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 tappedon 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!
Chapter Sixty-Four
RAIN
Iran harder, wondering if there was anything Wild magic could do to put out a fire. Sadly, I couldn't think of anything, but that was my zez's place. The fire alarm was going off, so someone would help, wouldn't they? They'd save our gym. They had to!
Yet as I ran, Aspen and Shadow kept pace. Jack streaked ahead, slicing through the trees as he cawed at the top of his lungs. Behind us, the school's fire alarm squealed so loudly it made my brain throb. From the side, I could see students starting to file out of the main building like this was an ordinary drill.
I couldn't stop. I didn't dare slow down. I was supposed to be the Morrigan, so I had to fix this somehow, but how? Never mind that I didn't know what had started the fire in the first place. And Sheba! What about Bracken's cat?
Then I heard Torian. "Move! Get the fuck out of my way!" It sounded like he was too far away.
