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Twenty minutes later I’ve been squeezed into a silky black gown almost identical to the one Charlotte is wearing. A lacy mask falls across the bridge of my nose, and my loose curls have been swept into a braid that loops around my head like a flower crown.

William waited outside while his wife prepared me for the party. Once I was ready, Charlotte took my hand and led me back out to where he waited. She giggled at his clenched jaw and had no problem filling the silence as we walked to the party room, babbling all about her life at the manor, her favourite places to shop nearby, how she met William…

“...and so Prince Castor had all the ladies blindfold themselves so they could be passed around and used by the men in the room,” she explains gleefully. “But when I found myself in William’s lap, I just knew I never wanted to leave.”

I’m not sure I want to ask what ‘used by the men in the room’ means, and thankfully I don’t have time to as we arrive at an unassuming door at the end of a long corridor.

Charlotte squeezes my hand. “You can come in with us today, but don’t try coming back on your own without an invitation,” she whispers. “Once, a man tried to sneak in and Castor burnt off his coc⁠—”

“Now you’re trying to scare her,” William cuts her off. “Just don’t come here without us,” he grunts at me before pushing the door open.

I want to tell them that I’m leaving tonight anyway, but the intense purple light streaming out of the room takes all my words away.

As I follow the couple inside, we’re greeted by a masked man sitting at a desk. Behind him, a folding paper wall keeps the rest of the room out of sight, but I can still hear the soft piano music of what must be the party room, along with breathy moans that sound an awful lot like the noises I made only a few hours ago.

It makes a strange, warm feeling flutter inside me.

“Sir William and Lady Charlotte,” William says to the masked man. “We brought a guest too.” He jerks his chin at me.

The man looks me up and down. The black mask he wears covers most of his face, but I can still see his blue eyes pausing on my bust and then my hips. “She been here before?” he asks William gruffly.

“No,” he replies.

“She belong to you or are you sharing her?”

“She’s ours.” Charlotte wraps an arm around my waist, using her other hand to stroke my shoulder.

The man nods. “Make sure she knows to keep away from the purple room while she’s on her own and teach her the deal with the drinks.”

“Will do,” Charlotte purrs, pushing me around the paper wall.

“What does he mean by the purple room and the deal with the drinks?” I whisper to her.

“The drinks in the black goblets are spiked with bliss,” she explains quietly.

“What’s bliss?”

Charlotte chokes on her laugh. “I’m about to change your life, princess.”

“What do you mea—” But as we step past the wall, I gasp.

Dozens of velvet benches and soft day beds line the walls of a huge circular room. Violet-shaded lights cast all the furniture and the guests in a lavender glow – the very naked guests.

To my left, two nude women kiss on top of a man while he lounges on a pink day bed. Beside them, a group of four men are engaged in activities I didn’t think possible while sharing a blue bench. Near the back of the room, a woman has taken a man’s length into her mouth, her lips sliding slowly down his long, hard⁠—

Whimpering, I turn away, clutching my racing heart. This is too much. I shouldn’t be here. If this is what it’s like being in a secret society, I want no part of it.

“Are you alright?” Charlotte asks. “You look pale.”

William scoffs. “Told you she shouldn’t have come.”

“I-I’m fine.” I steady my breath, forcing myself to focus on the grooves in the wooden floor. “I just need a minute.”

Charlotte takes on a gentle tone. “Eden, if you’re not comfortable with this just tell me and I’ll take you back to the ball. I won’t mind.”

I wince. The ball… I don’t think I’ll ever forget how Lux spoke to me.

If I think about it, I know it was probably rude of me to try to read his letter, but that didn’t give him the right to talk to me like that. Like I was a child.