“The one I have is good enough.” Silt yawned. “It’s black, shows off a ridiculous amount of skin, and—with the right pair of heels—might almost give me long enough legs to get Boneboy drooling.”
“I don’t know.” I faked a frown. “I mean… we’ve already slept together. Taking you to a dance seems like a step backwards.”
“Because there isn’t an ounce of romance in your coal-black heart,” she shot back, her grin spoiling the fake outrage. “Besides, I already have a date.”
“Seriously? I thought London, Santi, and our two Hydromancers were the only first-year couples so far. Who’s the no-doubt-secretly-terrified guy?” I frowned. “Please tell me it’s not Paladin.”
“Matthew? Please. I’d break his skinny ass in two.”
“I’m not sure skinny is the right word,” said Vibe thoughtfully.
“Mmhmm, more like perfectly chewable,” agreed Wormhole.
“Anyway,” said Silt, pausing to toss a glare at the other two women, “my date’s not a first-year. Debbie’s a normal.”
“Oh.” I wasn’t sure if I was more surprised that Sofia’s date was female or that she wasn’t even a Power.
“Oh?” Silt’s glare switched to me.
“Is she cute? And does she know about… us?”
“You’re an asshole, Skeletor.” She grinned, and the awkward moment passed. “Somehow, I don’t think she’s threatened at all.”
“What about you, Damian?” asked Kayleigh.
I shrugged. “I am kind of threatened, but if Silt thinks we can make it work…” A motion of Silt’s thickly muscled arm sent a piece of dirt flying across the clearing at me.
“No, I meant what are your plans for the dance?”
Since I’d be hundreds of miles away that day, doing my best to commit murder under the eyes of a dozen prison guards, I hadn’t given the dance any thought. But that was one of the things I couldn’t say. “I don’t know. Some of the guys are renting tuxedos, but I’ve got a suit from Jeremiah that should do just fine.”
“I think she was asking who you were going with, Boneboy.”
“With all the women actively campaigning to date me, I’m still trying to narrow down the applicant pool,” I said drily. “Maybe I should run background checks. I want to make sure whoever I select doesn’t somehow tarnish my spotless reputation.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t asked Nadia yet,” said Silt.
“Orca has a date.” That was Evelyn, who’d continued to browse dresses on her Glass.
“She does?” I frowned again. “Please tell me it’s not—”
“It’s not Paladin.” It was Wormhole’s turn to frown. “I swear… you’re obsessed with the poor guy.”
“Who is it then? Alan Jackson?”
“Seriously? Can you see Alan Jackson at a dance?” Vibe shuddered.
“She’s going with Prince,” said Evelyn.
“Wait… what?” It was hard to think of a first-year more different from Nadia than still-chubby, unathletic Johannes “Prince” Callum. “But he fainted the one time they sparred!”
“From what I hear, he dances almost as well as he sings. And nobody sings like a Siren.”
I tried to remind myself that I wasn’t even going to the dance, so I shouldn’t care who Nadia went with, but after nine months of trying—and failing—to impress her in the sparring pits, her choice still hurt.
“Do you really have a bunch of girls in mind for the dance, Damian?” I was so used to Kayleigh sitting next to me that it was strange seeing her on the bench with Silt and Wormhole for once. Or maybe it was the fact that she was wearing a dark blouse and long, pleated skirt instead of her usual Academy greys.
“Shockingly, no. It turns out necromancy isn’t the turn-on everyone told me it would be.” Getting kicked out of Combat class had lessened the amount of terror I inspired in the other first-years, but they still seemed fully capable of resisting my immense sex appeal. “I was thinking of asking Gladys.”
“You know… we could always go together.”
“You and me?”
Somehow, the blush showed even through her naturally golden skin. “As friends, I mean.”
Under her breath, Silt muttered something that sounded weirdly like “…two steps back.”
“All those people,” continued Vibe, her words almost tripping over each other, “and all their emotions…”
Somehow, that made things harder, not easier. I didn’t want to promise something I knew I couldn’t do—especially if Vibe would be relying on me to block her Empathy—but telling her I wasn’t going to the dance would leave her wondering why. The last thing I needed was someone as smart as Kayleigh digging into my plans. “Sure,” I found myself saying, “I’d be happy to go with you.”
For some reason, Silt looked even more troubled. Maybe she wasn’t as confident about her date with Debbie as she’d been pretending.
CHAPTER 61
By the time I finally heard back from Her Majesty, I’d solved my transportation problem. More accurately, it had been solved for me, and once again, I had the government to thank. Because the Hole was way out in the middle of the fucking desert, and the vast majority of the Free States’ population didn’t have cars, shuttles had been arranged from the major cities. The Los Angeles shuttle was scheduled to leave two days before Remembrance Day from an old and unused bus terminal several miles south of the Academy. With all the running we’d been doing for the past year, I could manage three miles in my sleep.
With transportation solved, all I needed was a weapon.
I came back from another Ethics class where Isabel Ferra and I had spent long minutes glaring at each other to find my Glass blinking with a received communication. There was no header data at all… just a five word message:
Outside west wall. Midnight. Tonight.
Finally.
•—•—•
The west wall was the one our clearing overlooked, although I’d never gone all the way down the hill to the wall itself. Trying to climb an unfamiliar wall in the dead of night seemed like a horrible idea, but I had three things working in my favor. First, because of the hill, the wall was only ten or so feet high from the Academy side, instead of
