Page 5 of Trick Me
“Fine,” I say, already regretting it. “But I’m not wearing anything ridiculous.”
“Yes!” Sera literally bounces. “This is going to be amazing! I have the perfect dress for you. It’s a shimmery blue, and it’s going to look like you have nothing to do with death.”
I arch a brow, but she’s already too deep in the fantasy to notice. Her excitement is practically vibrating off her, and damn it, I’ve never been good at resisting her when she gets like this, sparkling eyes, wild gestures, the whole manic friend thing in full force. My resolve wavers.
“The point is, you’re going to look hot, and we’re going to find someone to break your dry spell.”
I snort. “I don’t have a?—”
“Two years, Erynn. Two. Years. You admitted it.”
I hold up my hands in protest but decide it’s easier to surrender, as she isn’t going to let this go. “Okay. But if something goes horribly wrong, I’m blaming you.”
“It’s just a party.”
I think about Mrs. Lindqvist and her dead husband, about the ghosts that sometimes crowd around me when I’m in old places. About two years of nothing but work and sleep and the occasionalconversation with someone who doesn’t have a pulse.
Maybe change isn’t the worst thing that could happen.
Maybe it’s exactly what I need.
I tuck the invitation into my desk drawer. “We’re going to a party.”
Sera squeals and hugs me, and I pretend not to notice that the temperature in the room drops five degrees.
After all, what’s the worst that could happen at a Halloween party thrown by a fae?
Chapter
One
ERYNN
The portal spits us out like we’re last week’s leftovers, and I immediately regret wearing heels.
“Hell,” Sera gasps, catching herself on a tree that definitely wasn’t there five seconds ago. “Every single time. You’d think after three years of portal travel, I’d remember to brace for the landing.”
“You literally arranged this,” I remind her, trying to find my balance on moss that glows a concerning shade of blue where my stilettos sink in. “You said, and I quote, ‘I’ve got the perfect portal spell, much smoother than the commercial ones.’?”
“I may have oversold my abilities.” She straightens, brushing imaginary dirt off her dress. “But look at us. We’re here, we’re gorgeous, and we’re only mildly traumatized from interdimensional travel.”
She’s not wrong about the gorgeous part. Sera’s outfit is pure sin meets dark fairy tale. A corseted top in black leather that looks like it was poured onto her, intricate lacing up the back that probably took her an hour to get into. The skirt is layers of burgundy tulle and black lace that move like smoke when she walks, short in the front, longer in the back, revealing thigh-high boots with lots of buckles. Her hair is piled high, and her lips are painted such a dark red that they’re almost black.
“You look like you eat men’s souls for breakfast,” I tell her. “You’re absolutely stunning, babe.”
She giggles. “Only on special days. Weekends, I’m a vegetarian.” She gives me a once-over and whistles low. “Speaking of souls, you’re going to steal a few tonight yourself.”
The dress she forced me into is nothing I would have chosen for myself. Ice-blue silk that feels like wearing water, with a single strap over my left shoulder, while the right side is completely bare. The fabric clings to me, and the slit on the left goes high. My hair is down in soft waves she created with heated stones and potions that smelled like winter roses and something burnt, falling past my shoulders. I adjust my gold thin necklace with a crescent moon. We both wear lacy black eye masks for the Halloween vibe.
“You did amazing with picking this dress for me,” Iadmit, grinning. It’s not often I get the chance to dress up.
“Very ‘touch me and die, but maybe the death would be worth it’ look.”
“That’s not a thing.”
“It is now.”
Around us, the forest is something out of a dark fairy tale. Trees with silver bark that seems to pulse with its own light, shadows that move independently of their sources, and that blue-glowing moss that’s either magical or radioactive. Other guests are materializing from their own portals. A couple appears in a shower of golden sparks, and a group of three stumbles out of what looks like a tear in reality itself.
