"And Rain's got enough to worry about," Wilder said. "Pretty sure she wouldn't want me making a move on her guy."
"Wait." I pulled my eyes away from Aspen just as the doors closed behind her. "What?"
"Keir," Wilder clarified. "He's one of us, Rain. We approve."
"Oh." And then I processed the rest of what he'd said while I'd been worrying about Aspen. "How does that even work? Like, with Keir."
"Tab A, slot B?" Wilder said.
"Fae love!" I clarified. "Although, love is too strong a word."
"Lust," Hawke corrected. "Let's go with relationships?"
"I prefer relationships," I agreed.
"And Hawke," Wilder said just a little too casually, "you two are cute too. So every time you pick on me about spending time with Keir, I'm going to remind you of all the hours you spend with Rain."
I huffed. "Don't I get a say in this?"
"No," Wilder told me. "Sorry, Rain. You can't decide who thinks you're important. It's one thing you don't get to consent to."
"That isn't what you were talking about," I countered.
Wilder shrugged. "It's still the truth. I'm not touching the rest. Besides, we're easing you into this whole fae thing. Don't want to chase you off, after all."
Jack made a hacking noise. "Morrigan," he grumbled. "Rain-Morrigan. Court. Rain-court." Then he nodded once.
Hawke just leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest. "Pretty sure Jack's saying she's already fae'd up." He grinned at his own bad pun. "I mean, she's got some Winter magic, some Wild, and will probably get some Summer at some point. That's about as fae as it gets, so she doesn't stand a chance."
"And we don't want to lose her either," Wilder said, his dark gaze hanging on me. "I'd hate to do something terrifying and chase her off. Might be a good reason to stay away for a bit."
Aspen. He meant that was why Aspen had been avoiding me. This was Wilder's way of making me feel better!
So I said, "Yeah, but maybe one day the court will figure out I've got nowhere else to go, and I'm not easy to scare. Besides, none of you can hold a candle to the Huntsman, and I didn't run from him."
"She didn't," Hawke agreed.
"And that," Wilder said, "is averygood point."
Chapter Thirty-Two
KEIR
Ididn't know what had set the court off, and none of them were talking about it. Hawke even avoided the question - usually obviously. Rain assured me they had reasons for keeping it to themselves, but I'd seen Aspen after the ordeal at lunch. She'd looked like she'd been through the wringer.
Something was off with her magic. Torian was strained as well, which meant he'd likely been covering for her. Combined, that was a bad combination, because those two were powerful in a way I'd never seen before.
In Survival Skills, a group was talking about the show at lunch. Once again, that word came up: jevadu. At the sound of it, Hawke's head snapped over. When "monster" followed shortly after, the guy lost it.
"You wanna see a monster?" he asked, storming their way.
I caught his arm, dragging him away. "Quit!"
But Bracken wasn't the sort of teacher to ignore things. "Listen up!" he barked, silencing the room. "I don't care what rumors you've heard or want to share. Any slandering of people willnotbe allowed in here. If you want to get transferred to home ec, then keep going. But ifanyonethinks calling a fellow student a monster is anything but discrimination..." He glared around the room. "I will not have it. And yes, I take it personally. My own daughter is technically a wildling. Listen to that again. Wildling, notmonster."
"Wait, what?" I asked, keeping my voice down.
Hawke growled in the back of his throat. "Which part don't you get? They're convinced Torian is a wildling."
