“What are you thinking of?” Audria asked.

“Nothing.” Kerrigan shook off her melancholy. “I’m going to sleep all weekend.”

“Seconded,” Noda said.

“What? No!” Audria said. “We have plans.”

“I don’t have plans.”

“The Season starts tonight!”

Kerrigan groaned. “I don’t want to get dressed up and watch debs flaunt themselves before potential suitors.”

“Isn’t your friend a deb this year? The one from the House of Dragons?”

Kerrigan sank lower in the water. Darby was a deb this year. It was half the reason she didn’t want to go. It was hard to imagine her best friend, who had always loved women, parade herself before a bunch of unworthy men.

“You’re going,” Audria said. “Both of you. And we’re bringing the boys too. We need to get out of here. There’s more to life than training.”

“Is there?” Noda grumbled.

“Yes!”

Audria didn’t let them have an opinion. She forced the boys to put on their suits as well, and they all met an hour later to go to the first Season event. The Society offered up a carriage to take them to the Row. Kerrigan was crammed between Audria and Noda, trying not to look at Fordham and how handsome he was in that black suit with the House of Shadows insignia on a little silver pocket square. His dark hair slicked back and those impossibly gray eyes looking anywhere but at her.

She didn’t blame him for the attention considering the scandal of a dress she was wearing. When she’d returned to her rooms, a dress in a pale blue box had been waiting on her bed with the word Parris hand-lettered on the top in gold. Parris had once been a member of the House of Dragons. He was moved into a tribe with a female fashion designer who had seen his talent. He’d opened up his own boutique under her tutelage, and he was all the rage. They’d been friends long enough that he always made room for her. Somehow, he’d given her the best dress imaginable.

It was a black lace bodice with just enough material covering her breasts to leave a little up to the imagination. There were no sleeves, and the back dipped nearly to her hips in a generous V. The skirts were full tulle with a slit to her thigh. It was only exposed when she wanted it to be, but in the carriage, it was nearly impossible to conceal it. The Society logo had been threaded into the lace in a shimmery black thread that caught the eye and said precisely who she was.

Audria had nearly collapsed at the sight of it. She was jealous of Kerrigan’s association with him and insisted she introduce them. Which, if they ever had time away from the mountain, she would be happy to do.