Page 176 of Wicked Promises (Fallen Royals 3)

“Margo wouldn’t have been ready if she didn’t talk to you.” I grab the keys I had left on the counter for him. “I have one last thing I want to ask you.”

MARGO

I shift each and every way, analyzing myself in the mirror.

My hair is longer. My skin clear and glowing. My makeup is flawless.

And yet, something feels… off.

“The dress,” Riley says from the doorway.

I jump. Caught staring at myself like a fool.

“Huh?”

Riley chuckles. “The dress doesn’t match the vibe. Which is fine—I brought you one.” She holds up a plastic bag covering a black dress.

“I never thought I’d be going to prom,” I admit. “And you’re sure you don’t want to go?”

“As much as I’d love to watch you slow dance with Caleb, I think I’m going to pass. I’d rather just help you get ready, then go home and watch The Breakfast Club.”

I roll my eyes. “Eli’s still…?”

Well, I wouldn’t know exactly what he’s still doing, since she’s refused, for months to talk about it. She suffers in silence.

“Try this on,” she orders, shoving the bag into my hands. “This is going to be so much better than the masquerade ball for you.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Is it?”

“Yeah, because Caleb is in love with you and you’re in love with him, and things have been… Good. Like, painful to witness good.”

She has a point—about the painful to witness part, anyway. Dad was released from prison shortly after David, Lydia, Tobias, Claire, and Matt were arrested. Mom was sent to a rehabilitation center, where she remains to this day, and Claire is in a juvenile detention center until she turns eighteen. Tobias surprised us by turning on everyone viciously, supplying evidence he had stored over the years.

Turns out, the ex-public defender knew just what to keep in order to incriminate… just about everyone.

It was impressive.

I stayed with Robert and Lenora. It was a decision the four of us made tearfully in the living room. All of us were a crying mess by the time the conversation was over. But the way they accepted Dad into the fold like he was part of their family, too? It broke my heart and healed it at the same time.

And Dad…

I let out a sigh, closing myself in the bathroom.

He knew me as a child. Ten years old, seeing only the good in the world. Now he has a seventeen-year-old daughter.

I’ve been through the foster system and survived.

Came out ahead, if you ask me.

Caleb is a stage five clinger—and I mean that in the best way possible. Once we returned to school, everyone magically backed off. He’d cast a magic spell. That… and lacrosse season had officially started.

He was right.

Fall semester was nothing compared to the spring.

All Hail King Caleb. I snorted at the first person who said it, but it was a thing.

The entire school turned out to the first lacrosse game. Riley and I sat together, and she laughed at the awed expression on my face when everyone cheered for them.

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