CHAPTER 25
I tried to whirl around, but it’s hard to do when you’re squashed between a bunch of people and wearing a big dress. I ended up accidently elbowing Jenna, who gave a startled squawk, before I could finally turn to face Archer.
Both of us widened our eyes and said, “Whoa.”
Then I immediately blushed. Oh my God, had I just looked at Archer and said, “Whoa”?
But . . . wait a minute. Had Archer just looked at me and said, “Whoa”?
We just kind of stared at each other. Archer more than deserved his “whoa.” This was a boy who could make a school uniform look good. What he did to formal wear was damn near criminal. He had lied about his bow tie being pink. He wasn’t even wearing a bow tie, just a regular tie, and it was black, like everything else he was wearing.
But the best part wasn’t the way he looked. It was the way he was looking at me.
“That dress,” he said at last, his eyes still skimming over me. “It’s . . . something.”
I fought the urge to self-consciously tug at the low neckline and just smiled. “Thanks. I just, uh, whipped it up.”
He nodded, but he still looked a little shell-shocked, and it was all I could do to keep a big goofy grin off my face.
Then I remembered what he’d said. “What do you mean, you knew it was me?”
He shook his head a little, like he was trying to clear it. “Oh, right. Elodie.”
My heart seemed to stutter in my chest, and I could actually feel my face paling.
“I just saw you from the back and said that had to be you. Elodie said there was no way it could be.”
“Oh.” I glanced over and saw Elodie coming up behind him. She glared at me, and I was surprised to see that her dress looked perfect.
The bone will know what to do, my ass, I thought, but I was kind of relieved. My anger had faded once I’d been able to make a killer dress. I figured that was a way better revenge than messing up her dress anyway.
“How on earth did you pull that together?” Elodie asked. She tried to keep her tone sweet, but her eyes were cold and angry.
I just smiled back and shrugged. “It was the weirdest thing. Apparently I got a cursed dummy.”
Her eyes widened a little before she broke my gaze. “Weird,” she mumbled.
“Yeah, it was. Luckily, I was able to lift the curse, and then—tada!” I held my skirt out with a bright smile, and was rewarded with Elodie’s scowl.
“Don’t you think it’s a little . . . loud?” she asked.
Before I could answer with something cutting, Archer turned to her. “Oh, come on, El. She looks great and you know it.”
That did it. The goofy grin could no longer be held back. Archer smiled and winked as he and Elodie slid past us and into the ballroom.
I turned to Jenna, who laughed and rolled her eyes. “Oh, girl, you got it bad.”
She was still giggling, and I was still smiling like a lunatic when we entered the ballroom. I don’t know what I had been expecting, but the ballroom blew me away. There were no paper streamers and balloons here. Instead, the room glowed with soft faerie lights, smaller and softer versions of the orb Alice always made for us. Each light rested on what looked like a dark purple flower. They floated high in the air, bobbing softly like they were caught in a gentle breeze. The chandeliers weren’t lit, but their crystals had been turned violet for the occasion, and the fairy lights made them sparkle like amethyst. The mirrors were uncovered too. I thought that might bug Jenna, but when we looked in them and saw only me, she just pointed and said, “Look. In Mirrorland, you’re still a dateless wonder,” which made us both laugh.
The floors were no longer the shiny light wood they usually were, but a deep and glossy black. I shook my head in wonder. “This is . . . wow.”
“I know,” Jenna said. She took my hand and squeezed it. “I’m so glad you made me come.”
We hovered on the edge of things for a while, watching everybody dance. I remembered the prom I’d gone to with Ryan, where everybody had danced like they were auditioning for a rap video. This could not have been more different. The witches and shapeshifters were all waltzing, which freaked me out a little. No one had told me ballroom dancing lessons were a prerequisite for going to Hecate. The faeries were off to one end of the ballroom by themselves, doing some elaborate dance that looked like something out of Elizabethan England.
I spotted Archer and Elodie dancing, and my breath caught at how beautiful they both were: Archer, tall and dark, and Elodie, her hair glowing in the lights, her dress floating around her. But then I looked at their faces and saw that they were clearly arguing. Archer was frowning and looking at a spot somewhere over her head, and Elodie seemed to be talking a mile a minute.
Then suddenly Elodie pulled her hands from Archer’s and clutched her side.
A slow feeling of dread rose up in me as I watched Archer lead her off the dance floor. She was trying to smile, but it was more like a grimace. I saw her wave him off and mouth the words “I’m fine.” But then she gasped and clutched her side again. I saw Anna push her way through the crowd, Mrs. Casnoff in tow. By now Elodie was nearly bent double.
“I wonder what’s going on,” Jenna said.
“Maybe she got a stitch in her side.”
“Yeah. Maybe.”
I looked over and saw that Jenna was looking at me with a troubled expression.
“What?”
“What did you do to Elodie’s dress this afternoon?”
“Nothing!” I insisted, but I’m a terrible liar and I knew it was showing all over my face.
Jenna just shook her head and turned back to watch Elodie, who was now being led from the room by Mrs. Casnoff and Anna. Archer went to follow, but Elodie turned back and said something to him. We couldn’t hear, obviously, but it was clear from her expression that she was pissed. Whatever she said, Archer backed up a couple of steps and raised his hands in front of him. Elodie turned back to Mrs. Casnoff, and the two of them left the ballroom, Anna and Archer trailing behind.
Archer came back about twenty minutes later, looking flustered and angry.
I could feel Jenna’s eyes on my back as I crossed the room to him.
“What was all that about?” I asked him.
He was still looking at the door they’d led Elodie out through. “I don’t know. She was fine, then she started saying her dress felt too tight, like it was shrinking or something. It just kept tightening she said, and she was having trouble breathing. Mrs. Casnoff thinks the dress was cursed.”
I was glad he was still looking away from me so that he didn’t see me flinch.
The bone will know what to do.
Had Alice known this would happen, or had I screwed it up somehow? Maybe I was supposed to use it right away, and the magic on it had, I don’t know, soured or something in the week I’d held on to it.
Or she’d known, a voice kept whispering. She never meant for the dress just to change colors. She’d meant for it to hurt Elodie.
But why would Alice want to do that? I knew she didn’t like Elodie, but this seemed really harsh. No, I must have screwed it up somehow, like the love spell on Kevin.
“Hey,” Archer said.
“Yeah,” I said weakly. Then I smiled and tried to sound more enthusiastic. “Yeah, I’m fine. That’s just . . . you know, weird about Elodie.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, looking back toward the door.
“Is she mad at you or something?” I ventured.
Running a hand though his hair, he sighed and said, “I guess. She told me I should be glad because now I could spend the ball with the person I really wanted.”
He looked down at me. “I guess she meant you.”
There were people all around us, but suddenly I felt like we were totally alone. And in that moment I swore I could feel something shift between us. Some spark flared that hadn’t been there before, at least not on his part.
He looked away again, back toward the door, and then smiled at me. “Well, it seems a shame not to show off that dress. Wanna dance?”
“Sure,” I said, going for the most casual tone possible, but my heart was beating so hard I was afraid he’d actually be able to see it. A lot of my chest was on display, after all.
He pulled me onto the dance floor, one hand warm on my waist, the other holding my hand high at shoulder level. I was scared to death that I would trip on my dress or step on his feet, but thanks to Archer, we glided across the ballroom.
“You can dance?” I asked.
He looked down at me with a smile. “A few years ago, Casnoff decided to teach a formal dancing class. Attendance was mandatory.”
“I could’ve used that.”
“Nah, you’re doing fine. Just hold on to me.”
I’d never been given better instructions. There was no band or sound system that I could see, just dreamy music that seemed to float in from everywhere and nowhere. My fingers rested lightly on Archer’s shoulder as we spun around the room. We danced near the spot where I’d left Jenna. I looked for her, but I couldn’t see her. I wondered if she had gone back up to the room, and felt a little guilty. But then Archer’s hand tightened on my waist, and Jenna slid completely from my mind.
I looked up to see him studying me intensely with an expression I’d never seen before. Well, one he’d never directed at me before.
“She was right,” he murmured.
“About what?” I said, and my voice didn’t even sound like mine. It was low and breathy.
“I did want to spend the ball with you.”
I felt like a thousand sparklers had just gone off inside me. The smile that began to spread across my face actually made my face hurt, and for the first time I didn’t care if he saw it.
I knew I didn’t have a crush on Archer anymore.
I was in love with him.
His face lowered, and my heart stopped. “Sophie—”
But before he could finish, a scream pierced the air.
The music stopped abruptly. Nearly everyone turned to see Elodie rushing back into the ballroom, a green silk robe flapping around her pale legs, and a look of horror on her face.
“It’s Anna!” she was screaming. “It’s happened again! I . . . Oh God, I think she’s dead.”