Page 47 of Heartless Prince

13

Tatum

My eyes snapped open.There was something in my cell making a soft scuffing sound on the floor. The sound had woken me.

I wasn’t sure what time it was. After Elias left last night, I cried myself to sleep, and I woke earlier this morning to find myself still alone. When the time came to head to the gym and shower, I barely put in any effort, still mentally caught up on yesterday’s conversation with my supposed master. Then I went back to my cell and laid on the bed, still waiting and wondering while I drifted off for a nap.

Would he believe me? Would he return to help me? Was it possible he was actually unaware of the fact that I was here against my will? He seemed surprised when I told him, but he hadn’t returned or said a word to me since then.

Until now. Someone was in the cell with me. Please be him, I prayed. Please get me out of here.

“Elias?” I said, rubbing my eyes as I waited for the heavy tiredness in my limbs to fade. There was no response.

I sat up and looked around. With a start, I realized there was another girl in here with me, sitting against the far wall with her eyes closed and her head lolling forward. Her hair was dark and straight, and she was clad in a short black dress. One foot was twitching, making that scuffing sound on the concrete.

My mouth fell open and one hand flew to my chest as I realized who it was.

I practically flew off the bed to crouch next to her. “Mellie!” I said, my eyes wide and tearful as I shook her awake. “Oh my god, they got you too… I’m so sorry!”

She opened her eyes and yawned. “Oh, you’re finally awake. I couldn’t get you up earlier, so I was just waiting. Must’ve drifted off myself.”

Her voice sounded preternaturally calm. She was obviously in shock.

“This is my fault,” I said hurriedly, my voice shaking as I tried to fight back tears of remorse. “I got you into this.”

She stood up and stretched her slim limbs like a lazy cat. “Not really,” she said breezily. “I’m fine. I was just napping.”

As she stretched her arms over her head, my eyes fell on a small tattoo on her wrist. My body immediately went rigid. I’d never seen it on her before; never seen her in anything but a long-sleeved top or jacket. “What’s that?” I asked, although I didn’t need to. I recognized it: a crown with a dagger through it. The same symbol was branded on my back.

She smiled thinly. “You know what it is.”

I shook my head with wild confusion. “I don’t understand… you’re one of them?”

“Ding, ding, ding!” she replied. “Finally figured it out. Well, I guess you had it spoon-fed to you, really, but whatever.”

“No….” I slowly sank to the floor in shock, pulling my knees up tightly to my chest. “How can you be one of them? And why?” I said, my voice thick with emotion.

She sighed as if I were nothing more than a petulant toddler. “I had a feeling you’d react badly.”

“What did you expect?” I said, raising my chin indignantly. I looked into her eyes, but my friend wasn’t there anymore. I didn’t recognize this girl in front of me. Didn’t recognize that malevolent glimmer in her eyes or the twisted slant to her pursed lips.

All these days, I’d worried about her, thinking I might’ve gotten her into trouble with Crown and Dagger for helping me sneak into one of their ceremonies. I thought her father and the rest of them had set her up by making it easy for her to access his computer on my behalf… but the whole time, she’d been working with them to set me up. Only me.

And I thought Tobias King was an asshole…

Mellie was far worse. At least Tobias never pretended to be my friend.

“God, you should see your face. It’s so funny,” she said, sitting cross-legged before me.

I swallowed hard, choking back the tears. “How is this possible? How can you work for the society?”

She smiled at me. “Let’s just say you aren’t the only one who likes sneaking into places you don’t belong.”

I shook my head. “What do you mean?”

“When I was a kid, I used to love spying on people. One time I sneaked into this old dumbwaiter in our vacation house and sat curled up in the dark the whole day, just so I could spy on my dad when he and his friends went into the room to talk. I ended up overhearing a lot of stuff. Top-secret Crown and Dagger stuff. He’s one of the very highest council members, after all. Only Tobias King is above him. Anyway, I kept it all to myself for years, but when I was about seventeen, I went and told my dad what I heard that day. I told him I knew everything.”

“What happened then?” I asked warily. I loathed Mellie with a cold fury now that I knew what she was like deep down, but I was still curious to hear her story. I needed to in order to make sense of it all.

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