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Then he says, “I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”
Anything. I would say anything at this point.
“Are you going to the dance?”
I’m not sure what I was expecting, but not that. “No.”
“No? I thought all mortal girls liked music and dancing?”
“I . . . I don’t have a dress.” Or a date.
Not true, exactly. Mack promised we could go together. She offered to lend me one of her old bubble gum pink mermaid prom gowns from high school. I still haven’t committed one way or the other.
He frowns. “Go to any Faerie shop in Everwilde or the mortal world, give them my name, and they’ll put it on my account.”
I pause, suspicious of his offer. “No, I can’t.”
“No?” His eyes widen like someone who isn’t told no very often.
“I can’t pay you back,” I remind him. “And I’d rather not owe you or anyone else at this school. Lord knows I already have to find some way to take care of my bill for food and books.”
“Get the dress, Princess.”
I swallow, all kinds of thoughts running through my head. Mainly that I can’t dance, and he’s going to be there to witness that. But also that this is the second time he’s done something nice for me and I’m not sure how that feels.
My throat clenches. “I’ll find a way to pay you back.”
“Seeing you in a dress will be payment enough.”
We clean the mats and lock up the gym. On the way out, I happen to glance to my left. The sun has gone down, but there’s enough moonlight to make out the snow-packed ground. The white crust is pristine, untouched.
All except by the window, where two large footprints sink deep into the snow.
47
“You have a footman?” I ask, my gaze ricocheting from the marble walls veined with gold to the huge fountain in the center of the lobby. We’re in Manhattan, inside the first floor of the Woolworth Tower where Mack’s parents live. The plan is to stop by to say hello and then go dress shopping. Evelyn, who already has her dress, is here to help us make the right decisions, whatever that means.
“Wait,” Mack says, “we just traveled through a portal to Manhattan from Everwilde, and your mind is blown over a footman?”
It’s true. If anything should have blown my mind, it’s the charm on her bracelet that, when pressed where portals are allowed, forms a portal to her house in the Untouched Zone. It’s a recent gift from her parents for passing midterms. o;No,” the prince says, coming up behind me. I freeze as his hands glide around my waist, repositioning me. Then his fingers brush the underside of my arm as he lifts my reach an inch higher. “There. Better form.”
He jerks away quickly, and Eclipsa notices. Her sharp gaze shifts from the prince’s fingers to my face.
Crap. My stomach flip-flops. She totally knows.
The door to the gym crashes open, and a worried student rushes to Eclipsa. “Professor Spreewell said I need to find you. There’s an incident with one of the soulmancy spells.”
Eclipsa glances over at us, her brow furrowed. “Can you work with Summer the last thirty minutes without me?”
The prince stiffens.
Taking his silence as an answer, she follows the student out the door.
The moment she’s gone, I feel our aloneness acutely. The air becomes heavier, swollen with expectation.
He glances after Eclipsa. “We can cut practice short . . .” His words trail away as he see me rounding on him. “What are you doing?”
I slip on a pair of fingerless striking gloves and grin. “I’m practicing.”
