“Don’t you worry your pretty little head,” tutted Deborah. “I’ve spoken to Mage Florides and it’s all in hand.”

I might have to kill Alex for not putting a stop to this, I thought grimly, as the pair of them pulled me out of bed and down to the communal shower room.

Several hours later, I’d been plucked and waxed and prettified half to death. I was sitting grumpily in a swivel chair in the girls’ dorm room, feeling none too impressed. Deborah wandered back in with a cup of coffee in one hand and a dress in the other. The aroma of the rich coffee cheered me up no end. I tried to avoid looking at the dress.

“Here we go,” she trilled happily. “Coffee and party wear!”

I reached out for the steaming mug but Deborah snatched it away out of my reach. I growled at her.

“No, no, no,” she said, with a saucy wink, “you get the coffee after you’ve put on the dress.”

“But I’m naturally a very clumsy person,” I pointed out, reasonably. “I might spill the coffee down the dress.”

“Hmm, you’re right,” she said thoughtfully. “I’ll drink the coffee, you put the dress on.”

Cursing the world under my breath, I stood up and snatched it out of her hands then stomped off to the bathroom to change. Pulling it off its hanger, I had to admit that it was an arresting colour. Pillarbox red, it screamed ‘look at me!’. That was all very well, I thought, if I wanted to attract attention. However, it didn’t strike me as the sort of garment that you’d wear if you wanted to sneak around undetected. Some sort of black ninja combo would surely be more suitable. I knew that the girls were only trying to be nice, and thought that they were helping me snag Corrigan’s attentions, but Alex at the very least could have gone for something a bit less obtrusive.

Squeezing into it, I performed some extraordinary calisthenics to reach around and do up the zip, forced to breathe in deeply as I did so just so that it would go all the way up. I smoothed it down and scowled. It was too low and too short and I looked absolutely bloody ridiculous. A seventeen year old might be able to get away with this, but a woman in her mid twenties just looked as if she was trying far too hard. And how in the hell was I supposed to manage running, if I needed to get away fast? It was so tight, I’d be lucky if I managed to even sodding walk.

“Coooeee!” called Deborah. “How does it look?”

I yanked open in the bathroom door and stalked out. “It looks fucking …”

“Amazing,” breathed Mary.

“Drop-dead gorgeous,” sighed Deborah. “You’re so lucky. If I had a dress like that to put on, then Mage Thomas would definitely notice me.”

I bit back the comment that was already on my tongue and forced a smile onto my face, stomping over to the mirror to take a look. Then I had to admit that it did look pretty amazing. They’d shaped my eyebrows so that instead of giving the impression that I was permanently in a bad mood, I looked groomed and sophisticated. The make-up they’d trowelled on had evened out my complexion and made my eyes look wide and sultry all at the same time, while the dress fit snugly in all the right places. I swiveled my hips around for a couple of admiring seconds. Okay, maybe it looked alright after all.

“Something’s missing,” stated Mary firmly from behind me.

Deborah jumped right in. “Accessories, darling, accessories!”

“Yeah! If you take off that necklace, then I’m sure I can find something else that’ll match much better.”

I touched my hands to my neck. I’d almost forgotten all about the thing that hung round there. In the ensuing mess of discovering that I hadn’t needed to shave my head off after all, it had completely slipped my mind to tell Thomas that he’d have to work out a way to get it off me. Now didn’t seem like the right time to tell either Deborah or Mary that it was stuck there.

“No,” I said emphatically. “The necklace will have to stay.”

There must have been something in my facial expression that brooked no argument because for once the pair of them backed down. That was until Deborah produced a pair of shoes from behind her back.

“Well, if you won’t change your jewellery, then the least you can do is change your shoes.”

Absolutely no way. I would not be able to walk half a yard in those things. Unfortunately for me, the pair of them were already at my feet, forcing them on and strapping them up with some kind of complicated intricate leather bands. I felt about half a foot taller, and already felt like they were starting to pinch. I took a couple of steps and almost tottered over. Oh great. Mack, the killer cat burglar who crawls to every destination. Brilliant. I was about to start pulling them right back off again when there was a quick knock at the door and I looked up to see Alex.

He looked mildly astonished at my appearance, but recovered quickly and tapped his watch. “We need to vamoose, Mack, er, Initiate Smith, I mean.”

Sighing heavily, I wavered my way over to him, much in the same manner that Brock had walked when he’d been falling down drunk. I could see the corners of Alex’s mouth tipping up as he tried not to laugh and I had to resist the urge to not punch him. I could do this, I thought defiantly. It was only a dress and a pair of shoes, for fuck’s sake. Saying goodbye to Mary and Deborah, and thanking them as graciously as I could for their ministrations, we headed out the door and down to the waiting portal. Ruefully eyeing the shimmering gateway, I felt slightly sick. So much for the perfectly applied make-up.

I’d been concentrating so hard on not falling over, that I hadn’t even noticed that the Dean was also outside, standing there waiting. He glanced at me up and down, a sneer on his face. “Trying to impress someone?”

“No.” I didn’t even bother reacting further. He just wasn’t worth it.

“I expect you to remember that you’re a representative of this institution. I know most of the people who you will be socialising with and, believe me, I will hear about it if you do anything that even hints at tarnishing our reputation.”

I stared at the mage. One good thing about the stupidly high heels was that I was now taller than him and able literally to look down upon him. It was a nice feeling. “Oh, if you know so many of them then it’s a real shame that you weren’t invited, Dean Michaels,” I said sweetly.

His eyes shot daggers at me. “The responsibility of running this academy mean that I cannot afford the opportunity to go out hobnobbing at will.”

“Of course,” I murmured, trying so very hard not to laugh. I glanced over at Alex, who was stood beside me, a ball of visible tension. “We’d better go, Mage Florides.”

He nodded and took a step forward, vanishing through the portal. I followed, hoping that I wouldn’t trip over after finally managing to get one over on the Dean.

Chapter Fifteen

I threw up as soon as we arrived in front of the Ministry headquarters. Alex was good enough to look pointedly away until the contents of my stomach had been completely purged, then he helped me back up to my feet.

“You know, Mack Attack, antagonising the Dean is not going to help your cause.”

“He started it,” I said sullenly, all too aware that I sounded just like a petulant child.

Alex shook his head. “You’re going to need to learn to bite your tongue more.”

I nodded briefly, not wanting to acknowledge the truth of his words, and he handed me over two slim short daggers. They weren’t silver, which was probably just as well considering who my date was, but they still looked happily lethal.

“Here,” he said. “I picked these up because they’ll fit perfectly with this dress.”

He moved over to me, instructing me to lift my arms. Then he slid one under each armpit. “There’s a specially made sheath built into the fabric,” he explained. “If you need to use them, and I would urge that you do so only as a very last resort, then you can slide them out within a heartbeat.” He looked terribly unsure of himself. “I know very little about weapons, but I’ve been assured that these are of the highest quality. I had to hock my favourite surfboard to get them, although goodness knows why a troll would want to go surfing.”

Startled, I peered up at him thinking that I had a pretty good idea about which troll he was referring to. Before I could ask him about it, however, a lazy arrogant voice from across the other side of the street called over. “Are you ready to go yet or are you bringing the wizard with you?”

Corrigan. Dressed to the nines in a perfectly tailored tuxedo, it was still more than possible to see the effects of his lifestyle from the ripped muscular bulges under the expensive material, even from the other side of the darkened street. Realising that he’d have noted Alex’s proximity to me when he slipped the knives under my dress, and probably mistaken it for something else entirely, a faint twist went through me. He always seemed to think the worst of me with men. Or maybe it was the best of me that he thought I had so many apparent admirers. Regardless, it was wrong. I shouted over that I’d just be a second then I turned back to Alex.

He was shaking where he stood and I knew it wasn’t from the cold. “It’ll be alright,” I said softly, sounding a hell of a lot more confident than I actually was. “This will be easy.”

“I’ll never forgive myself if you end up getting hurt, Mack Attack.”

I smiled at the mage. “Hey, this is a good plan. I’ll get the Ancile, replace it with the Palladium and no-one will ever be any the wiser.”

He passed me over a smallish clutch that contained Athena’s little statue. “Be safe.”

“I will.” I leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek, gripping tightly onto the purse. Then I turned back to face Corrigan and the music.

The Lord Alpha was leaning against a shiny black limo, arms folded, looking rather bored. I took a nervous step forward and felt myself waver ever so slightly, then I picked up confidence and managed to move a little faster. Halfway across the road, however, I felt my left heel start to wobble. I pushed out my arms to try to balance myself, but it was too late and I ended up careering onto the cold hard tarmac with a loud ooph of exhaled air.