by D. D. Chance
“Really,” Liam said. “Well, we need to fix that. Every girl should have a ball thrown for her.”
He’d moved over to one of the shelves, leaning against it casually. Too casually, I thought. He was up to something, but I didn’t mind so much.
“Well, we’re going to have this presentation thing and Mr. Symmes said there’d be music there, right?” I asked. “That sounds like a dance to me, so it looks like I’m going to get my chance.”
“Oh that,” Liam said, rolling his eyes. “Don’t expect much dancing. There’s a long formal…I guess you’d call it a walk or some sort of promenade where the monster hunters and their dates, which I guess in this case will just be you, go through this superweird parade, totally ridiculous and not at all fun. It’s not like there’s going to be a glitter ball and photo opportunity with sequins and streamers. You’re also not going to wear a dress like a princess, but you should.”
He pulled something off the shelf, a small remote control, and fluttered his fingers over it.
I watched him as he worked, the coiled intensity of his body, his sandy-brown hair skimmed back from his tanned face, his newly healed hands moving fast. He was leanly muscled, and surprisingly strong, and if I squinted hard, I could almost see the flare of electricity shimmering along his shoulders and collarbones, crackling at his wrists. He was an enchanted Iron Man, part machine and part magic, with a heart that could probably beat a million times a minute without failing if that’s what it took to reach his goals, protect his friends, or defeat the evil bad.
I sighed, and when he glanced up to wink at me, I let all my butterflies stutter and flutter to life, and no longer tried to stop them. I knew he was trying to impress me, though he legit didn’t need to, and a part of me wanted to tell him that he didn’t need to bother. A larger part wanted to let him, though, wanted to see what he’d do.
Liam Graham was the kind of guy who’d pull out all the stops for something he wanted, not doing anything by half measures. He’d build a castle for a weekend and gather an orchestra to perform original music where most guys would opt for takeout and a Spotify playlist. He already made me feel like a princess, and he hadn’t even started trying yet.
“Here we go,” he murmured. I felt the flare of energy drape around me, not close enough to constrict my movements, but an almost fabric-like field. I turned and looked down, then drew in a sharp breath.
“What the hell is this?” I no longer stood in my jeans, T-shirt, and boots. Instead, I appeared to be wearing a flowing pink silk gown with an enormous skirt that extended out all around me. My arms were covered in long white silk gloves, and as I pivoted in a circle, I could feel the weight of something on my head. I reached up, but there was nothing there. As I turned back toward Liam, though, I could see that the far wall was now taken up with a large mirror, standing in front of where his desk had been…and I could see myself in that mirror, looking like I never had in my entire life.
“I’m pretty sure I wasn’t going to dress up for prom like Cinderella, complete with crown.” I laughed, but I held out my arms anyway and twirled a little, the hem of my illusionary dress lifting off the floor to reveal an honest-to-God pair of glass slippers—or at least really sparkly ones.
He sighed with what sounded like real pleasure. “Something I’ve been playing with, and it came together way easier than I expected it to. Kinda makes you understand why illusion magic was such a powerful draw for the Hallowells, yeah?” Liam’s voice had gotten a little deeper, and I turned to him—then stared.
“Oh my God…”
Liam stood tall in a suit any prince would have been honored to wear, his sandy-brown hair brushed back from his tanned skin, his eyes bright and gleaming, his body encased in a black tuxedo with tails, framing a snowy-white shirt. He wore some sort of tight-fitting pants, almost tights, and the look was finished off with tall, shiny boots. I couldn’t remember what the prince wore in Cinderella, but frankly, I didn’t care.
Liam strode toward me, then held out his hand like a real Prince Charming, and as our fingers touched, the arc of electricity danced along my gloves, not muted at all by the illusion. As we stepped closer to each other, a straight-up glitter ball appeared above us, casting off a kaleidoscope of color that swirled around the room, in time to an instrumental song I couldn’t possibly name.
“I’m afraid I’m not really up on my prom music,” I said, blinking away a totally unexpected wash of tears.
“I don’t expect you to know this one,” he said. “I wrote it.”
With that, he swept me around, and the music built as we danced, or really just sort of moved in sync with each other. I’d never learned how to dance, of course, but with Liam, like so many other things, it just felt right to be in his arms. He stared at me as if I were a dream come true, the girl he’d been waiting for his entire life. I didn’t know if that was simply part of the prom illusion he was creating for me or anything real, but once again, I didn’t care. Before, in the Beacon Hill Prep Academy classroom, I’d felt powerful and in control. Now, here in his arms, I felt something equally unique. I felt safe. I felt loved.
“Do you do this for all the girls?” I managed, and he chuckled.
“Just the ones who are chased into my life by a Tarken land worm, and who make me feel like I can do anything,” he said and his lips came down on mine.
The burst of sparks that erupted in my stomach at his kiss should have caught all my butterflies on fire, but instead merely sent them into a frenzy of excitement. I shuddered in Liam’s arms, and he tightened his hold on me, deepening his kiss. I leaned into it eagerly, welcoming the rush of heat and limitless energy that swept through me. I didn’t understand this, I didn’t understand him, but I didn’t need to understand it. I just wanted to experience it. Music flowed around us, and he twirled me in a wider arc, breaking the kiss only enough to stare down at me, an expression of naked wonder in his eyes.
“Are you feeling what I’m feeling?” he asked. “It’s like everything in my body is firing at once, and you’re doing this, Nina. You’re waking up my magic, no extra tools required.”
The disbelieving joy in his voice made my throat constrict. “This isn’t me, it’s you,” I whispered, and I fully believed that. With Zach and Tyler, there’d been no real hint as to what would happen when we struck our intimate bond. But with Liam, I knew. I wanted him to fully experience the furthest limits of his magical abilities, the best of everything he could be.
The swell of music swept us past the open door to his bedroom, and I noticed the illusion he was casting didn’t extend so far into that room. It was still a wreck. For that reason alone, I wanted to explore it.
I tugged him toward it, and he hesitated. “It’s not set up for the show,” he said, and I laughed.
“Good. I don’t know how to get out of this dress anyway.”
We stepped across the threshold, and as promised, my gown disappeared like Cinderella’s at midnight, and his suit did as well—actually, everything did. The music still played loudly in the other room, the glitter ball still threw off its kaleidoscope of lights, but we stood completely naked next to his bed.
“How did you…”
But I honestly didn’t care as Liam leapt for me. Laughing, he pushed me back into the bed, and we lost ourselves in the sheets and the mountain of pillows for a second, rolling around like idiots. Then we stopped, lungs heaving, and he levered himself over me, staring down. I looked down at myself as well and saw what he saw. The scars, the bruises, the rough and ragged skin. It didn’t seem to bother him, and I hadn’t expected it to. Liam, like all the guys, accepted me for what I was—hell, he celebrated it. Which was a beautiful thing.
Fortunately, I didn’t need him to provide a formal assessment of me as a test subject. The look of straight-up lust in his eyes was all the information I needed. I reached for him, the sparking fire within me resuming as we kissed. As with everything with Liam, there was no hesitation once he decided what he w
anted. He shifted himself to align his body perfectly with mine, and I obligingly lifted my knees and locked my legs around his narrow hips.
He groaned with heartfelt pleasure as he sank into me, and I arched upright, half in willing pleasure, half to counter the river of fire that burst through me at our intimate bond. I drowned in our connection, sinking into a world gone fiery hot, forged in power that we traded back and forth, an endless circuit that exposed new circuits and pathways every time the cycle renewed.
I wasn’t even sure who shouted first, but our voices echoed off the walls of Liam’s bedroom over and over again, each new climax that we shared ebbing just long enough for a new one to build, each valley of boneless sensation lasting only long enough for us to miss climbing the peaks of sensation, and we’d start the process all over again.
I had no idea what time it was by the time we finally collapsed at each other’s sides, tangled in the sheets, breathing heavily. It was…incredible. Unbelievable. Perfect.
“This is really the way they should do the presentation,” Liam said. “Way better than a parade.”
I grinned at the image, but despite my deep longing to remain lost in his arms, my eyes popped wide.
I angled myself up on one elbow and stared down at him. “Um…so something just occurred to me. What do people wear to this presentation?”
For once, Liam didn’t meet my gaze. His lids remained comfortably closed, his breathing deep and even. “Oh you know, little black dress for the girls, rando suits for the guys. The usual.”
The usual. I grimaced. It might be the usual for a group of Ivy League elites used to running with Boston’s rich and magical families, but it wasn’t the usual for me. I didn’t have a little black dress. I didn’t have any dresses. It wasn’t really the attire of choice for fighting monsters, so it didn’t make the cut. My mind churned, trying to come up with a solution, but there was really only one.
“I’m gonna be right back,” I said.
“Bathroom to the right,” Liam called out, but I paused to scoop up my phone first. Hours had passed since we’d left Wellesley Hall, and the day was quickly turning to night. I didn’t have time to waste, though. It was going to take more than a trip to the ladies’ to get me ready for the presentation of Wellington Academy monster hunters.
I slid out my phone and texted Merry Williams.
22
When I arrived at Merry’s dorm room, she took one look at me, made a horrified, exaggerated face, and yanked me inside.
“Okay, you’re staying the night, right?” she asked. “You’re totally staying the night because of course there’s nowhere else you could possibly be thinking of staying.”
“Ah…I guess I hadn’t really thought about it. I mean…” I frowned and pulled out my phone. There was nothing more from Commander Frost or any of the guys, and I knew for a fact that Liam wasn’t going anywhere soon. “I mean, sure? I can spend the night. I don’t want to put you out, though.”
“The only way you would put me out is if you forced me to do anything with your face the way you look right now. My God, girl, when is the last time you took a nap?”
“I…” I honestly couldn’t remember, but since I’d spent the night before with Liam collapsed beside me in the library, it was probably reasonable that I wasn’t looking my best. Merry steered me into her second bedroom and pulled out academy-logoed pajamas when we got there, handing them over to me.
“I don’t even want to see you until tomorrow morning when the sun is up. The actual sun, that big yellow thing that goes up in the sky, which it looks like you haven’t seen in way too long. My God, your coloring, girl. What the hell happened to you?”
I laughed, then realized why I felt such an unreasonable surge of relief at her extreme and pointed criticism about my appearance. This was the Merry I knew. I grinned at her enthusiasm, despite her exasperation.
“What happened to you? When I saw you last, you were nowhere near this, I guess, happy. You were walking around like zombie central, and that was only a few hours ago.”
“I know, I know,” she groaned. “The sunshine helped a lot, and so did a quick visit to the demonology department. I walked right into one of their little demon club meetings, and everyone was so nice, I snapped right out of it. Heck, I may even have a date for Saturday night.” She grinned.
“Seriously?”
She tugged on the lock of white hair. “Apparently, streaks of white hair are total turn-ons to demonology guys. And not gonna lie, some of those guys are super—”
“Do not say it.”
“Hot!” she finished triumphantly, then burst into a peal of delighted laughter that did more than a full night’s sleep ever could to lift my heart. “Anyway, it took me a minute, but I feel better, I really do. But you, girl—”
“Okay, okay.” I lifted my hands in surrender. “I get the picture. I haven’t been getting a lot of sleep and there’s been a lot going on.”
“Oh, whatever.” Merry rolled her eyes. “It’s the end of the semester, and the demons are all gone. Don’t you monster hunting freaks know when to take a break?”
“I guess not.” I sighed, the fatigue of the day finally hitting me as I slid into my borrowed pajamas. Merry continued chattering as she handed me a toothbrush still in its original packaging and pointed me toward the bathroom.
I stared from it to her. “You have extra toothbrushes on hand? For what, drop-in guests?”
She only grinned. “Yo—it pays to be prepared, and don’t you forget it.”
By the time I got back to Merry’s guest bedroom, I barely remembered brushing my teeth. I hit the bed hard, practically asleep before I landed.
When I awoke next, the room was bathed in light. I sighed, snuggling into the blankets as I flickered open my eyes. And screamed.
“Hey!” A fully dressed, coiffed, and excessively alert-looking Merry jerked back from her position on the floor, surrounded by no fewer than four different piles of clothes. “Well, it’s about time, sleepyhead. The sun has been up for totally an hour, and we’ve got work to do. But you do look way better, so go grab a shower and do something with your hair, because my God, and get back here. When do you have to be anywhere, do you know?”
“Um… No?” I admitted. “Not anytime soon. At least, I don’t think so.”
“Yeah, well, based on everything I’ve seen from your monster hunting friends, I’m going to call bullshit on that idea. I bet we have less time than you can possibly imagine. So step it up. There’s coffee in the kitchen, and bagels and fruit, but grab it on your way to getting a shower. We have work to do.”
Less than twenty minutes later, I was back in the bedroom, where Merry had not only made up my bed with fresh sheets, but the clothes had been transferred to that higher vantage point. Four different cocktail dresses were laid out for me, in four different colors—black, red, white—which was an immediate no—and hot pink.
I looked from the last dress to her. “Are you serious?”
“You’re just lucky I didn’t have more time. Some girls I know have been to the presentation as dates for past monster hunters, but there hasn’t been an actual graduate who’s been a female in, like, I don’t even know how long. Back then, they were wearing prom gowns, so count yourself lucky we didn’t need to find serious formal wear. But even with all that, you still want to look great. I’m thinking probably not the white.”
“You’re thinking correctly so far,” I agreed, and she patted the dress affectionately. “It is beautiful, but you spill something on that and your evening is over. You do need to try on the hot pink, even if you hate the idea of the color, because I pretty much just have to see you in hot pink.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, and obligingly tried on the shift, which was far too dramatic for me, even after I’d reluctantly nixed wearing it with my sports bra.
“Do you even have a bra that’s not double-enforced spandex?” Merry demanded after she’d demanded I hand it over, and I shrugged
.
“I dress for function.”
“You dress for World War Three.” She tilted her head, studying me. “Okay, well, I don’t have your assets, so we’re going to have to figure something out about that, but let’s see you anyway.”
She turned me toward the mirror, and I grimaced. “This is way too tight.”
“Nope. This is exactly the right amount of tight, especially for your body, which is perfect for it. I’m giving it to you.”
I shot her a bemused look. “C’mon, Merry, no. I’m never going to wear it.”
“And that is where you’re wrong.” She wagged a finger at me. “Because this is an incredible dress that you need to wear when you want to have it end up on the floor.”
She pushed on as I snorted a laugh. “I am not kidding you. I got that thing at a remnant sale when I was still at Twyst Academy, and there’s something about the fabric that is flat-out dangerous. It’s maybe a monster all on its own, and it looks way better on you than it ever did on me, so you need to take it home and—feed it, or something. I’m just saying.”
I didn’t know what else to say to that, so I shimmied out of the thing and tried both the red and black cocktail dresses on next.
Merry sighed with real feeling. “My heart wants to say the red for you. It’s gorgeous, you’re gorgeous, and it has a built-in bra so I don’t have to worry about your girls’ situation. But you look like you’re standing in your mother’s wedding dress in it. Totally lost. Whereas the black one…”
I looked down at myself, then back at the mirror. The black dress was ridiculously simple, a scoop-necked tank-style bodice, sleek and formfitting, that flowed down to a lightly ruffled skirt that flared out at the knees. Somehow Merry had managed to find shoes in my size, and the shiny black pumps were elegant, yet still walkable. I wouldn’t want to fight any monsters wearing this dress, but the monsters that awaited me at a fancy college presentation? Those I felt like I could take on.