Page 23 of Bone Year

She’s wearing a long, flowing blue dress that brushes her ankles, paired with a light-pink corset that matches her hair almost exactly. Soft, delicate, and somehow still dangerous in that effortless fae way.

“I didn’t realize it was that kind of party,” I say, glancing back at Jace, who’s sitting up on my bed and rubbing his face.

“I’ll be right back,” Lux says, already turning on her heels.

I leave the door open and hurry toward the bathroom. I can’t believe we fell asleep.

“I’m gonna go change,” Jace says behind me. “I’ll meet you guys there.”

I hear his footsteps fade down the hall as I step inside and start pulling open drawers, expecting to find nothing useful, but I see some of my things from home are here.

I smooth on my shiny lip balm and darken my lashes then turn as Lux reappears in the doorway.

“Here,” she says, thrusting a garment into my hands. “Put this on.”

I change quickly, slipping into a short black dress with long sleeves made of sheer lace that hugs my arms and dips low enough at the neckline to make me feel painfully aware of my own body. It’s like nothing I would find back home.

When I look in the mirror, I barely recognize myself.

“You look great,” she says, beaming.

“Thank you,” I reply, meaning it. “So do you.”

I slip on my black loafers then edge toward the doorway and peer into the hall, half expecting to see other students.

“Is Ellavee coming with us?”

Lux shrugs, looping her arm through mine as we step out. “She hit it off with some guy and might show up later, but she was heading to his dorm first.”

Hope that guy knows he’s about to hop into bed with a demon.

We trek clear across the campus, Lux guiding us through enclosed passageways, heated corridors, and narrow connecting halls that feel like veins running through the mountain. Eventually, we’re forced outside, the cold slamming into us the second we step through an exterior door.

Neither of us brought jackets.

We break into a jog, shoes crunching over snow as we race for the next building, breath puffing white in the air. By the time Lux shoves open the heavy doors ahead of us, my fingers are numb, and my cheeks burn.

The warmth almost feels painful against my frozen skin.

“This should be it,” Lux says, lowering her voice as she leads us past the main entry and toward the back of what seems to be a medical building.

We slip through another door and into a narrow stairwell spiraling downward, the light dimmer here, the air cooler and strangely still. The deeper we go, the quieter everything becomes, the distant hum of the campus fading.

“What’s this clinical hall used for anyway?” I ask, peering around, trying to reconcile this eerie silence with the idea of a party happening somewhere below us.

Lux glances over her shoulder. “The ten floors above us are patient wards. Surgical amphitheaters too.”

I snap my head toward her. “Ashwell has real patients? Like an actual clinic?”

She nods, smirking at me as if this is common knowledge. “Anyone who can’t afford treatment or can’t be cured anywhere else eventually finds their way here. People get desperate enough to let students practice on them in exchange for a chance at living. If they’re lucky, a Veilguard might take their case.”

We reach the bottom of the stairs and step into a long, narrow corridor that stretches through the basement, lit by widely spaced sconces casting weak pools of amber light across the low ceiling.

We turn the corner and catch sight of two men slipping through a large metal door at the end of the corridor. The moment it opens, a swell of voices pours into the hall, carrying with it a wave of warmth and purple hues. Lux and I exchange quick grins before breaking into a light jog. I was beginning to think the party wasn’t real.

We spill through the doorway and straight into heat, noise, and motion.

The basement cavern opens wide, its ceiling vaulted high above us and ribbed with exposed beams. Clusters of flickering orbs drift near the ceiling, casting the space in shades of purple and soft shadows that slide over stone and skin alike.