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.
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 had zero protest.
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.
Now this was 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 absolutely magical.
“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 with glowing purple 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.
Kaja nodded. “Those flowers make a powerful sedative.”
I knew that too. The extract was distilled and sold both in the mortal and magic world. The exclusive location of the flower accounted for a large portion of the werewolves’ wealth. Well, most werewolves’ wealth, the ones who weren’t excommunicated.
My gaze ran over the white silk tents set up on the lawn and the swimming pool, glowing blue to green to purple. The most amazing part was the fireballs suspended in mid-air, illuminating the magical space.
“Like what you see, ladies?” a man asked, his deep voice unfamiliar.
I spun to see a large muscular guy in a black tuxedo and black mask grinning at us like a fool.
Hmm. Nolan? Rage? Justice? Could be anyone. All the males were huge and probably said douchy things like “Like what you see, ladies?”
“You live here?” I hedged to him.
The dude scoffed. “Breaking the rules. You must be a newbie.”