He sidled away from her, his mouth pressed into a thin line and his eyes darting for an escape.
“What about his accomplishments here?” Valerie pressed, somewhat desperately. “Tobias and I often discuss the role he’ll play when he returns to—”
“Are you planning to rejoin your parents’ guild, Aaron?” Petra lobbed the question like a grenade. “You could join almost any guild you wanted. How did the Crow and Hammer’s membership react when you—”
“Petra,” Kai cut in, “I’m so sorry to interrupt, but do you know Annaliese James from Ursa Major? She seems to be trying to catch your eye.”
“Miss James? Oh, I don’t …”
As she turned to look across the party, Kai guided her attention even farther from her victim. Aaron inched backward, and when Petra didn’t turn on him, he speed-walked away.
“Aaron—” Valerie hissed, but he’d already slipped behind a cluster of alumni. She muttered a rude word under her breath.
Kai, the savvy charmer, lured Petra in the opposite direction, his dark eyes her sole focus. If he wasn’t careful, he’d end up scheduled for an interview and photoshoot instead of Aaron.
I was glad Aaron had escaped, but unfortunately, his and Kai’s departure had left me, Ezra, and Valerie standing in awkward silence.
“Well,” Valerie sighed after a moment, “I suppose Aaron could use a short break.”
I snorted before I could stop myself, then coughed to hide it. Ezra caught my eye, the tiniest twitch of his lips betraying his amusement.
He composed his expression into one of funereal austerity. “Are you enjoying yourself, Tori? This year’s event is even more entrancing than usual.”
Valerie squinted at him, but nothing in his tone or expression suggested sarcasm.
“It’s been sensational,” I answered, equally somber. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep tonight after meeting so many distinguished mythics.”
He nodded knowingly. “Understandable for your first time.”
Valerie looked between us, then decided to ignore the suspicious undercurrent in the conversation. “I’m glad you two are enjoying yourselves.”
A giggle bubbled up my throat but I choked it back. Ezra’s eyes sparkled with suppressed laughter and my composure threatened to crumble. Crap, I had to keep it together—
A shimmer of gold dust intruded on my internal battle, the fine powder drifting down from the ceiling and glittering all around us. My pulse jumped with disbelief. Together, Ezra and I peered up.
The pixie mistletoe was back—and it was parked directly above Ezra’s head, its leaves rustling as it determinedly dusted his head and shoulders.
Chapter Nineteen
My heart body-slammed my ribcage and my lungs seized as though the air had turned to cement. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Ezra as he looked from the pixie mistletoe to me. For an instant that stretched into an airless eternity, we stared at each other.
But I wasn’t the only woman standing beside him.
Valerie let out a jubilant laugh and reached for Ezra. Pulling his head down, she rose on her tiptoes and planted a motherly kiss on each cheek.
“How charming!” she exclaimed. “You look so handsome with a clean shave, Ezra. I do wish you wouldn’t grow back that awful scruff the moment you get home.”
When he said nothing, her amusement dimmed. She glanced from him to me, leaping to who knew what conclusion, but I couldn’t worry about that right now. I was way too busy concealing my complete internal freak-out over that lost moment beneath the mistletoe.
“Well,” she declared, “I should find Aaron. The Lloyds, here from Wales—founding family of the ancient Mabinogi guild—want to speak with him about an open position for an advanced combat instructor.”
She swept away. Seeming to shake himself out of a daze, Ezra glanced warily at the ceiling, but the pixie mistletoe had disappeared.
My heart still hammered against my ribs. As I breathed deeply, a chilly breeze blew across my back; the open terrace door was a few paces away. “I’m going to step outside for a minute. I need some fresh air.”
I walked into the wintry night, the darkness held back by gold lights strung overhead. As I moved to the far end of the terrace, shadows engulfed me and I breathed easier.
Until I realized Ezra had followed me outside.
He leaned against the stone railing, gazing at the dark garden below. In a few more hours, the druidess would be down there, exorcising the wolf spirit from Sin before she became a shifter.
“This week has been all kinds of messed up,” I muttered. “I’ll be glad when it’s over.”
“Me too. I don’t know how soon the madness will end, though. With that shifter still in the area, breaking into the manor …” He turned, putting his back to the garden. “I feel like we’re missing something, but I don’t know what.”
I had the same feeling, but considering how much I had on my mind, it wasn’t a surprise I couldn’t sort out my thoughts. Between Eterran’s new ability to control Ezra in his sleep and my uneasy truce with the demon, and the elusive shifter and whatever its mission inside the manor had been … yeah. Just thinking about it triggered a headache in my temples.
Throwing off the gloomy topic, I asked brightly, “Do you have your phone on you?”
“Yeah?”
I held my hand out and wiggled my fingers. He pulled his phone from his pocket and offered it to me. Letting him hold it, I tapped his camera app and flipped it to selfie mode, then squeezed myself against his side.
“Your arm is longer,” I told him. “You take the picture.”
Chuckling, he pulled me closer and held the phone out in front of us, our faces filling the screen. Ew, my chin looked terrible.
I reached up to correct the camera angle. “Wait—”
The flash went off, blasting my eyes. Spots danced across my vision.
“Ezra!” I complained, snatching at his phone. “I wasn’t ready!”
He lifted it out of my reach. “No, this one is perfect. I’m sending it to you.”
“But—”
His thumbs sped over the screen, then the phone disappeared back into his pocket. He grinned unrepentantly at my disgruntled pout, which only made me scowl harder.
“I want a nice photo of—”
The terrace door banged open. In a rainbow of dress shirts and gowns, a band of prattling alumni filed outside—including the gossipy trio.
I snagged Ezra’s arm and pulled him to the terrace steps. “Let’s go this way.”
He followed me with a curious glance back. “Something wrong?”
“Not really, but I recently threatened to punch one of those guys in the face, so …”
He laughed and my belly did a mini somersault. Why did that keep happening?
“The first time Aaron brought me here,” he said, descending onto the grass, “I had trouble with a few alumni.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Aaron and Kai were training me in advanced combat techniques, and a couple guys spied on our lesson. They got this idea that I wasn’t a mage worthy of their academy.”