"I didn't say only you, but you are a good chunk," I clarified. "And I am in love with you, so..." I pulled out the gift and passed it over.
A pale silvery chain spilled from my fingers. When I held it out, Aspen lifted her palm, yet the moment I placed the pendant against her skin, she sucked in a breath and looked up. Her glacial eyes locked on mine.
"Rain?" she breathed.
"It's a little of my magic, but it's sealed off and safe," I explained. "It's just the best way I could think to show you that no matter what, I will be there for you. As your friend, girlfriend, or even just that girl you used to know. Aspen, I have never felt this way about anyone before, so I wanted to give you something to show it."
"It's..." She lifted the necklace to reveal a teardrop with a swirling mist of darkness in the middle. "The chain doesn't burn!"
"Keir tested it for me," I admitted. "I wanted to make sure it was perfect."
She lunged at me, wrapping me up in the tightest hug. "It's everything, Rain. Fuck, I love you so much. For talking to my brother, and organizing this without me knowing, and just..." She leaned back to search my face. "For just being you, Rain. Put it on me?"
I took the chain back, she lifted her hair, and I clasped it around her neck - but at the corner of my eye, something moved. I jumped, flinching around to face it.
"What?" Aspen asked.
"I swore something moved," I explained. "There aren't wild animals out here, are there?"
"Bracken's cat," she said. "But it doesn't really like people."
And then it moved again, sending a swirl of fog towards us. I caught Aspen's hand and pulled her behind me. "Did you see that?"
Crows suddenly shot into the sky, cawing loudly enough to even be heard over the music. Torian stopped the song that was playing just as Jack cried out, "Hunt!"
"What?" Aspen asked. "But there's no storm!"
The sound of a horse snorting proved something had changed, and the thickening fog was clearly not natural at all.
"Through the gate!" Poppy ordered. "Someone pull the Hunt alarm!"
"Aspen?" I breathed. "Oh, fuck, I'm so, so sorry. I think I screwed it all up."
Chapter Sixty-Nine
RAIN
Before my eyes, the mist was thickening. What had started out as the day's humidity rising up when darkness cooled the world was now so much worse - and getting thicker by the second. The grey forms began shifting. Hooves crushed grass, evergreen needles, and dried leaves, making it clear there was more than one animal out there.
Then, from somewhere lost in the middle of the swirling paleness, the Huntsman said, "I come forher."
"Go, go, go!" Keir was yelling at the courtiers, shuffling them through the gate that was only wide enough for one person at a time.
Hawke was beside him, further up the line, propelling people forward in a single line with his hands. I saw all of it as I turned, but we'd wandered away for privacy, and now tendrils of fog were swirling in behind us. The shape of those swirls was becoming more and more human-like, which meant hunters.
Fuck!
"Torian!" I yelled, knowing that no matter what, he would help his sister.
"Aspen!" he screamed back.
A flare of white cut through the fog, freezing it and making ice crystals fall to the ground. That cut a swath, but we were further away than I thought. Pushing Aspen, I guided her that way, knowing being on our ownwas bad. The Huntsman wantedher- not me, and nothing else mattered but keeping her safe.
"Jack!" I screamed next.
"Morrigan!" he yelled, swooping through the fog and leaving tendrils swirling behind his wings.
But a sword lashed out. Jack turned sharply, yet it wasn't enough. I saw the flat of a blade smack his wing and my crow's dark silhouette angled quickly towards the ground.
