

All of them tried to put me into a box where I didn't fit.

Little did they realize how much I hated being imprisoned, and that was what their goals for me felt like.

So I took a slightly different route to fourth period. Just as I rounded the corner, I saw Hawke and Wilder coming out of the class they shared with Rain. Immediately, Hawke's eyes found me. Wilder's followed his boyfriend's. When he saw me, the Duke of Avalon smiled gently.

"Torian," Wilder greeted me before clasping Hawke's arm. "I'll catch up at lunch, ok?"

"Sounds good," Hawke said before angling his feet toward me.

I moved out of the flow of bodies to lean against the wall. I'd just gotten comfortable when Hawke paused before me. While I checked one way, he looked the other. Sadly, too many eyes were watching us. Not the normal glances we'd gotten before. This? It felt wrong.

"So, is it just me?" I asked.

"Nope," Hawke said, shifting his pose a bit to block our faces as much as he could.

"What have you heard?"

He shrugged one shoulder. "Rain's the talk of the school." He canted his head, subtly making it clear he didn't like that. "You're no longer a monster."

"Oh, I think that secret's out," I agreed. "The rest?"

"Wilder's been getting a lot more shoulders hitting him in the halls. Glares too. Rain said Aspen was nervous this morning. You also need to know there was an incident last week."

"What incident?" I growled.

He gave me a tired look. "Relax. Not us. This was a college guy whose room was iced down. Ms. Rhodes told Rain."

Ok, that actually surprised me. Not that it had happened, but that the dean of Silver Oaks had made sure Rain knew? It seemed the general was doing more than I'd expected. Clearly I needed to rethink my opinion of her a bit.

"Have you seen anyone making a gesture?" I asked.

"Like a wheel churning?" he asked. "I'm not going to try, but yeah. It's quick too. Someone made it at me and their friend tried to stop them."

"Who?" I asked. "Because the guy who did it to me was in eleventh grade. Not a jester."

"Not a jester," Hawke agreed. "Mine was a college guy. One of those quiet ones. Wilder hasn't gotten it, and Rain had no clue what I was talking about."

"Fuck!" I hissed. "Hawke, something's going on. I need you to stay charged up."

"Always," he assured me. "Rain's running high too. I'll talk to Keir this afternoon..." He let his words trail off as a smirk took over. "I mean, unless you'd rather do the talking?"

"Fuck off," I grumbled, but the curl of my lips ruined my best attempt to act annoyed.

"I like him," Hawke said. "For you and Rain. He's good with Aspen too."

"Yeah, she approves," I admitted. "But approving isn't the same as anything happening."

"Mhm," he said, making it clear he agreed and knew me better than that.

"That man is fixated on Rain," I reminded him.

"Shit," Hawke said around a laugh. "He's in love with her. She's in love with someone else. That someone else is trying to make sure all things work, so how about you let a dude suck your dick - trust me, it's worth it - and then we can break these fuckers who seem to be starting shit."

"Or we can skip right to the breaking," I pointed out. "Hawke, something's brewing."

"Usually. You sidhe shits get off on politics or something."

"Not me," I grumbled. "I just want to make sure things don't get fucked up now."

"But now," he said, "we're actually ready, Tor."

"Not yet," I countered. "Yes, we're all in place, but she doesn't want a fight."

"Too bad. It's coming, so you'd better get her ready."

I checked the space around me, then stepped closer to Hawke's chest. "I can't. She has to realize this is a good thing.

Instead, she hates it. She thinks we're splitting people apart, and she just wants her life to be normal, or so she says.

She isn't ready for that kind of responsibility. I'm sure you can figure out the rest."

"Shit," Hawke breathed. "But she said she was ok with this!"

"Ok is a good word. Not good. Not bad. Hawke, she's trying so hard to be all things to all people that she's pulling herself apart at the seams."

"Or," he offered, "maybe her way of doing things isn't the same as yours?"

Ok, he had a point. I wanted my sister to take her crown and shove it in everyone's faces.

I also wanted her to hide it away and make sure no one knew so they couldn't come at her.

I was pretty sure she was feeling the same thing, and since she couldn't exactly do both, all I could feel from her was the strain of it all.

"I just have a bad feeling about all the onlookers," I told my best friend. "The courtiers can confirm we were out there when the Hunt hit. For some, that's all the confirmation they'll need to believe the rest."

"Because it's true," Hawke whispered. "Tor, we've got this."

"We do not fucking have this," I snarled into his face. "You know as well as I do what's about to happen, and I won't be the one paying for it. I need more power. I have to make sure my control is impeccable. I need -"

But Hawke merely shoved a hand against the wall and leaned in a bit. "Rain," he said.

That made me pause. "What about her?"

"You keep thinking of her as the cute little human girl. She's the Morrigan, Tor. A real one who's here to help us. A fucking good one, too."

"Yeah, she is," I relented. "But stories of Morrigans were different when it was someone else caught up in the middle of that shit."

"Mhm," Hawke agreed. "And yet we got one of our own. We, Tor. All six of us. Eight, if you count the crow and the shadow. Means the odds aren't as bad as you think."

"Still pretty bad."

He murmured at that and leaned back. "So's detention for being late. I have to go. You need to talk to a girl with a bird."

I chuckled, because he was right. So, flicking my hand to dismiss him, I turned my feet up the hall, continuing to my biology class. When I stepped in, my eyes scanned the room, but I found her in the last place I expected: sitting beside the chair I usually used.

"Good morning, Rain," I said politely as I took the seat beside her.

"Everything ok?" she asked, giving me a suspicious look.

"Had to get an update from Hawke."

So she leaned in. "There's something going on."

I flicked a finger, subtly asking her to wait, then turned toward the back of the room. "Hey, Jeff?"

"Yeah, Torian?" the guy asked, looking up quickly.

So I crooked a finger.

He scrambled out of his chair and hurried over. When Jeff reached our table, he leaned over the end, putting his head close to both mine and Rain's.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Something changed since before the break," I said. "What is it?"

"People are trying to say your court is the real one," he whispered. "Some think you're in shit for it. Others think Aspen's the reason the Hunt keeps coming here. Rain's going to stop it, you're either a pretender or the real heir to the Summer throne. Then there's the big one."

"What's that?" Rain asked.

Jeff's human-like eyes turned to her. "You killed one."

"Ah," I said, nodding while hoping Rain didn't respond to any of that. "So people are just talking?"

"Freaking the fuck out is a better description," he explained. "Everyone's sure the sky is falling. Some have said the Mad Queen is coming. I guess you're supposed to unlock the doors or something?"

"Shit," I laughed. "Sorry, my friend. No one gave me a key - magical or otherwise. I'm stuck here like everyone else, and happy about it."

"Good to know," Jeff said before pointing towards his desk, then heading that way.

And yet the moment he was gone, Rain leaned in again. "Tor - "

"We can talk about this at lunch," I told her.

"Jack!" her crow grumbled.

Rain just sighed in the way girls did when annoyed. "Look, remember how we talked about human lie detectors?"

"Yeah?" What the hell was she getting at?

"Well, I'm pretty good at it, and that applies to deciphering the looks I'm getting in the halls.

People aren't all happy with me. Some are pissed, and it's worse for Aspen.

All I'm saying is that you might think you're the king of this school, but I have a bad feeling someone intends to take you down a few pegs. "

Damn, she was good. The first week she'd come to Silver Oaks Institute, she'd thought my arrogance was that of a normal high school boy.

She'd been wrong, but that was what she was referencing.

It also sounded true, which meant no one around us would feel a lie in her chiding.

If anyone was listening in, they'd think she was still annoyed with me.

No wonder my sister was in love with her.

And fuck, was it a strong feeling. In all my life, I'd liked many girls, but I'd never felt like that about them.

When Aspen thought about Rain, it was a release of fear, a rush of happiness, and this awareness that there were no limits between them.

It was similar to what I felt for my sister, but more wild and intense. More immediate.

More romantic.

I'd thought my attraction to Rain was because of her glorious curves and sensual human features.

I was starting to realize it was my sister's lust flooding into my mind.

There was a need with it, and an insecurity.

But it was hard to separate all of that from the brilliant and driven girl who'd stepped into my world and now refused to leave.

The one beside me was a fighter. Oh, she'd never call herself that, but I did. Rain le Fae was kind, gentle, and dangerous - all in the same beautiful person. She caught the eye, dared the mind, and pushed the boundaries.

More than all of that, she was my friend, and I didn't have many of those.

"Hey," I breathed. "How are you holding up?"

"Me?"

I nodded. "Yeah, because I have a feeling no one's asked you that yet."

Her teeth clamped down on her lower lip and she stared at the desk. "I don't actually know. Tor, I think I'm happy. Is that wrong?"

"No." It was a good thing. The best - I just hadn't expected it. "Maybe you can teach me that trick sometime?"

"How to be happy?" she asked, clearly confused.

So I met her eyes and simply stared. For a little too long, she looked back, but I could see she was thinking. The fact that her crow was keeping his beak shut all but proved it. Then her eyes began to jump across my face as if she was looking for something.

"For me, finding my family helped," she whispered.

"Same," I agreed.

"And my friends."

My fingers tensed into a fist on the desk. "Rain..."

"Because friends are important," she continued, all but ignoring me. "They have your back when you need it, don't spill your secrets, and push you to do the silly things you really want to." And she lifted a brow pointedly, almost like asking if I was keeping up.

And I was. Having my back? She meant fighting for me - well, us. Keeping secrets? That was a reference to our titles. The silly things? I had a feeling she was talking about Keir, but I could be wrong there. Still, she was getting her message across loud and clear.

"So does this mean we're friends now, Rain le Fae?"

She paused as the teacher walked in, then hurried to say, "Well, I'm certainly not your bitch, so I think friends will do, Torian Hunt. Try not to fuck it up, ok?"

"I'll do my best," I told her - and truly meant it.