"Did you get your Pixy Stix?" I asked when we reached the second floor.
"Plenty," she said. "I'll save a couple for you." Then she moved to the door. "One hour, Rain. We just have to survive one hour." Which meant she was nervous about this.
"It'll be fine," I told her soothingly. "We've made it this long, right?"
"Yeah, but - "
I caught her arm and pulled her closer. Mostly, that was to avoid the people passing behind us, but the truth was I wantedto touch her. I also shouldn't, and kissing was out. Instead, I lowered my voice.
"The Hunt screwed up your birthday. It was terrifying. You don't want to talk about it," I said, giving her the lines she could use when others asked about it. "That's all. Everything else is just like it used to be, and we only have a couple more months until graduation."
"Not even," she pointed out.
"Close." And I jerked my chin at the door. "You got this, Asp."
"Court!" Jack said softly. "Court-Jack."
"Encouragement is exactly what I needed, Jack," she said, reaching up to stroke my bird's back before giving me one last smile and slipping into the flow headed through the door.
But I'd taken far too much time reassuring her, and not enough heading down the stairs. When I stepped out on the first floor, the bell for our first period class rang, proving I was late, and I still had to go down one more floor.
On the bright side, I wasn't the only one. Stretching my legs, I made it to the door that led down to the Never. Someone held it for me. A girl dipped her head in some sign of respect, or maybe just recognition? Another guy glared at me like he hated my guts. I noticed, but I didn't slow down until I was opening the door to the private room for my first class of the day.
"Good morning, Rain," Ms. Rhodes said before I was all the way in the room.
"Sorry I'm late," I mumbled as I claimed my chair.
The dean of Silver Oaks Institute simply pushed a travel mug of coffee across the table toward me. The mug was black with a silver-and-green school logo. The smell wafting up from it was the perfect mixture of chocolate and coffee. In other words, exactly what I needed.
Then Ms. Rhodes lifted her own cup and leaned back. "I was early. Apparently someone decided to vandalize the boy's elevator this morning."
"Oh?" I asked.
She nodded, watching me a little too carefully. "The words 'Summer Is Coming' were written on the back wall. Taken with the incident we had over spring break, I don't like what this implies."
"What incident?"
"Drift Vale's room froze over, with him in it."
I paused with the drink halfway to my mouth. "Is he ok?" Not that I knew him, but that sounded bad.
"He is now," she assured me. "Luckily, his suitemate woke up when his side got too cold. If he hadn't, Drift might have frozen to death overnight."
"Is all of this because of Aspen?"
She canted her head slightly. "I can't be sure. There's a chance it could be because of Torian. No, I don't think it was their magic, but I can tell you there are rumors flying."
I nodded quickly. "We know about some."
"Torian and Aspen talked to me over the break." She lifted a finger. "And they will stay Torian and Aspen, with no titles, while they are attending Silver Oaks. That prevents any issues about not showing the proper respect from those who have opinions about such things." She raised a brow to make the point. "Which is mostly to protect you and the human instructors."
"So this just got complicated," I realized.
She nodded. "Very. Rain, the truth is, I don't actually know everything going on. I do know a lot, but there are forces at play I didn't expect. Your shadow is a good example of that."
Right on cue, I looked over at the dark silhouette most people took for granted. Mine lifted a hand and waved, proving it wasaware of the inspection. From the back of my chair, Jack leaned closer to tilt his head at the thing, looking it over.
"Jack calls it Shadow," I said. "He acts like it's a thing of its own."
