"Fuck," Keir grumbled, turning away and shoving a hand through his hair. "Not likethat!"
"Rain," Hawke said, stepping closer, but pausing as his eyes landed on my sword. "Can you put that thing down for a minute?"
"Uh, ok?" I moved to the hooks Bracken had made for it. "Why? Is this bad?"
"It's..." Hawke paused. "Dammit."
"What?" I begged.
"He can't say it's good," Keir quickly explained. "Literal block. Falsewords will not come from our mouths without serious pain, and usually mind control."
"So it is bad," I realized.
Hawke just stepped closer to grab my upper arms. "Aspen's working through it. Torian helps. When she has nightmares, he makes them go away. When he does - and he'd rather I didn't even hint that such a thing was possible - she helps him. They're working through it, nothing more, nothing less."
"Oh."
And while I got that part, it didn't make it feel better. Aspen wasmygirlfriend! She was supposed to turn to me when she needed help. No, notjustme, but I currently felt like I'd been cut out, and I didn't like it at all.
"What if she dumps me?" I asked next. "I mean, I know things like this can change a person's world, and what if she decides I don't belong in it, or like, I dunno, I remind her of what happened? Guys! How the hell am I supposed to help her if she is never around when I am?"
Keir just looked at Hawke. "Make sure they're both at lunch tomorrow?"
"Can do," Hawke agreed.
Keir nodded. "I'll say something to Torian."
My mouth flopped open in surprise. "Wait, so you two are friends now?"
"I wouldn't go that far," Keir assured me. "We're on the same side, and I bump into him a bit. I mean, I am crashing in his best pal's room."
"That's me," Hawke bragged. "I mean, just so you know, I'm nothing but Tor's bestie."
Keir chuckled as if that little dig had been intentional, but Hawke was smiling like he knew it. Clearly, these guys had gotten to be friendly - if not actual friends - since the Hunt had attacked.
"But she's ok, right?" I asked yet again, aware they weren't really giving me what I wanted.
Hawke murmured, not liking my question. "Rain, she's working it out."
"I heard she attacked the Hunt," I explained. "She saved her class! That's why the Huntsman grabbed her, because she was fucking up the hunters who were trying to get the other students, you know?"
"No shit?" Keir asked. "I haven't heard that."
"You also don't spend a lot of time with AP botany students," Hawkereminded him. "Although from the way Aspen tells it, there was a lot less heroism and a lot more scrambling to hold her own."
"Aspen?" Keir asked. "She's fucking powerful."
"No control," Hawke said.
"Hey!" I hissed.
Hawke just lifted a hand. "He's on the court, Rain. It's ok for him to know this. Wilder and I talked about it, and who knows? Maybe Keir can even help, since we haven't been having much luck showing her how to make it habitual."
"Hard to do when any magic Aspen does is like a fucking nuke," Keir said. "I'm sure that doesn't help her confidence at all. I mean, if she makes a mistake, it's the catastrophic kind."
"Yep," Hawke agreed.
So Keir nodded. "I'll help as much as I can. I mean, she's my friend too."
