Page 24 of Heartless Prince

7

Tatum

“Nearly done….”Mellie licked her lips as she arranged a golden wreath on my head. “There we go.”

I looked in the mirror and smiled, pleased at what I saw reflected back at me. The flowing white Grecian gown fit perfectly, plunging at the neckline to show off my cleavage, and the gold-braided belt cinched my waist, giving my figure a lovely hourglass shape.

Mellie had also done my hair and makeup. My lips were a deep shade of pink, and my eyes looked dark and inviting with the smoky black and bronze eyeshadows she’d blended over and around my upper and lower lids. My straight brown locks had been curled and teased into thick, luscious waves that hung over my shoulders and down my back.

“It looks perfect,” I murmured. “You’re amazing at this.”

“Thanks,” she said with a beaming smile. “Honestly, though, the most amazing thing is that my plan actually worked.”

Somehow, Mellie had figured out a way onto her father’s private computer, and she’d succeeded in adding me to the list of actors who would perform in tonight’s Crown and Dagger second-level initiation ceremony and celebration. I couldn’t believe it when she first told me. She looked like she couldn’t even believe it herself, and we’d both shrieked and danced in giddy excitement for two straight minutes, scarcely able to believe that I was actually in.

The Grecian-gowned girls had one of the simplest tasks—basically all they did was stand around at certain times during the ceremony and hold up golden goblets. Barely even acting; they were more like human props. That was good for me, though. It meant I didn’t really have to do much in order to get away with being there, and I would have a front-row seat to most of the action.

I had been contacted a few days ago with tonight’s password, and an outfit had been sent to the address Mellie put in the spreadsheet. It was a townhouse in central New Marwick which belonged to a friend of hers, and it was currently empty while he was overseas, which made it the perfect place for us to use in our guileful plan.

Mellie glanced at the clock. “They’ll be here in a few minutes, right? Are you freaking out?”

I nodded. “Hell yeah.” My heart was racing a mile a minute, and my throat felt thick with nerves. I knew I could do this, though. I’d been through far more harrowing things in my life.

“Remember, they won’t hurt you, even if they catch you out,” she said. “They won’t be happy, but it’s not the end of the world.”

I smiled. “I know.” The doorbell rang downstairs, and my pulse doubled. “I guess I better answer it. No one else is supposed to be with me.”

“Good luck!”

I slowly walked down the stairs, the door pulling me toward it like a magnet, as if my subconscious knew that on the other side my life could lift right off the ground and change forever.

A tall man in a dark suit stood on the steps, waiting for me. “State your name and the password,” he said.

I gulped. “Carina Adams,” I said, giving him the fake name Mellie made up. “The password is potentia.”

He nodded and stepped aside, one hand falling to the left in a guiding gesture. “This way.”

There was a black car with dark-tinted windows idling by the sidewalk. The man opened the back door for me, and I haltingly got inside and put my seatbelt on. There was another girl in a white gown sitting on the other side of the back seat. She didn’t look at me. Didn’t even turn her head the slightest bit.

“Hi, I’m Carina,” I whispered. “Are you excited about the job?”

That made her turn her head. She stared at me with wide eyes, then frowned deeply and looked away again.

The man in the suit was in the front passenger seat now, and he looked back at me with suspiciously-narrowed eyes. Then he leaned over to the driver and muttered what sounded like directions out of town.

As he did that, the girl leaned over to me for a second. “No names, remember?” she hissed. “Didn’t you read the contract?”

My stomach flipped. No, of course I hadn’t read the contract. I wasn’t really hired for this, so I never even saw one. I should’ve known there were strict rules surrounding the event, though, so I’d probably already messed up by offering my albeit-fake name to her when I got in the car. Shit.

My heart fluttered in my chest like the wings of a trapped bird, and I glanced at the front again, hoping the man hadn’t noticed I didn’t belong as a result of my misstep. If he did, he didn’t say anything.

He reached into the glove compartment and pulled out two black satin blindfolds. “Put these on,” he commanded me and the other girl. “Actors aren’t permitted to know the address of the event.”

I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. I was safe.

I put my blindfold on and waited. I heard the car start up, and then we pulled away from the curb and drove for what felt like two or three hours. Jesus, where were we going? Another state?

Long car-rides usually put me to sleep, but I was so nervous and excited about tonight that I couldn’t relax for even a second. My hands kept twitching, and I couldn’t keep my legs still.

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