Thirty minutes into the party, I forget all about wanting to leave. I had forgotten just how much music and dance got to me, the rush, the beats…

I was jonesing for a dance when Ax and his people finally made it to the stage and it pleasantly surprised me to discover it was just the inner circle, not the entire crowd at the castle.

“damn!” I exclaim after an intense move that would have most Kpop male idols blushing, and that’s saying something.

“I know right, it’s basically the only reason I come to these soirees.”

“soirees?” I ask with a smile in my voice, turning to the speaker only to have to use all I had in me to school my face.

“yeah, I’m halfway through this amazing series that has a really sexy Englishman, I have been dying to use that word.”

Not sure it fit, but that was the least of my worries, as I struggle to school my face.

At some point, I give up all pretence of not staring, hoping my face didn’t showcase how horrified I was.

“wow, it's really that bad huh?” she says finally ungluing her eyes from the stage.

“I…I…”

“oh, my fates Aarya I leave you for 2 minutes and you’ve found a new person to harass.”

I turn onto the newcomer grateful for the distraction and it must show on my face because he bursts out laughing, attracting eyes from the crowd scattered around the stage.

“you must be new if she got you that good.”

“huh?”

“Aarya, here believes herself a creative genius and culturally progressive so she experiments on any creation that comes to her mind combining several cultures and her ’great fashion sense,’ this monstrosity is her latest accomplishment,” he says indicating the mishmash of colours and pattern that was Aarya’s dress with flourish.

“do we blame it for the makeup too or is that just her?” realizing what I just said I snap my mouth shut apology in my eyes but the guy just laughs nodding his head.

Extending his hand as we turn back to the stage where Aarya has her eyes glued, “I’m Damon, by the way.”

“oh, I’m…”

“Mahina Dracon, new girl.”

“well, yes.”

“don’t worry everyone knows who you are even before the slut parade spread those nasty things about you.”

“right…” my response is cut off by the loud cheers and hoots that erupt from around us, indicating that Ax and company completed their dance.

“honestly speaking, Aloadae is the primary reason people attend these parties.”

“weird choice of the name aside, why is that?”

“they are unreachable bastards, like the real elite of the school, not these wannabes strutting around with leathers and ugly shoes,” Aarya answers coming to where we had moved to after the performance and perching herself on the stool next to me.

“what do you mean real elites?”

“Well Ax is faerie royalty, Roan comes from a line of very powerful daemons and is basically the heir, Rainier or Rain is related to a legendary fae warrior and is also from a line of powerful, and I mean real powerful elves, Andrei just appeared out of nowhere and is crazy powerful and broody, he’s basically the main character in a dark romance and lastly Aziz is a Mer prince.”

She was pointing them out as she described them, but I was still stuck on the royal Ax thing.

“wait Ax is the dean’s son. That means the dean is also royalty.”

“He’s the freaking Faerie monarch like he’s Lord over all the other royals, have you been living underground?” Aarya answers and the tone she uses has me feeling self-conscious until I remember I have no reason to.

“now you look here honey, you seem nice and all but don’t talk to me like that, I promised to be nice and not break anything or anyone don’t make me a liar, I hate liars.”

I finish my tirade with a mental slap, because what the fuck was that, but when I look at them, they are all smiles.

“We are going to get along so well.”

“Was that a test?” I ask irritated.

“yeah and you passed it, so fix your face girl, we meant no harm. Damon bet you were chill, but after seeing and hearing about how close you were to Ax, I wasn’t so trusting.”