Phrontistery Of Monster Kind - Six Feet Deep

Chapter 45

I shouldn't have offered to go; I could have been in the comfort of my dorm. No one could opt out of the event, they needed all the teachers they could get monitoring the event, as well as allowing some of the couples among the staff to have some semblance of fun that night.

But now I wished I could have stayed cuddled up by the fire in my room, instead of having to face the man I had intentionally planned to spend the night with. Despite speaking to him yesterday, a whole night with him made the poison seem tempting.

All I needed was a good night. Especially after the last.

Odaxon wasn't helping, him not having the full grasp of what happened between us. I couldn't tell the siren, I barely wanted to think about it.

"This was a horrible mistake," I muttered as I slipped on my dress.

School dances were the most serious event of the year. Female students spent months picking outfits for the one day they were allowed to dress as glamorous as they wanted to. The men racked up the courage to ask whichever girl caught their fancy. The women who had partners usually forced them to do matching outfits.

It wasn't only the students who took it seriously, but some teachers. Ophis and Paris had been getting their dresses custom-made for months. Celestinus and Mors, as I had been informed, had three outfits that they rotated for these sorts of events. The most I expected out of Noir was a change from his coat to a suit.

I spent the time I wasn't scrubbing off the reminders of yesterday, sleeping. That was before I was video called by the siren. As far as I was aware, he wasn't caught up on last night. Everyone had been trying to keep it a secret, pushing back anything that could be done until tomorrow to keep up appearances.

"Are you sure you don't need any help?" Walton asked from my phone's speaker.

"Yes, for the fifth time, I'm fine. I've been getting dressed and doing my makeup for weeks now, or hadn't you noticed?"

"I assumed Mors had been helping you," he teased.

The conversation always came back to him in the end. It was tiring and when I wanted to live my life blissfully unaware, someone had to tear me back to reality. He was only my boss for a couple more days, then I was free.

"Of course he isn't. He doesn't know the first thing about makeup," I said. "He doesn't even have skin. How would he do it?"

"I had an ex-student who used to do it on silicone moulds." That sort of made sense. "Did he ask you to the dance?"

"Walton, we are adults. We don't ask people to a school dance." Why would be assume that man would ask me? I clearly asked.

"Harro asked me to go with him before I reminded him, I am on music."

"How much did he offer you to go with him?"

"That is none of your business."

One of my enchanted lizards did all the buttons and clasps on my bodice. I had to pay one of the textile students to detach one of the sleeves so I could slide it over my cast. It velcroed back into place under a band resting on the end of the puffed part of the sleeves.

"Which dress did you pick?" he asked as he re-curled his hair around his feathers.

I grabbed my phone from my counter and lifted it so he could see me and my modern day inspired Edwardian afternoon dress, including the high bonded collars and small shoulder puff attached to completely white lace-covered bodice over my pink underlay. The sleeves trailed down from the elbow and ruffled behind me. The lace sleeves did nothing to hide my green cast but managed to function as a sling with the excess if I grew annoyed by it.