Oh hell yes.
The mask itself was a detailed piece, with gems and what looked like real silver twisting through each section. It had wide butterfly wings on either side of my face and made my skin look darker and more exotic than it actually was.
“We should just wear these all the time,” I said, swishing the long dress around my legs.
“You look amazing,” Ilia gushed, her voice singsong. “Mysterious and sexy and I can’t tell your hair is purple, or your eyes are blue, or that you’re an Atlantean god. And while you’re always hot and bangable, you’re my best friend and that’s a no-go zone, but right now…”
I laughed. Ilia had admitted to me that she was mainly into dudes but that she wouldn’t say no to a sexual encounter with the right chick. She loved everything about women.
“You both look stunning and sexy,” I said, throwing the love right back. My best friends were beautiful women, and not just because of their looks.
As we left the room, joining the multiple other formal-dressed-and-mask-clad supes in the hall, I heard Larissa ask in a soft voice: “Do you think they’ll be there tonight?”
No one had to ask whotheywere. The three of us were still entangled in the world of the Atlantean Assholes … mainly in our minds, where we just couldn’t let them go. “They’ve been gone since parents’ day,” Ilia said shortly, “and no one seems to know where they went.”
The school had felt empty for the past few weeks they’d been gone. But I did love being able to sneak into their house and use the pool—silver linings and all that.
“I wish I didn’t miss him,” Larissa added. “I mean, we never made any promises, and he was always so hot and cold that I knew it was stupid to think of it as anything more than a casual thing, but … I can’t fucking forget him.”
I wanted to kick Rone’s ass. But he’d have to get in line behind the rest of them, because I wanted to kick all their asses. “I wish I had an answer for you,” I said, stepping around two magic users basically screwing right there in the stairwell. “But whatever happened to Asher, he’s spread it to the others, and we’re being left out for some reason.”
And time was not easing any pain.
However, I would die before I let any of them know they affected me still.
“Tonight,” I said with force, “we will drink and dance and have a shit-ton of fun, and not for one second will we think about any Atlanteans.”
Ilia cleared her throat and forced a smile. Calen had gotten to her too. I felt guilty for bringing my friends into their worlds. Now all of us were hurt. But my speech did at least rouse their fighting spirit.
“I’ll get the faerie wine,” Ilia said. “In three hours, none of us will remember our names, let alone theirs.”
It probably wasn’t smart to get that drunk. You know, since I was being hunted by gods and possibly Sonaris—though thankfully there had been no more incidents outside of a scare one night when I was sneaking a swim in the Atlantean pool. It was nothing more than a shadow, but I’d felt uneasy, so I’d gotten out of there.
Tonight I just needed to step outside my headspace and let off some steam, so I would throw caution to the wind. Louis had told me he’d be there as part of the new Academy security detail for events, and that made me feel a little better. At least if the gods gatecrashed it, we wouldn’t be alone.
The longer Asher andhisfriends were gone, the more restlessness grew in my gut. Like … I could feel something building, and I was just waiting for it to hit.
The only official Academy dance I’d made it to last year had been the first winter dance, held in the practical magic areas.
“Where’s this dance held?” I asked when we didn’t turn down that path.
Larissa smiled, the flash of red the only thing visible on the lower half of her face. Her mask was a full butterfly; the lower wings spanned down her cheeks and almost to the edge of her jaw. “Demi-fey Academy.”
“What?” I said, not sure if I’d heard that right. “I didn’t think the two schools interacted much.”
“They don’t,” she hurried to add, “but once a year we try and share a dance. I think with all the drama of last year, the dance was canceled, but this year it’s going ahead despite the continued … issues.”
Yeah, I was definitely partly—mostly—to blame for that.
We fell in with the bulk of the fancily dressed crowd, heading toward the back bridge that led to the demi-fey Academy. It meant passing by the Atlantean mansion, and I did my best not to look at it sitting there shrouded in darkness. Like it had been abandoned. “It’s a fair walk to the Academy,” I said as we crossed the bridge. “I’m surprised they’re okay with us all leaving during such a tense time.”
Larissa nodded. “Yeah, Dad has a plan for that, I believe.”
Princeps Jones was waiting just beyond the bridge, a huge group of supes gathering around him. We were pretty far back in the crowd, and at first I couldn’t figure out what was happening, but then the group moved slowly forward and I saw it clearly. Louis was there with a step-through.
“Hello, ladies,” Louis said when we stepped up for our turn. His eyes roamed across our masks and the slightest smile tipped up his lips. “Please don’t linger on the other side or you will risk being crushed by the next group.” His mask was small and black, barely hiding anything. Unlike our fairy-created one, his had no extra magic.
I had no idea if Louis knew who we were. It was exciting to think we might have tricked the most powerful sorcerer in the world. That meant I could truly be anonymous tonight and not worry about anyone’s perception of me.
