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In the mirror, my reflection shimmered in a silvery dress that pooled around my ankles, my knives hidden beneath it. I’d rubbed some of that body oil into my chest, and the top half of my hair was pulled back while the rest of my curls hung loose. Nobody would ever guess that I was on my way to go spy on some pre-elites and dance with a male I’d supposedly killed almost a year ago.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” I asked brightly, releasing my necklace. “Let’s go.”

As always, the Element Wielder mansion flickered with live fire in the windowpanes while cloudless snow drifted down around it.

When we stepped inside, the noise blasted into us—music and chatting and laughter. Clusters of students swayed to the beat while others mingled with drinks in their hands. It was more or less the same scene as the party I’d attended here during my first week when Quinn had tracked me down, except garland bordered the windowsills and everyone was wearing formal attire that sparkled like snowflakes.

Speaking of Quinn… I caught a flash of red hair from the corner of my eye and turned to see her hurrying up the spiral staircase on the other end of the room.

Were the other pre-elites upstairs too?

Before I could follow, Rodhi, Lander, and Gileon were there, along with Norman and Pierson. Rodhi managed to press drinks into everyone’s hands while Lander ogled Emelle and Norman pressed a kiss to Mitzi’s cheek. Gileon sidled up to Wren, his hair slicked to the side.

“May we all be brave!” Rodhi shouted, holding up his drink. “May we all be kind! May we all get some from the front or behind!”

“Rodhi!” Emelle exclaimed as he tipped his drink back, throat working to chug it down.

“What?” Rodhi wiped his mouth with his sleeve. “The pink river dolphins taught me that one. I can’t disrespect them by letting it die with me.”

“You don’t seriously expect us to believe that dolphins drink ale,” Wren said.

“No, but they do get high from pufferfish. Now drink!”

Almost everyone tipped their drinks back. I mimicked the motion, then used my Object Summoning to send mine whizzing back to the bar table set up in the back. I needed a clear mind if I was going to take advantage of everyone else’s hazy ones.

At that moment, the music slowed. Everywhere around us, couples drifted to the dance floor, arms looped around necks, hands resting on hips.

“Will you dance with me?” Lander asked Melle, holding out his arm, and she took it with a widespread smile that made her entire face glow.

Then Norman and Mitzi went off together, followed by Wren and Gileon. Pierson and Cilia both found beautiful Shape Shifter women to dance with, and suddenly my neck felt too hot as a few pairs of eyes flicked my way.

A fourth-year I vaguely recognized as someone from the Object Summoner sector started walking my way, locks of light hair falling over his face as he fastened his gaze on me, when a hand came to rest on my elbow.

“Care to dance?”

For the briefest of moments, I thought I’d turn to find Coen. But of course, the voice didn’t belong to him, nor did the shape or texture of the hand.

When I looked up, it was Rodhi who gave me a conspiratorial wink instead.

“Oh.” After the initial beat of disappointment, relief coursed through me at the realization that I wouldn’t have to shake off any unwanted attention. “Of course.”

Rodhi led me to the dance floor, put a hand on my mid-back, and whispered, “I figure out of every guy in here, I have a slightly less chance of getting my balls chopped off if he shows up and sees you dancing with another man.”

“Why, because you’re essential to our mission?” I joked, hands on Rodhi’s shoulders as we swayed this way and that.

His face soured. “Wouldn’t say I’m living up to the essential part right now.” From the cloud of his thoughts wafting out, I knew he was still frustrated he couldn’t find a way to break anyone else out of the prison. “No, your boyfriend just knows I’ve only got eyes for Tessa.”

Oh, were Rodhi and Ms. Pincette on a first-name basis now? Despite all the ways we’d joked about his infatuation over the years, I saw the pain lurking just behind the drunken sheen already fogging up his pupils.

Rodhi was truly in love, and for the first time, I felt a swell of sympathy for him. Even though Ms. Pincette was ten years older than us, she’d been forced into her instructor role just as surely as we’d all been forced here. There was every possibility that in another life, under different circumstances, they could have been together.

“She cares about you, Rodhi,” I said. “Maybe not in the way you’d hope, but…” I recalled the way she’d gone murderous in the Testing Center in the wake of his almost-demise. “She does care.”

Above our heads, the music resumed a faster tempo. Here in the Element Wielder house, they were strummed by enchanted streams of wind that swirled along the ceiling, but seeing them play like that only reminded me of Fabian and my Object Summoning lessons with him.

I had continued to visit him every day over the last week, bringing him food and water and whatever supplies he needed. It didn’t seem to matter. His strength was only waning more and more, like a wilting moon that might never make a final spin.

Dyonisia Reeve and her Good Council needed to be destroyed.