"How?" I asked, able to hear the damage in my words.
He offered a weak smile, then shrugged. "I dunno. I have a feeling you do. Do it the same way you do everything else."
"Rain..." Jack said, hopping across the ground to get closer, one of his wings hanging lower than normal. "Rain-Jack."
"Jack!" I gasped, so happy to see him. "Are you ok?"
He nodded, but kept hopping until he could reach my hand. There, he nibbled at my fingers. I turned my hand, caressing his back, and pushed shadows towards him. The bird stood a little higher. His wing shifted, and then he ruffled his feathers and reset himself properly.
"Jack-Rain. Shadow!" he insisted.
"I think he means to do that to yourself," Keir said.
So I lifted my hand to my throat and tried it. The scratchiness immediately eased. So did that burning feeling of abused flesh. And yet, even as the pain receded, I didn't want to waste the power.
"I'm good," I said as a few other teachers and staff moved into the clearing.
They were in small groups and clusters, and no one looked completely good. Dirt smudged faces. Hair was askew. Everyone was breathing heavily, but that wasn't what shocked me the most. They all stopped at the edge, looking down at the ground. It took me too long to realize what they were looking at.
"Who died?" Ms. Rhodes wanted to know, confirming my suspicion.
"Hunter," I said, thrilled when my voice no longer sounded broken.
"What hunter?" she demanded.
I shrugged. "Not the Huntsman, but one of the others."
"That's not a hunter," someone said. I recognized my math teacher's voice.
"He was," I said. "Before Aspen - "
"No!" Ms. Rhodes said, cutting me off. "The six of you, up!" Then she pointed back towards the school. "Go. Someone shield that body. We do not need children seeing such things."
A green haze was quickly thrown over it even as Ms. Rhodes herded the rest of us past it. I had a million things to say, because I'd been the one to shove my sword in him. Never mind the way I'd watched his eyes changeand then fade. Yeah, that was going to fuck me up, andnowshe was trying to keep us from seeing it?
But Bracken followed behind us. Tag stepped up and started giving directions to the staff who huddled around the body. I heard something about disposal, and decided I really didn't want to listen to anything else. Yet somewhere in the darkness between the school and where we'd had our fight, Ms. Rhodes turned, stopping all of us.
"Sorry," she said. "I heard enough to know things were said that cannot be taken back, and too much information is now out there."
"Yeah," Keir agreed, nodding his head. "I also have questions."
"We can't answer," Torian told him.
Bracken moved beside me, clasping my shoulder. "Release them, Ivy."
"Oh, I think I have to," she said. "I release all of you - and Liam as well, Bracken. There is no point in sowing discord among the six of you. You can talk freely about anything you want, because I'd be an idiot to try to put limits on what is clearly working." She sighed. "But this does not make things easier, Torian."
"Why?" I asked. "And so you know,Ikilled that guy. I saw him die, so why can't we - "
"A true excuse," Bracken broke in. "Rain, she wanted a reason to get you away, and death is a good one."
"Oh."
"And we will discuss that later, Rain. I have questions - so many of them - but now is not the best time." She looked at Bracken. "Just make sure she's ok?"
"Always," he said. "But – Ivy, the Wild Hunt is immortal."
"Clearly not," Ms. Rhodes pointed out. "We also have more pressing things to discuss first."
