Kris chuckles. “You’re pale. And sweating. You feel like an ass for mocking my jumpiness over their Halloween woo-woo spooky shit now, don’t you?”
“I—what? No, I’m not—that’s him.”
He gives me a puzzled look. “Him? The Halloween Prince? You—”
“No. No.” I pinch the skin over my nose. “That’shim.The guy I kissed in the alley. At the bar. After the New Koah screwup.Thatguy.”
Kris swings in front of me, trying to block me from any stray pictures. “Woah, woah—wait, really?”
“Yes.Yes.Holy shit—”
“Look, I love you, Coal, don’t take this the wrong way—but I was on Iris’s side in the wholeis this guy realcamp. It was dark, you were hammered and stressed. Maybe the Halloween prince sort oflookslike the guy you thought—”
“That’s the guy!” I hiss, thank god, but I want to shout. “The guy I thought was someone normal and he’s—he’sthe fucking Prince of Halloween.”
Kris lifts his hands like he can contain my freak-out. “Breathe. You’re hyperventilating.”
“How is this possible? Why was he evenatthat bar? Christmas and Halloween don’t interact.”
“Clearly.”
“Shut up. This is serious. Did he target me? No. No, that’s insane, right?”
Did Hex know who I was? I couldn’t pick him or his family out of a lineup, so why would he have recognized me? What would have been thepoint? Nothing negative came of it, no leaked stories to the press or repercussions at all, so much so that Iris and Kris don’t believe it happened.
But it did. Fuck, did it, because I’ve thought about that guy and that kiss way more than I’d ever admit to anyone. Even myself.
… foundations aren’t ever one thing, they’re many little things interlocked together.
In all the moments since then when I’ve asked myself what I should do instead of acting on impulse, that conversation would flash through my mind. The stranger—Hex—had known so easily what I don’t let myself admit I want. Foundation, solidity, happiness. And hewasa stranger, the longer time went on and nothing popped up and I couldn’t find him afterwards, so I let the fantasy of him roil to embarrassing proportions because what did it matter, I’d never see him again.
Until now, apparently, becausefuck my life.
“It was like years ago,” Kris says. “Nothing bad came of it, not from Halloween, at least. I’ll give you that it’s weird, but I think you might be overreacting. Just a tad.”
Oh great. “Cover for me.”
I ease away and race to the bathroom where I consider dunking my head under the faucet but decide against it and pat my cheeks with cold water. The iciness washes a spurt of calm through me, and I rock forward, forehead hitting the mirror.
Kris is right. I am overreacting. It was a weird coincidence almost two years ago that didn’t result in any fallout so I have no reason to belosing my ever-loving mind.
I willnotmess this up. My dad has done a fine enough job of thathimself, and I’m firmly on Iris’s side—whenthis blows up, it will not be because of anything I do. Not again. I am a changed person, goddamn it, no matter what wayward fantasies I’ve been reliving like some lovestruck schoolboy.
Fantasies that have been, apparently, about the heir of Halloween.
I shove back and glare at my reflection.
“You will go back out there and be a perfect Christmas Prince,” I hiss at myself. “You willpull yourself together, you pathetic asshole.He’s just a guy.” My intensity wanes. “Just a guy in a corset vest.” I deflate more. “Why did it have to be acorset vest.”
By the time I get back into the ballroom, everyone is mingling. I spot Iris and Hex across the room, Iris talking politely with someone from House Caroler while Hex stares down into a mug like he’s trying to will it to transform into something less Christmassy. Maybe he’s using Halloween’s magic to do that; cocoa into… what’s a Halloween drink? Apple cider? Goat blood?
Kris sidles up next to me. “You all right now? Freak-out over?”
I take a glass of eggnog from a passing server. “Of course. What could I possibly have to freak out about?”
“Oh, let me count the reasons.” Kris’s gaze trails to Iris and his levity dips.
“Areyouall right?” I push back at him.
