"You don't have the authority to tell me that," I reminded her.
She lifted a brow. "Oh? You may be the prince, but this is my house, boy." And she took a step closer. "I will respect you. I will protect you. What I will not do is allow you to walk all over me the way your mother tried to. Am. I. Clear?"
When Shadow shifted out of her way, I dipped my head, knowing she was right. "Yes, Ms. Rhodes."
"General," Jack muttered softly from his perch on Rain's shoulder.
"Exactly," she told the crow. "Now..." And she looked around us. "Hawke, take Pascal to the nurse. Keir, would you escort Aspen to her room? I'm sure it would be best if you waited there. Rain, I'm going to need you to help guide these four down to my office." She pulled in a breath. "Wilder, I'd appreciate it if you could help."
"And me?" I asked.
"Can you be civil, Torian?"
"No."
Which earned me one single laugh. "Fine, then you can assist Rain and Wilder." But she marched over to the girl who'd started all of this, grabbed her shadow-encased hand, and gestured toward the stairs. "Walk or I will make you walk, child. This is not a game I'm fond of."
"Summer will not give way to Winter again," the idiot told Ms. Rhodes.
"Oh, it will," Ms. Rhodes assured her. "Just like day follows night, the seasons will continue no matter what we do. Sowalk."
I took the girl who'd tried to rush at Rain. Rain took one of the guys, and Wilder got the other. Together, we marched them all down to the office, with Rain's shadow-bears as escorts. Yet when we got close, I slowed, letting the rest get far enough ahead so I'd have a little privacy.
"I would've killed you," I whispered in her ear. "I don't care who you are or why you're doing this. I do care that I've seen more death than anyone on this entire planet. I've watched my mother at work, and this? Oh, she would've tortured you to death for this fumbling bullshit. Is she really the one you want to worship?"
"The Summer Queen will save us," the girl said, looking at me as if I'd lost my mind. "She's kind and fair. Those of us who serve her will be granted a place in her new, permanent court."
"Mmm." I had to fight the urge to smile, aware she was telling me more than we'd gotten yet. "Is this general knowledge, or is someone leaking our secrets?"
"They said - " And her voice just stopped. Twice, her mouth flopped as her eyes got wide. "No, it's..." But still nothing came out.
"The trick," I told her, "is to speak around it. Do not ever tackle a vow head on. The magic is too strong for that. You spoke a truth, now you're bound to make sure it stays true. So say the part you haven't already ruled out."
"Everyone knows the courts were decimated in the war," she said. "Everyone knows what happened in Faerie. They taught us that. But no one talks about us!"
"Which 'us?'"
"The faelings! Why are there so many of us? It was almost like it was planned, right? And - " Again, she slammed to silence.
"Mm. I turned for the door to the main office. "Well, we should definitely explain faelings then. You see, that which is different is always appealing. When society was starving, the overweight were considered beautiful. When society was tall, short was the height of beauty - pun intended. In the Summer Court, white hair was the most desired, because so few of us were born with it. We always want the thing we cannot have. For the fae, that's humans. For the humans, that's fae. The result of that? You."
"No, there has to be more."
"We rarely expect to have children?" I offered, pushing her forward. "But if you'd like to tell me any more before we get in there, I'd take it as a personal favor. The kind I'd even tell my mother about."
"I..." Her brow creased. "You can't mean that."
"Oh, I do." Just not the wayshethought I did.
"We have to be strong enough in our power, and only faelings," she said. "Our parents believe it's for the good of the whole."
From the edge of my vision, I saw Ms. Rhodes peek her head out of her office, so I replied, "I see."
"Torian?" she asked.
"And our time is up," I told the girl, pushing her forward.
But the moment she was in the room, I shut the door and enchanted it not to open to any of these four. Ms. Rhodes lifted a brow, Wilder whipped around to look at me in confusion, but Rain was inspecting the people before us.
