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Chapter Sixty-Three

RAIN

I read the book. Not in one night, and not on my own. Instead, Ms. Rhodes had to authorize a special app on my tablet that would translate the Faeril into English. That wasn't quick, but it did let Aspen read the tome at the same time, since she was fluent in the language on the page.

Not surprisingly, everyone in the court got a mandatory counseling session as well.

There was just one problem with that. I didn't have any trauma from what had happened because I'd been knocked out during most of it.

Ok, so I did feel a little guilt about it, but Dad said that was expected.

My friends had to deal with things on their own, and caring about them made it natural to feel that way.

So instead of picking apart my inner trauma, he asked me about my friends, how I was doing, and my plans for summer break. That made me remember finals were coming up. I had one more week, and I was not ready for them at all. I'd been too busy keeping my friends safe!

Dad told me to get practice tests from Rose in the front office, then see just how far behind I was.

That night, I took all of them, relieved to see I'd definitely pass.

The shocking thing was I'd done pretty good in math too!

Yes, I had gaps, but I also had a week to make sure I studied those things, and to ask my teachers for help.

Not surprisingly, The Silent had gone quiet again.

Instead, Hawke was the topic of conversation, but not always in a bad way.

Quite a few girls - and some guys - went out of their way to smile or wave at him.

Others sneered, jeered, or even spit at him.

Once, a guy made a shield around himself as he passed Hawke in the halls, but a courtier smacked the back of his head, disrupting the magic.

For Aspen and Torian, it was even crazier.

At least once a day, and often more, someone would drop to their knees before them and try to swear their loyalty.

Aspen made sure those who'd been born into Winter understood they could choose Summer if they wanted.

None did - at least not the ones who basically threw themselves at her.

For Torian, it wasn't as easy. Some of the jesters had to try again.

Torian pushed past them, not even slowing down.

Jeff, the guy in our biology class who'd given up his seat for me on my first day?

Torian not only accepted his vow but palmed the top of the guy's head, calling him a friend as the prince swore his own loyalty back.

And Keir met up with me after dinner to let Jack fly in the atrium and help me study.

Well, that was our plan, but the reality was we ended up talking about our lovers more - and making out a bit.

Once, Aspen joined us, begging Keir to help her with math.

The next day, Torian brought Hawke. Hawke brought Wilder.

Aspen brought Keir, making this a group activity.

Naturally, I claimed my official tutor to help me for a bit.

Aspen called dibs on Keir, but just as I sat down, Torian palmed the side of Keir's face and kissed him hard, right in front of all of us.

I had to slap a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing out loud and ruining that, but when their mouths parted, a pair of spring-green eyes shifted to meet mine.

"Still good?" Torian asked.

"Yep," I said. "Kiss him once for me - then let Aspen get some studying done?"

Which made all of my friends laugh.

Wilder took over my History of Faerie class. Aspen got me actual books from the library so I could read something to relax. But the one class I couldn't simply study for was Tag's weapons crafting class. Near the end of the week, I dragged myself in, exhausted from the pace I was setting.

"Rain le Fae!" Tag barked, calling me up to the front of the class.

With a groan, I left my chair and approached the heavy equipment she kept there. "What did I screw up?" I asked.

But Tag clasped my shoulder, turning me toward the class. "For all of your final exams this year, I will be asking for one piece of equipment that can help the Morrigan."

"Some of us still can't work iron!" a guy called back.

"But you can sit beside it?" someone else taunted.

Tag just lifted a hand, stopping the chatter.

"I do not care what material it's made from.

I don't care if it's a weapon. The goal is to balance your creation's use with her Wild magic that might negate the enchantment or make the use of it more complicated.

What I want you to do is use the skills you've learned this year to actually craft something useful to the fae here. "

"Funny coming from a human," a guy grumbled.

I tried to follow his voice, but I could only get the general area of the room.

"No!" I snapped in that direction. "There isn't a single pure fae in here, so whoever had the balls to say that?

" I stepped forward, putting myself in front of Tag.

"Let's talk about whose world we're in." And I pointed back at Tag. "Hers!"

"This is a school for the fae!" a girl said, shoving to her feet.

"You're not fae," I told her.

She jerked her hand like she wanted to call magic into it, but nothing happened. Not surrounded by so much metal. In desperation, the girl tried again.

I thrust my hand out at her. "And there is example number one," I told the class. "This? The amount of iron, steel, and other ferrous metals in here that screw up your magic?" Lifting my hand, I snapped, creating a puff of shadows. "It doesn't affect me at all."

"But Silver Oak's is a school for the fae!" the girl insisted.

"It is," Tag agreed, clasping my shoulder.

"It's a school to teach fae and fae-descended students how to survive in my world.

How to adapt to the metals we have everywhere here.

How to be safe with your own magic, and around the magic of others.

How to blend in, how to make money, and how to do all of that without the Hunt coming to scoop you up.

Now, in all the time I've taught here, I've given plenty of lectures about protecting yourself, but we didn't have a Morrigan then. "

"And she fights for us," called the girl who usually sat beside me.

Yeah, that felt weird, but also kinda nice. Unfortunately, I didn't know what to do about it. I wanted to smile, but the others made that feel out of place. Never mind how Tag had me standing before all of them!

"My point," Tag said, "is that this girl is doing more to help all of you than we're doing to help her. So, for our final exam, you will all make some item that will help her help the fae. Rain will decide how it would best be used with what she does."

"And the other wildling?" someone asked. "Are we going to be dressing him next year?"

"Hawke is too fae for this place," I grumbled.

"Say it louder," Tag told me.

So I pulled in a breath. "Hawke can come close to the Forge, but not into it. He's too fae for that."

"Fae," Tag said again. "Because while all of you may roam the halls, calling yourself fae and faelings, learning about Faerie or your parent's language of Faeril, you always forget one thing.

Every sentient creature on that world, ugly or beautiful, is fae.

Wildling or sidhe, it doesn't matter - and those from the other side of the gates?

They can't do what all of you already are. "

That made some murmur under their breath, but it also quelled the discontent.

After a few more words, Tag finally let me return to my seat, but she brought over a book not long after.

It had lists of equipment and their uses.

Still, the way she was testing us this time, I was pretty sure I couldn't fail, so that was one class I didn't need to stress about.

Needless to say, everyone at Silver Oaks hit the books that weekend.

What surprised me were the teachers. Everywhere I turned, instructors, administrators, and even the staff were hovering.

The rumors said they were ready for another attack.

I had a feeling there was truth to that, but it was more a case of being safe rather than sorry.

But before I knew it, Monday morning rolled around.

It was officially finals week, but I only had two exams that day.

First, it was my tutoring class with Ms. Rhodes.

She made me demonstrate moving magic both into and out of my crow-stone bracelet.

When I showed I was getting pretty good at that, she told me I'd passed "Literature" - since that was what this would look like on my transcripts - then showed me how to bind that stored magic to a pen.

Yes, I sucked at it, but Ms. Rhodes explained that the pen didn't matter. If I lost it, broke it, or anything else, there would be no loss. But once I could store it with magic and recall it consistently, we could move on to something much, much harder: my steel sword.

My next test didn't come until fourth period. There, I had to take a written exam, but biology was easy. Considering this biology was all about how it affected magic? I'd been learning this stuff ever since I got here. Putting it on paper was just proving it.

The problem came on Tuesday. For as long as I could remember, math had been my worst subject. Aspen and I had stayed up all night studying, so the coffee Ms. Rhodes gave me helped, but when she offered to give me a review instead of a magic lesson, I gladly took her up on it.

When I made it into my second period class, Aspen was in her chair and almost vibrating. "Sugar?" she asked, thrusting a Pixy Stix at me nervously.

"We've got this," I assured her.

"Queen..." Jack said, waiting until she looked over to nod encouragingly.

"See!" I said, mimicking last semester. "Jack has a good feeling about this!"

Surprisingly, he bobbed his head enthusiastically.

The smallest little smile took over Aspen's lips. "Yeah?" she asked. "I mean, I did study my ass off."

"And the guys helped us," I reminded her. "Asp, we've got this. And I'll even make you a deal. If you make a B on this test, we'll do something special to celebrate."

She tensed when I said "deal," but relaxed when I got the rest out. "Ok," she agreed. "That is something I feel safe binding you to. It is a deal, Rain le Fae."

Which was when our teacher walked in. "Ok! The exam should be appearing on your tablets any second now. When you get it, you can begin. You have until the end of the class to finish."

My tablet vibrated silently on my desk, making me swipe at it. The notification was in the middle of the screen, so I tapped on it. The first question was one of the kind I dreaded most, but I quickly started working on it, reminding myself I wouldn't get expelled even if I failed.

I found the answer, then hit five easy ones in a row.

For a bit, I was making good time, then I came to a few I simply didn't know the answer to.

Skipping those with the plan to go back, I moved on.

I was tapping at my calculator, trying to keep track of all the rules I'd crammed into my head last night, and caught between relaxing into the flow and freaking the fuck out because I was never good at math.

Then Jack jerked on the back of my chair. "Morrigan!" he cawed, flapping up to land on my shoulder.

"Jack..." the teacher warned.

But my crow was having none of it. "Rain!" he yelled, right into my ear.

"I'm testing," I hissed at him. "Not now, Jack."

"Rain-Jack!" he said. "Queen! Court!" And he jumped off my shoulder to land smack in the middle of my desk, turning to look up at me, Jack screamed, "Dad!"

I forgot all about my test. "What?"

"Morrigan-Dad!" Jack yelled, jumping into the air to lap the room. "Morrigan! Court! Morrigan, Morrigan, Morrigan!"

Others were starting to grumble at his screaming. People were staring at us, but I didn't know how to get him to stop. Jack didn't act like this. Not ever!

Then he flew right at me, grabbing my wrist and trying to lift it up with him. "Dad!" he yelled again.

And Aspen sucked in a breath. "Rain?" she whimpered, shoving herself out of her chair.

On the floor, my shadow was stretching toward the front of the room, sliding up the wall. With one arm, it pointed toward the door. The other grabbed Aspen's shadow and pulled.

"Dad!" Jack yelled again, releasing me to fly at the door.

Aspen chased after him, making me scramble to follow. I didn't know what was going on, but those three seemed to be on the same page. My teacher was telling us to sit down. The entire class was whispering about the insanity of this.

Aspen opened the door.

Jack flew straight out, and my shadow followed him. With my Mary Janes slipping on the tile floor, I skittered around the first desk on my row and tried to keep up. The whole time, Jack was screeching about him, me, the court, and my dad. I didn't even know which one!

We made it to the stairwell just as the fire alarm went off.

The blaring was deafening, but Jack didn't seem to notice.

He clawed at the stairwell door with his feet while still flying, then made a lap.

Stretching my legs a little more, I hit the door hard, forcing it open.

When Jack streaked down the stairs, I wasn't shocked at all.

"Shadow's got all the alerts going," Aspen said as she scampered down the stairs beside me. "Rain, what's going on?"

"I don't know!" I admitted, hurrying to get to the next door so Jack could keep leading us.

When I opened that, he aimed for the atrium, turning like he was headed for the elevators that went up to our dorm. I couldn't understand why we'd gone down - until I turned the corner and saw the grounds through the glass doors at the far end.

Dark, thick smoke was filling the sky. It wasn't close, but it was too close to ignore. Maybe the building I was in might not be burning, but that...

Shit, that had to be the gym!