“Come,” the nurse said, putting a shriveled hand on mine. “It’s almost time.”
Back we went, through the door into the central room, where a handsome boy in a classic black tuxedo waited for us. I gasped when I saw it was Puck. His crimson hair had been spiked up so it didn’t look quite as disheveled, and his shoulders filled out the jacket he wore. I hadn’t realized how fit he was. His green eyes raked me up and down, very, very briefly before returning to my face, and he smiled. Not teasing or sarcastic, but a pure, genuine smile.
“Humph,” said the nurse, not nearly as shocked as me. “I guess you can clean up when you want to, Robin.”
“I try.” Puck, looking very human now, crossed the room and reached for my hand, slipping a white corsage onto my wrist. “You look gorgeous, Princess.”
“Thanks,” I whispered. “You look nice, yourself.”
“Nervous?” he asked.
I nodded. “A little. What will I say if someone asks me where I’ve been? How will I explain what I’ve done all year, especially after I come waltzing in like nothing has happened? What about you?” I looked up at him. “Won’t they wonder where you’ve been all this time?”
“Not me.” Puck’s normal grin came flashing back. “I’ve been gone too long—long enough for anyone to forget that I ever went to high school. The most I’ll get is a vague recollection, like déjà vu, but no one will really recognize me.” He shrugged. “One of the perks of being me.”
“Lucky you,” I muttered.
“Are we ready?” the nurse asked, suddenly appearing in her human mien, a short, stout woman in a white lab coat, with lined brown skin and the same gold glasses on the end of her nose. “And if you’re wondering, yes, I am coming with you,” she announced, peering at us over her glasses, “just to make sure my patient doesn’t push himself so hard he collapses. So, are we done here?”
“We’re still waiting for Ash.”
“Not anymore,” she replied, gazing over my shoulder. I turned slowly, heart pounding against my ribs, not knowing what to expect. For a moment, my mind went completely blank.
I’d daydreamed about Ash in a tuxedo, silly fantasies that crossed my mind every so often, but the image in my head was as far removed as a house cat was to a jaguar. His tuxedo wasn’t black, but a dazzling, spotless white, the open jacket showing a white vest and an icy blue tie beneath. His cuff links, the silk handkerchief in his breast pocket, and the glittering stud in his ear were the same icy color. Everything else was white, even his shoes, but instead of appearing ghostly or faded, he filled the room with presence, a royal among commoners. He stood in the doorway with his hands in his pockets, the picture of nonchalance, and even as a human, he was too gorgeous for words. His dark hair had been combed back, falling softly around his face, and his mercury eyes, though they should’ve seemed pale against all the white, glimmered more brightly than anything.
And they were fixed solely on me.
I was unable to move or make a sound. If my knees hadn’t already been locked, I would’ve been a satiny blue puddle on the floor. Ash’s gaze held mine; his eyes didn’t stray from my face, but I felt him looking at all of me, taking me in as surely as Puck had scanned the length of my dress in a glance. I couldn’t stop staring back. Everything around me—noise, colors, people—faded into the ether, losing all relevance and meaning, until it was only me and Ash in the entire world.
Then someone took my elbow, and my heart jolted back to normal.
“Okay,” Puck said a little too loudly, steering me away, “the gang’s all here. Are we going to this party, or not?”
Ash walked up beside me. He made no noise, but I could feel his presence as surely as my own. He didn’t offer his arm or make any move to touch me, but my nerves buzzed and my skin tingled, just with him standing there. I caught a hint of frost and the strange, sharp smell that was uniquely him, and the memory of our first dance together came rushing back.
I didn’t miss the subtle look that passed between Ash and Puck, either. Ash kept his expression carefully blank, but Puck’s mouth twitched in a faint smirk—one of his dangerous ones—and his eyes narrowed a fraction.
The nurse must’ve seen it, too, for she clapped her hands briskly, and I jumped about three feet in the air. “May I remind you three,” she stated in a no-nonsense voice, “that even though this is a party, we are there for a specific reason. We are not there to spike the punch, seduce the humans, glamour the food, challenge the males to a fight, or do anything pertaining to mischief. Is that understood?” She shot a piercing glare at Puck when she said this, and he pointed to himself with wide-eyed, who, me? look. It did not amuse her. “I will be watching you,” she warned, and even though she was barely four feet tall, white-haired, and shriveled like a prune, she made the threat sound ominous. “Do try to behave yourselves.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE