Page 2 of House of Lilith

It’s only then that I notice another note that’s fallen out of the box.

“Max told me it’s your third anniversary tonight,” it says, making my excitement deflate. “So in the name of Lilith, I beg of you, Anastasya, refrain from your usual questionable fashion choices and just wear the dress I picked for you. You’ll thank me later.”

“P.S. Make sure your brother and cousin behave tonight.”

Even after I read the note, my eyes get drawn back to ‘Anastasya’. I feel myself start to fume. A million times. Haven’t I told her,a million times, to call me Nyx?

But this isIrina Nikolayevna Romanovawe’re talking about.

Fighting not to lose my cool, I take the dress with me to the full-length ebony mirror by the window. I hold it up in front of myself, grimacing at the very thought of wearing it. I drag my eyes down what I was planning on wearing. Ripped black tights, forest-green cashmere sweater and a gray puffer vest. So comfy, I think with longing as I turn my eyes back onto the dress.

But the words echo in my head. “I beg of you.”

Grumbling, I take my clothes off, I put the dress on and I turn back to the mirror. It actually renders me kind of speechless, the way it makes me look. I’m still thin, but I no longer seem so angular. And normally, I’ve no tits to speak of, but this…

My mother would be very happy indeed, I think with bitterness in my internal voice. It’s all she ever wanted for me. To look pretty, as pretty asIcan look, that is. To date a prince who’ll someday marry me. To be proud, just like she is, of our heritage, the holy Romanov dynasty that for three long centuries hid from the Scions that we were in fact vampires. And most of all, to focus all my attention on other people’s opinions instead of finding my purpose.

Little does she know that I already have one. That, when I become Princess, I intend to benothinglikeher.

Wearing the dress she picked out for me, I let my eyes sweep over the room she insisted on decorating for me. I like that it’s all dark wood, but it’s so extravagant — the four-post bed, the closet lining an entire wall, the decorative mirrors and lamps everywhere. All wasted on me, someone who’d be happy with a futon and only cares about the desk below the window, that is, its secret drawers.

But that’s Mother, forever failing to see we’re not the same person. The night they came in the mail, the invitations to enter the Selection, we had a dinner guest who started talking about the connection between succeeding in competitions like the Games and making something of yourself on our political scene. And all I wanted was to pick his brain, while all she wanted was for me to smile and nod.

Still, it was that night that made me become truly determined to win this. I don’t know when exactly this will happen, but at some point in the near future, I’ll be the one ruling over people alongside my husband. And I’m only twenty two, but it’s never too early to start earning their respect.

That makes my lips curl into a smile and turn my focus back onto my reflection. I suspect Mother’s expecting me to put my choppy, shoulder-length raven hair into some elaborate hairstyle. So I know what I’ll do. I’ll just leave it down.

I turn to face the bed and rush to pick my boots up off the floor. As I sit on my bed, lacing them up, I can’t help but smile with excitement. Max is probably already in the Entrance Hall, waiting for me. We’ve been together for three years, but I feel like I’ve known him my whole life. And he always manages to bring some warmth into my day.

And he’ll be escorting me to the Opening Ceremony, I think as I finish lacing my boots up. I spring from the bed and grab my knife from the nightstand. With deft movements, I spin it around my fingers and slide it into my corset, moving to walk out of my room. Our guests’ Archon — the principal of the Academy we share a Heart Bond with, the one we’ll be hosting and competing with in the following year — she could already be here.

And right now, it seems as if my entire future is hanging in the balance, but tonight’s Grimm Academy Opening Ceremony, it’ll be like no other, in the last one hundred and fifty six years at least.

A breath of fresh air in this stale, stale life.

*

“Aren’t you breathtaking?” Max says, smiling, as he watches me get out of the Elevator and into the buzzing Entrance Hall, where he’s been waiting to take me to the Opening Ceremony.

He holds his forearm out for me, making my lips curl into a smile. He looks dashing, a little spindly but elegant, in his brand-new formal suit with black feathers on his shoulders, his silver hair slicked back in the latest fashion.

“Thank you,” I say, sweetly, as I take his arm. I give him a kiss and let him start leading me in the direction of the Dining Hall, where the Ceremony will be taking place. “But I thought you loved my usual outfits,” I poke at him.

He throws me a side glance. “You know I think they’re the height of fashion itself,” he replies with a little smirk.

I laugh and give him a little shove on the shoulder. He’s in a good mood tonight, I think as I throw him a sneaky glance. This will be fun.

Then, just as we pass the Brothers Grimm statue, he makes me stop so he can lean in and whisper, “Though, you might soon find yourself wearing dresses like that a bit more often.”

It makes my eyebrows pull down.

He lets out a little laugh, his eyes darting to my dress before he gives me a funny little look. “What, you thought this would be the only one I’d have her pick out for you?”

I roll my eyes as soon as it hits me. “And here I thought this was just Mother’s doing,” I say, pretending to scold him as I keep walking towards the archway into the Dining Hall. This isn’t the first time he’s done something like this, but I don’t want to linger on that. With a smile on my face, I ask, “But what’s the occasion?”

Is it the anniversary, I think with a flutter in my stomach.

He just shrugs. “Do you always have to know everything?” he asks nonchalantly, but a little teasingly.

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