by Martha Carr
Elizabeth exaggerated a disappointed pout that made them both laugh. “Well, neither of us have to wear this for too long if we don’t want to. I’ll probably end up calling it a night after I stuff my face with party food.”
Raven responded with a pert smile. “I like you more and more every day.”
“Yeah, same here. Are you ready?” Her teammate scooped her bat familiar up and waited for him to hook his claws into the lapel of her purple jacket.
“Not really.” She glanced at her boots where they peeked out beneath the hem of the fancy dress and chuckled. “Let’s go.”
As soon as she opened the door, it sounded like every girl in the school had gathered on the third floor of the girls’ dormitory to head to the dance together. Raven winced against the noise, and Elizabeth scrunched her face. “That sound-dampening spell of yours is almost too good.”
“I know. Jeez, look at this.”
Girls hurried down the hallway as they fixed each other’s hair, giggled, and squealed in excitement, while others ran down the stairs. The two girls exchanged a confused glance. Elizabeth patted her familiar and frowned at the mass exodus of girls in their finest formal attire.
“Okay, there’s another reason I’m cool with you as my roommate,” she muttered as Raven closed their door.
“Oh, yeah?”
“You don’t squeal like that.”
Raven laughed as they headed down the hall toward the stairs. “Not that you’ve heard.”
“Yeah, nice try. I don’t buy it.”
“I wouldn’t either.”
When they reached the bottom of the stairs and the common room, the place was almost empty. Three girls stood in the corner. Two of them tried to console a third, who sobbed uncontrollably with her face buried in her hands. “Is she okay?” Raven asked.
“She’s only a little nervous.” One girl patted her friend’s shoulder and nodded at Raven. “We got it covered. Thanks, though.”
“Sure.” She slowed to watch the distraught girl, but there was no sign that the sobbing would slow anytime soon. I thought I was nervous. I feel like a pro compared to that.
They left the girls, crossed the common room, and pulled the front door open to step out into the evening air. Raven took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “This helps.”
“Uh…” Elizabeth nudged her shoulder and whispered, “Accidental date at ten o’clock.”
“What?”
“Hey, Raven.”
She looked up quickly and took a reactive step back when she realized that Daniel Smith stood almost directly in front of her. Her back bumped against the closed door into the dormitory, and she forced herself to smile. “Hi…” He seriously doesn’t understand what most people call personal space.
“That’s my cue. See you out there, Raven. Or not.” Elizabeth shrugged and stepped around Daniel to stroll to the back of the main buildings and the gate leading to the event.
Daniel ignored the other girl completely and grinned at Raven. “You look great. That dress is…”
“Cool, right?”
He laughed and wrinkled his nose. “Yeah. How did you know I was gonna say that?”
“It was a lucky guess.” It is so hard to keep a straight face right now.
“Well, anyway, I like it.”
“Thanks. You look good too.” When he glanced at the slightly darker version of what he wore virtually every day—plus a vest with a few shiny silver buttons—she clenched her eyes shut. Try not to say anything stupid, Raven. That was strike one.
“Do you think so?” He patted the vest and shrugged. “Naw. It’s only something I threw together. I bet you spent a long time getting ready, huh?”
Telling him fifteen minutes would probably be strike two. She shrugged instead and hung onto her smile. “I guess.”
“I can tell. So, Raven Alby. Do you care to join me for the gala?” He offered her his arm and straightened as if it was some kind of momentous occasion.
“I already…oh. You mean to walk out there together. Yep. I’m ready.” She linked her arm through his and pretended to nod at some of the other students who wandered in the same direction so he wouldn’t see her widen her eyes in disbelief. If this is normal for being someone’s date, I seriously suck at it.
“Do you like dancing?”
When she looked at him, he’d leaned his head so close to her face that she jerked back in surprise. A laugh escaped her as she gave him sidelong glances and waited for him to pull away a little. “Sure. One of the ranch hands who did seasonal work during the harvest when I was little used to bring a banjo. I did much more dancing back then.”
Daniel grinned and his eyes crinkled at the corners. “That’s cute.”
“Thanks.” She wrinkled her nose and finally had to laugh at herself. Stop worrying about what you’re supposed to do. It’s not like you’re the best at following the rules, whatever the rules for this are. “What about you? Do you dance a lot?”
He shrugged and led her through the open gate onto the field the students rarely used. “Yeah, I got moves.”
A sharp laugh escaped her, and he grinned even wider. “Good for you, Daniel.”
“You think I’m kidding. Just wait. You’ll see.”
“Okay.”
He shook his head and looked at the twinkling silver and green lights with spells cast to keep them floating in draped strands above the gala. Raven turned her head a little to look at his profile. He’s cute when he’s not trying so hard to be cool. Maybe this won’t be so bad.
A few of the professors put the last finishing touches on the lights while Professor Worley lifted a hay bale onto the top of a stack and brushed his hands off. He pointed at the hay, muttered a spell, and every stacked bale flashed with a green light before it was completely covered in brightly colored flowers. On the other side of the particularly large dancefloor, someone started with a fiddle.
“What?” Raven leaned forward and tried to get a better look at the man who struck up a lively tune. “Fellows plays the fiddle?”
“Right before he starts wielding that bow as a weapon.” Daniel smirked. “It sounds good.”
“It does. Is he gonna stand there and play all night?”
“Does it matter?” He lowered his head and smiled at her, his dimples stained green and silver from the lights that hovered above them.
“Probably not.”
“What about food, then? I’m starving.”
Okay, that’s a sentiment I can relate to. “Sure. Food first, then dancing. It sounds like the perfect way to get a good stomach cramp.”
“Not if you do it right. Come on.” He nodded toward the long tables on the far side of the makeshift pavilion and guided her in that direction, her arm still hooked through his.
Raven didn’t even notice the food at first. She was too busy smiling at all the first-year girls—and even a few second-years—who darted dreamy gazes at her date and less dreamy glares at her. One second-year leaned toward her friend and whispered something before they both looked at her boots beneath her borrowed dress.
“Yeah, but let’s see you try to run in heels,” she muttered.
“What?” Daniel’s smile looked a little clueless.
“Nothing. Only a bunch of nothing.” Not like getting stared at or whispered about is anything new, anyway.
They reached the banquet tables, and her mouth dropped open. “Wow. This is insane.”
“Right? They pull out all the stops for these galas. Hell, I’d move into the dorm to eat like this every day, but I hear the grub isn’t nearly as good.”
“It’s not bad but it’s definitely not this.”
He handed her a thin tin plate and gestured for her to go ahead of him.
She eyed the fruit and too many pastries to count, sliced ham, four different blocks of crumbling cheese, what looked like either a chicken or a duck covered in sauce with more fruit, plates piled high with tiny bite-sized desserts, and huge glass bowls of a drink that sm
elled strongly of strawberries. She chose only a few things and had barely covered half her plate by the time she reached the end.
“They have chocolate.” She stretched to take one of the intricately decorated pieces of fudge with a few zigzag lines of green frosting along the top.
“Wait, wait. Don’t take one of those.” Daniel hurried toward her at the end of the tables, shaking his head. “Everything else is safe. Not the green squiggly lines.”
“And why’s that, exactly?”
“One of the guys ate a whole plateful of these last year, and Fellows had to literally wrap his arms around this kid to get him to stop dancing.”
Raven laughed. “That doesn’t make sense. It’s a dance.”
“Yeah, this happened two hours after it ended, though.” He chuckled and nodded toward the off-limits deserts. “I don’t know what’s in there or how much you have to eat to get to that level of dance-off, but I stay away from them completely.”
“That’s good to know. Thanks for the warning.” And who’s spiking the fudge? Shaking her head, she selected other tiny deserts with less chocolate and more strawberry flavor.
“Hey, Alby! Get a load of this, huh?” Henry almost ran down the other side of the table, shoved an entire slice of ham into his mouth, and gestured enthusiastically. “P’uddy fantashtic, uh?”
“You know, Derks, I’m surprised there’s anything left, honestly. Did you get held up?”
He gulped his huge mouthful and flashed her a crooked smile. “Something like that. I was waiting for Jenny.” He nodded across the dancefloor, then muttered, “No, Raven, don’t turn and look.”
“You did ask her to be your date.” With a grin, she turned anyway and waved. Jenny gave her a self-conscious smile and waved in return. “No tutoring tonight, though, huh?”
“Whatever. Hey, nice dress. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear one.”
“Well, thanks. It’s not mine but I guess it works.”
“I like it,” Daniel added and leaned way too close for comfort once again.
Henry squinted at her date, who hadn’t even acknowledged him across the table. “Uh-huh. Oh, hey! These look great.” Before Raven could share the warning, Henry snatched a tiny square of chocolate with green zigzag frosting and popped it into his mouth. “Oh, yeah. It’s on, now. Have fun, Alby!”
“Wait, Henry—”
But he’d already snagged two more of the allegedly spiked chocolates before he darted away from the banquet table. He gave Raven a goofy salute, smiled around a mouthful of fudge, and returned to Jenny.
“Great. This is gonna be an interesting night.” She brushed a few stray hairs out of her eyes and picked at a few strawberries she’d put on her plate.
Daniel stepped closer. His hand settled gently on the small of her back and made her freeze. “It’s gonna be amazing. You’ll see.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Raven nibbled as much as she could of her food before she set the tin plate in the wooden crate at the end of the table. Daniel wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and grinned. “It was seriously good stuff, that. I wish they threw more galas.”
“That’s not the right word for it, though, is it?” Raven wrinkled her nose and studied the lights, the flower-covered hay bales, and the dancefloor. “It’s more like a barn party or something.”
“Yeah. Without the barn.” Daniel laughed and lurched forward like he thought he was hilarious.
He doesn’t have the best sense of humor but at least he’s trying. Raven laughed with him, more out of sympathy than anything else.
A second later, Professor Fellows’ single fiddle was joined by four other string instruments and some kind of weird drum that looked like another crate. The next song started with an incredibly loud opening, and Raven jumped before she spun to stare at the one-man band that had suddenly become six musicians. “Who is that?”
Her date laughed and pulled her away from the banquet table toward the dancefloor. “I think they pay other people to be Fellows’ backup.”
“They appeared out of nowhere!”
“You know, Raven, for a girl who rides dragons, you’re much jumpier than I expected.”
She looked at him and his consistently winning smile as they moved between a few other students who paired off into dancing couples. “That’s because I know exactly what to expect from my dragon. Which doesn’t include an insta-band.” We’ll skip over the part where I didn’t know how to interact with a dragon in the first place, let alone train him.
“Still.” He caught her hand and twirled her on the dancefloor. The black dress fanned around her despite the current song not being conducive to much twirling at all. “I bet being out here for this dance doesn’t even make it on the list of cool things Raven Alby does.”
Cool, cool, cool—stop it. “I don’t know about that. But yes, training and riding a dragon is way cooler than a school dance.”
“You know, I’m not even a little offended by that.”
Raven laughed. “It’s good that I wasn’t trying to offend you, then.”
“Yeah, I appreciate it.” They began to dance a little to the upbeat tempo of Professor Fellow’s impromptu band, although she hadn’t entirely loosened up yet. A moment or two later, Daniel slipped his arm around her lower back and pulled her closer. She leaned away on instinct but looked up to meet his gaze. “I think everything you do is amazing, Raven. Have I told you that yet?”
She startled and tried to look across the dancefloor but couldn’t quite pull it off. “Uh…maybe in not so many words.” Is he being serious or trying to butter me up? “But thanks, either way.”
“I’m serious. I don’t know…I’m not normally at a loss for something to say. Not around girls. But…well, your dragon almost ate me the other day, and hoping you know how much I like you is still a hell of a lot scarier than a dragon calling me a walking bag of hormones.”
The laughter escaped before she could stop it and she covered her eyes with her hand. “He did call you that.”
“It was a fairly witty insult, if you take out all the threats and how close he came to knocking that pen down.”
“He didn’t come close. Trust me, his bark’s much worse than his bite.”
“He barks too?” His eyebrows raised quickly and his mouth dropped open a little.
He has to be the most gullible person in Brighton. “No, Daniel. My dragon doesn’t bark.”
“Whew. Okay. I thought my brain was about to explode.”
Raven laughed and tried not to look too surprised by his reaction. He’s smart enough and skilled enough to make it to Fowler Academy. I guess the testing for common sense isn’t nearly as strict. They continued to dance as more students moved through their own awkward phases of navigating a gala and a date. Daniel bit his bottom lip and did a weird little shimmy with hips and shoulders. We’re all trying to make it, right?
She caught sight of Henry and Jenny on the other side of the dancefloor. He jumped around like some kind of monkey and occasionally spun in tight circles, and Jenny merely laughed. Murphy danced with a boy whose name Raven couldn’t remember. The girl looked a little put out and turned to look at Henry before she tried to convince her dance partner that she paid attention to only him.
Beside one of the stacks of flower-encrusted hay bales, Elizabeth stood alone. Her dark bangs swooped over one eye, and her dancing only extended to bobbing her head to the music while she watched everyone else.
Daniel spun her in a tight circle again and made her laugh. Maybe this whole school dance thing isn’t so bad after all.
The second she thought it, a loud, piercing screech shattered the night. A few students jumped, some of the professors ducked, and Professor Fellows’ band wavered in the middle of their song before they resumed playing.
Raven yanked herself out of Daniel’s arms and turned toward the school’s main buildings and the stables on the other side. “Leander…”
“Is everything okay?”
He frowned and touched her elbow gently.
“I don’t know. I—”
Another screech made her tense again and someone shouted, “You’d better see what your dragon wants, Alby!”
A few people laughed but most of them simply stared at her as she raised a hand between her and Daniel and shook her head. “I’m sorry. I have to see what’s going on.”
“Sure. Yeah. I’ll be here when you get back.”
“Okay. Thanks.” She turned and raced across the dancefloor.
Students moved out of her way even before she reached them, and once she pushed through the crowd at the spring gala, she hiked the bottom of Elizabeth’s dress up and fled around the back of the school’s buildings toward the barn and stables on the other side.
Leander’s shrieks and growls continued and grew louder and more frequent the closer she got to his pen. Before she had even reached the barn, the dragon began to pound against the metal walls, clawed at the dirt and grass, and thumped his tail against whatever stood in its way.
He’s gonna break the pen or seriously hurt himself. Or both.
“Leander!” she shouted. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m coming!”
A low growl came in response before it rose to another furious roar. She whirled to scan the open fields and the tree line at the edge of the school grounds. There are no vagreti panthers and no terrified animals in the stables. What’s going on?
Raven skidded to a stop in front of the gate and flashed the rune on her forearm against the gate’s magic before the lock clicked and the gate opened. “I’m here. I heard you. Leander, I’m here.”
The great red dragon snorted and shook his massive head as his wings flicked out and curled in again in agitation, over and over. When she slipped through the gate, she froze. The grass was all but ripped from the earth and large trenches had been dug into the ground with the way he’d pawed at it. Both the trough and the basin of water were overturned. Somehow, he had even lashed out at the few feet of the stables’ roof that extended over that side of the pen. Pieces of shattered wood were scattered on the ground, and the end of the roof itself was damaged in the middle and the rest of it bent at a violent angle.
