Page 58 of Malcroix Bones Academy (Bones and Shadow #1)

Although I suspected it would be a bad idea to get completely hammered, I couldn’t help hoping the drink might be a little strong.

After weeks of studying and poring over my mother’s journal, and now poring over the secret passages she’d left inside, I could use a night where I wasn’t thinking too deeply about much of anything.

“Do you recognize the costumes?” Graham asked.

I glanced out at the floor, and shook my head. “Only a few,” I confessed. “I recognize some of the gods. Vampires, of course. Faeries. I’ve seen a few dragons.”

He chuckled. “No one expects you to pick it all up overnight, Leda,” he said.

“It’s pretty shocking how much you’ve learnt already, given how new you are here.

Even with your crazy, off-the-charts test scores.

” He fingered one of my braids off my cheek.

“It’s pretty intimidating to us mere mortals… ”

I tried not to hear the condescension in his voice.

Then I told myself I was imagining it.

Honestly, what was wrong with me tonight?

It struck me that maybe I’d really done this for the absolute worst of reasons.

The Skyhunt tournament in the fancy box, and now the costume party.

I didn’t really view Graham romantically, as much as I could acknowledge he was objectively attractive.

I didn’t even feel a strong spark with him in a friendship way, which is why I’d originally refused his clumsy passes during our Flying course.

Had I really only asked him out in a feeble attempt to salvage my pride with that blond arsehole? If so, that was more pathetic than if I hadn’t come at all.

“Unicorn hair for your thoughts,” Graham murmured. Reaching cautiously towards me, he touched my cheek a second time. “You alright, Shadow?”

Gah, I was already here. I should at least try to have fun.

And maybe I wasn’t being fair to Graham.

I hardly knew him, after all. And he really was a bona fide hot guy.

He clearly had a better-than-average body, which he’d obviously wanted me to know by not wearing a shirt under the fur cloak.

I’d seen other witches checking him out since we got here, and on the walk over from Grathrock.

I lifted my drink, and drained the rest of the frothy, fruity concoction in one go.

Glancing up at Strangemore’s slightly wider eyes, I plunked the empty goblet down on a nearby table.

“Do you think you could teach me how people dance here?” I asked.

He stared a second longer, then lifted his own goblet and shotgunned the last of his drink, too. He set the empty silver vessel on the table next to mine.

“Absolutely, ma’am.” He smiled, and offered his arm. “C’mon.”

The dance floor had filled up by the time I felt I might be getting the hang of it. My face and neck were sweating slightly under the headdress and dense braids, and my arms glistened under the faery lights, but everyone else was sweating, too, and no one cared.

Graham turned out to be a better dance teacher than he had been flight instructor. He was patient, funny, and surprisingly light on his feet, even in the furred boots. He didn’t seem to mind particularly, the one time I’d trod all over him, either.

“You’re definitely getting this,” he said, gripping both of my hands in his. “You really just need to feel this kind of music. The whole idea is to totally get out of your head.”

I laughed when he twirled me around unexpectedly, his hands and arms strong.

It was definitely a lead-and-be-led kind of dance, and I found I sort of enjoyed handing over control.

If I didn’t look down, didn’t obsess too much on where I placed my feet, and trusted him, even a little, it all seemed to work out.

“Gods, you’re beautiful,” he blurted.

I tensed and stumbled, tripping over my own feet.

He yanked me forward with his hands to catch me, and wrapped an arm strongly around my waist. I found myself pressed up against the length of his body.

“You okay?” he asked, concerned.

I looked up, slightly mortified. I could feel people watching us. His face was only an inch from mine, and I grew conscious that I could feel the entire front of him.

“I’m fine,” I said, a little breathless.

“How about a short break?” he suggested, still not letting go of me. “We haven’t had a drink for a while, and I could use something.”

I nodded, still feeling my face burn under the layers of gold make-up.

He loosened his hold on me only then, without releasing me entirely. Using his bulk as a buffer in the crowd, he guided me by the waist with one muscular arm, weaving us skillfully between jumping and twirling couples.

He brought me over to the bar, and I leaned there, plucking a glass of water from a tray left out for anyone to grab. I pressed the chilled glass against my neck to try and cool down, drank some of it, then placed the glass on my pulse again.

I already felt better.

Gods, what a child I was, though.

I was acting like I was fourteen.

I looked out over the dance floor while Graham ordered more drinks.

My eyes fell on a shirtless mage dancing with a witch wearing a topless negligee, with her breasts painted silver, along with her legs, arms and face.

Her blonde hair was piled high on her head and she pressed into his body, smiling up at him.

The mage with her wore a gold mask with elaborate curved horns, etched with designs and inlaid with jewels.

Below the V of his hips and waist, his legs appeared to be furred, his feet black and cloven.

His skin had been painted gold, maybe to match the silver of his witch, but it was a much thicker layer of paint than what I wore.

I could see no part of his face or hair through the form-fitting mask, which covered his entire head, but I found myself staring, jarred by the view of his broad shoulders, and lean, muscular abdomen and chest.

Whoever he was, he didn’t have an ounce of excess flesh on him anywhere. He looked like he’d been carved out of marble. Honestly, his body didn’t look real.

Maybe it was the gold paint.

“You might want to wipe that drool off your chin, Shadow,” a smirking voice said.

I jumped and turned, to find Miranda standing next to me at the bar, Draken in tow.

Miranda had changed her hair color and irises to blood red that night, to match her costume.

Despite looking nearly nude, the blood and viscera she’d worked into her hair and the bodystocking she wore made her look more terrifying than sexy.

Draken wore what looked like a gladiator outfit, with a bronze breastplate and a garland in his black hair.

He also looked disturbingly statuesque in his red and white robes, with his bare arms and legs showing down to leather sandals.

A silver eye-mask covered part of his face, but his strong jaw and mouth were distinct and visible.

He was getting a lot of stares, too, even more than Graham.

Like Miranda predicted all those weeks ago on the carriage ride, Draken now had what amounted to groupies among certain circles at Malcroix Bones.

He still got requests for autographs, a full three months into term.

When I glanced at his face, however, he wasn’t paying attention to any of the witches or mages staring at him. He gazed out at the dance floor instead, scowling in the direction of the gold-painted mage, whose fur-covered thigh was currently being dry-humped by the silver witch.

I tore my eyes off the corded muscle of those arms and shoulders when it occurred to me I was staring. Again.

I was being stupid. I had no idea who that was.

Anyway, he wasn’t speaking to me, even if he had come.

I looked at my friend, and grinned at her.

“What are you two up to?” I asked. “Did you catch me nearly face-planting on the dance floor just now? I was ever-so-graceful.”

Miranda laughed. “I thought you did really well,” she said, smirking past me at Graham. “That was your first time dancing here, wasn’t it?”

I rolled my eyes. “As if that wasn’t very obvious.”

Miranda laughed and nudged me with an elbow. “You were fine! I’m serious. You said you liked to dance in Overworld, didn’t you? I’m sure you’ll pick it up quick.”

I nodded, noncommittal. “I mean, yes… I did like dancing there. But I was never very good.”

“Right. And I’m sure your views on that are totally accurate and unbiased,” Miranda scoffed.

I scoffed back, and Miranda smacked her elbow into my ribs a second time. She jerked her chin towards Graham. “Besides, what fun is dancing if you can’t fall into the arms of your date every now and then?” she joked.

Graham walked over before I could reply.

He handed me another smoking drink, this one green, and nearly glowing.

I ignored him sizing up Draken, and Draken sizing him up right back.

Miranda didn’t ignore it. She watched the two of them openly, then turned and rolled her eyes at me, her mouth quirked in a half-smile.

“Men,” she scoffed. “They are such idiots.”

“Where’s Luc?” I asked, louder as the music started up again.

I’d really hoped Luc would ask Miranda to the dance. I’d not-so-subtly hinted the same to Luc during our last study session. While he hadn’t admitted it to me exactly, I was now ninety-percent certain that Lucifer James Mocking had an enormous crush on my best friend.

He didn’t seem ready to do anything about it, though.

“I think he decided not to come,” Miranda said, frowning.

“He and Darragh are probably testing something deeply dangerous in one of the Experimental Magic Sheds. It’s the sort of thing he used to do at our old school, when everyone else was at an event like this.

And Darragh is as bad as him. They’re positively frightening together. ”

For the first time, Draken looked at me directly. He raised an eyebrow, his eyes knowing through the mask, then glanced at Miranda.

Clearly, Draken knew about Luc’s crush, too.

Was Miranda really as oblivious as she pretended?