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“To Prince Forrest!”
“To Prince Zane!”
“To Prince Cobar!”
There’s a pause. “Whoisshe?”
The crowd murmurs, and my skin suddenly feels too tight. No one has any idea who I am, but when they discover the truth, they’ll know I’m a fraud. Right?Will they really believe I have enough fae in me to be bonded to not one, but four princes?
It’s doubtful.
“Who is the bride who will share the four princes?” Another voice cries.
Drunken voices. All of them.This is not going to go well.
“Take off her mask. Unveil her!”
I use my free hand to hold my mask in place. My breathing comes in and out so hard it hurts. The plan, in my head, had been to unveil me here, at the ball, so that no one could deny our bond. But right now, I don’t know if I want that any longer. If I ran right now, I don’t even know if Prince Sulien would look for me. He may just go along with it being a mistake, and then meet his real mate at another solstice.
This can’t happen now. I need time to think. Poverty. A terrible life for my family. Starvation. Or, not only keeping the truth from everyone I know, but from three of my four husbands. Pulling three innocent men into our plot and keeping them from their true mates.
Somehow, being a partner and a bride, not just for show, to four men. With them, they’d want me to share their bed and their lives. They’d want me to have their kids and have a real life with them.
All while I lied to them.
I take another step back and crash into a hard chest. Prince Zane. Forrest, Sulien, and Cobar stand close to me, and I can’t tell if the looks they shoot in my direction are full of pity or something else.
“They need to know who you are. They’ll find out eventually,” Prince Zane says, his voice as cold as his words.
“I need more time,” I whisper.
He leans close to me and says, “Don’t we all,” and then he pulls the ties to my mask and yanks it off, showing my whole face to everyone in the ballroom.
Taking away my choice and my escape.
I guess this is my life and my lie now.
NINE
Cassia
There’s no real reaction from the crowd. No gasps. No shouting. But that doesn’t stop my heart from pounding so hard that it sounds like drums in my head. I’m standing here surrounded by fae, feeling naked without my mask. A liar, pretending to be something I’m not, with my life on the line.
But the drunks just stare at me, grinning. A few look confused, like, “I don’t remember her in one of our orgies.” Not at all like they think I’m a fraud.
Which means I’m probably in the clear. Right?
Breathe.I think.Just breathe. You’re safe.
No one knows who I am. Even if they’ve seen me before, they wouldn’t have looked at my face well enough to really remember me because no one pays attention to the help.
Being seen as no better than a trashcan suddenly has a huge upside!
When no one calls for my head, my pulse starts to return to normal. Soon, I’ll give them my name. It’ll still mean nothing to them. And it probably won’t be until tomorrow, when they’re sober, that they’ll start to look into the family connections for one Cassia Wither.
“This is Cassia Wither,” Prince Sulien says, speaking before I have the chance. “She will be your new queen.” His tone is one of pride as he takes my hand and lifts it a little.
And, I swear, the man is as good of an actor as he is hot. There’s just something about him. About how warm his touch is. How cold his disposition is. It’s like he was born to play a role… not be a person, which is almost sad. But at least his words tell me what part I should be playing in this little game of ours.
