Page 135 of Fractured Fates

Pip shakes his head, then his behind, trying to dislodge the halo and matching pair of wings I’ve dressed him in.

“Look,” I wag my finger in his direction. “If I have to wear a stupid costume, then so do you.”

I’m dressed in a white nightie that I’ve borrowed from Winnie with a halo and wings that match Pip’s. I know all the other girls in Venus have opted for slutty demon outfits – I’ve seen the sequined hot pants and devil horns – but Aysha insisted that someone had to go as an angel, and Tristan had backed her up.

So everyone else will get to look hot while I look like a schoolgirl in a nativity play.

Luckily, Winnie’s already left to hang some last-minute decorations in Neptune common room, otherwise I’m sure she’d be trying to sex up my outfit.

“Come on,” I say to Pip, bending down and beckoning him into my arms. “Aysha keeps reminding me nobody’s going to care about Heaven so it’ll just be the two of us hanging out in our ridiculous costumes anyway. Although, I have to say dude, you are pulling this look off way better than me.”

Pip gives me a disgusted snort and attempts to take a chunk out of his wing.

I cradle him in my arms and make my way to the gardens.

The campus is alive with excitement this evening. I can hear chatter and laughter, music and song from every dorm room and several of the school buildings. The pathways have all been lit with strings of colorful lanterns and the gravel enchanted so that it glows beneath my feet.

Even Pip seems genuinely impressed as he quits wriggling and stares at the lights.

When we step off the path and into the gardens, he snorts with satisfaction. He’s been with me the entire time I’ve been decorating, but neither of us have seen my handiwork in the dark.

I have to admit, it looks pretty good. Not nearly as good as the Venus common room I’m sure – there was talk about burning torches and a bottomless pit – but I’m pretty proud of my handiwork.

I went with the stars hanging in the branches as well as glowing moon flowers circling the base of the trees and sparkling fireflies flitting over the flowerbeds, chased by cheruby cupids. Clouds linger around my feet and hover in the air above my head and I’ve decorated the fence with a pearly gate.

If the real Heaven looks as magical as this, I think I could be content there.

The music committee wasn’t interested in planning a playlist for Heaven, focusing all their attention on tunes for Hell. So some of my cupids are doubling up as harpists.

I’ve been told I have to stay in Heaven for the evening ‘to make sure nobody ruins the decorations’ which is the reason I suppose I was given this job. I’m going to miss the real party. There aren’t even any drinks or food out here.

But I have Pip safe and sound and my very own piece of Heaven. I’m not sure I care.

It’s half an hour before the first few students come hurrying through the gardens in search of the Venus common room. They pay little attention to my decorations, although one points at Pip and laughs.

My pet peers up at me scowling as if to say, “I told you so.”

“You look cute,” I remind him, pulling out my new phone and snapping a photo despite his grumpy expression.

After that, the flow of students to and from the common room is pretty constant and I start to see the themes the other houses have chosen.

Superheroes, Alice in Wonderland, pirates and circus.

Winnie’s arranged to meet up with Trent in the Neptune common room, and only Andrew and Dane stop to admire my handiwork and talk to me, bringing me a cup of warm beer on their way out.

By ten o’clock with the music growing wilder and the people passing through drunker, I admit to myself that this really sucks.

My first real party and I’m stuck on the outside looking in. I peer up at the fluffy cloud above my head and consider morphing it into an angry storm cloud that could strike the freaking Venus common room with lightning.

“I’d like to see you try,” Stone says from somewhere behind me.

I drop my gaze and find him standing on the lawn, a cupid dancing around his feet. He follows my gaze and kicks at the little angel. In retaliation the cherub fires a tiny arrow at him.

“What the fuck?” he says, waving his hand at the arrow and watching it evaporate into smoke.

“You like him?”

“Did you make that little goblin menace?”