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ALEXA BAXTER STEPPED into the circle of smooth satin. She pulled the silky fabric over her hips and looped her arms through the prom dress’s delicate straps. Catching her reflection in the dressing room mirror, she frowned.
“Mateo, I’m not—this is not—why did you make me put this on?” She reached back, fumbling for the zipper.
“For once in my life, I want to see you in pink.” Mateo, Alexa’s best friend in the whole world, stood on the other side of the dressing stall curtain. She brushed aside the barrier and found him furiously sending off a series of texts.
She swore he spent more time on his phone than in the present. “Who are you—”
“Oh, you know my gossip queens.” Mateo shrugged. “They can’t give this boy the afternoon off. Anyway, you promised. And it’s the biggest night of your high school life. Don’t you want to look fabulous?”
“I feel exposed.” Alexa peered down the plunging neckline. “I can almost see my—well, you can guess.” On the dressing room bench, her phone buzzed and displayed a missed text from her boyfriend and another from an unknown number. Probably spam.
“Alexa? Are you ready to show us?” Alexa’s mother, Cynthia, called down the dressing room corridor.
Of course she wasn’t ready. She hadn’t been ready when Mateo shoved the dress into her arms. Nor had she been ready for the appointment her mother made at Riverview’s exclusive dress boutique. Her phone buzzed again, reminding her of the unread texts. As she reached for the phone, the dress straps slipped, forcing her to catch the bodice before it fell to her waist.
“This is impossible.” Alexa broke into a cold sweat. “What the hell am I—Mateo, can you, uh, help me with the zipper?”
“Of course. Why didn’t you say something?” Mateo tossed aside the curtain and marched into her stall.
Alexa clutched the dress to her chest. “Um, hold on—”
“I’ve seen you nearly naked a thousand times, Lex.” Mateo rolled his eyes, brushing aside his dark red bangs. “Stand up straight.” He pulled her shoulders back and tugged up the zipper. “Let’s fix those straps.” He slid the narrow fabric bands into place, then surveyed her reflection with a wide grin. “I was right. Ballet-slipper pink is perfect for your complexion. You look like a freakin’ goddess.”
“But black is my signature color.” Alexa pointed to the haphazard pile of discarded clothes.
“Sid will love this. Now let’s go show Mom and Andrea.” Mateo whipped open the curtain and grabbed her arm.
“Ugh, do I have to?” Alexa groaned. She remembered the phone in her hand and quickly read the message: We know.
Alexa stopped dead in her tracks. She read the text several more times as an unsettling sensation twisted her gut. Why would a stranger send her something so cryptic? They must have the wrong number. Right? After what happened last October, she knew anything was possible.
“Lex, what?” Mateo paused. “Don’t back out on me now. You promised to try on whatever dresses I picked.”
“Sorry, wrong number.” She tossed her phone into the dressing stall. “Let’s get this over with.”
They walked past racks of cocktail and prom dresses sparkling and shining like exotic birds. Afternoon sunlight poured through the windows and refracted off the several crystal chandeliers. Alexa bowed her head, feeling horribly out of place. Her cheeks burned as Mateo marched her to a round dais flanked by three huge mirrors.
“Oh, Alexa.” Cynthia sighed from a gray velvet settee beside the dais. She clutched perfectly manicured hands to her chest. “You’re stunning.”
Alexa’s sister, Andrea, looked up from her phone. Her jaw dropped. “Wow. Mateo, you might have a future as a stylist.”
“Excellent choice, Mateo.” The boutique assistant, Brandi, beamed from her perch beside the wall of mirrors. “I don’t know how you got her to put that on. She was adamant about black and black only.” The attractive young woman waved a dismissive hand to the collection of dark dresses hanging on a rack beside her.
“Just a little emotional manipulation from one friend to the next.” Mateo shrugged.
“So, this is from Faviana.” Brandi tossed out the long, billowy skirt. “Obviously, we need to hem it up a little. You’re so petite.” She leaned over Alexa, tugging at the loose bodice and waistline. “We can easily take this in, so you don’t have to worry about—eh—”
“Nip slips.” Mateo scrutinized Alexa from head to toe. He raised the dress’s hem. Alexa squeaked and yanked the skirt from his clutches. “Brandi, is it okay if I grab her some shoes? Those Converse aren’t doing her any favors.”
Brandi waved toward a rack of shiny stilettos. “Go for it.”
The boutique assistant became flustered when Mateo first butted into Alexa’s dress selection, tossing gowns of every color but black into Brandi’s arms. Seeing the irritation on Brandi’s and Alexa’s faces, Mateo had wisely complimented Brandi’s vintage Ferragamo pumps. In a matter of minutes, he and Brandi became fast friends and ganged up on Alexa.
“I’m practically naked.” Alexa studied her flushed reflection, fingers running over the neckline and the open back. Could she wear such a dress in public?
“No, you’re just wearing something that isn’t black and boxy for once.” Andrea raised her phone and took a picture.
“If you share that with anyone—”
“I won’t.” Andrea shrugged and sat back in her chair. Several emotions crossed her face. Was Andrea jealous?
“Honey, you look so pretty,” Cynthia murmured, eyes glossy with tears.
“You really do,” Brandi assured Alexa. “With a few alterations, that'll fit you like a glove.”
Mateo returned with a pair of glittering silver stilettos in his grasp. “If you put these on, I will buy you double mocha lattes for a week.”
“You already promised me a week if I tried every dress you picked.” Alexa flinched. “I’ll fall over if I put those on.”
Mateo placed the shoes in front of her feet. “Fine. Two weeks. We’ve got three weeks until prom to practice.”
“Sid hasn’t even technically asked me to go yet,” Alexa grumbled as Mateo and Brandi helped her step into the shoes and buckle the delicate straps. She teetered for a moment, but Mateo steadied her.
“Oh, honey, you know they’ve already rented the limo.” Mateo pursed his lips.
“I heard Drew’s girlfriend mention they had reservations for some hot restaurant in Minneapolis.” Andrea’s expression soured as she spoke. She hadn’t been asked to prom by any of the soccer boys she incessantly flirted with during lunch.
Since Alexa and Sidhit Diyani became a couple, Alexa also sat with the soccer boys’ and girls' teams at lunch. Sid was one of the varsity soccer captains, after all. While she never felt comfortable among the high school athletes’ posturing and bravado, Andrea drank in every second.
“How did I get here?” Alexa murmured, her blue eyes bright and huge in the store’s brilliant track lighting. She turned to Mateo. “I never thought I would go to prom. It’s so—”
“A high school cliché, yes, I know.” Mateo studied the two of them in the wall of mirrors. “You look amazing, Lex. You should consider wearing this. Sid will totally freak out when he sees you.”
“You think so?” Alexa’s heart picked up its pace, thumping so loud she was sure everyone could hear. Her blush had spread from her cheeks to her neck and chest. Yes, Sid would totally freak when he saw her in something soft and pink versus the black she preferred to wear. “It’s just so—"
“Gorgeous?” Mateo leaned in and took a picture of Alexa’s reflection before she could protest. “So, you’re getting it, right? I mean, you’re going to prom with one of the hottest guys in school. You should look the part.”
Spots danced before Alexa’s eyes. Mateo was right, even if she didn’t want to admit it. Compared to the other well-coiffed teenagers in her new and unexpected friend group, Alexa stood out like a sore thumb. Sid swore he liked her just the way she was and didn’t want her to be anything but herself, no matter what.
“Yeah, Lex, you have to get that dress, or I’ll never speak to you again,” Andrea teased.
“Oh, I second that.” Mateo smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. He studied Alexa for a moment. A tight crease formed between his eyebrows. He parted his lips to say something, then shook his head and buried his nose in his phone.
Alexa’s mother rose from her chair, resting a hand against Alexa’s back. “It’s up to you, honey, of course.”
“We still have that last black A-line halter to try on?” Brandi pointed to the dress rack. “Or if you want to try on one of the previous choices?”
“Absolutely not.” Mateo glanced up from his phone. “I told everyone I was helping you pick a dress, and I don’t want to disappoint. I have a reputation to maintain. Be brave, Lex. Try something new.”
“He’s right,” Andrea said. “No one will expect you to wear a pink dress. You know they still call you the Queen of Darkness behind your back.”
“They still call me that?” Alexa’s breath came in short gasps.
Sid’s friends were confused and annoyed that quiet, shy Alexa managed to weasel into their exclusive clique. They viewed her as an interloper who hadn’t earned her place.
Mateo tossed a furious look in Andrea’s direction. “Thanks, Andrea.”
“Really?” Cynthia sighed. “Even after—well, sometimes I forget how cruel high school kids can be.”
Cynthia didn’t need to fill in the gaps. Alexa knew what her mother meant. Alexa nearly died six months ago, but in high school time, that was ancient history.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Alexa whispered to Mateo. As the newly crowned prince of Riverview gossip, Mateo would have heard everything. “What else do they say?”
“Ignore them.” Mateo flipped his bangs out of his eyes. “They don’t like how you and I went from the bottom of the social heap to the top. They wish we were still hiding in the art room during lunch.”
Nothing had been the same for Alexa and Mateo since their week-long disappearance with Sid last fall, especially since neither Mateo nor Sid remembered what happened during their cross-country trek. Alexa, however, remembered everything. Every single moment, though she claimed the opposite. Because who in their right mind would believe three teenagers had run for their lives from a monster chasing a unicorn in a Honda Civic? A unicorn Alexa had promised to save.
A familiar ache quivered at the front of Alexa’s brain. No, she didn’t want to think about that now, not in the middle of picking out her prom dress. She needed to remain in the here and now.
Sunlight glared off a passing car’s windshield. A shock of light flashed through the boutique. For a split second, Alexa was blinded. She gasped as a series of images raced through her mind: a unicorn shining brightly upon a hill, a flash of lightning cutting across a dark sky, and the scream of a creature ripped apart from the inside out.
Please, I do not want to go alone!
“No.” Alexa clutched her head. The dull ache spasmed into a full-fledged migraine.
Snap.
“Oh my God,” Mateo gasped beside her.
Alexa dropped her hands to discover a crack snaking across the mirror. Not again.
Andrea leaped from her seat. “Holy shit, what happened?”
“Are you okay, Lex?” Mateo studied Alexa’s face.
“Yeah, sure.” The pain roaring through Alexa’s brain disappeared as quickly as it arrived. She glanced around the room, worried about who else had seen the mirror spontaneously crack. Her eyes landed near the boutique entrance. Someone stood at the front door, hand raised in greeting. Another glare of light burst behind them, blinding Alexa once again.
“Alexa, what are you looking at?” Mateo tugged her arm.
“Nothing.” Alexa covered her eyes. Had she seen someone at the door, or was her mind playing tricks on her again?
“Is it normal for your mirrors to crack like that?” Cynthia had switched from a concerned mother to a litigious attorney.
“I’m so sorry, everyone.” Brandi approached the mirror, eyes wide. “How did that—hey, Alexa, let’s get you back from the mirror.”
Alexa turned back to the door as Brandi held out a hand to help her down from the dais. Whoever it was had left. Alexa shivered. For the past two weeks, she swore she caught shadowy figures following her everywhere. But whenever she turned to face them, they disappeared.
“Here, let me help.” Mateo grabbed Alexa’s other hand, eyes boring into her, asking a hundred unspoken questions. Alexa turned away.
“I’m going to change,” Alexa said, her breath coming in gasps. “I’ll take the dress. You’re right. I should try something new.”
Before anyone else could say a word, Alexa yanked the glittering stilettos from her feet and hurried back to the dressing room. The previous headache had been replaced by a mounting sense of panic and the inability to catch her breath. She tossed the changing room curtain closed, slumped against the wall, and fought the waves of anxiety pulsing through her body.
If only those who loved her knew the memories plaguing her day and night. She couldn’t tell anyone the truth because the truth was beyond possible. Who would ever believe Alexa had discovered a unicorn trapped in the park bathroom? A unicorn she tried to save from a monster, but in the end, allowed the same monster to destroy. That same monster had crawled into her head, possessed her, and told her things a girl from Earth should never know.
And that wasn’t all. Both the unicorn and monster had left something behind. Not just trauma and shared memories. No, something Alexa didn’t understand, something that allowed a panicked girl to break mirrors with her mind.