53
Night’s Out
Melody
“Hey there,” Shay greets us with a smile that falters a little when she finds Blair and Faye on the bed.
“Wait, let me change the wards so you can come in,” I say quickly, jumping up and repeating the same unwarding and rewarding I did when Faye showed up. They all eye me suspiciously, as though I’d just worked a miracle, the wards obligingly parting like a curtain as they stepped through.
“Wow, babe, that’s pretty impressive,” Ryder speaks first, his hand rubbing up and down my shoulder in his wolfy, touchy way.
“That’s actually unheard of,” Cassius says with a frown, still looking at the door as if he can see the invisible wards before greeting Blair with a stiff, respect-laden, “Professor.”
“In my free time, I’m just Blair,” she says.
“Yeah, well…” Cassius scratches his back in a way that’s clearly designed to send his shirt sliding up a bit to reveal his abs. “We’re actually heading out. It’s Saturday, and we’re going to town. We thought you might want to come?”
“Oh,” I say quickly, casting Blair a glance.
She jumps up from the bed. “I’m gonna join. Sounds like fun. And hey, actually, Melody is gonna come, too, and maybe…” She looks at Faye. “Ready for a big girls’ night out, archive girl? I promise we won’t bite. Unless you ask. Really nicely.”
They all look at her with wide eyes, and no one dares to say a word when she opens my wardrobe and begins throwing out clothes. Seems that making plans on my behalf is not enough by far. Shay grabs the items with a delighted squeak.
Both boys stand there, shifting a little uncomfortably on their feet, when, suddenly, the campus conjures another huge bowl of ice cream. It appears in the middle of the room on my desk, spoons ready.
“Oh, the campus just conjured up the most delicious thing. Blair said, in the human world, it’s called ice cream,” Faye explains shyly, clearly torn between looking at my clothes—or well, the ones the campus put in my wardrobe—and not being rude by ignoring them.
“You have to wear this,” Blair states, throwing a tiny dress at Cassius, which I suppose was meant to land on Shay next to him.
Cassius holds it up with a frown, and Shay and I laugh.
“That looks amazing,” Ryder says—of course, meaning the ice cream, greedy mutt. He strolls up to my desk, grabs a spoon, and dips it in. He groans with a sigh that borders on ecstatic once he licks it. “Abyss, that’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted.”
“Well, you also swear dried boar ears are delicious, so let me be the judge,” Cassius says, shoving Ryder aside and snatching the spoon from him.
He basically lets out a similar sound once he puts a great amount of ice cream into his mouth.
“Hells, guys, get a grip on yourselves, or everyone passing this room will think we’re having group sex,” Blair pipes up cheerfully.
“Was that an offer, Professor?” Ryder’s head perks up. “I mean, I could call my pack and have them join in too.”
Blair just rolls her eyes at him.
“Can I borrow this?” Shay asks me, holding the glittery golden dress to her chest. It contrasts beautifully with her dark skin and fair hair.
“Sure,” I say, before my eyes glide on to Faye, who’s still sitting on my bed, watching everyone with wide, teal eyes, her fingers digging into the seam of her heavy robe.
I walk over to her, putting aside a dress Blair’s thrown there. It’s black and red, stitched beautifully with crimson roses that seem to swirl in a tornado of flowers.
“Do you want to come too?” I ask Faye.
She bites her lower lip. “I can’t. I’ve never left the campus since I came here.”
Ryder’s wolf’s hearing must have picked up her words, because he actually abandons the ice cream in favor of walking over to us. “You’ve never been to Avandal?” he asks in disbelief.
“No,” she admits shyly.
“Babe, you need to see the town by night. It’s beautiful,” he says gently, touching her shoulder as he leans down to her.
Again, Faye doesn’t seem to mind his touchiness.
Quite the opposite. Her aura shifts, and just when I think she’s probably feeling uncomfortable and wants nothing more than to head back to her dormitory, I spot something entirely new in her aura.
There’s curiosity, outweighing her fear.
And…oh, shame. She actually seems to have a thing for Ryder.
“She’s into Ryder,” I shoot down to Aris.
He yawns down the bond. “Really? She smelled like arousal the first time. You might want to train your sense of smell.”
“Wear this,” I say, pointing at the red dress, because I noticed her eyeing it.
“I…I can’t. I’ve never worn a dress before,” she admits.
“You knew?” I mentally hiss at Aris without looking at him.
“Pay more attention!” he lectures.
“Sneaky reptile!”
“Round-ear.”
“Girl, there’s a first time for everything,” Blair states, stepping up behind Ryder and shoving him aside like a curtain.
He growls at her.
“Make way, little alpha. Or I’m gonna wipe the floor with your little alpha ass and take your position. Let’s see how I like the orgies with your pack when they all try to please me,” she purrs, a challenge in her eyes.
He whimpers wolfishly but makes way for her when she bares her teeth at him.
“Get dressed,” she tells Faye, “and then let me do your hair. Tonight, you’re gonna be someone else. Tomorrow you can go back to being a scribe if you want.”
Blair doesn’t give her a choice but grabs Faye’s wrist and pulls her to her feet before she drags her along. The two of them disappear into my bathroom.
I want to follow, but Aris cuts in, “Don’t, little one. Let them.”
Shay, in the manner of most fae, seems to have no qualms about stripping naked right in front of everyone, so I watch as she undresses, unveiling her glorious fae body before she slips into the golden dress.
It makes her glow even more than usual, and both guys stare at her, tongues almost lolling out, and I laugh.
“Good that you’re my girl. Stop gawking, brute!” Cassius snaps, smacking Ryder in his chest so hard he whines before sweeping her into his arms.
Shay shoves him off with a smile. “I’m no one’s girl. Before everyone else’s, I’m mine.”
“Ouch,” Ryder teases, and Cassius bares his teeth at him.
“No brawl in here or I’ll kick both of you out,” I warn.
They both sigh like small boys, rolling their eyes at me and returning to the pot of ice cream.
All of us stare when Blair returns with Faye a few minutes later.
I mean…wow. What did Blair do to her? She looks like an entirely different woman.
Her long golden hair is braided into a crown upon her head, glinting like burnished bronze in the fae light.
Her full lips are painted a seductive, deep red—darker than the roses on her dress, which fits her perfectly, hugging her slender frame.
It brings out her freckles, scattered like constellations from the bridge of her nose down across her cleavage.
Ryder straight-out drops his spoon. “That a scribe? I think I’m only gonna have dirty scribe fantasies from now on.”
Cassius jabs him in the ribs. “She may become an acolyte, man. Watch it!”
But Faye gives me the smallest smile, her eyes are brimming, as if this was what she’d been waiting for. Secretly. Locked away down there.
“Now get dressed, too, little one,” Aris nudges me.
“Wait—you’re coming with me.”
“I’m going nowhere. This bed is warm and so soft.”
I’m just about to throw on my favorite black sweater to wear over my tight pants and a shirt when Blair hisses, “Drop that. There’s no chance in hells that I’ll let you wear that tonight.
It’s depressing on a good day.” Her shocking amber eyes take me in, and damn, I don’t like that lethal focus in them at all.
“Here, you’re gonna wear this.” She produces a stunning light-blue dress out of the pile of clothes, along with a pair of glittery high heels.
“I actually meant to save it for another occasion, but since we’re partying… ” She shrugs.
I spot the handwritten price tag still attached to the dress and my eyes widen. “Blair—did you buy this for me?”
“Yeah. You’d rather have me swipe it? Sure—I bought it.
Now can you not make a scene, crybaby? I bought a matching one for me, so don’t worry.
When I went into that shop, I actually did it for an entirely selfish reason, but then the saleslady had two, and I thought it might be kinda cute to wear the same outfit. ”
“In Blair’s language, that probably translates to I love you ,” Aris cuts in.
“ I know ,” I say, biting back damn tears when she starts stripping down right in front of all of us, clearly expecting me to do the same.
“Abyss, I swear you’re the hottest professor we ever had,” Cassius smirks and Blair winks at him once she’s done wrestling her very large breasts into a tiny piece of glittery fabric. It shimmers in all colors of the rainbow when she spins once.
I grab my dress and quickly disappear into the bathroom.
Blair comes storming after me, pushing me down on a chair and starting to fuss with my hair.
When she’s finally done, and I’m wearing the dress and looking at myself in the mirror, I don’t recognize myself.
Blair has painted my eyes dark like Riven’s and accentuated my cheekbones with gold and silver streaks.
My lips are a violent plum—the color matching hers.
My hair falls around me in wild waves, in a way that makes me look…
sexy, I guess. And not at all like a scrawny, pathetic, little girl anymore.
My body still looks slim in the dress, but thanks to me letting my magic up—and Blair’s constant gruesome training—I have clearly defined muscles in places where I’d never had any before.
I actually look good.
“Thank you,” I mumble to her, and before she can make some funny, snarky retort, I hug her so tight I can hear the air wheezing out of her.
She awkwardly pats my back, then sighs and relents, pulling me in for a real hug before we return to the others.
“My gods, Melody, you look like an elven princess with your dark hair,” Cassius says, and I frown.
“Dark hair is a royal trait among fae,” Shay and Faye explain at the same time, sharing a grin when they realize they spoke over each other with the same answer.
“Oh gods, wait until they start to talk about dragons,” Cassius whines when the two of them start discussing books they’ve read on elven history, clearly having discovered their mutual interest in knowledge.
“I think clever girls are sexy as hells,” Ryder says, watching Faye with dreamy puppy eyes.
I stare at him in surprise. I mean, not that I blame him for drooling over Faye, but he really seems to have a thing for her too.
We finally head out, and my heart is actually buzzing with excitement as we take the route down to Avandal.
Blair and I are barefoot, our high heels slung around our fingers, our feet sinking into the soft, earthy ground.
We’re meeting several other students who also head to town, most of them already drunk, bottles with golden fairy wine in their hands.
After that worm attack, everyone seems inclined to celebrate life tonight.
Faye gasps, her teal eyes wide with shock as she spots Avandal sprawled at our feet in the distance.
Ryder has been right—the city is even more beautiful at night, if such a thing is even possible.
The rivers glitter beneath an almost full moon, and the buildings gleam in flickering torchlight, as though the city itself were breathing fire and light.
Musicians stand on every corner, voices rising and instruments singing, while all around us people clap and dance and laugh, cradling cups of mulled chestnut ale, birch sap, and pear juice steeped with lavender, drawn steaming from tiny cauldrons at the merchants’ stalls.
Blair gets us all some kegs, and we stroll on.
“Where are we headed?” Cassius asks.
“Dancing!” Blair squeals next to me, putting her hands up in the air and swishing her hips. We all stare at her as if we’ve never seen her before—gawking at her happiness and cheerfulness.
“There’s a special concert at The Pensive Dragon tonight,” a voice says, and we turn to find Morgana approaching with a few fae in tow. Her eyes are fixed solely on Blair—and yes, fine, she’s absolutely eye-fucking her.
“We were just heading there. You could join in,” Morgana offers, looking even more breathtaking than usual in a sleek, gray silk dress hugging her trained body perfectly. Glitter has been sprayed into her golden mane, catching the light and vying with our dresses.
“Sure,” Blair drawls, letting her eyes slowly slide up and down Morgana’s body in a way that would be sexual, if her aura weren’t telling me that something else has piqued her curiosity. What is it? I wonder. But I don’t want to ask her in front of all the others.
We follow Morgana through the night streets, and Faye, Shay, and I press our noses to the windows of tea shops glowing with enchantment.
Inside, the pastries border on the impossible—from a foamy cloud banded with rainbows to a tiny honey badger sculpted from white chocolate, its delicate wings brushed in gold and silver.
“We need to go there,” Shay breathes.
“Definitely.”
“I would love that,” Faye whispers, reverent, and both Shay and I turn to her just before Blair ushers us onward.