“The pixie mistletoe,” Aaron answered as he pointed at the ceiling.

Hanging from the gilded, coffered ceiling above the windows, a small bunch of green leaves tied with a red bow swayed. The floor beneath it was conspicuously empty of guests.

“It looks like regular mistletoe,” Aaron explained, “but it’s a pixie. The event coordinator who does all the decorating for Mom is a witch, and she brings the pixie every year for the party. You probably won’t see it move, but it changes location throughout the night. You never know where it’ll show up.”

Sin paled with immediate alarm.

“And if you get caught under it with someone,” he added cheerfully, “you’d better kiss them, because the pixie will curse you with bad romantic luck for the next year if you don’t, or so rumor has it.”

I snorted. “Seriously?”

Aaron glanced at me, then did a double take, his eyes sweeping down my dress and back up again. “Wow, Tori. You’re—”

He broke off as his father strode over, his black tuxedo impeccable and a champagne glass in each hand. Following him was a middle-aged power couple, the man in an impeccable black tux and the woman draped in an off-the-shoulder gown patterned with huge peacock feathers.

“Aaron.” Tobias handed his son a champagne glass. “I haven’t had a chance to introduce you to Denzel and Abby Stein. Denzel is President and GM of the IAE.”

As Aaron shook hands with the couple, I leaned toward Ezra. “IAE?”

“International Association of Elementaria,” he whispered back. “The largest mage guild in the world.”

Kai shifted closer and murmured in my other ear, “They, along with the North American and European branches of the Arcana Federation, are the primary influencers of MPD laws.”

Whoa. I was suddenly relieved Tobias hadn’t introduced me.

“ … pleased to finally meet you,” Denzel was saying to Aaron in a slow baritone. “I’ve discussed this idea with Tobias, and I’m eager to get your input.”

“Oh?” Aaron murmured vaguely.

Denzel allowed a small, restrained smile. “As you know, we’re constantly working to balance the MPD’s strict prudence with reasonable freedoms. Early next year, we’re expanding our public relations branch, and part of that undertaking involves bringing on several influential spokespeople.”

“They’ve already brought Bjorn Visser and Jayda Hunt on board,” Tobias supplied, emphasizing the names as though they were Hollywood A-listers. “And Kyle Li has expressed interest as well.”

“But we also want an advocate for the youngest generation of mages,” Denzel said. “You’re the perfect candidate, Aaron. The role would involve a fair bit of travel but the benefits would be countless. The networking opportunities alone—plus the chance to become a voice for young mages everywhere.”

Denzel and Tobias smiled expectantly at Aaron. I blinked, taken aback by the prestigious offer. Even a nobody like me could tell it was an amazing opportunity.

“Thank you for considering me,” Aaron said politely. “I’d be happy to review the details and get back to you in the new year.”

Tobias’s smile went flat, but he held it in place. “Send me the information and I’ll forward it along,” he told Denzel.

“I’d be delighted to.”

Denzel’s wife swirled her champagne. “But we’ve been rude, I reckon,” she said in a bold Texan accent, “gettin’ straight to business like that. Aaron, tell us what you’ve been up to with your guild—the Crow and Hammer?”

Tobias jumped in before his son could answer. “Speaking of guilds, Aaron spent the better part of his morning meeting with Manolis Stavros.”

“The GM of Olympus?” Denzel’s eyebrows rose. “I see the competition for Aaron’s next guild will be stiff.”

“We’ll have to make him an offer right quick,” Abby declared confidently.

“Have you met Manolis?” Tobias asked. “Perhaps I can have the pleasure of introducing you.”

“We’ve met but I haven’t seen him in several years …” Denzel’s voice grew inaudible as Tobias led him and his wife into the mingling crowd.

Aaron, Kai, Ezra, Sin, and I let out identical heaving breaths as though none of us had inhaled properly during that entire conversation.

“Holy crap.” I goggled at Aaron. “That’s a hell of an offer. Are you actually going to …?”

He shook his head, looking tired even though the party had just started. “I have to pretend to think about it before refusing or they’ll be offended.”

“Um …” I hesitated. “Are you sure you want to refuse? Not that I wouldn’t be crushed if you left the Crow and Hammer, but—”

“Yes, I’m sure,” he interrupted sharply.

Right, okay. I nervously rubbed my hands together. “So what’s the plan for tonight? After the party, I mean?”

“Kelvin will give me my final dose of his potion at nine,” Sin said quickly, catching on to my attempted topic change. “Josephine arrives at around ten, and at midnight, I get exorcised—properly this time.”

“And first thing tomorrow morning,” Aaron added, “we resume searching for the alpha shifter. He may just be looking for a fight, but what he said—that you aren’t the one he’s looking for—worries me. There could be more going on here than a random, mutated shifter making the woods his home.”

I shivered at the reminder of the man’s clammy hands on me. “How did he get into the castle?”

“We think he came through the staff door in the east wing. It doesn’t appear tampered with and Dominic swears he locked it, but maybe he forgot.”

“All the students went home this afternoon, except for a dozen who are staying through Christmas.” Kai slid his hands into his trouser pockets. “Most of the staff and alumni will leave after the party and go home to their families. We’ll have less mage-power to help us, but also fewer liabilities.”

I nodded, eager for this party to be over with. I would’ve happily skipped it, but Aaron’s parents wouldn’t let him miss even a minute of the schmooze fest, so the rest of us might as well endure it with him.

As though summoned by my thought, Valerie appeared at Aaron’s elbow. “Darling, the Allertons are waiting to say hello. Ah, good evening, ladies. You look wonderful tonight.”

Taking her son’s arm, she dragged him over to an elderly couple wearing far too many diamonds between them for good taste.

The rest of us followed leisurely. For over an hour, we trailed after Aaron as his parents paraded him in front of guest after guest. He smiled, made polite small talk, and promised to consider every offer he received, from prestigious jobs to guild memberships to volunteer opportunities. I hoped to see the famous bounty hunter that Tobias had mentioned on our first day at the academy, but aside from the alumni and instructors, everyone else I spotted was some combination of stuffy, old, or way too rich to be a rogue-tagging badass.

When my stomach growled, I slipped away from my friends to check out the buffet table, and Sin followed me with a swirl of her teal gown. Keeping half an eye out for the pixie mistletoe—it did keep relocating around the room—I snagged a champagne glass off a passing waiter’s tray and almost walked into another guest.

“Oh.” I smiled at the guy’s familiar face. “Hey Brian. Got an invite, did you?”

The apprentice alchemist nodded as he tugged at his jacket. The black suit didn’t fit him well. “Valerie insisted we join them since we’re here until Sin’s exorcism.”

“I don’t see Kelvin,” I noted, glancing around. The transmutation expert/lumberjack hippie was hard to miss.

“He bowed out,” Brian muttered jealously.

“What about my last dose of the potion?” Sin asked.

“He finished it earlier and gave it to me to give to you,” he assured her as he anxiously surveyed the posh gathering. I empathized hard with his obvious discomfort.

Sin seemed to notice too, because her tone softened. “We haven’t really gotten to talk, have we? Do you specialize in transmutation like Kelvin?”

I almost snorted my champagne. She hadn’t spoken with the apprentice because she’d been too busy fangirling over his master to notice him.

Brian perked up at her question. “Yes, though I’m taking my studies in a slightly different direction. Mr. Compton’s focus has always been on tissue transmutation, but I want to expand into …”

And that was the last word I understood. Shaking my head, I muttered, “I’m getting some food,” and walked off. Sin waved distractedly as she listened to Brian’s explanation.

I wandered past the small stage where a string quartet serenaded guests with holiday melodies. Aaron, trapped between Valerie and Tobias, was speaking with a trio of old men in matching black tuxes. One of them wore an actual monocle. At the buffet table, I stopped behind two men and a woman around my age, waiting to access a platter of chocolate pastries shaped like holly leaves.

“Can you believe him?” the tall blond guy in the middle muttered to his friends. “How many guild offers do you think he’s gotten already?”

“I heard Azalea Inc. interviewed him this morning.”

“No, that was Olympus.”

“Olympus? I’d kill to join that guild.”

I rolled my eyes. Though I could’ve called them out for being gossipy losers, that might interfere with my mission to eat those chocolate pastries.

“He’s getting invites we can only dream of,” the blond guy said bitterly, “and he’ll turn them all down, just like he does every year. Considering what he’s done, he shouldn’t even be allowed back here.”

My brow furrowed. What Aaron had done?

“An academy alumni,” the woman hissed. “A Sinclair mage, slumming it at an inner city guild. Chasing pathetic bounties alongside inferior classes and second-rate mages.”