Damn, these boys cleaned up good.
Before they noticed us, I grabbed Sin’s arm and swung her in front of me. Hands on her shoulders, I steered her forward. She needed a confidence boost and I was certain the guys would deliver.
Aaron spotted her first. He broke off mid-sentence, whatever he’d been saying to Kai forgotten. For a long second, he just stared. I gave Sin a final push, then hung back.
“Sin.” He blinked, stunned. “You look …”
Kai slid past him, swept Sin’s hand into his, and lifted her fingers to his lips. “Ravishing,” he finished for Aaron, speaking against her knuckles.
Oh, he was smooth. I grinned as Sin turned bright red and tried to look demure despite her delighted smile. Aaron and Kai were so busy charming her that they hadn’t noticed me several long steps away—but Ezra, standing behind the other two, wasn’t watching Sin.
He stepped around Kai and approached me, smiling in a way that made my lungs quit working. His fingers brushed my elbow as he leaned down to speak in my ear.
“Beautiful isn’t a strong enough word,” he murmured. “You’re exquisite.”
My heart fluttered.
“I’m supposed to watch out for the what?” Sin exclaimed.
Ezra straightened and looked over, and I inhaled before I fainted. Stupid lungs.
“The pixie mistletoe,” Aaron answered as he pointed at the ceiling.
Hanging from the gilded, coffered ceiling above the windows, a small bunch of green leaves tied with a red bow swayed. The floor beneath it was conspicuously empty of guests.
“It looks like regular mistletoe,” Aaron explained, “but it’s a pixie. The event coordinator who does all the decorating for Mom is a witch, and she brings the pixie every year for the party. You probably won’t see it move, but it changes location throughout the night. You never know where it’ll show up.”
Sin paled with immediate alarm.
“And if you get caught under it with someone,” he added cheerfully, “you’d better kiss them, because the pixie will curse you with bad romantic luck for the next year if you don’t, or so rumor has it.”
I snorted. “Seriously?”
Aaron glanced at me, then did a double take, his eyes sweeping down my dress and back up again. “Wow, Tori. You’re—”
He broke off as his father strode over, his black tuxedo impeccable and a champagne glass in each hand. Following him was a middle-aged power couple, the man in an impeccable black tux and the woman draped in an off-the-shoulder gown patterned with huge peacock feathers.
“Aaron.” Tobias handed his son a champagne glass. “I haven’t had a chance to introduce you to Denzel and Abby Stein. Denzel is President and GM of the IAE.”
As Aaron shook hands with the couple, I leaned toward Ezra. “IAE?”
“International Association of Elementaria,” he whispered back. “The largest mage guild in the world.”
Kai shifted closer and murmured in my other ear, “They, along with the North American and European branches of the Arcana Federation, are the primary influencers of MPD laws.”
Whoa. I was suddenly relieved Tobias hadn’t introduced me.
“ … pleased to finally meet you,” Denzel was saying to Aaron in a slow baritone. “I’ve discussed this idea with Tobias, and I’m eager to get your input.”
“Oh?” Aaron murmured vaguely.
Denzel allowed a small, restrained smile. “As you know, we’re constantly working to balance the MPD’s strict prudence with reasonable freedoms. Early next year, we’re expanding our public relations branch, and part of that undertaking involves bringing on several influential spokespeople.”
“They’ve already brought Bjorn Visser and Jayda Hunt on board,” Tobias supplied, emphasizing the names as though they were Hollywood A-listers. “And Kyle Li has expressed interest as well.”
“But we also want an advocate for the youngest generation of mages,” Denzel said. “You’re the perfect candidate, Aaron. The role would involve a fair bit of travel but the benefits would be countless. The networking opportunities alone—plus the chance to become a voice for young mages everywhere.”
Denzel and Tobias smiled expectantly at Aaron. I blinked, taken aback by the prestigious offer. Even a nobody like me could tell it was an amazing opportunity.
“Thank you for considering me,” Aaron said politely. “I’d be happy to review the details and get back to you in the new year.”
Tobias’s smile went flat, but he held it in place. “Send me the information and I’ll forward it along,” he told Denzel.
“I’d be delighted to.”
Denzel’s wife swirled her champagne. “But we’ve been rude, I reckon,” she said in a bold Texan accent, “gettin’ straight to business like that. Aaron, tell us what you’ve been up to with your guild—the Crow and Hammer?”
Tobias jumped in before his son could answer. “Speaking of guilds, Aaron spent the better part of his morning meeting with Manolis Stavros.”
“The GM of Olympus?” Denzel’s eyebrows rose. “I see the competition for Aaron’s next guild will be stiff.”
“We’ll have to make him an offer right quick,” Abby declared confidently.
“Have you met Manolis?” Tobias asked. “Perhaps I can have the pleasure of introducing you.”
“We’ve met but I haven’t seen him in several years …” Denzel’s voice grew inaudible as Tobias led him and his wife into the mingling crowd.
Aaron, Kai, Ezra, Sin, and I let out identical heaving breaths as though none of us had inhaled properly during that entire conversation.
“Holy crap.” I goggled at Aaron. “That’s a hell of an offer. Are you actually going to …?”
He shook his head, looking tired even though the party had just started. “I have to pretend to think about it before refusing or they’ll be offended.”
“Um …” I hesitated. “Are you sure you want to refuse? Not that I wouldn’t be crushed if you left the Crow and Hammer, but—”
“Yes, I’m sure,” he interrupted sharply.
Right, okay. I nervously rubbed my hands together. “So what’s the plan for tonight? After the party, I mean?”
“Kelvin will give me my final dose of his potion at nine,” Sin said quickly, catching on to my attempted topic change. “Josephine arrives at around ten, and at midnight, I get exorcised—properly this time.”
“And first thing tomorrow morning,” Aaron added, “we resume searching for the alpha shifter. He may just be looking for a fight, but what he said—that you aren’t the one he’s looking for—worries me. There could be more going on here than a random, mutated shifter making the woods his home.”
I shivered at the reminder of the man’s clammy hands on me. “How did he get into the castle?”
“We think he came through the staff door in the east wing. It doesn’t appear tampered with and Dominic swears he locked it, but maybe he forgot.”
“All the students went home this afternoon, except for a dozen who are staying through Christmas.” Kai slid his hands into his trouser pockets. “Most of the staff and alumni will leave after the party and go home to their families. We’ll have less mage-power to help us, but also fewer liabilities.”
I nodded, eager for this party to be over with. I would’ve happily skipped it, but Aaron’s parents wouldn’t let him miss even a minute of the schmooze fest, so the rest of us might as well endure it with him.
As though summoned by my thought, Valerie appeared at Aaron’s elbow. “Darling, the Allertons are waiting to say hello. Ah, good evening, ladies. You look wonderful tonight.”
Taking her son’s arm, she dragged him over to an elderly couple wearing far too many diamonds between them for good taste.
The rest of us followed leisurely. For over an hour, we trailed after Aaron as his parents paraded him in front of guest after guest. He smiled, made polite small talk, and promised to consider every offer he received, from prestigious jobs to guild mem
berships to volunteer opportunities. I hoped to see the famous bounty hunter that Tobias had mentioned on our first day at the academy, but aside from the alumni and instructors, everyone else I spotted was some combination of stuffy, old, or way too rich to be a rogue-tagging badass.
When my stomach growled, I slipped away from my friends to check out the buffet table, and Sin followed me with a swirl of her teal gown. Keeping half an eye out for the pixie mistletoe—it did keep relocating around the room—I snagged a champagne glass off a passing waiter’s tray and almost walked into another guest.
“Oh.” I smiled at the guy’s familiar face. “Hey Brian. Got an invite, did you?”
The apprentice alchemist nodded as he tugged at his jacket. The black suit didn’t fit him well. “Valerie insisted we join them since we’re here until Sin’s exorcism.”
“I don’t see Kelvin,” I noted, glancing around. The transmutation expert/lumberjack hippie was hard to miss.
“He bowed out,” Brian muttered jealously.
“What about my last dose of the potion?” Sin asked.
“He finished it earlier and gave it to me to give to you,” he assured her as he anxiously surveyed the posh gathering. I empathized hard with his obvious discomfort.
Sin seemed to notice too, because her tone softened. “We haven’t really gotten to talk, have we? Do you specialize in transmutation like Kelvin?”
I almost snorted my champagne. She hadn’t spoken with the apprentice because she’d been too busy fangirling over his master to notice him.
Brian perked up at her question. “Yes, though I’m taking my studies in a slightly different direction. Mr. Compton’s focus has always been on tissue transmutation, but I want to expand into …”
And that was the last word I understood. Shaking my head, I muttered, “I’m getting some food,” and walked off. Sin waved distractedly as she listened to Brian’s explanation.
I wandered past the small stage where a string quartet serenaded guests with holiday melodies. Aaron, trapped between Valerie and Tobias, was speaking with a trio of old men in matching black tuxes. One of them wore an actual monocle. At the buffet table, I stopped behind two men and a woman around my age, waiting to access a platter of chocolate pastries shaped like holly leaves.
“Can you believe him?” the tall blond guy in the middle muttered to his friends. “How many guild offers do you think he’s gotten already?”
“I heard Azalea Inc. interviewed him this morning.”
“No, that was Olympus.”
“Olympus? I’d kill to join that guild.”
I rolled my eyes. Though I could’ve called them out for being gossipy losers, that might interfere with my mission to eat those chocolate pastries.
“He’s getting invites we can only dream of,” the blond guy said bitterly, “and he’ll turn them all down, just like he does every year. Considering what he’s done, he shouldn’t even be allowed back here.”
My brow furrowed. What Aaron had done?
“An academy alumni,” the woman hissed. “A Sinclair mage, slumming it at an inner city guild. Chasing pathetic bounties alongside inferior classes and second-rate mages.”
“Yamada is good,” the shorter man conceded. “But the aeromage? He wouldn’t pass the entrance exam.”
“Sinclair is sullying the academy reputation,” the blond guy declared in a fervent whisper. “He’s diminishing our opportunities by setting the worst possible example of an alumni-caliber mage’s capabilities. He—”
I slapped my hands on the two guys’ shoulders and leaned between them, baring my teeth in a humorless smile. “Hi. Did you know you three are so revoltingly full of yourselves that you’re making everyone around you nauseous?”
The guys shrugged away from me, and as they turned, I recognized them. Blondie, Pig Nose, and a woman with one side of her black hair shaved close to her scalp—the trio I’d overheard on my first day here. They’d been insulting Aaron then too.
“Oh,” the woman said coldly. “You’re Aaron’s guildmate, aren’t you?”
“Damn right.” I folded my arms and cocked a hip. “But don’t let me rain on your jealousy parade. By the way, Aaron’s getting waaay more than mere guild offers.”
Their faces twisted with heightened resentment.
I feigned surprise. “It’s almost like his choice of guild doesn’t even matter. Fancy that, huh?”
“His choice of guild,” the blond guy sneered, “hasn’t affected his reputation because his parents do everything they can to keep the mythic elite from finding out.”
“Were you dropped on your head as a child?” I retorted. “Any mythic with internet access can look that shit up. Our guilds aren’t a secret, and Aaron—”
Gold dust, sifting through the air like fine snow, interrupted me. Brow furrowing, I looked up. The pixie mistletoe hung above my head, leaves rustling as it shook glittering dust over me. The trio split, the guy on the left and the woman on the right backing rapidly away.
Which left me and Blond Bozo standing in a shower of golden sparkles.
Smirking, he let his gaze glide down and linger on the vicinity of my lace-clad hips, then arched his eyebrows expectantly.
“I don’t normally fraternize with lesser classes,” he began haughtily, “but—”
I smiled sweetly, causing him to hesitate. Lifting my hand to my lips, I kissed my fingertips and pressed them firmly to his cheek.
“Say another word,” I warned, “and that will be my fist next.”
He leaned back uncertainly. Before he could force me to follow through on my threat, I swept away from him. The pixie mistletoe fluttered on the ceiling, probably cursing me with a lifetime of bad romantic luck. Who cared? My love life was a complete and utter shit show anyway.
I slipped among the guests, grieving the chocolate pastries I hadn’t gotten to eat, and found the guys in conversation with Valerie and another woman. The petite brunette, her hair curlier than mine, was talking at high speed.
“… chance to really get your name out there, Aaron. Our magazine is the most read mythic publication in North America. One interview—four hours max, I promise—and a photoshoot, that’s it. The Sinclair family is well known already, but you can show the mythic community who you really are.”
As Aaron mumbled something noncommittal, she stepped closer, almost on his toes.
“You’ve ventured well off the beaten path for someone of your upbringing and stature. Last year, you passed on a once-in-a-lifetime offer to join the MPD’s International Crime Investigations division—the first opening in eight years! I know there’s a story there, Aaron.”
Valerie coughed delicately. “Petra, an interview would be wonderful, but perhaps more focus on Aaron’s accomplishments—”
“Yes, yes,” Petra agreed with alarming intensity. “Our readers would love to know what attracted you to an unknown Vancouver guild, Aaron. Was it the Crow and Hammer in particular that lured you away, or is there a unique appeal to small guilds? Since you joined, the guild has claimed, on average, thirteen percent more in bounties per year. What’s your role in that increase?”
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
The Alchemist and an Amaretto: The Guild Codex: Spellbound / Five Page 16