Evernight (Evernight 1)

“I will, too, but not for the same reason.” Balthazar walked slowly by my side, carefully measuring his long stride so that I wouldn’t fall behind. Sometimes it hit me how big he was—tall and broad, powerfully built—and a weird little tingle would start in my belly. “Evernight always makes me feel like I can understand the whole world. Like I can master it. Every new subject I study, every innovation I learn about—it’s like I can’t wait to get out there and try everything for myself.”

His enthusiasm wasn’t enough to make me like the school, but it did make me smile for what felt like the first time in ages. “Well, at least one of us is happy.”

“I hope we’ll both be happy before too long,” Balthazar said softly. His dark eyes were studying me intently, and that warm tingly feeling started again.

We’d reached the archway that led to the girls’ dormitory wing, and he stopped right at the boundary. I could imagine him in the nineteenth century, all courtly manners, and a smile tugged at my lips as I envisioned him bowing from the waist.

Balthazar looked like he might be about to say something, but at that moment Patrice walked up, apparently done with her own schoolwork. “Oh, Bianca, there you are.” Easily, she took my arm as if we were best friends. “You must explain our latest assignment in Modern Technology to me. I can’t make any sense of it.”

“Um—okay.” As I was being towed down the hallway, I looked back at Balthazar and waved. He looked more amused than disappointed. I muttered to Patrice, “We were talking.”

“I realize that,” she whispered. “This way he’ll keep wishing he’d gotten a chance to talk to you more. That means he’ll return to you more quickly.”

“Really?”

“In my experience, it works rather well. Besides, I really do need you to explain.”

This wasn’t the first time I’d had to shepherd Patrice through that particular course, or the first time I’d wondered why I bothered signing up for it at all. “Not a problem.” I sighed.

Patrice giggled, and for a moment she was almost girlish. “Balthazar’s the most attractive man here, if you ask me. Not precisely my type, but those shoulders? Those dark eyes? You’ve done rather well for yourself.”

“We’re just friends,” I protested as we returned to our room.

“Just friends. Hmmm.” Patrice’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “I wonder if Courtney would agree.”

I held up my hands, trying to cut this conversation off before it got even more uncomfortable than it already was. “Don’t tell Courtney about this, okay? I don’t need the hassle.”

She arched one eyebrow. “Don’t tell her about what? I thought you said there was nothing to tell.”

“If you want help with your homework, you’re going to drop the subject. Now.”

Slightly offended, Patrice shrugged. “Suit yourself. If I were you, I’d be excited about attracting the attention of a guy like Balthazar. But, by all means, let’s talk about homework instead.”

Honestly, I was a little proud that Balthazar liked me. I wasn’t convinced that he wanted to be anything more than a friend, but he definitely flirted with me sometimes. After the mess with Lucas, it felt good to be flirted with—as if I really were beautiful and fascinating instead of the shy, awkward girl in the corner.

Balthazar was kind, smart, and he had a sly sense of humor. Everyone liked him, probably because he seemed to like most people in return. Even Raquel, who detested virtually all the in crowd, said hello to him in the hallway, and he always said hello back. He wasn’t snobbish or cold. And he really was devastatingly good-looking.

He was everything a girl could ask for, basically. But he wasn’t Lucas.

Back at my old school, the teachers always decorated for Halloween. Orange plastic pumpkins were set in the windows, waiting to be filled with Tootsie Rolls and Butterfingers, and construction paper witches flew across every wall. Last year, the principal hung candy-corn lights around her office door, which also had a sign that said, in green shaky letters, Boo! I always thought it was cheesy and fake, and it never occurred to me that I might someday miss it.

Nobody hung decorations at Evernight.

“Maybe they think the gargoyles are scary enough,” Raquel suggested over our lunch in her dorm room.

I remembered the one outside my bedroom window and tried to imagine him draped in candy-corn lights. “Yeah, I see what you mean. If your school actually is a dank, scary dungeon from hell, Halloween decorations are sort of beside the point.”

“Too bad we don’t run a haunted house. You know, for little kids from Riverton? We could dress up, make it really scary. Play devils and demons for a weekend. Some of these jerks wouldn’t have to act that much. We could raise money for the school.”

“I don’t think Evernight Academy needs more money.”

“Good point,” she admitted. “But we could raise money for charity, maybe. Like a help hotline or suicide prevention or something. I don’t think many of these people care about charity, but they’d probably do it just for their college applications. None of these rich bitches even talk about college, probably because they’re all legacies at Harvard or Yale or something, but still, they’ve got to apply. So they might go for the idea, right?”

The images flickered in my mind: cobwebs on the staircases, students laughing maniacally and the sound echoing throughout the great hall, and innocent little kids, wide-eyed with terror as Courtney or Vidette waved long black fingernails above their heads. “We’re too late, though—Halloween’s only two weeks away. Maybe next year.”

“If I come back here next year, please shoot me.” Raquel groaned, flopping backward onto her bed. “My parents say I should stick it out, because I got a scholarship to come here and otherwise it’s just my old public school, with the metal detectors and no honors program. But I hate this. I hate it.”

My stomach rumbled. The tuna salad and crackers Raquel and I had shared wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy my hunger; I’d need to eat again in my room. I didn’t want her to realize that, though. “It’s got to get better.”