Then he pressed his wrists together, the fingers of both hands spread like fans facing in opposite directions - and shoved. A torrent of blinding magic slammed into me, creating a warmth in the pit of my stomach, and the power kept coming. Like an endless stream of magic, Torian poured what he had - so fucking much of it - at me, and I soaked it all up, immediately turning it around and giving it to the night.
"Kill them all," I breathed, slowly turning my eyes on the Huntsman. "You may be as Wild as me, but I own the night, you dumb shit."
The man's lip curled slightly. "Ride with me."
"I'd rather die."
"Then give her to me and I will go."
"Not before the night catches you." I took a step closer, moving slowlyenough that Torian could keep pouring magic into me. "I amtheirchampion, not yours. Time to catch the wind, asshole."
And just as Torian's blast of light ran out, the shadows outside rushed in. Like some child's nightmare, the darkness converged, snatching at the Huntsman like a cat after its prey. The man's feet slipped out from under him, but the Huntsman never hit the ground. The darkness swallowed him first.
The last thing I was able to see was that the man had perfectly straight and beautiful teeth. I could tell because the asshole was smiling.
Chapter Forty-Seven
KEIR
Rain's shadows were everywhere. They engulfed the Huntsman and pulled him away, but I knew it wouldn't kill him. The Wild Hunt was invulnerable. Maybe he'd be twice as gaunt next time, but therewouldbe a next time. There always was.
Yet the moment the thing was gone, Torian turned for the girls' side. "Asp?" he begged.
"I promised not to come out!" she called back.
"It's over," Rain told her. "You're good!"
The words were barely out of her mouth before a gust of wind slammed into the building. Swirls of mist and paleness were wrapped in the tendrils of Rain's shadows, and all of it was going up, over the roof of the atrium, and away.
"They caught the storm," I said, turning to watch it. "They're gone. We need to check the other doors."
"I need to repair the wards!" Torian hissed, moving towards the glass again. "He cracked them. So they can get in!"
"What?" They shouldn't be able to do that. "How?"
"It's what they weremadefor," the kid almost growled.
But when he pressed his hand against the glass, nothing came out. Leaning in as if trying to push harder would give him more power, Torian tried again, but still nothing. Aspen hurried over to press her hand against his back.
"We got this," she breathed. Reaching back, Torian held an open hand towards her. Aspen clasped it with both of hers, and then the glass turned milky. Solid shapes appeared again, but Torian didn't move anything but his head. Looking at first one, then the next, the boy repaired all the symbols. The glow of his magic shifted from the palest green into a blinding white that was nearly impossible for my eyes to capture fully.
The color was so white, it was almost iridescent. I found myself looking down at my hands just as the kid finished. Rainbow. White. Winter magic with iridescence and a jevadu draining his own sister for power? Was that why it was colored? Did my own family have some wildling ancestry? Was that why my magic was so fucked up?
"Torian Hunt!" Ms. Rhodes snapped, storming into the atrium. "That is the responsibility of the staff."
"And you were doing it wrong," he growled at her.
"Our protections have held this long," she reminded him.
But Rain said, "The Huntsman cracked the glass."
Even in a satin robe, Ms. Rhodes was a stunningly terrifying woman. As beautiful as she looked, there was something about her that did not make "young" spring to mind. It was the same unnamable thing that had always made me convinced she was unstoppable, but Rain's words proved that was not the case. Ms. Rhodes' face paled, her eyes widened, and in the millisecond before she could control her expression, I saw pure fear in her eyes.
"You did good, Torian," she told him.
"The Wild magic weakens them," he explained. "But Rain can make the Hunt leave."
"I know." She clasped his shoulder. "You look drained. Go back to your room."
