After trekking at least half a mile off-campus, we’d arrived at the open door of a huge mansion, at least five stories tall.
One by one, we held out our fingers, and he pricked them, squeezing a single drop of blood into the chalice.
“This place is obsessed with blood,” I muttered to Kaja. However, if the magic kept me from kissing Nolan, I hadzeroprotest.
She laughed, and I stepped through the door, only to be stopped by the buff dude.
“Hang on,” he said. “You need a voice mod, right?”
“Huh?”
“Yes!” Kaja whisper-yelled. “Do me too.”
Before I could ask what the heck they were talking about, a blanket of pale gray mist shot from his hand and wrapped around her throat.
“I’m only here for the food,” Kaja said, her voice lilting and musical. Definitely not sounding like normal Kaja.
“What the—?” My eyes widened, and I nodded at the bouncer. The next thing I knew, my voice was a bit lower, still female but more like the singer Adele.
Score!
“Have fun.” He winked, and we stepped inside the giant entryway.
Holy mage babies.
Nowthiswas a house. The large staircase led to an open loft area where half a dozen people lounged, chatting. A circular staircase led to the third floor, and I couldn’t see any more of the upstairs beyond the halls leading to separate wings of the house. Past the giant staircase, a massive three-story great room flowed into a kitchen. I stared at the group of chefs, and one in a tall white hat barked orders at the others, making me avert my gaze. This party was catered?
Yum.
“Stop gawking,” Nell said, grabbing my wrist and pulling me toward the wall of windows on the other side.
Music blared from outside, and it was only as we approached that I noticed the wall of windows was a set of sliding doors, all pushed to the side and opened fully. We stepped through the opening and onto the back patio.
“You know this place?” I asked, still freaked by the sound of my voice. If I knew no one would know, I’d be tempted to sing.
Hello, it’s me…
She nodded. “The Midnight princes grew up here before they moved into the dorms. They hosted the party here last year too.”
Of course they did. I rolled my eyes heavenward and then looked around with increased scrutiny. The virtues grew up here? Pretty posh. Not that I expected anything less of the alpha king's children. Or nephews. Or whatever.Heirs.
Nell led us outside and down a set of patio stairs, through a garden pathway lit by ground lanterns. When the walkway opened up into a large clearing, I gasped.
I don’t know what I’d been expecting but … not this. This was absolutelymagical.
“I heard their mom, the headmistress, does all the decorating,” Kaja whispered.
Mom … headmistress? That’s where I recognized her! The woman who gave the concluding speech had the same dark hair as her boys, and those green eyes were a dead ringer for Justice and Rage.
“The king’s wife?” My brow furrowed in confusion. “Wouldn’t that be their aunt?”
Nell shook her head. “Their father, the king’s brother, died. So when the alpha king took over, he took her and the boys in. Married her and made them his heirs.”
Whoa. That was actually kind of sweet for a total douchebag psycho who screamed abusively at them. King A-hole had to be sterile, or maybe their mom wouldn’t sleep with him. Before I could ask any more questions, my gaze was pulled to the party.
The back yard, if you could call it that, was like a mini forest, at least an acre of manicured green land with thick canopy trees withglowingpurple flowers.
I pointed to the flowering tree. “My dad told me about those.” These were all over the island, not just the academy grounds, so my father was able to talk about them. Too bad everything else about this school was a mystery.
