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“She’d only be like . . . your second cousin,” I say, trying to compose myself.
“You’ve been hanging around Anna and Leo too long,” he says, shaking his head at me.
That only makes me laugh harder.
“Anyway, she’s not my type,” Hedeon says.
“Oh yeah? What’s your type?”
Hedeon doesn’t answer me. But a few minutes later when we join Dean, Cat, and Bram by the fire, I see him scanning the jostling crowd of students. Looking for someone.
I can’t keep an eye on him any longer. Sabrina and Nix have just made their appearance on the edge of the sand.
A dozen heads turn in their direction—in Sabrina’s direction, most likely. I’ll admit, she’s looking particularly stunning in a silver dress that shimmers like scales.
But it’s Nix who captures my attention, immediately and irrevocably.
I’ve never seen her dressed up before.
She still looks like herself. Everything is just . . . more.
She’s got her hair braided on the sides, running back along the crown before loosening into curls again. The smoky shadow aroundher eyes makes her green irises look pale and serpentine. Her cheekbones are sharper, her mouth wide and firm.
She looks like a Viking princess, here to celebrate her victory.
She’s dressed all in black—trousers as usual, but this time in a silky material that gleams in the firelight. Her cropped tank top shows a slice of flat, hard abdomen above the waistband of her pants.
I’m drawn to her like a fish on a line, reeled in.
“There you are,” I say. “What took you so long?”
“I put on makeup and better clothes,” Nix says, with that raw honesty that grabs hold of me every time, like a fist in my guts. “I wanted to impress you.”
“It worked,” I say. “You’re stunning.”
“Do you like me better this way?” she asks, looking up into my face to see the truth of my answer, whatever I might say.
“I like you best outdoors,” I tell her. “On the beach, in the woods . . . anywhere outside. It’s where you belong.”
She smiles, letting out the breath she was holding.
“I agree,” she says.
“Do you dance?”
“I like dancing. Whether I’m good at it is a different question . . .”
I don’t know if I’m a great dancer either.
Nix and I seem to move well together, and that’s all that matters. Song after song flows by, faster than I can count them. I’m transfixed by the way Nix’s hair flares gold, copper, and scarlet in the firelight, and how the smoke mixes with the scent of her skin.
Sabrina has already been snatched up by Kenzo Tanaka, who looks overjoyed at his good luck—until Bram cuts in and steals her away.
Anna and Leo are dancing the way they always do, extremely close together, looking into each other’s faces, talking and laughing the whole time.
Caleb Griffin asks Chay Wagner to join him on the sand and she agrees, unembarrassed to be seen with a Freshman since everyone knows she’s in a long-distance love affair with Ozzy.
I spot Kade Petrov dancing with Lucy Turgenev. Kade throws several cautious looks back at Tristan Turgenev to be sure Tristan doesn’t mind his friend grinding with his little sister in a (mostly) respectful manner.
