Chapter 27 #2
Komarov offers us a condescending smile. “Have fun. Try not to burn down the woods with that bonfire,” he says, before stalking away.
“That guy’s seriously creepy.” Michi watches Komarov’s back fade into the hazy night. I snort in agreement. Creepy in, like, a sexy way though, right? Maybe I should look into a therapy situation.
The party is a breathtaking spectacle of mystical debauchery.
The forest is alive with tiny orbed fae lights that float through the trees casting a warm, flickering glow over the clearing.
Elementum students have woven their magic to create intricate garlands of enchanted blooming flowers, glowing vines that twist and shimmer, and delicate, luminescent mushrooms that dot the ground and the trunks of trees.
Michi takes my hand, pulling me over to a luxurious bar that stands between two trees, serving magical cocktails that sparkle and change color with each sip.
I opt for a Mystic Moonlight Martini, a shimmering blend of gin and violet liqueur, garnished with a twist of lemon and a sprinkle of silver dust.
The bartender mixes my drink, and I can’t stand to watch his clumsy handling of the jigger.
I avoid giving him unsolicited advice by focusing my attention on the party.
An impressive bonfire blazes at its heart, flames dancing in vibrant hues of pink and gold.
I’ve never seen anything like it. The scent of burning pine and amber incense mingles with the crisp night air.
Students dressed as forest animals and woodland creatures move through the clearing with grace, their costumes enhanced by magical illusions.
Antlers shimmer with dew-like droplets, wings flutter, and tails swish.
I feel very underdressed in my plain cocktail dress and fox-ear headband.
The air is filled with the hum of music and the laughter and shouts of my peers, who dance and grind with wild abandon, their movements blending with the magic of their costumes. The entire forest pulses with a lush, magical energy. Our own personal A Midsummer’s Night Dream.
After I down the rest of my cocktail, Michi and I move to the dance floor to join my friends.
At some point, someone brings us all shots, and I finally have a nice buzz going.
My nerves about attending a party with people who have been, on the whole, pretty shitty toward me fade into the background as the music swells around us.
I don’t know why I worried about coming to this absolutely dope party.
The cocktails are fizzy. Nothing bad happens when the drinks are fizzy. Michi places a pretty drink in my hand, and I take a sip. It pops and fizzes and sparkles on my tongue, its color changing between pink and blue and purple, pulsing to the beat of the music. That’s so cool.
I throw my arms around Naomi’s shoulders. “I love your ears,” I whisper-shout over the music into Naomi’s wolf ears. “They are so soft and big.”
“Dude, ouch, you don’t need to yell.” She laughs and wraps her hands around my waist, and we sway to the music. “Big ears, better to hear you with, my dear.” She smirks at me, her eyes lightening with amusement and an animalistic glow.
“I’m glad you’re my friend. You might be the first one I’ve ever had,” I say, as I spin her under my arm gracefully.
“I’m glad you’re my friend!” she squeals at me, before dropping me into a nimble dip. We’re, like, really good dancers. We look over to Aki, who’s grinding with a hot-as-fuck river nymph. Naomi wiggles her eyebrows at me before trading me out for Gemma and passing me back to Michi.
Michi wraps his large hands around my waist and pulls me in close.
His hands are large—so big—they span the whole length of my waist. He looks delicious in his dark brown shirt, which he just unbuttoned to reveal the top of his sweat-glistened abs.
I was correct in my assumption about the six-pack.
His sunshine and animalic scent wafts over me as I slide my hands up his chest and around his neck.
Michi leans closer. “You look really good tonight.”
I clutch the bottom of my dress and give a little flirty, graceful curtsy. “You do, too. You have nice hands.”
He’s sporting his lion shifter ears, tail, and whiskers. The partial shifting thing is sexy if not a little disconcerting. But his pecs glisten in the fae lights, so it’s easy to ignore my reservations. Did I mention his large hands?
I stand up on my tiptoes, brushing my lips lightly across his.
We sway to the music, our hips pressed together.
The heat from the dancing bodies and bonfire causes little beads of sweat to drip down my neck.
He curves his hand around my nape, his thumb running over the moisture there.
Leaning down, he presses his lips to mine in a feverish kiss.
His tongue plays at the seam of my lips, and I open for him.
His hands graze my neck and back, while mine explore his chest.
He breaks our kiss. “Hey, want to sit for a bit?” His voice is gruff and breathless.
He leads me over to a seating area under a willow tree.
There are quite a few seating arrangements set up among the small grove of willows.
Weeping branches act as a curtain, offering privacy.
Bodies sway and rock in their little hidden worlds.
Michi brushes a stray curl out of my face before pulling me closer on a low mossy bench, continuing the dance with our mouths.
I breathe in his summery scent. His lips taste like citrus and hops.
He trails his hands up my outer thighs, and I tangle mine in his thick hair.
It’s been weeks since I had a good make-out session.
My nervous system lights up in response to each stroke of his tongue in my mouth and his fingertips on my legs.
“Michi!” A booming voice cuts through my lust. “Sciathán team drinking game happening in five minutes!”
Boden has pulled back the curtain of willow branches, red-faced and glaring at me. I stare back confidently. His chest is heaving, and I can practically see the vein in his forehead throbbing.
“Bro, I’m obviously a little preoccupied,” Michi argues, gesturing to me with his eyes.
“Be under the Oak in five. It’s mandatory,” Boden snarls, before stalking back into the party.
“Yes, Captain.” Michi mock salutes toward his back. “What do you say, up for a little drinking game?”
We’re on our third round of questions in Never Have I Ever, sitting on loungers made of plush moss. These posh magicae have done a shit ton of interesting and dangerous things I never have, but what I lack in magical licentiousness, I make up for in my own type of human depravity.
“Never have I ever fucked while flying.” Lyam smirks and glances toward our Convalescere peers.
Boden, Katri, and Camilla drink. In a surprising turn of events, I’m actually having a decent time with the three of them.
I mean, none of them are talking to me, but they’re not outright shunning me from where I’m nestled in Michi’s lap.
“Never have I ever had a threesome.” Hally says without taking a sip of her bubbly blue cocktail. Boden, Callum, Camilla, Michi, and I all drink.
Michi looks down at me and squeezes my hip.
“Impressive.” He purses his lips. I shrug casually and catch Callum’s heated stare on the side of my face.
Their lissome fingers gently dance around the rim of their coupe glass.
They’re dressed in fae magic, blending in seamlessly with the surrounding forest. Their entire outfit appears to be made of vines that move and slither over their toned, lithe form.
“Never have I ever done drugs on a beach in Florida.” Camilla slides her eyes over to Katri. And both me and the blonde seraphim drink.
“Look at that, Katri and Lena do have something in common.” A tall man with ginger hair laughs. I’m pretty sure his name is Connor. Katri glares at him before offering me a small smile.
“Well, you haven’t lived until you have been high on a Floridian beach,” I taunt. “So I guess that means only Katri and I know what’s good.” I offer her a smile in return. I think we’re having a moment.
Katri’s smile turns sour. “Never have I ever fucked a human.” She clearly recalled that she hates me. I’m the only one in the group who drinks.
“Well damn, really?” My jaw drops incredulously.
“You offering, little human?” Connor says. Who’s this guy, and what crawled up his ass?
“Over my dead body.” I roll my eyes, and Michi gives my leg a light squeeze.
“That could be arranged.” Lyam smiles, and his fangs grow longer.
Michi purrs into my neck, “I like your body very much alive.”
“Never have I ever been covered in leeches,” Connor says like a freaking weirdo. Who’s been covered in leeches? I glance around the group. Maybe he has some inside knowledge I’m unaware of. I make eye contact with him, and he raises his eyebrows.
Something crawls across my upper thigh as a presence brushes over my stomach, a pressure on my hip.
I glance down at my body. My eyes widen in disbelief as the fabric of my dress undulates and moves unnaturally, the color shifting from its rich brown to mealy tans and putrid grays.
A cold shiver runs down my spine. My heart’s pounding as I process what I’m seeing.
My once cute little fox dress is rippling, transforming into a mass of writhing and crawling worms. I stand, pushing off Michi, with a bloodcurdling scream.
I frantically try to brush the parasites away, but they stick to my skin, ropey mucus acting as adhesive.
Panic surges through my veins, my breath coming in short, frantic gasps.
I’ve never been afraid of leeches, but as they slither across my body, vomit rises in my throat.
I stumble backward, falling over a low coffee table.
I roll on the ground, like I’m trying to put out a fire.
My skin is crawling, and my mind is reeling with horror.
The sensation of the leeches moving against my skin is unbearable; little mandibles and thoraxes grate against my flesh.
I wrench my body upward into a standing position and yank down the still somewhat solid straps of my dress.
My bra and underwear have been replaced by gruesome slithering creatures, and I brush them off as quickly as possible—running my hands down my body, over my arms and legs, attempting to flick the leeches away.
I drag my hand over my stomach; I feel skin.
I think I finally got them. I look down…
I’m completely naked, my worm-free clothing lying on the mossy ground.
Frantically, I whip my head around to snickering and sneering faces lit up by phone screens—flashes homing in on my nude body.
Katri holds on to Connor’s shoulders. Both of them are curled over laughing at me.
“God, Connor, you really know how to get a girl to take her clothes off.” Katri places a kiss on his cheek.
He’s blissed-out, eyes glazed, and whispers, “Stars, her fear’s a whole meal.”
My fight-or-flight response has already kicked in, so I snatch my dress and underwear off the ground and run my naked ass desperately out of the party and into the woods.
I stumble through the forest, over roots and underbrush, pulling on my clothing as I go. These fucking assholes! I don’t know if I’ve ever been so embarrassed in my entire life! My anger takes root in my diaphragm, twisting vines of nausea through my stomach.
It takes my drunken mind a moment to understand what happened.
Connor’s a bodach. He cast an illusion on me, one it seems Katri orchestrated.
Upon Boden’s insistence, they invited me to play a game with them, which I did for Michi, rather than spending time with my own friends.
Then they used that game to scare my dress off me.
No doubt the videos are already making their way around Enchantagram.
My cheeks are wet. I don’t know when I started crying, probably around the time I thought there were live leeches feasting on me.
I scream out into the woods in frustration.
This fucking place, this opportunity, maybe even the chance to figure my shit out isn’t fucking worth it if I have to interact with these useless, holier-than-thou, stuck-up dickbags.
I turn to head back in the direction of the party, with one thing on my mind: punching Katri in her stupid perfect face.
A year from now when I’m at my arraignment for assault and the judge asks me, “Why did you do it?” I’m going to look him dead in the eye and say, “Because Katri Astor is a major cun—”
“Lena?”
My thoughts are interrupted by Callum’s voice ringing out in the dark.
“Where are you?! Are you alright?”