Chapter 56
Bayla
Contemplation
Chuck e. myers ‘sea’, Hogwarts Legacy
As soon as I entered the campus, I noticed the pointy lanterns, resembling ice crystals, that had been put up just for the day. White ribbons hung everywhere and girls in elegant ball gowns walked through the corridors, smiling, accompanied by smartly dressed young men.
There wasn’t much going on on campus, but I actually spotted the horse-drawn carriages with the white animals, their breath rising in the cool air in the form of steam.
I walked through the side corridors, hoping to find the ballroom, which should be located somewhere in the west wing, far enough away from Alarik’s office. And the closer I got, the harder it was not to think about all the things that could go wrong.
Violin music reached my ears, which meant I was on the right track. From that direction came two whispering girls who eyed me and the dress and only continued whispering when they had hurried past me.
I sighed and hoped that I wouldn’t stand out too much. After all, I hadn’t chosen a red or white dress.
Suddenly, I wished Larissa was by my side. I would feel a lot safer.
Suddenly, a shadow moved past the pillar in front of me, and I stopped abruptly.
I almost jumped back.
But it was Julian. In a black suit... with a tie that was the same color as my dress. His hair was neat and he looked... more grown up than usual. It suited him.
I couldn’t help but smile.
His eyes traveled over my body and I felt the heat creep into my cheeks.
“You look beautiful, Bayla,” he finally said in a soft voice, and a pleasant warmth spread through my stomach.
He was just a young man, and having a man as my best friend now took some getting used to.
“Nice tie,” I returned, and Julian looked down at it for a moment, as if he was unaware of the coincidence himself.
“Oh, yes...” he laughed softly. He seemed different than usual... hesitant? But he had no reason to be. “Larissa picked it out for me. She said I should match you because she’s planning to do the same with Miles.”
“Great,” I laughed and came closer to straighten the slightly out of place tie.
When I’d finished, I noticed Julian staring at me. And in the dim lantern light, I spotted the small scar on his temple that I had noticed before.
“What?”
He shook his head absently. “Nothing. Let’s go.”
He held out his arm to me and I hooked it with gratitude.
“God, if you only knew how much you’re saving my life right now. My shoes are instruments of torture.”
Julian laughed in amusement.
“What are friends for?” I laughed, looking to Julian, who mirrored my smile. The words felt much more natural by now.
“You don’t think I would have gone into the lion’s den without you,” he joked, but it had an unsettling effect on me. Concern spread through my body. “Why? Is someone there?”
“The whole Copeland pack arrived earlier, along with the Rolanows, surrounded by reporters. And I’m determined to stay away from anyone who belongs to them.”
Oh no , the pack Alarik had told me to hide from. What if they noticed something? In case I really was one of them…
“And Emely?” I blurted out.
He was silent for a few seconds. Finally, he pulled my arm tighter against his waist.
“Maybe it’s better if we concentrate on the mission. I don’t want to attract unnecessary attention.”
I felt sorry for him that he found himself in this situation where he couldn’t just dance with the girl he cared so much for. Hopefully, Emely would understand.
Maybe I could persuade Julian again after all. If the pack was there, it would even be a welcomed distraction, but I wouldn’t put Julian through that just like that. Especially not without his consent.
The orchestral music had stopped a few minutes ago, and we could now hear a woman speaking into a microphone. I knew immediately who it was.
“It’s Amara,” I whispered, and we stopped in front of the huge open door to the ballroom.
I felt excitement bubbling up inside me.
Julian put his hand on my back, forcing me to look up at him.
His look was... reassuring. “Hey. Don’t worry. I’m right here. The Circle can’t hurt you.”
He must have sensed my nervousness.
I nodded to him, and then we entered the festively decorated ballroom together, arm in arm.
Pompeii
Vitamin String Quartet
Warm lights shone everywhere from gigantic chandeliers, making the huge hall beneath us glitter and the girls shine in their pompous dresses. There must have been over a thousand people standing down there listening to the mayor, Amara Blair.
“So I would like to thank you, and wish the students a successful start for the coming semester.”
Applause rang out and the crowd dispersed to get ready for the dance. Men invited women to the dance floor and the orchestra began to play again.
And then Amara’s eyes met mine. I had hoped she would smile at me briefly, as she always did, but she seemed a little unsettled. Like I was someone she should be afraid of.
Her eyes widened, and as the crowd began to dance, other audience members seemed to notice that something was wrong with Amara because she was still standing on the stage, staring at me.
Next to the stage, I spotted Gloria, who seemed distracted. But then I saw Amanda, Vivienna’s mother, staring from Amara to me. Abruptly, her eyes widened too.
I didn’t have time to focus on the two women because Julian was leading me down the stairs.
“They’re staring,” I said as quietly as possible, but in such a way that Julian could still hear me through the violin play, and took one step at a time, trying not to slip. He held my arm tightly.
Then I felt his warm breath on my ear. “I’m sure it’s because you’re here with me.”
I hadn’t even thought about that. Crap. I didn’t care what Amara and Amanda thought about me, but what if there were consequences for him?
“Maybe we should split up?”
“We’ll stay together,” he decided with determination as we reached the bottom of the stairs and I could no longer see Amanda. Only Amara, who forced herself out of her stupor and hurried down the stage. Then – through the dancing couples – I saw her whispering to Amanda, and only now did I realize that other people were also looking at me.
One was Rebecca Harlow, who was standing in an exotic copper-colored dress between other Quatura at Gloria’s side, looking around the hall like a paranoid eagle. When she spotted me, her wary gaze fastened on me.
I quickly looked away, towards all the men who had gathered on the other side of the hall and were looking over at the Quatura like conspirators. The Copeland pack. Next to them, more nobly dressed men with grim expressions on their faces. The Rolanows.
I spotted... Alarik.
Diamonds
Hannah V, Joe Rodwell
His eyes were literally glued to me, and the color had completely drained from his face. He was holding a glass in his hand, which he gripped tightly. His eyes wandered over the dress until they met mine and our gazes locked.
My heart made an overwhelmed leap. And another one...
I tried to read his expression, waiting for him to move, but he just stared, his eyes glassy reflectors of the thousand lights of the hall, all clamoring for his attention. But his attention was focused on one thing only.
I stared back. Or rather, I couldn’t break away from his gaze until Julian pulled me further away from the pack, closer to the corner where the witches were gathered.
“Julian...” He stopped and examined me. “Alarik, he...” I turned around. Alarik had disappeared. “He was just there…”
I looked back at Julian, who was now also looking in the direction of the pack, and I caught sight of Emely. She was wearing an elegant backless black evening dress and looked stunningly sexy. She wore her black-brown waves pinned up in an updo. Her whole appearance was reminiscent of an indigenous goddess.
I noticed Julian eyeing her.
“Maybe you should dance with her.”
As if Emely had heard us, she turned away from her conversation partner, a pretty blonde woman with curly hair, and looked at us. Her make-up also made her look stunning tonight.
But Julian pulled me further away from the pack’s field of vision.
“She hasn’t apologized to me yet,” he just grumbled, and I shook my head with a grin, albeit rolling my eyes.
“Maybe you shouldn’t blame her so much,” I laughed, and Julian kept pulling me until I accidentally bumped into someone.
“Watch out, you...”
It was Vivienna who turned to me and stopped herself midsentence.
She was dressed in a pink gown with tulle that made her look like a princess. Her pinned-up hairstyle made her stand out. She must have been crowned prom queen at Blairville High.
She eyed me.
“Nice dress,” she finally said, and I wondered if she was serious.
Then she spotted Julian. “You two are really bold... Watch out.”
And just as quickly as she had appeared, she disappeared into the crowd again.
The orchestra came to an end and started a new song.
Wildest Dreams
Duomo
Speaking of the orchestra, I wondered how expensive it all must be. You really had the feeling you were in one of those halls in Versailles.
“We should be protected from the eyes of the pack here,” sighed Julian, who hadn’t taken Vivienna’s remark to heart and looked around again.
I looked for Alarik again, but it was as if the ground had swallowed him up. The strange feeling in my stomach wouldn’t leave me, but I forced myself to look in a different direction.
Ten feet away, I spotted my mother, who was deep in conversation with two women I didn’t know.
Suspicion rose in me.
Before I could make a comment about her, I caught sight of Amara again, who joined the three of them. Suddenly, the women nodded and turned away from my mother, and then Amara pointed her finger at me.
My heart stopped.
Julian’s head turned in her direction. He must have heard something.
“What? What are they talking about?”
Julian’s gaze was focused, as if he was still eavesdropping. “She just asked your mother where you got the dress from.”
It was too late to get out of here. My mother turned to me and her jaw dropped.
Panic spread through me.
“Should we leave?” Julian asked with concern in his voice, but I clutched his arm even tighter, hoping it wouldn’t fall off.
“Too late,” I whispered, grateful that Julian didn’t leave my side as my mother marched straight toward us.
“Where on earth did you get that dress from, young lady?” my mother pressed out angrily.
I was screwed.
Behind Mum, who looked like she was about to tear me apart, I saw Amara and Amanda exchanging suspicious glances and then Gloria asking Amanda something.
“I’m talking to you!” my mother hissed, blocking my view of what was happening behind her.
I looked at her guiltily.
“I... I...”
Nothing more came except my embarrassed stammer.
“Don’t tell me you were there again without my permission!”
There . She was referring to Alice’s room.
“How dare you touch my old clothes?”
This lie was so bold that anger flared up inside me.
“Ms. Adams. I’m sure it wasn’t her intention to upset you, and...”
“No, Julian, stop defending my daughter when she’s obviously done something wrong,” Mum interrupted him without even looking at him and Julian fell silent.
“Ms. Adams, nice to see you here... without a gun. Don’t you think your daughter is wearing a stunning dress?”
I felt Larissa’s arms at my side as she suddenly appeared beside me. She was wearing a burgundy satin evening dress that was tight yet loose, and I was amazed to see how well it looked on her. Especially with her blonde hair open and wavy.
Then I realized what she had said and looked to my mother in alarm.
“I told you to stay away from my daughter!” Then she looked back at me, her finger raised. “And you, young lady, go home now and change your clothes, or I’ll see myself exploding here.”
“She couldn’t have found a better dress,” Larissa waved it off, apparently not understanding the seriousness of the situation.
When my mother was that angry, it was usually already too late.
“But this dress isn’t hers,” said Amanda, who suddenly appeared next to my mother and eyed Larissa with suspicion.
She was wearing a crème-colored business dress studded with sharp pearls of the same color, and I knew immediately that she recognized the dress I was wearing.
“This dress belongs to a dead woman. What do you expect Alice to do? She’s no longer alive!”
False Impression
Brand X Music
Larissa’s words had been like a lit match in a hall full of dynamite.
My mother’s face turned white as a sheet, just like Alarik’s earlier, and Amanda seemed to have lost her tongue too.
How could Larissa have said that?
I couldn’t turn to her and confront her because I was too focused on how Mum and Amanda would react. I wasn’t expecting what happened next.
Amara joined us and looked at my mother reproachfully.
“How could you tell her?”
“I didn’t tell her anything!” my mother gritted out, and then looked at me again.
I no longer understood anything.
“Larissa, what are you doing here?” a firm, very familiar voice said behind me.
The faces of the three women were like a movie. First shock, then horror. Amara even flinched.
Finally, I turned around.
“Just an unnecessary discussion about a dress,” Larissa laughed, now amused, and I looked Bastien straight in the face.
The tall, athletic man with dark blond hair stared at me as if I were a ghost. His jaw seemed to tense as he looked first at the dress and then at me. His expression was unreadable.
“Where did you get that dress?” the usually scary and controlled Ruisangor asked more or less in a shaky voice.
Now, for the first time, emotions seemed to resonate in his voice. That was the second it clicked for me.
Someone pulled me back. Mum.
“Go away, Bastien,” she said with such fear and anger in her voice that I couldn’t help but look at her.
“And take your offspring with you. They have no business around our Circle members,” Amara added, standing in front of me as if Larissa and Bastien were a horrifying threat to her existence.
The only person missing was Amanda, who turned to Julian. “And you get out, too!”
My gaze slid back to Bastien, who was still looking at me as if he had drifted off to another galaxy.
“What’s the Ruisangor doing here!” an angry voice rang out and the women moved aside. Gloria appeared next to me, and panic crept up inside of my chest.
I looked to Larissa and Julian for help, while more and more people around us, especially Quatura, turned to us.
I should never have worn that dress. Now I had drawn so much attention to myself that it would be difficult to complete the mission undisturbed.
And as if that hadn’t been enough, a group of men in black suits appeared at the top of the stairs of the entrance area, among them a very pretty woman with black hair, also wearing a three-piece suit. I also recognized Larissa’s father, who now worked here as a professor, and finally Miles, who looked around the hall and spotted us.
The Ruisangors were here.
Julie hadn’t told me about them. Of course, I had expected the three DeLoughreys, at least Miles, but not these men and so many unfamiliar pale faces.
The entire hall turned to the stairs, and a murmur went through the crowd.
“No one invited you!” Gloria hissed, her glare fixed on the stairs. Her eyes met those of a man who sent a chill down the back of my neck with his mere appearance. He had a scar covering his sharp face, which looked like an animal had left it there.
Bastien didn’t say anything back. He just stared. Still at me and my dress. At Alice’s dress . There was no doubt about it. He had known Alice. They had all known Alice.
“Tell Nicolaj to leave as soon as possible before your appearance attracts attention from the Senseque,” Amara hissed, obviously trying to keep her cool, and Bastien looked away from me for the first time.
Wasn’t it a little too late for that?
I glanced over at about forty Senseque, who were looking completely overwhelmed at the double staircase of the hall.
“Get out of here, now!” Gloria barked and I winced.
Mum shoved herself in front of me and I had the feeling that as soon as we were alone, she was going to cut me into a hundred pieces.
I was in trouble. And it was going to take a miracle for me to escape unnoticed.