Chapter 166 Chapter 166

Chapter 166 Chapter 166
Amber

I looked back at Damian who continued dancing without a care in the world.

I left the stage on slightly unsteady legs.

One last glance over my shoulder showed Damian with yet another partner. This one had her hand on his chest while she spoke. He still wasn’t looking in my direction. 

Whatever I thought I had seen in his eyes…that anger was gone.

Trying to not grit my teeth, I stomped down the steps hard enough that the wood creaked and went to find my friends.

Ellie, Maya, and Jess had claimed a cluster of chairs near one of the long drink tables set up far away from the dancing crowd.

Empty bottles and half-full glasses littered the surface. 

Ellie was already flushed and laughing, Maya was attempting some complicated sway that kept making her stumble into Jess who was trying to keep both of them upright while still managing to drink.

I dropped onto the empty chair beside Ellie and immediately reached for the nearest glass.

“There she is!” Ellie shouted, throwing an arm around my shoulders hard enough to jostle me. 

“Our very own stage star, the first couple to dance tonight and the girl who made the entire watching crowd very, very jealous.”

I sighed. “Excluding you”

Ellie raised a glass to that. “What kind of a friend I would be if I did that? Though I must say I do want to dance with someone like that some day.”

She got all dreamy eyed as she continued. “That dance looked illegal in at least three territories. I think I saw the principal take notes.”

I snorted and sipped on the ice cold drink.

Maya leaned in, eyes bright with alcohol and mischief.

“The way he was touching you though…I thought someone was going to call for the police. Or a priest. Possibly both.”

Jess grinned over the rim of her glass. “I give it two days before half the academy starts practicing ‘traditional partner changes’ in the training yards. You two set a new standard. It was very…educational and thorough.”

I rolled my eyes and took a long swallow of whatever was in the glass. It burned going down, despite the ice and I welcomed the heat.

“It was just an academy tradition,” I corrected her. 

“Nothing more. You guys are making it into something it isn’t.”

The three of them exchanged the exact same look with their eyebrows raised, and mouths pressed together to keep from laughing.

Ellie patted my knee with exaggerated sympathy and I almost winced. 

“Sure, Amber. We all believe you. That is also the reason why your face is still red and you keep glancing toward the stage like you want to commit murders, plural.”

“I am not glancing anywhere.” I replied hotly.

“You glanced four times since you sat down,” Maya supplied not so helpfully. “I counted. It would’ve been five if Jess hadn’t blocked your view with her elbow.”

“Drink more,” Jess advised. “It helps with the denial and also with the sudden urge to march back over there and claim him in front of the entire Silvercrest academy.”

I frowned at all of them. “Are we going to talk about Damian all night or actually enjoy the party?”

Ellie held up both hands in surrender, then shoved a fuller glass into my grip. 

“Ok, relax girls. We’ve teased her enough.” Then she turned to me. “Drink until you forget what his hands feel like or the obvious jealousy on your face as per my orders. Consider it as a strict medical advice.”

I drank it in a go and asked for more.

One glass became several and I could feel my irritation subdue a little as the edges of the night softened. 

The cold air stopped biting quite so hard. The slow dance with the heirs finally got over and the music shifted from the formal soft tempo of the slow dances into faster beat. 

The official portion of the evening ended which meant Damian wasn’t dancing on the stage anymore. 

Or the girls now wanted to cling to him without needing to be formal about it.

I refused to look that way and focused my gaze on the crowd that poured onto the open grass swaying with a frenzy.

Ellie let out a shriek and dragged us all in the crowd and we joined them.

For a while I really did forget everything.

Ellie spun me under the lights until I was dizzy and laughing. Maya shouted the lyrics to a song I didn’t know properly while Jess kept refilling whatever was in our hands and declaring that hydration was important even when the liquid in question was mostly alcohol. 

I was giggling mostly and feeling light like a feather drifting around in the sky.

Bodies moved around us in a sweaty, joyful crush. I let the rhythm take over, arms above my head, hips swaying, the crimson dress sticking slightly to my skin from the heat of so many people. 

Time blurred in the best way but then after a while the girls started complaining about dancing in heels. 

“I think we should catch some…sleep”

Jess yawned so widely her jaw cracked. “I agree”

Ellie looped an arm through mine and announced it was time to sleep so that the hunters got a chance to pursue us rather than exhaustion claiming us first.

Ellie collected our glasses and put them in a trash can as we held hands in a wobbly chain and wove our way out of the still dancing crowd.

She led us past the tables, the now dim floating lights toward the path that led back to the dorms. 

The night air felt colder once we left the crowd. My eyes were growing heavier and the dress was feeling too tight all of a sudden. I couldn’t wait to strip it off and sleep in my comfortable pajamas.

The scent of spilled drinks and crushed grass followed us for a while before the cleaner night air took over.

We reached the base of the wide stone stairs that climbed toward our dorms. 

All four of us were swaying a little that made the ground feel slightly unreliable. 

“How many steps does this stair have?” Jess frowned as she stood at the base.

“Twenty thousand. I just counted” Maya replied, leaning heavily on Jess, muttering about blisters. Jess was trying to count the steps and repeatedly losing track.

I was about to correct them when I saw movement near the corner of one of the smaller academic buildings to the left.

I squinted, trying to force the shapes into focus through the pleasant haze of alcohol.

The first person I noticed was Damian and my lips began to curl into a delirious smile.

But then I saw another figure beside him and all my drunkenness evaporated.