"But not the head count," I said. "But yeah. I'm wiped. Gonna get some sleep. Rain, you're welcome to the bed. I can crash on the floor."
"Bed too," Hawke said. "I have a feeling that'll entice her better."
"And that's one skill I don't have," I reminded him. "I also understand a kiss is not the same as permission. Let her make up her own mind."
But the girls were sharing a look again. Rain smiled, Aspen nodded quickly, then tilted her head my way.
"Ok!" Rain relented. "But you're not going to freak out about the Hunt again, right?"
"I didn't see him," Aspen assured her. "I barely even heard him, and I'm fine. There was a wall between us and you were there. Rain, that's the thing. I'm ok because you were there, making sure my idiot of a brother was too. I feel..." She bit her lips together. "Confused, relieved, and both tired and wide awake. The kind of thing where closing my eyes means I'm going to pass out almost immediately. I also trust Keir. I'm not pawning you off. I'm giving you permission, because I bet Torian would be happy to fit all three of us in his bed."
"Makes it weird with you there too, Asp," he joked.
And that was what made Rain pull her feet up and shift. "And Torian just convinced me," she said.
But before she could stand, I offered a hand. "I can be a gentleman, you know."
"Yeah, fuck that," she said. "Just make sure I don't run into a wall?"
"I will do my best," I assured her.
Then she bent to give Aspen a quick kiss. "I will never let him take you from me, ok? Remember that, and hopefully no nightmares."
Aspen cupped Rain's face, leaning in for another kiss. "And Keir had your back. Then and now. He always does, Rain, so the least he deserves is half the bed."
"Kinda planned on it." Then the girl turned and grabbed my arm, using it to pull herself towards me. "Lead on, my good knight."
This time, I actually felt like I deserved the title. I also liked that Aspen had noticed. Most of all, I liked that we were all ok after that mess. The Hunt had once again left empty-handed. I hoped Rain and I could keep it that way.
Chapter Forty-Eight
RAIN
I'd never spent the night with a guy before. When we got to Keir's room, he "had things to do" and told me to lie down. The moment my head hit the pillow, I realized just how exhausted I was. Needless to say, I was asleep before he joined me.
Sometime that afternoon, I woke up to him toying with the ends of my hair, only to find the guy with me in the bed, wearing sleep pants, and no shirt in sight. Yeah, there may have been a little making out. I wasn't an idiot, after all.
But Jack didn't have a magic perch in here. He had to potty, and I couldn't stop worrying about Aspen, so I had to get up. The last time the Hunt had come, she'd been traumatized. To have them return again? There was no way I could enjoy our spontaneous day off without knowing she was truly as fine as she'd said this morning.
Thankfully, she was. Over lunch - which was really our breakfast - she explained that Torian was a little shaken, but she was ok. At least, she thought she was. Since the Huntsman hadn't been able to touch her, the panic hadn't returned. Her brother, on the other hand, was having his own problems. Mostly about how the Huntsman had made it clear Aspen was on his "list."
But that just led to more questions. What list? Who had made it? How did he know about it? Why had they come back so soon? Becausepeople were saying the Hunt usually came about once a semester. Twice at most. We were barely into February, and they'dalreadybeen here twice.
None of it made sense, but I didn't have any way of getting the answers I wanted, so I tried to push it out of my mind. Needless to say, when I headed to my Shadow Magic class the next morning, Ms. Rhodes had her own set of questions - for me.
"How did you know the Hunt was here, Rain?" she wanted to know. "The rush of a cold front isn't typically heard deep inside the building."
I glanced over to my constant companion. "Jack told me," I explained.
"How did you know, Jack?"
The damned bird stood taller and looked almost regal. "Jack. Jack, Morrigan. Jack, Jack."
Ms. Rhodes sighed, but that was the best answer the bird could give, even if it told us nothing. But on the bright side, my shadow was back. It had returned at some point overnight, but refused to "wake up" and respond today. The best I could do was work on my crow-shaped stone, filling the thing with all the excess magic Aspen and Torian had pumped into me.
What bothered me the most was that there wasn't much left.
By calling the night, I'd burned more power than I'd realized. Using even more in first period left me dragging ass. I nearly fell asleep in math, but when my head started bobbing in history, Ms. Rhodes called me out. That made me wake up a bit.
