Hawke nodded. "The damned thing tugged me that way, and somehow I knew where I needed to go."
"Same," Wilder agreed.
"But how?" I asked, looking between them all. "I mean, Torian and Aspen make sense."
"It does?" Keir asked.
Torian chuckled once. "It does. Rain knows we burned open a magical connection between ourselves."
"Not intentionally," Aspen added. "But I've always known he was there. Well, in Faerie - back then."
"And I knew what Earth was like because of her," Torian said. "That's how I knew to come here."
Keir's head jumped from side to side. "And I'm the last one to know this?"
"Yep," Wilder said. "I didn't realize Rain knew, though."
"I figured it out," Hawke said. "Rain's also used it a few times."
Then Keir groaned. "And that's why Wilder told you about the Winter Court to calm you down a while back. He was triggering your feelings about Aspen."
"Memories," Aspen corrected. "I have some memories from my time as a baby. The Winter Court was a happy place back then. Torian and I both liked them, so we thought about them a lot."
"And when I found out it cut through his rage?" Wilder shrugged. "Well, I remember that place better than both of them, so I can give better descriptions."
"He said enough when we were fostering together," Hawke explained. "His sister, he'd never met her, came here to find her? Yeah, it took a bit, but I figured it out."
"And it's not something we want a lot of people to know," Aspen told Keir. "It's one of those things that could be used against us."
"Or cause people to not want either of you on a throne," Keir said, nodding to show he understood. "Summer and Winter being that close?"
"But wouldn't that be a good thing?" I asked.
Wilder shook his head. Torian gave me a tired look. Hawke shrugged like it didn't make sense to him either. Aspen, however, leaned closer, resting her head against my shoulder.
"Sadly, no," she said. "There's supposed to be a separation of power. A way of keeping the other side from becoming omnipotent. The seasons do that."
"Or," I said, stunned how everyone seemed to be missing the obvious here, "maybe it should be more like a partnership? You know, when one season is in power, they pick up the responsibility, and as that fades, the other season steps up, giving the first a break?" I looked back and forth, trying to understand why that wasn't the obvious way of handling things.
"Share power?" Torian asked. "Rain, the fae don't do that."
"Then maybe they should!" Tossing my head back, I groaned in frustration. "I mean, isn't that why this whole mess is happening? People think killing off all Winter fae will somehow make them more powerful, right? Not let them rest. Not get them some time off. Power. The emphasis here is on the wrong thing."
"Says the girl with no magic of her own," Hawke chided.
"But that's my point!" I pressed. "Idon'thave my own magic. I was lucky enough to get some, so I actually appreciate it. I don't treat it like some dick-measuring competition! Instead, I worry about how I can help others with it. You know, that whole responsibility thing I was just talking about?"
"And then what?" Torian asked, looking over at me much too calmly.
His eyes were the strangest shade of green. They were too yellow to be lime, but sometimes his gaze felt like it was filled with neon. Oddly, everything else about him had a lazy feel, almost like he was some untouchable man with all the time in the world.
"What do you mean?" I asked, because my rant should've been self-explanatory.
"If Aspen and I could somehow do that, like you said, then what?" he asked.
I just shook my head again. "Torian, we're coming at this from very different perspectives, I think. I don't know what more you want."
"Ok." He leaned forward to rest his arms on his knees. "So, the Mad Queen rules the Summer Court in Faerie. My sister is the Winter Queen, but she's here on Earth. Currently, I'm the heir to both thrones."
