by Abbie Lyons
Now it was my turn to stare at him. For a moment, neither of us said anything.
“Hey, speaking of the other day,” I ventured. “Want to explain what the hell you meant? About Harlowe?”
Raines blinked. “Not really.”
I chewed my lip. As frustrating as this whole man-of-mystery thing was, I had to admit, I kind of liked bantering with Raines. If he’d just given up what I wanted to know, it would’ve been a disappointment.
“But then again, that’s why I came to find you.”
I gave him a quizzical look. “Uh...?”
“I don’t really want to tell you, Nova. Everything logical says that you’re someone to avoid. You’re too close to my brother. You break rules and cut class. You’re—”
“Half-human,” I finished for him. “I know.”
“That isn’t what I was going to say.” Raines looked away. “Don’t think you know me like that. I’m just as much of an outcast as you are, okay? In a lot of ways.” He held up his hand, and sure enough, there were the two lines, just kissing at the edge of his palm. He balled it into a fist. “You’re not the only one who’s been hurt by things in the past.”
“What was her name?”
Raines jerked to attention. Then pretended like he hadn’t. “Who?”
“The girl. Whoever she was. Is.” My heart hammered. It was none of my business, I knew, but I couldn’t not ask. Not when his pain was so close to the surface.
“Octavia,” Raines said, almost robotically. Then, lower, coarser, “Tavi.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, and I really meant it. I didn’t need to know the details—how different are the details each time, anyway?—but I didn’t like seeing Raines like this. It felt wrong somehow. Not his usual, cocky, snarling self, but...
“Don’t be sorry,” Raines said. “I don’t want your pity. I know what I am and I know what I’m worth.”
His eyes flared red, and it startled me. As crazy as it sounds, I’d almost forgotten we were demons. That we weren’t just two people, sitting together in a pool of moonlight, sharing.
“Anyway. Yeah, Harlowe wasn’t telling you the whole truth.” Raines ran a hand through his hair, his eyes fading to their normal color. “And now that I know you can, well...take care of yourself, I think maybe you should know.”
“Yeah?” My heart thudded again, for a different reason this time.
“The kyrioi aren’t here for something routine. Hades genuinely isn’t safe.” He blew out a breath.
“How do you know?”
Raines’s eyes gleamed. “I asked him.”
I didn’t need an explanation of which him he meant.
“I hate myself for it,” Raines went on, “but yeah, I needed to know what was going on. More than everyone else, I needed to know.” He tensed a fist in his lap, pausing before continuing. “And I knew Wilder would cave. I know how to work him over. So I got it out of him. That’s what Col and Aleks were out doing during class. Trying to stop me before I did something stupid. But I didn’t—not beyond cutting class, anyway. And Wilder told me what I wanted to know. So when I saw you had been summoned to Harlowe’s, and you said that you didn’t know what was going on, I knew she hadn’t told you. That she’d basically lied to you.”
“So what is going on?” I said.
Raines looked up at me from under his eyelashes. “It’s the relics. Someone’s after them.”
“Oh,” I said. “I knew that.”
A strange expression mutated Raines’s face. “You did?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Camilla let it slip the other day. After I kicked her in the nose. Funny how that gets things out of people.”
Raines shot to standing. “Are you serious?”
“No, I’m lying.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Of course I’m serious. You think I attack people in boutiques just for fun?”
“I can’t fucking believe it,” Raines said. He ran his hand through his hair again, pacing in a little circle. “I come all the way out here, pour my heart out to you about all this bullshit, and you’re just working me over for information you already know. You tricked me. You—”
“I didn’t do any of that!” I cried, leaping to my feet. “I was out here to try and learn to channel, or whatever, and you burst in like some mopey YA novel hero and pour your angst out on me.”
Raines shot me a glare over his shoulder. His eyes were blazing, brighter than I’d ever seen them before.
“You manipulated me,” he said. “You tried to make me vulnerable, and then—”
“Me? Manipulate you?” I had to laugh. “God, that’s rich. You’re the one coming out here to moan about Wilder, feed me all this bullshit about my hair and my hands, and cry over, what’s her name, Tavi—”
“Leave her out of this!” Raines roared. He lunged at me, and I jerked back, but he stopped short of my personal space.
“You don’t speak to me again, Nova,” he growled. “I should have listened to my instincts the first time. I never should’ve trusted you. When the shit goes down here, don’t you come crying to me for help.”
With that, he turned violently on his heel and strode off in the opposite direction of the common room.
I stood a moment longer, heart thudding in my chest.
I’d gained some insight, all right. But channeling had nothing to do with it.
Chapter Sixteen
If I hadn’t already known it was the day of the ball with Elysium, then the unicorns flying around outside my window would’ve been a pretty damn obvious indication that the time had come.
Honestly, I was fangirling a little bit. I wasn’t the girliest of girls, even when I was much younger, but I loved unicorns as much as anybody back when I was in grade school. And these unicorns just chilling outside my window looked a lot like the ones that were on the old Lisa Frank folders that I and everybody else used to have—sparkly white fur that glistened in the sunlight, a swirly-shaped horn, and, most amazingly, rainbow manes.
“Morgan, wake up right now,” I demanded. “You have to see this.”
“Whatisit,” she mumbled, stretching and wiping the sleep out of her eyes.
“Unicorns, Morgan. Honest-to-goodness real-life unicorns. Holy shit, they’re just flying all around out there.”
She was up and out of bed in seconds, standing right beside me at the window.
“You’re never going to believe this,” she said, “but I was something of a unicorn girl when I was little.”
“Nope,” I said. “I believe it. We all were. Have you ever seen one before?”
“Never. I didn’t know they would actually be so...extra. I fucking love it.”
The unicorns were so transfixing that it was almost easy to miss that some of them had riders. Elysium students, I assumed. Angels, or guardians, or whatever they were technically called.
They were all the very definition of “generically attractive.” Men with big forearms and chiseled jaws. Women with perfect figures and big smiles straight out of a Crest commercial. And though there was the occasional brunette, blonde hair seemed to be the norm. But some of them were for sure just shitty dye jobs. Or whatever kind of magical beauty charms Raines had been going on about in the garden.
Raines. My heart twisted just thinking about him. Not in a good way. Not in a bad way. Just...hurt.
The unicorns and their riders slowly flew circles around the entire campus, working their way closer to the ground with every loop.
“Well, you can say one thing for angels,” I noted, “they know how to make an entrance.”
“They do,” Morgan agreed. “Nothing like the entrance I’ll make at the ball tonight, of course, but a good showing nonetheless.”
“And why do they arrive so damn early?” I asked, realizing the dance didn’t start for hours. “Haven’t they ever heard of being fashionably late?”
“Just some silly tradition,” Morgan said. “These ones have the honor of being the first arrivals. They’ll start to come i
n a trickle throughout the day. Annoying really, because they’ll probably be taking up space at the refectory, and I would do foul things for a breakfast burrito right now.”
On the way to get some much needed breakfast, we could hardly step a foot into the common room before Teddy came rushing our way.
“Did you see the unicorns?” he asked excitedly. “How cool are they?”
“Spoken like a true almost-went-to-Elysium student,” Morgan said snidely.
“Don’t listen to her,” I told Teddy. “She loves them.”
Morgan couldn’t help but smile. “I really do.”
We weren’t the only ones excited. The whole room was buzzing at the arrival of the angels. But once some of the adrenaline wore off, I noticed there was also something else that had students talking.
Stationed at the front of the room were several kyrioi. Until now, they’d only been lurking the hallways and classrooms. To see them this close to the dorms? Something was definitely up. The sheer sight of them there in the common room might’ve been enough to create a small panic if it were any other day.
“Perhaps it’s just an extra precaution with the visitors here,” Morgan said, as the three of us made our way to the refectory. “Maybe they suspect there are some angels who could be up to some foul play?”
All the angels who’d arrived so far sat together during breakfast. Nobody dared approach them to make awkward small talk. But they didn’t seem to be intimidated about being surrounded by demons—on the contrary, they were laughing and smiling more than anybody else in the room. And it was so show-offy! As if they wanted everybody to see how much fun they were having.
“That’s typical angel shite,” Morgan said between bites of that breakfast burrito she’d so wanted. “Always happy and having the best time. We get it, you’re angels!”
“I thought you’ve never met an angel?” I asked.
“I haven’t met one, per se, but I still know all the stereotypes. I acquired my shit-talking genes from my parents, and they’ve told me plenty about how annoying Elysium kids are.”
“They seem fine to me,” Teddy argued. “They’re just trying to have a nice time.”
“Thinking you might meet a pretty Elysium girl tonight?” I teased.
He blushed before I could even finish my sentence. “No, no, no,” he said bashfully.
“I don’t know, buddy. You’re gonna be looking pretty damn sharp in that suit we found for you.”
“Speaking of,” Morgan said turning to me, “I still don’t know what you’re wearing. Tell tell!”
We didn’t have any time during our trip to Westrock to shop for my dress—mostly my fault, due to that whole kicking Camilla’s face thing—and apparently there was no such thing as demon Amazon Prime that’d allow me to get anything suitable two-dayed to me.
So yeah, I didn’t have anything to wear.
But I was keeping that fact a secret, despite Morgan’s constant attempts to figure it out. I figured I could come up with something last-minute. What, I didn’t know. But something.
“Is it slutty?” she asked. I kept straight-faced as she swallowed a bite of burrito and stared me down. “You really aren’t giving anything away. Hell of a poker face you’ve got, Donovan. Okay, final guess: something elegant and conservative.”
“Guess you’ll just have to wait and see,” I said, trying to keep the note of panic out of my voice. “In the meantime, I’m going back for seconds.”
“Ugh, not me. I’m fasting until the ball.” She pushed away the remains of her burrito. “Not counting this, of course.”
It turned out, after perusing the food offerings a second time, that I wasn’t really that hungry either. I just wanted to fast-forward through the hours between breakfast and the main event. There was too little time to do anything of substance, but still much more time than we actually needed to get ready. You could tell everybody was a bit on edge from a combination of nerves, impatience, and the presence of the kyrioi.
Myself included.
Well, the kyrioi, and a certain red-eyed guy who I just so happened to be in class with.
Of course Raines and I hadn’t spoken since the night in the garden. Wilder and I hadn’t either—not outside the confines of class, anyway. The next exetasis was scheduled for three days after the dance—presumably to give everyone a chance to sleep off their hangovers—and so far it was totally business-as-usual with me and Wilder.
Which, of course, was totally fine. Honestly, my head was spinning between these two guys.
“God, I hope I get a looker for the procession,” Morgan said as I settled back at our table with a single mandarin orange I probably wouldn’t even finish.
“Procession?” Teddy said through a mouthful of cereal.
“Cor blimey,” Morgan said, in her most exaggerated British accent. “Teddy, what kind of demon are you?”
Teddy averted his eyes, and I threw Morgan a look that said too far. I had a feeling that being this close to Elysium students was what was making Teddy look so unusually nervous. I had to wonder if he would have fit in there.
Something told me probably not.
“Right-o.” Morgan cleared her throat and took a sip of her tea. “As I meant to say, the ball commences with this jolly big two-by-two kind of thing—very Noah’s Ark—where we all walk in coupled with an Elysium student and do a kind of ritual dance. Don’t worry,” she added, seeing my look of panic. “It’s a dance only in the barest sense of the term. Basically walking around an altar in three circles one way, then three circles the opposite. Symbolism, et cetera, thus and so.” She waved a hand in the air. “Then we party like fiends.”
I nodded, picking at the peel of my orange. “Sounds like a cotillion. Or a quinceanera.”
“Or a werewolf bar mitzvah.” Morgan gave me a look when I laughed. “What? I watch 30 Rock.”
“I don’t know how that’s going to go,” Teddy said. He looked, honestly, kind of green.
“You all right, mate?” Morgan peered onto his tray. “That milk gone a bit dodgy?”
Teddy shook his head. “I’m just...bleh.”
“I hear that,” I said, although I hoped I didn’t look as clammy as Teddy did. “So we just get paired up with a rando Elysium kid?”
Morgan shrugged. “I think so. Maybe it’s alphabetical, I dunno. Loads of Elysium kids have friends at Hades, anyway. Even boyfriends.” She waggled her eyebrows.
“Really?” I said, unable to hide my shock.
“Oh, absolutely,” Morgan said, leaning forward with her characteristic let’s gossip gleam in her eye. “It’s scandalous, but not explicitly forbidden—at least, a quick snog or two isn’t. An angel-demon marriage would be...well, literally unholy.” She fake-crossed herself, but did it backwards—I think. “Still, as long as it doesn’t get to the point of creating offspring, everyone just looks the other way. A sort of ‘sow your wild oats’ thing.”
“So what you’re saying is, any of us has carte blanche to score with an Elysium guy. Or girl,” I added, glancing at Teddy. He gave me a weak smile.
“Now, Nova, let’s not be Camilla-like and make assumptions about our Teddy’s sexual preferences,” Morgan chided, staring Teddy down.
He shrank a bit. “No, I like girls. I’m pretty sure.”
Morgan widened her eyes with glee. “Then that’s it. We’re all bagging ourselves an angel. Boy you’re my angel, you’re my darling angel...”
I covered my ears with my hands. “Please, no.”
Morgan cackled. “Fine, fine. All I’m saying is that I’d bet you twenty quid that at least one of our beloved classmates has done the nasty with an angel.” She lifted an eyebrow. “And I’d put my money on one of those pretty boys over there.”
She was staring, of course, at the Infernal Three.
A FEW HOURS LATER, a bottle of what seemed to be demon alcohol called Hellwater was being passed around the common room as we all lounged around waiting for the proper moment to start getti
ng ready.
“What the actual fuck?” I gasped after taking a small gulp of it. “That tastes...very very bad.”
“I know, right?” Morgan said. “It’s the best.” She tossed back another healthy slug before passing it to Teddy. “Bottoms up, Theodore. It’ll put hair on your chest.”
Teddy, bewildered, swung back the bottle like it was a Diet Coke. Morgan’s eyes bugged.
“No, don’t—”
But Teddy was already coughing.
Even with the gulp of liquor, my nerves weren’t calming any. I’d never been to a “real” school dance before in my life—dropouts don’t typically attend prom, assuming they can even afford the tickets—and the fear of the unknown had butterflies the size of bats flapping around in my stomach. I twisted the ends of my hair—bad habits returning—which, annoyingly, made me think of Raines. What was I going to do with my hair that night, anyway?
No, screw that. Why did I care what I was going to do with my hair?
Morgan seized back the bottle and took another, final gulp, then looked at the enormous, many-wheeled wall clock that dominated one entire side of the common room.
“All right,” she said. “I’m officially declaring it time to get pretty. Nova, shall we?”
She leapt up and extended an arm, which I looped mine through and followed—albeit a bit unsteadily. I shook my head. I did not want to be drunk for my first encounter with an angel.
Back in our room, Morgan immediately set to shimmying out of her uniform and into her ballgown. Me, I stared at the armoire for a few minutes.
“You all right then, Nova?” Morgan’s accent became even more pronounced when she was tipsy, and my name came out Nover. She clip-clopped over to me in her heels.
I breathed out. “I don’t have a gown.” I shook my head. “I fucked up. After we got thrown out of the store, I...I don’t know. I couldn’t go back. And I guess I didn’t think about it. So now I guess I’m going...” I gestured at myself.
Morgan’s eyes bugged. “Oh, love, no. You can’t!”
“Well, I don’t really have any other option,” I said. “Unless you’ve got some kind of demon fairy-godmother thing that can conjure me a gown out of nowhere.”