“I have a few leads I’ve received that I’ll look into. If one of them pans out, I think my story could be worth the front page.” This was the perfect chance to figure out what happened to Easton and prove myself as a reporter.
“The front page?” She raised one eyebrow, examining me as if I were an article about to go to print that she was checking for typos. “We’ll see.”
“So… I can do it?” My heart threatened to pound through my rib cage.
“You’ve earned that much of a chance.” She dropped her hands and gave me a sharp nod. “But front-page stories require front-page dedication.”
It was so much more than just a statement when she said it with that hint of granite in her tone.
“Of course.” My voice caught slightly, so I cleared my throat and said louder, “I understand.”
That meant I had to find something tomorrow night. If I failed, I wouldn’t just be stuck in Austen Heights, I’d be stuck in the society pages forever.
Chapter 3
AssoonasIwalked into Club Meryton the next night, I covered my ears to protect them from the thumping bass. It was going to be a long—but hopefully fruitful—night. I let my eyes adjust to the floating candles bathing everything in reds, oranges, and yellows. The dance floor took up most of the space, with a bar serving drinks and elixirs running along one wall. Booths around the dance floor provided more privacy, and a few VIP rooms were scattered around.
With a sigh, I glanced over my shoulder toward my family. “Last chance to go home.”
“You wish, Lizzy.” Lydia stuck her tongue out from where she stood a few feet behind me. She ran a hand down her short, sequined red dress. It matched her bright lipstick and left little to the imagination, just like her personality. She constantly blurted out whatever popped into her head.
“No,Iwish,” Mary muttered before breaking off from the group and plopping down at a table with jack-o’-lanterns, which might’ve been a strange decoration for a nightclub in any other town, but in Austen Heights it was par for the course. Especially since the pumpkins whispered to each other, eerie little murmurs of unintelligible words that could only be heard over the pounding music if you held your face close.
Mary pulled a book out of one of my old purses and started reading by the light of her cell phone. As long as it was big enough for her to carry a book or two, she didn’t care about what bag she used.
Mom, who’d dragged Mary to the club with us, followed her to the table. Even though I couldn’t hear what she was saying, from the way Mary’s shoulders hunched, it was probably another lecture on how she needed tobe more sociable. Mom had demanded to come with us tonight to “help us meet people,” as if having our mother at a club wouldn’t automatically kill our chances.
My mom. At a club. I couldn’t even think about it too hard, or I’d die from secondhand embarrassment.
Mom was bad enough, but somehow I’d ended up with the whole group. I’d swung by Cupid’s Confections earlier, where Jane was helping out, to ask her to accompany me. I’d wanted to recruit one sister, and instead, I’d gotten four—plus Mom. My “this is for work” argument had fallen on deaf ears when Lydia insisted “she could go to the club whenever she wanted.” The problem was that she hadn’t wanted to go tonight until she overheard our plans.
I glanced at Lydia and Kitty. “Please don’t bother me while I’m working.”
“Relax, Lizzy. We’re not here for you. We’re here to meet people.” Lydia linked her arm through Kitty’s, her hazel eyes gleaming as she looked around. If only that made me feel any better.
I leaned closer so I could lower my voice and still be heard over the pulsing music. “You do know that no highborn fae is going to be interested in any of us, right?”
“You never know until you try.” Lydia winked at me, and the two disappeared into the swarm of bodies. With how often Kitty followed her lead, sometimes it was hard to remember that Lydia was the youngest. At least until I remembered how often she got her way and how demanding she was. Then it was all too easy to remember that she was the baby of the family.
“She’s right, Lizzy,” Jane said softly. “You need to stop judging people before you know them. The fae here tonight might be nothing like the ones we knew before.”
I snorted. “I doubt it.”
Jane shook her head. “Let’s go find your story.”
Pushing thoughts of my family from my mind and hoping they wouldn’t embarrass me tonight, I nodded. “Yes, let’s.” I searched my clutch for the small vial I’d prepared last night. I’d had to go back to the bakery again and explain to Mom why I needed some of her ingredients, but since she already knew about the highborn fae coming to town, it hadn’t been hard to convince her to let mebrew a spectral gaze potion. Even though the fae could recognize each other on sight, my sisters and I lacked that ability. I needed this potion to help me identify those with magic in their blood in case anyone was hiding pointed ears.
Most of the time, the fae didn’t bother with glamours in Austen Heights since the Marked and Unmarked mingled freely. Unlike the rest of the world, none of the Marked had to hide their true natures here because a forgetfulness spell covered the town limits, but a few still used glamours occasionally.
I took a sip, ignoring the bitter taste, and muttered the spell under my breath before passing the bottle to Jane. Now the sweaty bodies in the middle of the room were more than a dark, writhing mass. About half of them had faint silvery outlines, the potion reacting to the magic in their blood and identifying them as the Marked.
I adjusted my simple blue dress that fell to mid-thigh, and a light flashed overhead, turning it a bright electric blue for a moment. I had twisted my brown hair into an elegant but simple knot and chosen a dress that matched my eyes.
It was time to get to work.
“Do you see the man I told you about?” I scanned the room, whose usually sleek interior was decked out with Halloween decor. Fog that glowed in different colors covered the dance floor.
“What did he look like again?” Jane asked.
