Lyra twirls. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
Behind her, Cairn brushes at his lapels and mutters, “It doesnotcome off.”
Aric and I laugh as Lyra pouts up at him.
“Where’s Poppy?” Aric asks, craning his neck to peer past them into the ballroom.
“She was at the buffet tables last I saw her. She wouldn’t let me have a cupcake yet though.” Her pout deepens. “Something about saving them for the guests.”
“I’m gonna go find her,” Aric says. He walks past Cairn, slapping a hand onto the big minotaur’s shoulder, seeming to surprise him.
My chest warms at the image.
When my stepbrother has vanished into the ballroom, Lyra glances over my shoulder and says, voice low, “Is he coming?”
I don’t need her to clarify who she means.
Lifting one shoulder, I say, “I think so. He told me he would.”
“I hope he does.” She loops her arm through mine, then tugs me into the ballroom. Cairn follows behind us, his hoovesclopping on the marble floor. “I’m dying to see the two of you together. And I promise the whole faculty-student thing isn’t as awkward as you think.”
Cairn huffs out a breath and grumbles, “Speak for yourself.”
She ignores him, her crimson eyes dancing as she looks around the ballroom.
A small orchestra is seated on a raised dais at the far end of the room, and couples twirl around the dance floor, gowns glittering under the candlelight. I recognize many other fourth-years, but some of the faces are unfamiliar to me—probably people Alina knows.
Speaking of.
“Where’s our hostess?”
Lyra lifts a hand and points.
And I don’t know how I didn’t spot them before.
Alina and Raelan are gliding across the dance floor, her long skirt swishing around their legs, his hand on her low back. They stare at each other like there’s no one else in the room, like everything could fall away from around them and they wouldn’t have the slightest idea.
“I’ve been trying to get my big hunk to dance all night,” Lyra says, tossing a look at Cairn over her shoulder.
“These hooves don’t dance,” he grumbles.
“Maybe they could if you’dtry.” She pulls her arm from mine and moves to wrap both around Cairn’s waist; they don’t make it all the way around. “Please?”
He looks down at her, and his expression softens. Then his shoulders rise and fall with a heavy sigh. “Very well.”
Lyra’s face lights up, and next thing I know, she’s taking him by the hand and dragging him to the dance floor.
I watch them go, then turn my attention to the long buffet tables set up along one side of the ballroom. And sure enough, that’s where I find Poppy and Aric.
I immediately head that way, smiling at and saying hello to the people I recognize on my way. When I make it to the dessert table, Poppy’s just finishing setting out the last tray of cupcakes, and she smiles when she sees me. Then her gaze sweeps down my body, and her eyes widen.
“Wow,” she says, reaching for a cloth to wipe a bit of frosting from her hand. “You look beautiful.”
I glance down at myself. Tonight I’m wearing a body-hugging black dress with straps that crisscross along my back and a skirt with a slit up to the thigh. My hair hangs long and straight down my back, and I swept glittering black eyeshadow along my eyes before leaving home. I hope Severin will like it.
“Thank you. You do too, Pops.”
Poppy is wearing a simple light pink dress, and her lavender hair looks soft as cotton candy where it kisses her shoulders.
