Page 42 of Monster's Mystery

The first thingthat I noticed when I stepped outside the academy was the noise. Loud music was pounding out a bass line from somewhere, and the space between the back of the castle and the dark forest was swelling with the sound. That, combined with the shouts and cheers from the students, made for an overwhelming cacophony that made me want to turn around and retreat back to my dorm room.

Aiden stopped me. “It’s not so bad once you get used to it,” he said, leaning in close to my ear and practically shouting. “Come on, let’s find some alcohol.”

The bar was close to the kitchen door for easy access, and far away from the bonfire for obvious reasons.

The sun was still setting, sending streaks of burnt orange and crimson across the sky to the west, but the east was darkening. The bonfire lit up against the dark sky and darker forest beneath it made a pretty picture.

I found myself wanting to try to paint it, even though I didn’t know a thing about painting.

“Bruce should paint this,” I shouted to Aiden.

He laughed. “Bruce doesn’t paint.”

“But he did your Halloween costume in body paint last year,” I said, confused.

“That isn’t the same thing,” Aiden explained. “Body paint is all about knowing contours and muscle groups. Painting a landscape, you have to understand lighting and depth and countless other things that I don’t know about.”

“So could he paint a portrait?” I asked.

“Ask him yourself.”

I turned to find Bruce behind me, Rhiannon on his arm. “A portrait would be easier,” he admitted when I repeated my question. “But I think it would look more like a Picasso than I want to admit.”

I giggled. “Well, at least that’s a style.”

“I much prefer body art. It’s temporary, a shifting canvas. It’s a challenge that can be wiped clean the next day.” Bruce stared off in the distance into the forest.

“I think I’d rather have something that stuck around,” I said. “All that hard work, only for it to vanish? Not for me.”

“You’re not in the arts at all,” Rhiannon said.

“I don’t have an artistic bone in my body,” I readily admitted. “Una’s been helping me with tailoring, but I think that’s the limit of my creativity.”

“You’ve got plenty of imagination,” Aiden said with a smile.

Bruce chuckled. “That feels like a little too much information.”

I blushed and turned back to the refreshment table, asking the student behind the makeshift bar for a beer.

“I meant you have a good imagination in other ways, too,” Aiden said, catching up to me as I walked away with my beer. He held one as well. “You have really good ideas and make great leaps of logic that can be hard to follow, but you’re always right. I think logic and imagination are linked.”

“If you say so.” I took a sip of beer and wrinkled my nose. “I need to be drunk to stomach this.”

“Just imagine that it tastes better,” Bruce teased, coming up beside me. “Or dump it and get some mead. It’s brewed by the school, you know.”

“I didn’t. Mead sounds much better than beer.” I gave Aiden my bottle and returned to the line to get the new drink.

By the time I returned to the pair, Rhiannon had left, saying she had a headache.

I frowned, disappointed. “I would have walked her back to her room,” I said reproachfully to the two men.

“Oh, don’t worry about her,” Aiden said. “Lilia and Brom escorted her. They said something about going to Brom’s room afterward for some quality alone time.”

I nearly choked on my first swallow of mead. “Lilia hasn’t slept in our room at all yet this semester! How much more alone time do they need?”

“Perhaps Brom’s roommates aren’t as accommodating as yours,” Aiden replied with a wink. “And maybe she doesn’t get off on having sex in front of other people while invisible.”

I felt like flames covered my face, but when I glanced at Bruce, he was pointedly looking the other direction.

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