Yeah, I looked.
Riders went towards the gym, the Forge, and also the opposite sides. Over to where Aspen had been grabbed. On the complete other end of the property was where we'd had the Solstice celebration. What bothered me was these riders moved like they knew our spots. Like they could smell or sense the fae's presence there.
But only one thing mattered to me. I slammed into the frame of the first door and began turning the lock. I got it, but something in the darkness turned our way. Lightning flashed overhead, illuminating it. The grey monster became a thing of darkness, and slowly, step-by-step, aimed his horse towards me.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," I breathed, aware my sword was out in the Forge, I was in here, and the Wild Hunt was between us.
"Rain..." Jack soothed - or maybe encouraged.
So I moved to the second door, spinning the lock. This one didn't want to latch. The knob stopped at a weird angle, but adrenaline was starting to kick in. I pulled as hard as I could, but the damned thing didn't want to budge. Just when I was sure the hunter would get here first, something banged beside and behind me.
I jumped. The door jiggled. My next panic attempt got the lock secure just as Torian came around the corner.
"The Hunt," he breathed.
"Get the fuck out of sight!" I hissed. "I'm not fae, you fucking idiot!"
But his eyes were locked on the atrium. No, through it. "Aspen?" he asked.
"She's out of sight, so you should be too!"
"Fuck the Hunt," he snarled before racing for the atrium door.
"Court!" Jack insisted.
"But the cafeteria doors," I countered.
Caw!He shook his head. "Court!"
Yeah, well, he usually knew what was going on, so I followed, but just as I made it into the atrium, there was a loud, solid boom. I paused. Ten feet from the door on the girls' side of this green space, Torian froze. In unison, we both looked towards the sound.
Boom!
The Huntsman himself stood at the glass wall of the atrium and was banging on it with his fist. Over and over, he pounded. The fourth time his hand hit, the symbols I'd once seen Torian fixing began to glow. The next, they started to blur.
"You are not welcome here!" Torian roared, storming towards the glass.
"Torian, no!" I insisted.
But the guy either had balls of steel or no brains. Both? I wasn't sure, but when Jack took off to follow, I did the same. My eyes darted over to check on Aspen, thrilled to see she was still there, tucked safely against the elevator alcove where nothing on that side could see her.
"You are not welcome here!" Torian said again, slamming his palm up against the glass exactly opposite the Huntsman's.
"Rain!" Jack demanded.
"I don't know how to help!" I insisted, pausing just behind Torian.
"I got this," he assured me.
His hand began to glow with a pale green color, quickly glowing brighter. The runes, sigils, symbols - or whatever they were called - clarified. Outside the glass, the Huntsman looked down, his milky eyes reflecting back the shapes, but his lips curled into a smile.
"My orders are from the crown," he said, slamming his hand against the glass one more time.
Like something straight out of a cartoon, a line appeared, and then started growing. It zigged and zagged upwards, then the bottom began to grow as well, but Torian didn't even flinch. The guy simply lifted his chin and smiled, pushing even moremagic.
His hand turned brilliantly white. "Try to get past me, asshole."
"You are not on my list," the Huntsman told him. Then his eyes jumped up to me. "Nor you." But he turned, somehow looking directly at where Aspen shouldn't be visible. "She is."
