RAIN
Keir carried Aspen to her room. I dropped off our weapons at the gym, found Jack, and still managed to catch up before they made it upstairs. Now, she was sitting on her bed and Torian refused to leave until he was sure Aspen was safe. I'd just convinced the guys we were fine when Wilder burst into the room without knocking. The man looked frantic until his eyes found Aspen.
"They said you were carried back to the building!" he panted, making it clear he must've run all the way here.
But Aspen was sitting up. Weak, yes, but not dying. "I'm fine," she said.
Wilder's shoulders sagged in relief. "Yeah?"
Aspen nodded. "Yeah. Tor took care of me."
"And she took care of Rain," Torian added. "I, however, won't refuse a shoulder to make it back to our rooms."
"Short way," Wilder said, tilting his head towards the bathroom door.
Torian merely turned to inspect Keir. "This is one of those secrets that will never be spoken of outside the court."
Keir simply nodded.
"Really?" Wilder asked.
"He's earned it," Torian said.
"Court," Jack added, sounding as exhausted as I felt.
Clearly, that settled it, because Torian turned for the bathroom. Immediately, Hawke was right there to offer a shoulder, but Wilder pushedin front, shoving a hand against the frame. Wood glowed with the brightest white as the boys entered the bathroom. Then they simply turned as if to come back - and vanished.
"Fuck," Keir breathed. "A fuckinggate?"
"Go," Aspen told him. "It's a shorter walk to your side, and that'll be open for at least ten minutes."
"Yeah," Keir said, looking over at me. "Rain, your dads want you to crash with them tonight. Don't forget, ok? They're going to be worried."
"But - " I tried, lifting an arm in Aspen's general direction.
"I'm crashing with Tor," she told me. "We'll use the gate so we don't have to walk all the way around, get stared at..." A little smile curled her beautiful mouth. "And we won't go through any doors we aren't supposed to so won't get in trouble for curfew."
"Useful," Keir said, angling for the bathroom. "If either of you need me, text?"
I nodded. "Thanks, Keir, and I'm sorry about Fin."
"Yeah," he breathed. Then he simply crossed through the gate.
"So Fin's... dead?" Aspen asked. "Or is he just gone?"
I moved to her bed and eased myself down beside her. "No, he's dead. I saw it."
"Rain..." Jack croaked sadly.
Aspen reached for my hand. "Saw him be executed?"
"After," I admitted, "but I've never seen someone dead before."
"It sucks, huh?"
Yeah, I nodded, because that felt better than using words. This did suck. All of it sucked. The first time the Hunt had come here, I'd been freaked out, and it was scary, but no one had been hurt. This? It was worse. So much worse.
"But you're ok, right?" I asked instead.
