"Are you sure?" Bracken asked.
Liam looked over at Aspen. "Yeah. I am." His eyes were still on Aspen.
And the girl with skin light enough to be called "white as snow" paled a little more. Slowly, she began to shake her head. "I didn't do anything!" she insisted.
"But you are currently his target," I realized. "Harper made sure of it."
"And that stupid bitch isn't powerful enough to do this on her own," Torian pointed out. "That means her mother helped. Maybe more. There's no way Harper Valentina could've directed the entire Hunt at one person."
"They want Winter dead," Wilder said. "Aspen can't hide her power, and the more Winter fae the Hunt kills, the stronger we're all getting."
"But we got the thing," Rain insisted. "So they can't just come back, right?"
"But they will come back," Ms. Rhodes said. "The next time a storm comes, the Hunt will be here. They know there are fae here now - and they know about you. They will keep coming back until there is no one left to stop the queen's plans."
"And even if she doesn't know about you," Bracken said, "you are the greatest threat to her domination of power. That you've stopped the Hunt twice? Three times? They will be after you, Rain."
"So what do we do?" I asked. "We can't stay inside forever. Hell, just going to the gym means going outside!"
"Jack!" he cawed.
"Not helping," Rain grumbled.
"Rain-Jack-Shadows!"Caw!
Torian murmured like that actually made sense. "We listen to the crows."
"Court!" Jack agreed. "Jack, Jack, Jack, Jack! Court-Rain-Dad-Shadow-Bitch!"
"What?!" Ms. Rhodes gasped.
"Oh," Rain said. "Um, he has a new word. He likes it a lot."
"Bitch!" Jack said again. "Bitch-Jack!"
"And somehow," Ms. Rhodes said as she pushed to her feet, "I'm not offended. But you, Miss le Fae, are officially on sick leave. I want you to eat as much sugar as possible, relax, and your school work this week will be excused."
"What?" Rain asked.
"Recover," Bracken said. "You don't realize it yet, but you're going to need time. Take it, Rain, because you want to be ready when they return."
"Yeah..." she breathed. "And there's always going to be a next time."
"Gentlemen, let's let our Morrigan have a moment with her parents." Ms. Rhodes smiled at Rain. "The school is in your debt today, Rain."
"No debt," Rain told her. "It was a gift, freely given."
Chapter Sixty-Three
RAIN
They were right - I was tired. More than that, I hurt all over. On Sunday, my dads took turns checking on me. I offered to go pass out at their place, just to make it easier, but Aspen would have none of it. She insisted on helping, and my bed was much more comfortable than the couch.
But she didn't get out of class to babysit me. I slept through most of Monday, though, so it didn't really matter. At lunch, Hawke came up to deliver my meal. Evidently, he was the only person brave enough to carry a burger. He also said it smelled good, which made me giggle a bit.
The moment my belly was full, I fell asleep again. Ms. Rhodes stopped by after classes to check my recovery. That came with another bottle of nectar. When Liam showed up with the complete Wheel of Time series, I decided this recovery thing might not be too bad. Sadly, I didn't make it ten chapters in before I fell asleep again.
Tuesday was a repeat of that, but on Wednesday, I woke to the sound of a man's voice whispering in my room. Jerking my eyes open, I found Keir talking softly with Jack. The chair Wilder had made for me was next to Jack's perch, and it had come in handy lately. Yet the moment I rolled over, Keir was up and heading my way.
