Thank Lakshmi I won’t be around for that.
I clink my bottle to her glass and the drinks Stella and the twins have taken. Mia twirls around, fluffing the poofy skirt of her pink satin dress. “Can you imagine… It’s so soon we’ll finally find out our matches and our glims.”
I think her gaze lingers on an elegant 16thyear girl whose name I don’t know. Well, if that one doesn’t spark with a matchat her own graduation ball in two months, she’ll probably be at our ball for Mia to get her chance.
Cadance laughs. “I want to find out howmanymatches. Being in a trio would be nice, don’t you think? If you get pissed off at one, you always have someone else around.”
“Assuming you’re the core of the match,” Stella says wryly.
“Well, obviously I would be.”
As Cadance tosses back her ringlets, the main lights drop low. Streaks of glowing purple and gold dapple the dimmed space in the academy colors.
Maybe we should hold a séance for some actual school spirit.
Bass starts to thump from the speakers in the corners. The other attendees drift from the cocktail tables to the open dance floor. I note Grady Tadros among them, laughing with a couple of friends.
Target located.
Madison throws back the rest of her punch and narrows her eyes in a different direction. “Ugh. Why do they even lethimcome to these things?”
I follow her gaze. A familiar whoop and an unwelcome tug at my heart have my own spirits sinking before my eyes even find him.
Salvatore has come after all. He’s claiming the middle of the dance floor, gyrating his hips to impressive effect while he brandishes a whole wine bottle he must have brought with him. He hollers exuberantly to a couple of his fellow Bounty members as they pass by, cuffing one on the shoulder, and then snatches a girl’s hand to whirl her around.
I swallow hard, the aftertaste of the hard lemonade turning from sour to rancid.
Right. My Salvatore stopped crashing these sort of parties after we matched. Since that hasn’t happened here… here he is.
In the years before our bond, I didn’t see him enough outside of school to get firsthand experience with the partier side of him. I did overhear plenty of murmurings between my classmates about his exploits while drunk, high, or both. Most of the upper-crust kids seemed to see him as part of the entertainment.
He’s certainly got plenty of people staring at him now, but he doesn’t give any sign that he cares. From what my Salvatore told me when I asked him about those times, the attention was the point.
He has a reputation to uphold, and he never wants anyone getting complacent around him.
Well, one match to steer clear of is easier than more. It doesn’t look like Byron’s made a surprise appearance.
While I gird myself as if for battle, Stella clicks her tongue and tilts her head with Irish-Setter alertness. “Boy toy at two o’clock, Elodie.”
My head twitches around to see Phillip Lowell striding over, with a flush in his face that suggests he’s already a little drunk. Fuck a faun. I don’t suppose a convenient hole would open in the floor and let me sink all the way to Atlantis?
No such luck. And my traitor friends veer off to the dance floor with a flurry of giggles, leaving me to deal with my overly determined suitor on my own.
“Elodie!” Phillip says over the blare of the music. “I needed to talk to you again. Without any little twerps shoving in.”
He laughs as if Asher’s intervention was nothing but a joke. My teeth set on edge.
This guy just doesn’t get the message, does he? This time I’d better deliver it loud and clear.
I step closer so only he will hear me and pitch my voice hard enough to pack a punch. “We’re done talking. We’re done anything. If you say a fucking word to me again,I’llbreak your nose—and a few other bones too. Are we clear?”
I channel every shred of the Elodie who’s tossed back poison and wielded deadly blades into my words. Phillip’s expression stutters. I must have been convincing enough, because the color drains from his face.
He stumbles backward, holding up a hand as if to ward me off. “Okay, okay. Geez. You’ll come running back.”
Then he all but runs off with his tail between his legs.
As long as he doesn’t come dogging me again, I’ll be happy.
