IAN
We were stunned when Aleric announced that we would be attending the annual Moon Ball. The decision clearly hadn’t been made on a whim. The invitation had arrived days earlier, and Aleric had spent that time brooding over it before finally giving his answer. He had never been shy about his hatred for parties, so none of us expected him to accept, especially this one. Most invitations he rejected outright, and the few he couldn’t refuse he simply passed on to Jason and me.
Not that we received many invitations these days anyway. Not after the incident three years ago.
What made it even stranger was how he behaved afterward. Once he decided we were going, he talked about it constantly. Aleric, who usually treated conversation like a chore, suddenly wouldn’t shut up about the ball. And
