They stepped back quietly, but waited and she knew they wouldn’t leave unless she actually put on the dress. She snatched it away from the woman, hoping it might tear as she did so, but luck wasn’t on her side tonight. She stepped behind the screen and put on the dress, her movements angry and sullen.
The dress was everything she’d feared – it hugged her like a second skin, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination and she wondered if the Council had taken up matchmaking in their spare time. A girl would only ever choose to wear a dress like this for one reason – when she wanted to end the night in her date’s bed.
Allyra stepped into the shoes laid out for her and teetered slightly on heels much higher than she’d ever worn. She hoped deviously that they’d miscalculated and she would end up taller than Jason.
Jason was already sitting at the table when she arrived, and she forced herself to hold her head up high and not think about what she was wearing. He stood as she walked up, wearing a black suit with a blue shirt to match her dress.
Jason looked nothing short of stunning – the suit was cut perfectly to accentuate his tall and upright posture. But as perfect as his features were, nothing could hide the haughty arrogance.
He pulled her chair out for her. “Thank you.” She said stiffly, doing her best to ignore him. She was hungry, but she just wanted to get this done as quickly and painlessly as possible.
He waved a bottle of white wine at her and she nodded – she definitely needed alcohol to get through the night.
“So – here we are.” Jason said conversationally, holding up his glass of wine, “Down to two – congratulations.”
She ignored him and drank, taking a deep gulp from her glass – it was cold, light and delightfully crisp.
He smirked and swirled the wine in his glass, before taking a much more measured mouthful. “You need to savor it if you want to get all the complexities.”
She’d meant to ignore him, but she couldn’t help herself. “I’m sorry – I wasn’t brought up to be a pretentious ass.”
He shrugged, careless and elegant. “Just a bit of friendly advice.”
Allyra glared at him silently, wishing Gavin and his staff would hurry up with the food.
A waiter came in and laid two plates in front of them - smoked trout salad with a light citrusy dressing.
She dug in with her fork, deliberately foregoing her manners – she wasn’t here on a date and she certainly wasn’t going to act like it.
He watched her with a bemused smile. “Are you really not going to talk to me? It’s going to get lonely pretty quickly.”
“Only a week and a half to the full moon.” She grunted back, barely believing her own poor behavior.
“To the end of the Trials – but that’s not really the end of it for us, is it?”
She ignored him, deliberately shoveling lettuce and trout into her mouth and chewing through it with great determination. But he’d gotten her attention – if he thought she’d ever choose to see him again…
“I’m planning on staying far away from you as soon as we finish the Trials.” She muttered darkly through a mouthful of greens.
“Doesn’t really matter what you’re planning – we’ll be seeing a lot of each other in the next year.” Jason replied complacently, reminding her of a cartoon cat which had just swallowed the bird, with a feather still hanging out the side of its mouth.
He watched her closely, and some of her incredulity must have shown on her face. “You really don’t know do you?”
“Obviously you’re just dying to tell me.” She replied snidely.
“Winner and runner-up of the Trials – we’ll be teaming up to compete in the Final Five.”
She waved her fork at him to continue.
He raised his eyebrows at her, but resumed his lecture. “The Trials happens in all five Great Colleges – that means five sets of winners and runner-ups every year –“
“I can count.”
He didn’t look convinced and she wondered if she could throw the salad knife hard enough to have it slice through his perfect face.
“Every five years the Five Finals are held, and the twenty five winners and their seconds compete to be declared as the foremost of the winners.”
“Doesn’t sound like something I want to do – I opt out.”
“You don’t get to opt out. By competing in the Trials you’ve essentially signed a legally binding contract. And by getting as far as this – congratulations again by the way – you’ve agreed to compete in the Five Finals – with me.”
“Stop trying to get into my head – it’s not working.”
He shrugged, “Fine – ask the Council later, ask your boyfriend. They’ll all say the same thing.”
“Whatever.” She snapped.
“All I’m saying is that we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other in the coming year – so we might as well get to know each other.”
“Assuming your story is true – which I still doubt – why in the world would they team up the winner and the runner-up? We’re going to be fighting each other, hurting each other, how do they expect us to team up after that? It’s got to be most stupid thing I’ve ever heard of.”
“Allyra –“ He said softly, caressing her name, “You and I will be undergoing a trial by fire, if we emerge on the other side, we’ll know a single truth about each other – the fact that we’ll each be the best that the other has ever faced. If you were going into the Between, wouldn’t you want the best to be watching your back?”
“What does the Between have anything to
