Page 18 of Heartless Prince

Don’t think about it. It didn’t happen.

“I’m sorry, Tatum,” Mellie said softly, seeing the look on my face. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. And I’m sorry my brother was a prick to you. If it’s any consolation, I doubt he’ll be visiting me much more after the fight we just had.”

“It’s fine,” I said, swallowing my feelings. “Are you okay?”

She nodded as she swept a small pile of broken glass into a corner. “Yeah. He’s just a dick sometimes. Don’t worry, he didn’t attack me or anything. I overreacted and threw the glass at him. I know that’s bad, but he was being such an ass.”

“I get it. Are weokay?”

Her eyebrows puckered. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been kinda weird for the last couple of weeks. We’ve barely even spoken, and I’m kinda getting the sense that you’re avoiding me.”

Mellie rubbed her forehead and sighed, her shoulders sagging. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry,” she murmured. “Let’s sit down.”

I followed her over to the cream-colored sectional and sat next to her.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated. “You’re right. I didn’t even realize I was doing it, but now that you’ve mentioned it….”

She trailed off again, and I looked at her, my eyebrows raised. “What’s going on?”

“I was just worried, and you’re my best friend, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to avoid telling you the truth if you kept asking. And I knew you would, so I backed off and hoped you’d forget about it after a while. But then you didn’t, and you and the others were still talking about it all the time, so I avoided you even more.”

She was babbling now, and I was beyond confused. “Ask about what? I don’t get it.”

“Your paper! The exposé thing you’re doing on Crown and Dagger.”

“Still confused.”

She hesitated, inspecting a flawlessly-manicured nail. It never ceased to amaze me how perfect she looked at all times, even when she seemed anxious and troubled.

We were the same height and weight with the same color hair and eyes, but she always managed to look like a far more expensive version of me. Straight glossy hair with zero flyaways, glowing skin, polished nails, eyelashes so long and curly they couldn’t possibly be real.

“I know a bit more than I originally let on,” she finally said. “Way more than Greer and Willa. See, my dad is really high up in the society, and even though he’s not meant to tell outsiders anything, he’s let a decent amount slip to me in private over the years. So I know a lot. I know which parts of the urban legends are true or false, I know about the stuff they do, and I know where they do it. I even know where they do their initiation ceremonies. If I figured out enough of the logistics, I could actually sneak someone into a ceremony at some point.”

I tilted my head to the side. “Well, it’s just a college paper. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t wa—”

She cut me off, holding up one finger. “Wait. Sorry. It’s a long story.”

I leaned back. “Okay.”

“You wanted to go digging into the society, which I get, because it’s interesting. But as soon as you started wanting to sneak into their events, I got worried.”

My brows shot up. “What, worried they’d do something to me? Like… they’re actually dangerous?”

She shook her head. “No. Of course not. Although, those guys can be pretty weird when it comes to their stuff, so you’d want to be careful just in case,” she said slowly. “I know you managed to get into the Tap Week party, but that’s nothing; just an event to show off to all the newbies.” She paused for a quick breath. “Anyway, as I was saying, they might be a bit pissed if you sneaked into anything more serious, but they wouldn’t hurt you. That’s not what worries me.”

“So what is it?

She sighed. “Like I said before, my dad is in the society. Every male member of my family for generations has been in it, because one of the founding members was a Davenport. So they take it really seriously.”

“How seriously?”

“Take Henry, for example. He was in it, and he decided he didn’t want to be anymore. The parties and other stuff were just boring to him. Anyway, no matter what level you are, you’re obligated to help your society brothers in any way, using whatever connections you have. He didn’t want to do it. I guess he didn’t like most of the other guys or something along those lines.”

“So what happened to him?”

“Well, obviously, it was fine for him to leave. They don’t kill you or anything, like all those dumb urban legends say. But it caused a massive rift in my family, because Crown and Dagger has been such a big part of it for so long. So Henry and my dad got in a huge fight over it, and since then, Henry’s basically been cut off from the entire family.”

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