My eyes widened while she spoke, and when she finished, I shook my head. “Dude, you do not look like you should be talking about light refraction, but I need you to teach me that. STAT.”
Nell snickered, but I was serious. Blue was a good look for me, and I had both water and fire elements, so it was plausible, right?
“Once you get through your basic water studies, I could probably teach you,” she said. “Maybe over the summer?”
“That would be awesome.” Suddenly, the next four years didn’t seem too bad.
“Is it true people hook up at this thing?” Kaja asked as she fastened her mask. With her new, jet-black hair and half of her face covered, I wouldn’t know it was her unless she spoke.
Nell nodded. “It gets a little crazy. When you go in, you’ll prick your finger and place a drop of blood into a magical chalice. It keeps you from kissing anyone you’re related to.”
“Eww,” I groaned. Kissing Nolan would legit make me vomit. Just thinking about it was enough to make me declare, “I’m not hooking up with anyone. I’m only going for the food.”
Nell grinned. “I said that my first year too. You’ll see.”
Her words sparked a rush of nervous churning in my gut, but I gritted my teeth and fastened my mask. Naima of Crescent Clan was no wuss. I’d go to this party like a normal socially awkward girl and have fun. If no one but Nell and Kaja knew who I was, then I might even dance.
Kaja bounced on her heels. “Girl, get your dress on so we can go!”
I’d been dreading the dress, or maybe that churning in my stomach was too many pretzels. Was that even possible?
I creased my palms over the opening ceremony dress they had loaned me. “I just got used to this one—”
Nell pointed at the closet. “Get in there and change, or I’m going to do it for you. You’ll look fab, so let’s get a move on.”
Stepping into the large walk-in closet, I slipped out of my earlier dress, and when my gaze landed on my abdomen, I shrieked.
“Nai?” Kaja’s concerned voice came through the door.
At the same time, Nell asked, “What’s wrong?”
Anxiety crawled up my chest and burned the back of my throat as I stared at the three silvery squiggles several inches above my belly button, right where the icy pain had punched me during the affinity ritual. I traced the lines, and the veins in my hand glowed blue. Then a strange light, the same blue color, ran up my arm. As soon as I yanked my hand away from the peculiar marks, the magic faded.
What the mage does this mean?!
No one said anything about magic tattoos at the ceremony. Did this happen to everyone? The high mage who’d conducted the ceremony said it wouldn’t hurt, and no one else doubled over in pain, so my guess was no.Maybe I’d ask my new friends—
Dread filled my belly with the thought. Our friendship was too new to trust them with something like this. At least, not yet.
“I’m fine. Just, uh … saw a spider.” It sounded like a question, but I didn’t know what to say.
Doing a quick scan of my body, I confirmed there were no more marks.
“Some badass alpha she’ll make,” Nell said loud enough for me to hear, but the playfulness in her tone took out all the sting.
“Shut up,” I called out, deciding to ignore the weird mark and deal with it later. Maybe there would be something about it in my classes—or the library. I pulled the huge sparkly royal blue ball gown up and stepped out of the closet before asking Kaja to lace up the corset-style back.
“Dayum, girl, that looks hot with your blue hair.”
I grinned. It didn’t matter if I broke my neck and died in these heels. I looked like a freaking magical princess.
Nell beckoned us from the door. “Let’s roll, girls. Reality hits tomorrow. This is our one night of stress-free fun.”
With that, we followed her outside and slipped into the night.
* * *
“Finger,”a tall buff guy with black hair said, holding out his beefy hand. He wore a black mask covering his clan mark and was poured into an expertly-tailored black tux.
