Except… “I’m afraid that’s not possible, Ora. You allwillattend the party at sun-unset. Queens’ orders.”
I turned. Looked at her. Wanted to speak but was too stunned for a moment.
“Our trial istomorrow.We don’t need to waste time in parties,” March said, which could have been words he’d heard from my own mind.
“They can’t justforceus to go to a party when we don’t want to, can they?” Helen asked—and I was pretty suresheknew about the heartlock and Reggie’s memory we saw last night, even though she’d been the only one of the Hands who was in her room, resting, after having thrown up throughout dinner. Somebody must have told her because she had that same haunted look on her face since nightfall like the rest of us.
“It’s a party inyourhonor,” said Elida, fidgeting with her fingers so hard I thought she might pull them all off her hands. “The queens will not takenofor an answer. You willget ready and I will meet you out here in two hours. Go—go get ready!”
“But—” Erith started, but Elida didn’t want to hear it.
“Go on,now! Off you go.” She waved us back toward the rooms. “Don’t be late. We mustn’t leave the queens and the guests waiting.”
And she turned around to leave.
“Guests?” The word slipped from my lips before I caught it.
Elida was gone, though.
“What in the Everstill…” Anika whispered, and the next second all the doors to our rooms opened, one after the other. The help, each maid and butler who ad been assigned to us since the beginning, stepped aside.
“Come, come—we don’t have much time,” a couple of them said in unison.
I looked at Lida standing by my room at the end of the hallway.Surprise,she’d said.
This wasn’t a surprise—this was a fucking nightmare.
My legs refused to move. I looked at the others again, hoping at least one of them would have a decent plan on how to get out of this, but they seemed just as lost and as horrified as I felt.
Then March shrugged. “Looks like we’re partying tonight.”
He turned around and walked to his room with his head up.
The rest followed, and I managed to get myself moving at last as well, cursing under my breath. But no amount of wishing or praying or being angry at the entire world changed anything.
I endedup going to the stupid party together with all of them two hours later.
30
Uncomfortabledidn’t even begin to describe it.
I was wearing a white dress with a silk red scarf around my shoulders that covered very little. The spaghetti straps were made of diamond-shaped rhinestones and the loose fabric in the front made me feel like the entire dress could just slide off my body at any second. The fabric was almost liquid against my skin, falling beautifully all the way to the floor beautifully, except for the slit on the right leg that went up to my thigh. I might have thought for a moment that it was absolutely breathtaking in the mirror, but it was a disaster to walk in. Too much skin exposed—which I usually didn’t mind one bit.
But I minded when I washere,and when I felt the way I did, and when I was surrounded by strangers—and most importantly, the queens.
Most importantly,the guests.
We had no idea who they would be, and Lida refused to say anything at all as she fixed my hair with her combs and brushes, styled it so that the front pieces curled against the sides of my forehead like they were snakes. She clipped themjust over my ears and let the rest loose down my back. She even put makeup on me as well, glitter on the eyes and cheeks, a sheer gloss that made my lips look like they were covered in a layer of glass. She put some red powder on my cheeks, too, which made me look like I was flushing. It was better than anything I’d put on my face before, any makeup item I owned.
That, too, made me wonder why I hadn’t bothered to put anything on my face since I woke up here. I used to like it when my lips and cheeks were pink, and my eyes lined with black kohl—but who cared about what I looked like when I didn’t even feel like my own self in my skin?
I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t comfortable, though. And I wasn’t the only one who was forced to dress up in white and red.
All the girls wore white dresses with red details on them—Mimi had red shoes, her dress short but with long sleeves; Anika wore red earrings, lips, and a belt made of red rhinestones over her layered dress; Erith wore a large pendant on her open chest, her dress dipped all the way to her belly button in the front; Helen wore a red scarf on her head; and the back of Levana’s dress was like a spider’s web made entirely out of red, shimmery threads. Each one of them looked absolutely stunning—and terrified at the same time.
The boys, too.
They all wore white suits with white shirts, and red ties and handkerchiefs folded in their chest pockets. Some had red buttons, and some red threads on their jackets, but all had white shoes and their hair sleeked back, their cheeks clean shaven.
