"He what?!" Ms. Rhodes snapped, sitting up quickly. "When?"
"Um, at practice. It was a bit ago. Pascal promised - yes, the magical kind - that he wouldn't say anything, and I don't think he has."
"No, but not saying anything is not the same as not exposing it."
"I think he said share," I admitted. "You'd have to ask Hawke, but both he and Wilder seemed ok with it, and I'd expect Wilder to know about loopholes like that."
Ms. Rhodes relaxed a bit. "You're right, he would. But how did this happen?"
I scrunched up my face. "I tried to give him some magic. He said it's like sucking on a fire hose. I kinda blew his wings out right as Pascal walked in."
"Shit," Ms. Rhodes grumbled.
The profanity from her made me lift a brow. She saw, chuckled, and waved me down, but still. This woman didn't typically curse as much as I did.
"I still have the mouth of a soldier at times," she admitted. "However, I can let my guard down this one hour only, so forgive me for enjoying it."
"Nope, use all the bad words you want," I told her.
Which earned me a little smile. "But I will not only make sure Aspen has the chance to speak with the counselor here, I will also check in with Torian. Between the two of them, I think we can make sure their mental health is as protected as theirphysical, but I want you to be careful too, Rain. How's your bracelet?"
I looked at the leather cuff I constantly wore. "Full, I think. I mean, the sentinels hit me with magic often enough that I have a ton to put into it. I get laughed at each time I miss a block, so I figure it's a win-win, right?"
"So this week, try pulling power from it," she told me. "Start gently, but if you can manage both, then I think we need to bind your sword to something you tend to have on you."
"Yeah," I said. "Sadly, I agree. I want to say I hope I'll never use it, but I think we both know that would be a lie."
"Which is why I didn't offer it first," she said. "Let's just hope that when you do need it, you use it well."
"Yeah," I said, hating that it was the best we could do.
But a girl had died. My friends had exposed themselves. The bad guys were vowed to silence in a way that couldn't be broken, which meant we were getting nowhere. They were silent because they'd planned to get caught. It was their way of guaranteeing we couldn't stop them.
Which meant there was someone pulling the strings who didn't want us to know about them. One way or another, we had to figure out who that was.
Chapter Thirty-Three
RAIN
When I got out of first period, I trudged my way upstairs to get to Math. This was the class I shared with Aspen, but I was worried about her. Ok, I was worried about all of us, but her most of all. On my shoulder, Jack leaned in to rub his head against my hair. Beneath me, Shadow was perfectly normal. Sadly, that made me even more tense.
So when I heard loud voices in my classroom before I even made it through the door, I hurried a bit. Our math teacher always made it here only seconds before the bell, and the students seemed to be taking advantage of it.
"Did the pretty, pretty princess cry when one of her icy bitches was crushed up?" someone taunted.
"Dude, and I heard that girl was crushed bad, too. Vines held her in place like a ball of meat in the trees."
"Vines? Aspen, don't you like plants?"
"Maybe her pet jevadu did the killing!" someone else offered.
"Who, Torian?" I asked, lifting my voice enough it cut through everything. "I mean, last month all of you thought hewas a jevadu. You were giving Aspen shit about being a half-breed, I think it was?"
"Because she's not a real princess!" someone yelled.
"She's Torian's sister," someone else countered, almost like they were trying to stand up for her.
And in her chair, Aspen sat quietly, tapping a yellow Pixie Stix on her desk. She didn't have her head down, but her eyes were on the tip of the tube, not searching for me.
