“Margot winked at her. “Every so often, we gather together. We take a little time—a little cathartic time—to vent about those quirks that drive uscrazy.” Elbows on the table, I leaned forward. “So, which of the quirks are we talking about?” “First item on the list—the raising of the eyebrow.” To demonstrate, she arched a carefully sculpted black brow of her own, then peered around at each of us.”

“You’re quiet this evening,” he said. I pasted on a pleasant smile. “It’s been a long week. I’m just trying to relax.” And I was trying to avoid more drama. He was quiet for two or three minutes, during which the two of us stood there together, black-clad vampires moving around us. “I can tell something’s bothering—”We had sex and you bailed, I silently thought, and now your contrition is driving me crazy. “I was just enjoying the music.”

“That's our cue to depart." "They know something " I pointed out. "I know something too. I know we're going to attract a lot of unwanted attention if they keep screaming. And then we have to make up some ridiculous explanation about how we heard screaming through the vents in our rooms and we followed the sound back to the basement and we found these girls lying on the ground and pretending to be tied up by invisible rope because they're practicing for the regional mime championships." I blinked at her. "Is that explanation more or less believable than we woke up because two girls who are actually evil magicians tripped a magical alarm wired to a door in the basement we aren't supposed to know about " Scout paused for a minute then nodded. "Point made.”

“Who are they?” I whispered, as we took seats opposite each other.Scout glanced up as she pulled notebooks and books from her bag. “The dragon ladies. They monitor lights-out, watch us while we study, and generally make sure that nothing fun occurs on their watch.”“Awesome,” I said, flipping open my trig book. “I’m a fun hater myself.”

“We'll see if she can rise to the occasion, do what needs to be done.""We'll see if she can manage not to kill her Liege and Master, especially if he continues talking about her like she's not in the room.”

“Do you need to reschedule? There are some other things I could take care of while I’m in town.”Mallory waved him off. “No, today’s fine. It’s going to be on the exam, so I might as well do it.”“Oh, my God, you are Harry Potter,” I said, pointing a finger at her. “I knew it!”She rolled her eyes, then looked at Catcher.”

“I arched an eyebrow at her.She made an awful sound. "God, you're already Mrs. Sullivan.”