“If you are.”
“I am.” My feet gave a loud protest that they weren’t, but I ignored them.
Another hour slipped by. The fervor in the grand ballroom grew as the clock drew closer to midnight. Selene warned me that when midnight arrived, the whole place would descend into pandemonium as everybody celebrated the official start of Samhain. She hadn’t been exaggerating. I felt like one of those crazy people in New York City, waiting for the ball to drop for the New Year. Only those people weren’t in ball gowns and masks.
The gowns were okay, but the masks were starting to freak me out. The plague doctor ones were bad enough, but the full-faced ones with the long pointy chins and tall pointy horns were worse. Every time I spotted one, my thoughts turned to the Minotaur, and the gruesome memory of its head being ripped from its body.
After a while, I began to feel light-headed. “I need to sit down,” I said into Paul’s ear. He nodded and escorted me off the dance floor to the tables in the back. I sat down and removed my mask, uncaring about any risks from ghost attack. The air felt cool on my face.
“Are you all right?” Paul asked, rubbing my shoulders.
“Just a bit dizzy.”
“I’ll bring you something more to drink.”
I closed my eyes when he left and didn’t open them again until he returned with more cider and a goblet of water.
“Will you be all right by yourself for a few minutes?” said Paul.
“Sure. What’s up?”
He looked nervous. “I think Senator Kelly’s here. She’s supposed to be writing me a recommendation, and I want to ask her about it.”
I smiled. “Go for it. I’ll be fine.”
Paul smiled back then bent toward me, pulling off his own mask as he did so. He kissed me. It was short and soft, hardly more than a brush of the lips, but it sent ripples of heat bubbling through my body like lava down the side of a volcano. I leaned into him, wanting more, but he pulled away and left. I closed my eyes again, savoring the tingly feel that lingered for minutes afterward.
I sat there through several songs, drinking the water and cider. Then I stood and headed for the bathroom. Careful not to smear my eye makeup, I splashed water on my face.
Through the mirror, I saw the bathroom door open behind me. A girl in a pink mask strolled inside, flanked by another girl in green taffeta—Katarina and Carla. I tried to ignore them, but Katarina stepped right behind me and poked me in the back. Hard.
“Hey,” I shouted, spinning around.
Katarina pulled off her mask and sneered at me. For the first time ever, she looked less than beautiful. More like scary. “What were you doing with my boyfriend?”
I poked her back, jamming my forefinger into her shoulder. “Why don’t you ask him?”
“Don’t touch me,” Katarina hissed.
“You started it.” My hands clenched into fists at my side, and I resisted the urge to slap her. I could do it, no question, already seeing it in my imagination. And I was just as sure she wouldn’t be able to do much more than that finger poke to me. It was a heady thought, the surety of such power.
“What were you talking about?” she demanded, hands on hips.
I moved toward the door. “None of your business. If Eli wanted you to know, he’d have told you.”
“Come on, Kat,” Carla said. “Don’t let her get to you. It was probably something stupid and you’re freaking out for nothing.”
“Yep,” I said in my most sarcastic tone. “There’s nothing to worry about at all. Nothing going on between me and your boyfriend.”
Katarina raised her hand and tried to swipe at me like a cat. An invisible force held her back. “Owww!” She stamped her foot in frustration. I expected her to descend into full-on tantrum any second, hair pulling and all. “It’s not fair. If I could just—”
“What? Do this?” I reached out and shoved her hard enough she tipped backward in her high-heeled shoes and fell into Carla.
“You bitch,” Katarina huffed, righting herself.
Beside her, Carla pulled the bracelet off her wrist. The glamour on the bracelet fell away to reveal her wand.
“What do you think you can do with that?” I said.
A flush spread across Carla’s neck, and I laughed.
The door to the bathroom swung open, and a person in one of those plague doctor masks came in. At first I thought it was a man, given the suit and cape outfit and short hair, but then a familiar female voice said, “What’s going on here?”
The blood drained from my face. It couldn’t be her.
My mother pulled off her mask and fixed a hawk-eyed glare at the three of us. “Well?” she said.
“We were … um … just leaving,” said Katarina, wiping back strands of brown hair that had fallen into her eyes when I shoved her.
“Yeah,” seconded Carla, and the two of them squeezed past Moira toward the door.
“Me, too,” I added, trying to follow after them.
Mom grabbed my arm. “Wait just a minute.”
I turned and faced her, the power trip I’d been riding officially over.
“Were you fighting with those girls?”
“Uh, no, of course not. I mean … The Will won’t let us do that.”
She gave me a look that told me she wasn’t buying it.
I decided to employ my usual tactic: an offense is the best defense. “What are you doing here, Mom?”