The Golden Lily

same enthusiasm for teaching me history as she did magic, we wouldn’t have ended up in this mess.

My dinners were usually spent with Julia and Kristin or “the family.” Tonight was a family night. I found Eddie and Angeline already at a table when I entered East’s cafeteria, and as usual, he seemed grateful for my presence.

“Well, why not?” Angeline was saying as I sat down with my tray. It was Chinese food night, and she held chopsticks, which seemed like a bad idea. I’d tried to teach her how to use them once, with no luck. She’d gotten angry and stabbed an eggroll so hard that the sticks had broken.

“I just… well, it’s not my thing,” Eddie said, clearly groping for an answer to whatever her question was about. “I’m not going at all. With anyone.”

“Jill will be there with Micah,” pointed out Angeline slyly. “Won’t you need to come keep an eye on her since it’s not at the school?”

Eddie’s answer was a pained look.

“What are you talking about?” I finally asked.

“The Halloween Dance,” said Angeline.

That was news to me. “There’s a Halloween Dance?”

Eddie dragged himself from his misery to give me a surprised look. “How do you not know? There are signs everywhere.”

I stirred around my steamed vegetables. “They must not be anywhere I’ve been.”

Eddie gestured with his fork to something behind me. Turning, I looked back toward the food line I’d just been in. There, hanging above it on the wall, was an enormous banner that read HALLOWEEN DANCE. It listed the date and time and was decorated with badly drawn pumpkins.

“Huh,” I said.

“How can you memorize entire books but miss something like that?” asked Angeline.

“Because Sydney’s brain only records ‘useful’ information,” Eddie said with a smile. I didn’t deny it.

“Don’t you think Eddie should go?” pushed Angeline. “He needs to watch out for Jill. And if he goes, we might as well go together.”

Eddie shot me a desperate look, and I tried to find him a way out of this. “Well, yeah, of course he’ll go… especially if it’s off-site.” The banner mentioned some venue I’d never heard of. We’d seen no sign of the Moroi who were after Jill, but an unknown place presented new dangers. Inspiration hit. “But that’s the thing. He’ll be on-duty. He’ll spend the whole time checking the place out, watching for mysterious people. It’d be a waste for him to, uh, go with you. You probably wouldn’t have much fun. Better to go with someone else.”

“But I should be protecting Jill too,” she argued. “Isn’t that why I’m here? I need to learn what to do.”

“Well, yeah,” he said, obviously trapped by her logic. “You’ll have to go with me in order to look after her.”

Angeline brightened. “Really? Then we can go together!”

Eddie’s look of pain returned. “No. We’re going together. Not together.”

Angeline didn’t seem to be fazed by the nuances. “I’ve never been to a dance,” she admitted. “Well, I mean, back home, we have them all the time. But I don’t think they’ll be like the ones here.”

That I agreed with. I’d seen the types of social events the Keepers had. They involved raucous music and dancing around bonfires, along with some kind of toxic homemade alcohol that probably even Adrian wouldn’t touch. The Keepers also didn’t think a social event was a success if at least one fight didn’t break out. It was actually kind of amazing that Angeline hadn’t gotten into one yet here at Amberwood. I should have counted myself lucky that her only transgressions were dress code violations and talking back to teachers.

“Probably not,” I said neutrally. “I don’t know. I’ve never been to a dance either.”

“You’re going to this one, aren’t you?” asked Eddie. “With Brody?”

“Brayden. And I don’t know. We haven’t even had our second date. I don’t want things to move too fast.”

“Right,” Eddie said. “Because there’s no bigger sign of commitment than a Halloween dance.”

I was about to get him back by suggesting maybe he and Angeline should go together after all when Jill and Micah joined us. Both were laughing and had a hard time settling down to explain what was so funny.

“Janna Hall finished a men’s suit in sewing club tonight,” said Jill between giggles. Once again, I felt a rush of joy at seeing her so happy. “Miss Yamani said it’s the only guy’s outfit she’s seen in there in five years. Of course, Janna needed a model, and there’s only one guy in there…”

Micah attempted a tormented look but was quickly smiling again. “Yeah, yeah. I did the manly thing and stepped up. That suit was awful.”

“Aw,” said Jill. “It wasn’t that awful-okay, it really was. Janna didn’t try to go by any size guidelines, so the pants were huge. Like, tents. And since she didn’t make any belt loops, he had to hold it all up with a sash.”

“Which barely held when they made me do a runway walk,” said Micah, shaking his head.

Jill gave him a playful nudge. “Everyone probably would’ve loved if it hadn’t held.”

“Remind me to never ever sign up for an all-girls club again,” said Micah. “Next semester, I’m taking something like shop or karate.”

“You won’t do it again? Not even for me?” Jill managed a look that was amazingly both pouty and alluring. That, I realized, was more effective than any charm spell or compulsion.

Micah groaned. “I’m helpless.”

I didn’t consider myself particularly sentimental-and still disapproved of their timid romance-but even I smiled at their antics. At least, I did until I caught sight of Eddie’s face. He wasn’t giving away much, to be fair. Maybe hanging around Dimitri had provided some tips on the guardian poker face. But Eddie wasn’t Dimitri yet, and I could see the faintest signs of pain and longing.

Why did he do this to himself? He’d refused to tell Jill how he felt. He took the noble stance that he was her protector and nothing more. Some part of me could understand that. What I couldn’t understand was why he kept torturing himself by endorsing her going out with his roommate, of all people. Even with his hang-up over Micah and Mason, Eddie was forcing himself to constantly watch the girl he wanted with someone else. I had no relatable experience, but it had to be agonizing.

Eddie caught my eye and gave a small shake of his head. Let it go, he seemed to be saying. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.

Angeline soon piped in with more talk about the dance, interrogating Jill and Micah about whether they’d be going. She also brought up her plans to go “with” Eddie. That pulled him out of his melancholy mood, and although I knew she annoyed him, I wondered if that was better than continually being tormented by Jill and Micah’s relationship.

Of course, the conversation came to a halt-as did Eddie’s problem-when Micah frowned and pointed out what the rest of us had missed. “Why would you go to the dance together? Aren’t you guys cousins?”

Eddie, Jill, and I froze. Another cover story mess-up. I couldn’t believe this had now slipped past me twice. I should have mentioned this as soon as Angeline brought up the dance. In the school’s eyes, we were all related.

“So?” asked Angeline, missing the point.

Eddie cleared his throat. “Um, third cousins. But still. We’re not really going together. It’s more of a joke.”

That effectively killed the topic, and he couldn’t help smiling triumphantly.

Brayden picked me up immediately after school the next day so that we could make the windmill tour on time. Ms. Terwilliger had even let me go a few minutes early, after promising I’d get her a cappuccino on our way back to Amberwood. I was excited to see Brayden and the tour, yet as I got into his car, I felt a brief pang of doubt. Did I have any business doing these sorts of fun, personal activities? Especially now that the cover story had slipped a couple of times. Maybe I was spending too much time on me and not enough on the mission.

Brayden had lots to tell me about the debate competition he’d attended over the weekend. We analyzed some of the more difficult topics he’d come across and laughed at the easy ones that had stumped the opposing team. I’d feared dating for years but was again pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to talk to him. It was a lot like the Shakespearean outing: an endless source of topics that we both knew lots about. It was the rest of the experience that still left me unsettled-the “date” stuff. The dating books I’d read since our last outing mostly advised on when to have sex, which was completely useless since I had yet to figure out holding hands.

The giant windmills were pretty impressive. They didn’t have the sleek beauty of cars that I loved, but I felt the