Page 25 of SIN Bone Deep

“Just Nyx is fine,” I was flattered by his interest. “Comparative literature. I hope to specialize in redefining the role of women in ancient literature.”

“Very cool,” he replied and from the way he said it, I knew that he was being polite and had no idea what I was talking about. “Well,” he shrugged a little. “I’d best shower and get dressed. I’m supposed to welcome the new boarding students and bring them down to join the returning students for a pizza and social night, so everyone can get acquainted.”

“Sounds like fun,” Dean Ashbourne agreed. “Perhaps you’d like to hang around and join them, Elenyx? Get to know some of your classmates? After your uniform measurements are done?”

“I’ll find you, and introduce you around if you do,” Alexander added encouragingly to me.

“Yes… I guess. Thank you.”

“Great, I’ll find you in about an hour,” he waved loftily before walking off towards the changing rooms.

“Well, let’s get you to the uniform dispensary, so you’re done by the time Alexander seeks you out,” Dean Ashbourne gestured for Aunt Callista to proceed him out of the pool room. “We encourage socialization between the boarders and those attending from Mortensby and, as all our students are of legal drinking age and the Academy takes the safety of its students seriously, a shuttle is run on the hour between ten pm and one am between Mortensby and the Academy to ensure everyone gets home safely from their social nights.”

“What a lovely idea,” Callista commented. “I think that came about…?”

“Yes,” Dean Ashbourne. “A series of tragic motor accidents two or three decades ago. Before my time here,” he added. “But you, being local, would of course remember.”

“That I do,” Callista said in soft sadness. “That I certainly do.”

TEN

To bind the spell well every time, let the spell be said in rhyme

– The Wiccan Rede

“If you are at all concerned about staying…” Aunt Callista said quietly as the dressmaker took the pinned uniform into the back workroom and I dressed in the curtained off changeroom. “You do not need to do so, Nyx. Whilst it is a good opportunity to make friends, the young men and women that Pinegrove produces are, in many ways, like a pack of wolves. They have been raised with a sense of entitlement and belief that their needs transcend basic human decency.”

“Do you think I am wrong in coming here?” I asked her, curious, for she seemed to revile the school in so many ways.

She considered the question. “I think that your coming here, Nyx, will be the best thing to happen to this school and its students since Pinegrove Academy opened and I am glad to keep you near for three more years, but I also do not wish to see you harmed, in any way.”

I opened the curtain and embraced her tightly before releasing her. “I am a Vossen,” I told her. “We’re tough.”

“That we are,” she cupped my cheek on her palm, and her eyes flickered over my shoulder. “And there is that young man from earlier,” she said quietly. “Right on time.”

“I will be fine,” I told her as Xander met my eyes and smiled. “I’ll see you later,” I said over my shoulder already crossing to the door.

“All done?” Xander asked as I stepped out into the hallway.

“Yep, all done,” I smoothed my hands down my dress and hoped I hadn’t smeared my makeup or ruined my hair in trying on the uniform.

“Great, this way,” he started down the hallway, and I had to skip a step to catch up. He did not adjust his stride to mine, so I was breathless trying to keep up, though he did hold open the doors long enough for me to duck through under his arm. As we moved through the school, he called out greetings to various other students touching his brow to some, his cheek to another, and tugging his ear at others. Some he did a combination of all three moves.

“What do those signals mean?” I asked. I could hear the recreation center, music pounding out now that the parents had departed. There was a shriek behind us, and a group of bikini-clad young women ran down the path, pursued by laughing young men in swimming trunks.

“Nothing… Just that the party has started,” Xander brushed it off.

As we drew near, a young man touched his cheek and held up two fingers. Xander returned the gesture curling his fingers into his palm and out two times, which sent the other man into peals of laughter. He leaned into another man and covered his mouth with his hand as he whispered into his ear. The other man’s eyes flicked up to mine, and he grinned wickedly.

We entered the recreational room where the bar was seething with activity. Three bar staff, distinguishable by their white shirts and dark waistcoats, seemed to never be still, laughing as they poured an endless round of cocktails.

“Here,” Xander leaned into yell in my ear. “I’ll get us a drink!”

Without waiting for an answer, he threaded into the crowd around the bar and was embraced by it, exchanging greetings and kisses. Abandoned awkwardly, knowing no one, I fidgeted and tried to look as if I wasn’t uncomfortable whilst around me people danced and writhed against each other, slopping their drinks, and not caring. On a table, someone was cutting lines of a white powder, whilst others blew scented smoke out so thick that I could taste it on the air.

We occasionally used marijuana in the craft to help us focus during meditation - and because sometimes it was nice to just get stoned - so I was no stranger to the smoke or sensation that breathing it invoked.

The party around me was far beyond that of the bonfire at the beach to which Nova had taken me. There was an abandonment and sexuality to this one, whereas the other had been tightly wound and judgingly prim. With the smoke and music pounding, and the people grinding against each other, it was much more like the depictions of old coven meetings in the grimoires, I thought, but somehow this was dangerous as if the young and beautiful faces were just masks over the faces of grotesque demons…

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