Page 90 of Kingmakers, Year Three

Chay’s brought out a bottle of pear brandy, which she informs us is a crucial part of any Christmas celebration. I took one shot and that was quite enough for me—I’m already giggly and much more talkative than usual.

Music blasts from Anna’s scratchy portable speaker.

“Why does that thing make every song sound like it’s playing on the radio in 1942?” Chay demands.

“ ‘Cause you’ve knocked it in the sand ten times over!” Anna scolds her.

“I’m not the only one who knocked it in the sand,” Chay huffs.

“That doesn’t make it play any better,” Anna says.

“I’ve got a speaker down in our dorm,” Rakel says. “I could grab it.”

“Nah.” Chay shakes her head. “Don’t bother. This thing works alright and it’s balls cold outside—you don’t want to walk all that way.”

“You got a date for the dance?” Anna asks Rakel.

“Sort of.” Rakel shrugs. “I told Joss Burmingham I’d go with him. Just as friends, though,” she hastens to add.

Joss is in our Interrogation class.

“You didn’t tell me that!” I cry.

“Because there’s nothing to tell,” Rakel says, with a surly scowl. “I don’t like him or anything.”

“God no!” Anna says. “We would never suspect you oflikingsomeone.”

“Ares and me are going as friends, too,” Chay tells Rakel. “Just so neither one of us is a third wheel to Anna and Leo.”

There’s an awkward pause as everyone looks at me out of the corner of their eyes.

I know what they want to ask, and I’m already blushing.

“I’m going with Dean,” I admit.

“Like an actual date?” Chay says, raising an eyebrow.

“Uh . . . I think so,” I say.

Rakel knows I’ve been out every single night this month, so she has a pretty good idea that Dean and I have been seeing each other regularly. And from the state of my hair when I get home, I also think she knows what most of our previous “dates” consisted of. She looks even more skeptical than Chay.

Only Anna smiles at me encouragingly. “You know, Dean’s been acting halfway human lately. Maybe he’s grown up a little. Haven’t we all?”

“Maybe . . .” Chay says slowly. “But you know, you can’t turn a wolf into a puppy.”

“That’s alright.” I shrug. “I don’t want him to be a puppy.”

All the girls spend an hour or more on their hair and makeup, Anna unleashing a torrent of curls from their wrappers and Chay twisting her reddish-blonde hair up in a sleek chignon. Rakel puts hers in a spiky faux-hawk that makes her look more Viking than ever.

I wear my curls parted on the side and smoothed down into waves, a bit like one of Chay’s pin-up girls. My gown is a simple crimson silk, and I paint my lips the same shade.

The other three girls look utterly stunning by the time they’re done. Rakel’s dress is an electric violet color, short and punky. Chay’s wearing a long white sheath with a panel down the back that looks like a cape. And Anna is dressed in black as usual, so gauzy and transparent that she floats along like an ethereal witch.

I feel plain next to all that beauty.

And I’m strangely nervous to spend an evening with Dean outside of the Bell Tower.

Is he actually planning to talk and dance with me tonight, like a normal couple?

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