by W. J. May
He nodded slowly, pushing back his sleeves.
“All right...well, let’s see what you think of this.” In a flash, a sea of delicate ice crystals shot from his fingers—like winter had come early, blanketing the grass in a misty layer of snow. She tried to run, but was trapped at a normal speed as long as she stayed invisible. As soon as he saw the indent of her boots, he tackled her to the ground.
“Now, I think this is funny,” he panted, pressing her into the grass with a grin. “I mean, it’s not licking your neck in front of our friends funny. But it comes close.”
She let out a breathless laugh, pushing uselessly against his arms. “Let me up, you psycho! We have a job to do!”
He shook his head slowly, pinning her wrists up above her head. “Oh...I think that can wait a second. You seemed so cuddly just a few minutes ago. Don’t tell me you’re over it already.”
Her instinct was to curse him, but her teeth were chattering too hard. “You get that I’m lying on a bed of ice, right?”
He cocked his head with a frown, like it was the first he was hearing of it. “Ice? Shoot, Arie...that must be really cold.”
She laughed again, pounding at his chest. “Get off!”
The tips of his hair danced across her face as he leaned closer, just inches away from her lips. “How about I heat you up instead?”
This kiss was unlike the others. It was slower. Deeper. The kind that smoldered like fire in the pit of her stomach, burning in a quiet sizzle all over her skin. Her body came alive with it. No matter how long it continued, she knew she’d never be able to get enough.
Until—
“So that was a really smooth line...”
He pulled back, staring down with a breathless grin. “...but it’s still cold?”
“Yeah—it’s flippin’ ice, Jason!”
He laughed aloud, pulled her gently to her feet. In a gentlemanly show of remorse he dusted it from her back and shoulders, biting his lip and avoiding her eyes. When he was finished he stared at her for a suspended moment, then leaned down suddenly and kissed the tip of her nose.
“You ready to steal that directory?”
She shook her head incredulously before gesturing into the dark.
“Lead the way...”
WHEN THE FRIENDS WERE first discussing their investigation, it was automatically assumed that stealing the directory from Hidgens would be the hardest part. Not only was he a relic of a bygone age that favored things like lynchings and pistols, but the man kept the directory with him at all times. Little did they know it would turn out to be the easiest part of their day.
It wasn’t hard to find his cottage—it was the only one with a pair of gloves and a riding crop outside the door. It wasn’t hard to break inside—he’d locked only the front door whilst forgetting about the back. And it wasn’t hard to find the directory—it was sitting by itself on the table.
Aria and Jason stopped right in front of it, shooting each other nervous looks.
“If we touch it...do you think a spear fires out of the wall?”
He rolled his eyes, but glanced around the room in spite of himself. “You’re being paranoid.”
“Or what about little blow darts?” she whispered anxiously. “They’ll find us face-down in a ditch somewhere—covered in spiderwebs and bits of sand.”
He gave her a strange look. “Have you been watching Indiana Jones again?”
She shook her head, admitting nothing. “You take it—just in case. If anyone catches us, I’ll say that you forced me along as a hostage. I even have the ice burns on my back to prove it.”
He stepped forward carefully, lifting it off the table with delicate hands. At least, that was the plan. The second he got close he flashed a look at Hidgen’s bedroom, then held out his hand.
“Give me your phone.”
“Nice try,” she whispered, clutching it instinctively to her chest.
He glanced around with a grin. “We can’t actually take it—he’ll know it the second he wakes up.” In a flash, he grabbed the phone out of her hand. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t take pictures...”
“YOU ARE A FREAKIN’ genius!” Aria cried in delight, thumbing through the printouts scattered across the bed. “Have I told you lately what a freakin’ genius you are?”
“No one ever tells me enough,” Jason said loftily, but he flashed her a grin.
He might have spent most of his evening cleaning his dorm room, but the two of them had wasted no time destroying it. The floor was littered with empty candy wrappers and cans of soda, while the bed itself was plastered in printed pictures of the tatù directory itself.
“You don’t have to say it,” he added suddenly, shooting her a quick look before dropping his eyes to the nearest page. “You could just kiss me occasionally and we’ll call it square.”
A crimson blush rose up in her cheeks as she casually hid behind a page.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Her eyes twinkled as they stared over the top of the paper. “I must have suffered a mild concussion when you slammed me into that tree...”
“Oh, really!” He laughed, inching closer on the bed. “You think you’re the one who has a right to complain? I spent half my time getting invisibly strangled while you—”
“Whoa! What the heck is this?!”
They sprang apart as the door opened and Benji, James, and Lily stepped into the room. All three of them froze in astonishment, staring down at the bed.
“Is that...” Lily tentatively stepped further inside, still clutching a tiny box of spring rolls from the restaurant. “Is that what I think it is?”
Aria and Jason shared a final look before putting the evening quickly behind them. There would be time enough to deal with it later. Right now, they had to work.
“If you think it’s stolen pages from the directory...then you’re absolutely right.”
The friends let out a gasp as they swept quickly into the room, shutting the door behind them. Like clockwork James pulled out an inhibitor and stuck it on the wall so they wouldn’t be overheard, while the others settled obliviously on the bed, reading over the pages.
“This is incredible,” Benji murmured, looking immediately for the names of people that he knew. “And Hidgens doesn’t suspect anything?”
“The guy never woke up,” Aria boasted. “I’m telling you guys—I’m a born thief.”
The others accepted this without question. Only James shot her a knowing look.
“You’re the thief, huh?” he asked doubtfully. “And what was Jason’s part in all this?”
“He was mostly just the lookout.” She avoided their eyes, suddenly occupied with the papers. “Near the end he cried a lot...”
For the next twenty minutes or so, the gang worked in silence. Cataloging names, flipping through pages, scribbling illegible lists on little boxes of Chinese take-out.
“Well, there are tons of people who fit the criteria,” Lily finally concluded. “Mostly because we can’t just be looking at pure speed tatùs. Strength can imply speed, though not necessarily. Any shifter is probably on the list. Then there’re people with animal traits.”
Aria nodded seriously, glancing at the boy with the crimson hair.
“That’s a good point. Animal traits...” She pursed her lips, pretending to think. “Hey, Ben...we’re looking for pure speed here, right? What’s faster than a cheetah?”
Jason took this cue and solemnly picked the agent’s card from the trash, dialing the numbers into his phone. Benji snatched both away with a grin.
“Finally can’t take the heat?” he teased. “Need to shift that spotlight to someone else?”
“This is weird,” James murmured. “The new kids—they’re not in the book.”
The others glanced at each other in confusion. It was beyond weird. Even people from the Abbey were in the book. It was for the entire supernatural community—treating everyone alike.
“Not anywhere?” Aria repeated.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.” He tilted the pages so that she could see. “Hastings and Lach, right? The thing’s listed alphabetically. They’re not in here.”
Lily considered this for a moment, offering a diplomatic, “Well, we know that they’re shifters...”
“Yeah, but that could mean anything,” Aria protested. “They could turn into goldfish.”
There was a beat of silence.
“I highly doubt they turn into goldfish.”
No, probably not.
But one way or another, we need to find out...
SCHOOL WAS CANCELLED the next day. Not for any legitimate reason, but simply because the professors knew the students would be unable to concentrate.
It was the day of the fall dance.
Aria woke up the next morning to a flurry of activity. Only nine in the morning, but the girls of Aumbry Hall were already in full-swing. Her room was packed. Not just with the usual suspects, but with first- and second-year students as well—each of them soaking in the excitement, ducking happily out of the way when the older girls rushed past.
“Aria Wardell, how can you possibly still be in bed??” The face of an angry telepath floated into the air above her. The fact that half of her hair was tied back in curlers added a touch of mania to the question. “Get up! We need to get ready for the dance!”
Aria blinked, slowly pushing onto her elbows. She and the rest of them had worked long into the night, making a list of a little over seven hundred suspects. Most of whom they knew.
“The dance...that’s today?”
When Jason had asked her, she’d assumed he was referring to some vague hypothetical in the future. She had no idea that it was so close. She was fairly sure he didn’t know either.
Catalina shook her head, flinging drops of hairspray all over the bed. “You’re absolutely hopeless, you know that? Were you even planning to go?”
Aria sat up slowly, wincing at the bright sun. “Uh...yeah. I mean, I think so.”
Several of the first-years giggled. She hissed and they ran from the room.
“You think so,” Lisette repeated under her breath. She caught Aria’s eyes in the mirror, sulking for just a moment before forcing a smile. “She’s only going with the hottest guy in school.”
“Benji?!” half the girls demanded at once.
“Jason!” the others declared.
“I thought you were going with Oliver,” a voice piped up from the corner. “Or was that Alexander? Or maybe someone else entirely...it’s so hard to keep track.”
The girls parted to reveal Lily perched upon Catalina’s bed. Unlike the others, she was ignoring the upcoming dance entirely—buried nose-deep in a book.
She and Aria locked eyes and grinned.
“It’s Jason,” Aria admitted. “If he even remembers...” she added under her breath.
Catalina’s eyes sparkled as she jumped up and down.
Is this because of the kiss?! she asked telepathically.
Aria lifted a hand to her temple, warding off a migraine.
Which kiss?
She realized her mistake just as the girl let out a high-pitched shriek.
“There’ve been more than one??” she exclaimed aloud. “I knew it!”
The rest of the girls stared excitedly between them. Lily cocked an eyebrow, then returned to her book. Aria dropped back into the bed, pressing a pillow slowly over her face.
Waking up this morning was a mistake...
IT WASN’T UNTIL AFTER lunch that things reached a breaking point. Showers were drained of hot water, and those who hadn’t snuck in yet were starting to riot. It wasn’t until early evening that Aria and Lily were finally able to sneak away from the others, going back up to Aria’s dorm room.
“This is a nightmare,” Aria said miserably, cursing the sisterhood and all the aerosolized contraptions that went with them. “You know Jason’s still probably asleep. Has no idea that the dance is tonight, let alone that he asked me to go.”
Lily smiled faintly, stretching on her back so that her long hair trailed over the floor. “At least you’re going with someone. For the first time, I thought I might want to do that this year.”
Aria stopped pacing at once, staring down at her friend.
She happened to know firsthand that no fewer than a dozen boys had asked her lovely young friend to the dance. She happened to know that Lily had turned down no fewer than all of them.
“...you didn’t call Henry?”
There was a pause, then Lily shut her book.
“Nope,” she said briskly, pushing to her feet. “It’d be a little difficult, right? Inviting the Crown Prince of England to a school dance? Not that he’d want to go anyway.”
Aria pursed her lips, hiding a smile. “Right.”
“But you’re actually going with Jason?” Lily asked in surprise. “I thought that was just a stunt to keep Alexander off your back.”
There was a hitch in Aria’s breathing. She didn’t like lying to Lily. No matter how trivial it might be. No matter how confused she might be herself.
“Uh...it was. I mean—it is.” She flashed a casual smile. “But now we have to sell it.” The smile faded as she trudged over to her closet. “Not that I’ll be able to go. This thing’s supposed to be super formal and I have nothing to—”
Her mouth dropped open.
“—wear.”
Hanging in the center of her closet, like it had floated down from heaven itself, was the most beautiful dress Aria had ever laid eyes on. A sheer white slip covered in a lacework of such delicate crystal beading, it looked like the entire thing had been dipped in liquid glass.
There was a note pinned to the front, written in a familiar looping hand.
In case you forgot...
Aria lifted it off the hanger slowly, grinning from ear to ear. “Thanks, Aunt Molly.”
Lily watched with a smile as she slipped it over her head, twirling this way and that.
“You look beautiful.”
Aria stopped and stared at her straight-on. “I won’t be the only one. Do you really think she didn’t get one for you?”
THE SUN WAS JUST SETTING over the trees as Lily and Aria stepped out of Aumbry House and onto the lawn. The last of the golden rays danced upon their dresses and the diamonds dripping from their ears, and for a moment they just stood there. Soaking it all in.
“This is one of my last ones,” Aria said suddenly, staring out over the grass. All around her, students were pairing up. Laughing as they took each other’s arms and headed to the giant tent erected on the far side of campus. “Two years from now...I’ll be gone.”
Lily considered this for a moment before turning with a sudden smile.
“Two years from now, you and I will be agents of the Privy Council. We’ll be wearing gowns like this to infiltrate elite gambling rings and take down heads of state.”
Aria laughed in spite of herself. “You saw that, did you?”
The psychic threw her a little wink. “Stay tuned...”
Holy hotness.
Aria lifted her head suddenly, staring around in alarm. She didn’t know how it happened, she didn’t know how it was possible...but she’d just heard Jason’s voice in her head.
She looks...how can anyone look that beautiful?
There it was again!
She twisted around, then Lily tapped her on the shoulder and she looked up to see three men walking towards her across the grass. All three were impossibly dashing, dressed in tailored suits that clung to their muscular frames. All three had failed to understand the subtle implication of a hairbrush—tousled locks tumbled messily into their eyes.
But only one of them looked nervous. The beautiful boy with the sunlit hair.
I’m going to screw this whole thing up. His lips weren’t moving but she heard his voice again, clear as day. Say something cool. Say something that she’ll remember.
“Nice shoes.”
Jason’s eyes snapped sh
ut as Aria looked down in surprise. You couldn’t even see them beneath her dress. The voice faded as she suddenly realized she’d absorbed a new tatù.
“Nice shoes yourself.”
No need to tell the rest of them she could hear thoughts. Not until she’d mastered it. Not until she’d used it against them at least a hundred times.
“Sorry,” Jason stammered, looking uncharacteristically shy. “I just meant...you look nice.”
Nice, that’s all?
The telepathic teasing rang in his head as he lifted his eyes with a twinkling smile.
“You look beautiful.”
For a fleeting moment it was just the two of them.
“Dude, get it together.” Benji cuffed him upside the head, flashing Aria his signature grin. “You look all right. Lily looks beautiful.”
The girl curtsied with a smile, delicately lifting the hem of her sapphire dress. Benji promptly offered out his arm. James, always the odd man out, offered out his as well.
She took them both with a grin, tossing a backwards glance at Aria.
“Guess I’ll be escorted to this dance after all.”
Aria beamed back as the three of them headed off into the twilight. She smoothed down her dress and went to follow, but Jason tugged gently on her arm.
“Let’s go the long way.”
With a little smile, she followed him into the trees...
IT TOOK NO TIME AT all for the last of the sun to vanish into the silvery light of the moon. She and Jason watched it happen, strolling slowly beneath the starlit canopy, walking arm in arm. After a while, he loosened his grip and trailed his hand down the inside of her arm.
Their fingers laced together. They continued walking with a smile.
“...what is this?”
He looked down in surprise to see her staring back at him.
“What do you mean?”
She swished their hands gently, feeling rather shy herself.
“This, Jason. What are we doing?”
All at once, that voice was back. Like she was pulling it right out of his head.
Make a joke. Change the subject. Whatever you do, don’t tell the—