Chapter Thirty-Six
RAIN
Two days later, all hell broke loose. Aspen and I had taken the stairs that morning. We paused at the second floor so she could head to her class, but just after she walked away, something boomed loudly. It was a sharp sound, more like a firecracker than a bomb, but all I could think of was Aspen.
Wrenching the stairwell door open again, I hurried onto that floor just to see Aspen running away from me - and toward the sound. In the distance, a man was screaming like he was angry. More people were yelling in fear, and the traffic around me was going the opposite way, clearly fleeing.
"Aspen!" I begged, hurrying after her, but the push of so many people made it hard.
"Queen!" Jack cawed as he took off, soaring over everyone's heads.
Then I felt it. The chill and tingle at the back of my head made it clear Aspen needed help. The strange part was I could still see her, and she was fine - but that didn't mean she'd stay that way. Twisting, pushing, and struggling with all I had, I was making progress, but it was slow.
Then I heard a scream of pain. The scent of roses filled the hall. Next came light, with another one of those loud pops right after. Every instinct in my body said to duck, hide, and retreat. It was too close to gunshots, and while I'd never been in a school shooting, I'd suffered enough drills to have that reaction trained into me.
But this was Silver Oaks. Here, there were things far more terrifying than guns, andIwas one of them.
"Move!" I bellowed as I reached for my shadows.
Darkness swirled around me. I tried to imagine the attacker, even as vague as they were right now, and convince my Wild magic to just stop it. I didn't care how. I simply wanted to catch the person doing this.
Then brightness filled the hall, nearly blinding me. Every dust mote sparkled like a snowflake in the aftermath. There was a concussion that reverberated through my chest, but it had no sound. A man - who sounded like a teacher - filled the eerie silence.
"I can't block this!"
"I can."
That was Aspen's voice, and she sounded as cold as her brother usually did. I had to get to her, had to help her somehow. Not knowing what was going on scared the hell out of me more than if I'd been the target, so I stopped being nice and started pushing.
"Morrigan!" someone cried out, and more people jumped out of my way as the doorway up ahead lit up in the brightest green I'd ever seen.
White came next, right across the hall. The moment the green one faded, it shifted to a darker shade that was nearly olive and flared again. I reached it just as Hawke barreled out.
"Rain!" he gasped when he saw me, grabbing my wrist to pull me forward.
"Fuck. You!" That was clearly Pascal's voice, and I assumed he'd jumped in to help again, right up until Hawke and I pushed through the last of the students trying to retreat.
Between us and Pascal, a girl was unleashing flurries of magic at him. Pascal had a chair he was using like a weapon to block as much as he could. A cheap chair, though. It was mere aluminum and plastic, the sort waiting in the back of every classroom, and part of it had already melted. A teacher peeked around a doorway, sending out magic that looked like it was the only reason Pascal was still standing.
There were the three others positioned around the girl who was attacking Pascal, acting like they were her support. One - a girl, I thought - was making blasts of color and light that hurt my eyes. I kept clenching them shut and blocking the brightness with an arm, even as I pushed toward the silhouettes that had to be my friends. The second was a guy magically pushing back Mr. Green - and anyone else who tried to stop them. The last guy had put up barriers behind both them and Pascal. Clear ones that rippled enough to mark where they were, but transparent enough to see through. Almost like impassable water or something.
Aspen shot something white at the one between us and the assholes. The barrier sucked it in, glowed for a second, and seemed to thicken just as Torian shot a blast of his own power. Sadly, it had the same effect.
"Move!" I commanded, pulling my arm free from Hawke just to shove through Wilder and Keir.
Ok, so they were here too. That meant we all were, and I had this. The wall was eating - or containing - other magic? Well, I knew how to deal with that. When I got close enough, I just lifted my hand and pressed it against the wall.
The barrier popped like a bubble, sending down droplets of both white and green magic.
"Morrigan!" Jack warned as he swooped low over the attackers.
Someone shot a conjuration at him. Vines wrapped around Jack's body for a split second before disintegrating into dark dust. Aspen reacted by sending spears of ice at the fool who'd tried, but the girl in the middle slashed wildly with her arm, and a ripple of the floor raced toward Pascal.
"No!" Keir said, throwing a shield between his friend and the power.
But the magic simply rushed under it. Torian was slinging both arms at the group of four. Sometimes, the power headed at them was visible. Other times it just erupted under or around his target. Wilder was busy blocking for Aspen, and Hawke was trying to interrupt the casting of anyone in that group he could.
I pulled shadows from the air and threw, hoping to save Pascal, but Aspen was faster. She barely flicked her fingers and a sphere of ice encased him. The wave rushed under his feet, rippling the cheap tiles of the floor, but Pascal rolled with it - literally.
