It had been three days since Mia had holed up in the infirmary, avoiding Ethan like the plague. Lily had finally taken pity on her friend and had brought her some books to save her the task of going to the library and seeing the Vila. Maybe she should have gone there herself since the fairy took pleasure in torturing her by bringing her fictional romances. She didn't have the right mind to discover that the love stories of Istarea were very similar to those of her world.

The picnic had gone pretty much as normal after the accident, except that Mia had spent the rest of the activity replaying the scene in her head and carefully avoiding the Vila's gaze. Her friends had continued their discussions without paying attention to it, except for Lily who pierced her relentlessly with her inquisitive and mischievous gaze each time she sketched the slightest movement.

From that moment on, her eyes were animated by an "I know what happened and I know what will happen soon" glint every time she laid them on the young human, sometimes accompanied by a mischievous smile that Mia would have liked to tear from her face. At least she had the decency not to talk about it again.

Out of the corner of her eye, the blonde saw a few words appear on the enchanted paper she had placed on her newly acquired desk. She was tired of reading while lying on her bed and ended up snapping and asking for the furniture. The young woman sighed as she wedged her makeshift bookmark – a piece of fabric – between the two pages of the book she was currently reading.

"Still determined to stay buried in your room?"

Mia rolled her eyes before grabbing her quill.

"Still determined to ask the same question every day?"

The answer was not long in coming.

"You're not going to be able to avoid me for the rest of your life, you know that, right?"

"Only until one of us dies."

She crossed out the last sentence until it was just a thick black line so he couldn't decipher what she had written when she sent her next reply. There was no need to take the sarcasm that far, especially since she didn't mean it anymore. She could tell herself the opposite as much as she wanted, she was not capable of letting someone die like that.

Especially after their little accident, further proof that she could try to fight the situation as much as she wanted, the result would be the same: even her own body was starting to betray her.

The door to her room suddenly opened, startling her. For a second she was afraid that Ethan had come to get her to drag her outside by force, but she was relieved to find that it was only Arry and Andrei with Oz a meter behind them.

"Hey, Mia!" Arry called out, throwing herself on her bed, obviously very excited.

Mia shifted her chair with a sigh, positioning it in front of the two magicians.

"Still sulking?" her redheaded friend smirked as Andrei coughed into his fist, exasperated by his girlfriend's lack of tact.

"I'm not sulking. I read in the quiet of my room, my supposed haven of peace."

"For three days?" the sorceress questioned rhetorically, raising her eyebrows, clearly skeptical of her explanation.

"In other words, you're sulking," Andrei added, earning a glare from Mia.

The young man joined the redhead on the bed, sitting down beside her.

"What happened at the picnic? It's obvious that you're avoiding Ethan," Arry asserted.

So she had confirmation that the two magicians hadn't seen anything and that Lily hadn't had fun telling everyone about the scene. She could at least find comfort in that fact.

"I do not want to talk about it.

There was no point in denying that something had happened. She was getting to know Arry and suspected she wouldn't let go otherwise. She let out a simple "oh", disappointed, but recovered quickly. That wasn't the main reason for her visit today anyway.

"Andrei invited me to the party, but we ultimately thought it would be nicer if you and Lily came along and we'd all go together!"

"Do you really think that's a good idea?"

She could count at least three good reasons why it wasn't a good idea:

Having to go with Ethan, the possible retaliation for the werewolf's death, and, oh, Ethan.

"Come on! It'll be fun, I guarantee it! This isn't the first ball they've hosted, although the last was... last year. There'll be a big feast, booze, music, and everyone will be in a good mood!"

Mia had to stop herself from giggling when she heard the list of arguments from her red-haired friend. It sounded a lot like when her friends on Earth were trying to convince her to join them at parties when she didn't particularly feel like it. The food, the drinks, and the type of music were perhaps not the same between the two worlds, but it was clear that in any universe young adults had the same expectations for a successful festive evening. And the blonde had been to enough parties to know that they never went entirely to plan. Her pseudo-death was direct proof of this.

"The fact that there will be alcohol should make me feel better? The thing that completely uninhibits you and drives you to do stupid things? Aren't you worried about werewolves going completely crazy?"

"Security will of course be reinforced," explained Andrei. "Besides, they won't even know who to attack. It's a masked ball, everyone will hide their magical essence to pretend to be another race. It would be foolish to attack blindly when there's a chance they'll attack one of their own."

"Come on, please!" begged Arry, showing her most beautiful doe eyes. "Lily has already accepted!"

"Alright, alright," Mia relented, throwing her hands up in a futile attempt to counter the redhead's excitement.

She had never been the hard-to-convince type when it came to a celebratory event. Even when it was neither the right time nor the idea of ​​the century. It was important to know how to have fun in life, and she really needed to relax a little.

They spent the next hour discussing their ball attire. Since disguises were not up to date, the dress code was closer to a modern carnival in Venice: a fanciful mask and an evening dress. Little by little, the communicative enthusiasm of the redhead ended up winning over the anxiety of the young human, finally making her look forward to discovering the castle decorated on this occasion.

It's like a prom, except the students are creatures that can kill me in a few seconds, nothing to worry about! she quipped inwardly.

Her next activity after her friends left sent her mood back to where it started: morose. If she had consented to go to the ball, she now had to tell Ethan that he had to attend as well. Which looked way too much like a date in disguise for her liking.

It's not a date, it's just for my protection, I have no choice.

"I'm going to the party with Lily, Arry, and Andrei. Just so you know." she wrote after thinking for a few minutes about how she could warn him without it sounding like an invitation.

"Not without me, and it looks like I wasn't invited."

Mia held back a scream in frustration, only letting out a muffled groan. Was he really going to force her to ask him the question? Something told her that he had written this sentence with a demonic smile on his lips, particularly enjoying taunting her at this moment. And that he didn't intend to drop the case, because he knew she wouldn't go if he didn't come. After all, she had promised.

"It's not up to the woman to ask." she tried, knowing it was the lamest argument she could come up with. Even she didn't believe it.

"Then the woman won't go to the ball."

Did she want to go that badly? The answer was of course no, not when the price was to give up her pride, but she had already accepted Arry's invitation and didn't particularly want to let her down. The magician was going to be extremely disappointed and would perhaps hold it against her. The idea of ​​offending her only friends seemed to her even more terrifying than putting aside her pride.

"Very well. Would you do me the great honor of coming and stalking me for my "protection" at the ball on Saturday?"

At least the sarcasm was helping to take the pill out of what was looking more and more like a date invitation, no matter how she phrased her words.

"Only if you get out of your room before this weekend."

Her grip tightened so tightly on her quill that she thought she was going to break it in two. She inhaled and exhaled for a long time to calm down before answering him.

"OK. Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow then."

Which left her half a day to collect the crumbs of her pride and prepare to face the Vila.