Eva sucked in a breath and slammed her hands against her thighs. “We’ve been invited to a party!”
I cocked my head. “Okay . . .”
The initiates’ dorm had put on a couple parties, but considering our small class size and that half of my peers were a bunch of sticks-in-the-mud, the parties were never that great. Except for that one time when Olivia García and Kira Johnston had initiated a dance-off. I’d lost, but seeing Olivia and José perform a traditional Jarabe Tapatío, and Kira jam her way to the top in a jaw-dropping hip-hop dance had been memorable.
Still, I had more fun just hanging out with Alex, Hunter, and Eva in our rooms.
“In the third years’ dorm!” Eva squealed and threw up her hands.
My eyes bulged. “What? Are you serious?!”
This was as unbelievable as seeing a dragon in the wild . . . which I’d learned was possible, but extremely difficult. The third years weresupercliquey. Sometimes they let a couple second years hang with them, but they’d ignored our entire class since we arrived.
“Yup! The second years are coming too! I guess it’s some stupid tradition for the upperclassmen to spurn the newbies until after the Imbolc Challenge. They don’t want to waste their time with anyone who’s cast out after the first two tests. It kinda makes sense, if you think about it. They have so little time at Spellcasters, there’s not much to spare on people who they may not see again.”
In the framework of a spy’s life, she was right. Operatives almost never got to reveal their true selves to those in their daily lives. Because of this, real, honest relationships were coveted. If the upperclassmen were going to hang with us, they wanted to make sure we could pass a couple tests and stick around first. Time and relationships were precious.
“When is it?”
“Now! Come on girl, let’s get ready! I already told the guys, and they’re gonna pick us up in thirty.” She rushed to the bathroom before stopping in her tracks. “Oh, and we’re supposed to bring our totems if we bonded with one. The upperclassmen want to see what we got.”
I chewed my lip. I didn’t want to do that. Even though my totem was gorgeous, I didn’t like carrying it around. Two weeks had passed since Imbolc, and I still didn’t understand why my totem had reacted to Alex’s the way it did. Our ignorance bugged me—and him—and because of it, we often left the magical amplifiers in our rooms.
“Do we have to?”
“Yup. It’s the entrance fee,” Eva yelled, already rifling through her makeup. “And don’t you dare say it’s not worth it. They’ll have theirs too. It’s kinda like a show-and-tell. Think about it, Odie. We can see if our totems are related to a second or third years’. That could be beneficial.”
That was true. One of these older kids could be our mentor in the field during our first year of real espionage. Creating a tight bond in advance could help.
“Okay,” I agreed. “Are you wearing a cocktail dress?”
Eva’s head popped back into my room, a look of incredulity on her face. “Are you from Mars? They’re throwing a college party, not a ball! Put on some tight jeans and a cute top, and you’re done!”
“You got it,” I said, heaving myself off my bed, and filing my homework away for the next day.
Even library-loving Alex looked excited as we made our way to the third years’ dormitories.
Eva led the way, plowing down the hallway from the first years’ tower all the way to the opposite end of the academy, and then down a stairwell that I hadn’t even known existed.
“How the hell do you know where you’re going?” I asked.
“When my parents dropped me off, they made sure I took the most thorough toureverto really sell me on Spellcasters. They even insisted that I see where the staff and professors live, like I’d be waltzing through there for tea or something.” She rolled her eyes.
We reached the bottom of the stairwell, and I tilted my head as Eva pressed open a door that led to the outside. “The third years don’t have a tower like us?”
“No, silly,” Eva said. “There are four towers. We have one, the second years have another, the professors that live in the academy have another, and the rest of the staff has the final tower. Third years get the privilege of having their dormitories off-site from the main building.”
In the middle of winter, I didn’t see how having a dorm outside the main building was a privilege. It was flipping freezing.
I rubbed my hands against my arms and Alex pulled me close.
“They probably cast an enchantment over themselves to keep warm,” he said, as if he could read my mind.
Alex, Hunter, and I followed as Eva wound us down a well-trod path, through woodland. We’d seen nothing but dense trees for about five minutes, and I was just beginning to wonder if she’d accidentally veered too deep into the forest, when the trees cleared.
The third-year dormitory was not as spectacular as the main building of Spellcasters, but it was close.
Made of glass, with the windows on the upper floors tinted for privacy, it looked modern and ritzy. Lanterns illuminated the walk up to the building, their light reflecting off the glass. There was a massive porch where a few students lounged on outdoor furniture. A keg sat off to the side, and I grinned. We might be at an elite spy school, but some things about Spellcasters were just like how I envisioned they’d be at a normal American college.
