Page 112 of Slayer

“I feel sick,” I said.

“Oh, Greyson’s cool. Don’t be nervous.” Harper came over and gave me a side hug.

I waved her off. “Oh, no, not that. I’m thinking about Monday.”

Harper nodded. “Oh yeah, low-key wanna vomit every time I imagine it. What if I’m in a hunting unit with Willie Anderson?”

Luna grinned but I shrugged. I had no idea who that was.

“What if I don’t make a unit?” I asked as Harper dusted me with some shimmery stuff, making sure to get my cleavage. “Hey!” I batted her brush away from going down my dress, and she winked.

“Not to freak you out,” Luna said, “but last year, one of the first-year hunters died during their unit assessment.”

My eyes bugged and my dinner lurched in my stomach. “What?”

There was a knock at the door, and Harper smacked Luna’s arm. “Don’t scare her. That was rare.”

“It happens every few years. I feel like she should know,” Luna said, defending herself.

Great. Not only could I get a bad unit assignment, I could also die. Fabulous.

Harper wrenched open the door, and Greyson, Jax, and Brett were standing there, each holding a corsage. The hallway lights caught on the petals, the sharp scent of flowers mixing with hair spray and nervous excitement.

Luna’s corsage was black. She squealed as she ran to Jax and took the black rose with black baby’s breath, her boots skidding slightly on the floor as she launched herself at him.

“I had to paint it since the lady looked at me like I was crazy when I asked for black, but I thought you’d like it,” Jax said as she fit it on her arm.

“It’s perfect.” She was grinning and took his arm as he pulled her into the hallway, already lost in each other.

Harper was next, getting her corsage and thanking her date, cheeks flushed and eyes bright.

I was last.

“Wow,” Greyson said as he looked at my dress and shuffled his feet in the doorway, clearly at a loss for words. He looked handsome in a black suit with a skinny red tie to match me, his hair neat, his hands fidgeting like he wasn’t used to moments like this.

“Thank you.” I held out my wrist, and he slid the corsage over it, careful and gentle.

We hooked arms and began to walk down the hallway into the common room. All coed rules were suspended as male dates were allowed to knock on their female dates’ dorms. Some girls were going together, some in stag groups. Everyone was taking pictures, and it was a happy time, laughter bouncing off the walls like music.

I went to junior high school prom with a guy, but he got drunk on vodka he stole from his parents and threw up everywhere, and I had to Uber home. It ruined the whole experience for me, and I ended up not going to senior prom. But this, this felt like the night I might have missed.

We all posed for pictures, and I waved to Daphne, who wore a teal mermaid-style dress and hung on the arm of her date. It was Clay Green, the guy she had said she had wondered about kissing. He was whispering something to her as she laughed and gave him a coy grin, hanging on his arm and snuggling into his side. She seemed happy and like she’d moved on from Asher, and that made me excited for her.

When we all stepped outside and began our walk to the building that was holding the dance, we passed the men’s dorm. As we did, I noticed a familiar figure out of the corner of my eye. Turning, I tilted my head to see Asher leaning up against the building wall, casual and dangerous all at once. He was holding a dagger and a sharpening stone, the soft scrape of metal on stone cutting through my chest. He wore baggy dark-wash jeans and a tight white T-shirt, and everything in me screamed to look away and ignore him.

Get over Asher Voss, I scolded myself. Yes, he was sexy. Yes, there was desire there, but it was one-sided. Move on.

I pulled Greyson closer to me as Luna launched into a story about Victorian plagues, her hands animated as she spoke. I was just about to look away from Asher when his head came up and our eyes locked. His face dropped like he’d seen a ghost. I offered a smile, but he continued to look at me in shock, which then turned to anguish. His hands went limp, and the dagger and stone fell from them and clattered to the ground at his feet, loud and final.

I looked away.

What in the world? That was weird.

Jax gave me a look I couldn’t interpret, then glanced at his best friend. I didn’t follow his gaze though. I was putting Asher out of my mind.

When we got to the dance, we all threw ourselves onto the dance floor. I wrapped my arms around Greyson’s neck and laughed as Harper danced around us, rubbing her butt on me and being obnoxious. She was a total goofball, and I loved it. It felt like our one last night to live it up before a very stressful and possibly life-ending mission on Monday.

After an hour of laughing and dancing, sometimes switching partners to dance with Luna or Harper, Greyson went to get us some water, and I excused myself to the bathroom. I made my way through the crowd, muttering an apology to everyone I bumped into until finally I broke free and into the hallway.