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“Why are we dancing?” I asked, my simmering anger subsiding as my body melted against Rome’s. It felt good. More than good. It felt forbidden, and I knew if Alexander could see inside my head, both of us would be in danger.
“They’re rehearsing for the dance in the Great Hall, where some of the parents come up and watch the exhibition,” he said.
“Why wouldn’t I be Alexander’s partner?” I asked.
Rome chuckled and looked down at the space between us. “You know you can’t dance, right? You just stepped on my feet ten times in a row.”
I was mortified. “Oh god, did I?”
I looked down and watched my feet, and sure enough, I kept scuffing the toes of his shoes with my shoes. I left dusty prints there, and I was shocked by my clumsiness.
The music ended, and Alexander pushed Grace away from him. Rome stopped in mid-step and dropped his arms away from me as if I burned him. We both turned to my fiancé.
“Willow, the love of my life, why weren’t you here earlier?” Alexander said, his voice loud and magnanimous. He was in a good mood.
“It’s Friday,” I said and glanced around at the group. “Treatments, remember?”
“Ah yes,” he said and peered at me, inspecting me up close. “You look stunning.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“She does, doesn’t she?” Victoria exclaimed, throwing her arm around my shoulders. “She’s definitely worthy of a Remington engagement now.”
I shot a look at Grace, who had knives drawn in her eyes, ready to throw them in my direction with a dark, icy look. But she caught my glance and smiled sweetly.
“Yes, she’s perfect for Alexander,” Grace agreed.
“Perfect,” Rome murmured in the back of his throat, barely enough for me to hear the word. My eyes snapped back to look up at him, standing so close and yet kept apart by a great gulf between us. The gap was created by his loyalty to Alexander and my commitment to him. We would both be killed if we crossed that gap, but when I looked into Rome’s eyes, I felt myself falling.
“What did they do to you?” Grace demanded. “You look different. Better. Less like a Lower, which is good, I suppose. Good for Alexander and his family. But you can’t get rid of all your Lower stench.”
“You will not speak to her that way,” Alexander roared, surprising us all as everybody jumped back away from him. His hand snaked out, and he grabbed Grace by the wrist and pulled her towards him. “She is my fiancée, and therefore she is afforded every ounce of respect you give me. Understand?”
She whimpered, and her eyes rolled around in her head as she desperately sought support from Alexander’s friends. Not a single one of them offered her anything but disdain.
“You can leave now,” Alexander continued, and I could see bright tears in the corners of Grace’s eyes. I didn’t like the girl, but I cringed seeing somebody humiliated like this.
“It’s okay. She can stay,” I said, stepping to his side. “As long as she knows her place, to keep her opinions to herself.”
Grace didn’t respond well to this. She glared at me even harder.
“I don’t need your charity,” Grace said. “You’d better watch your back, especially now that my father is going to own your father’s company.”
“Wait, what?” I asked, but Grace was stomping away from us, her blonde bob bouncing with each step. She was the quintessential Karen, off to speak to the manager of something to lodge her complaint.
“Her father is trying to buy your father’s company,” Alexander said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “It’s all bullshit and posturing. Your father has my father’s protection.”
And there it was, yet another reason I had to stay close to Alexander. My kind didn’t get to choose who they married. Uppers were sworn to unions in order to strengthen family bonds.
I hadn’t known all of this when I awoke from my coma, but my week’s instructions had filled my head with the rules and regulations I was expected to follow. My brain fog allowed me to lay down new memories and retain new information, but it didn’t let me access much in the past. I couldn’t reach back through the muddied waters and take hold of who I’d been before.
“Forget all this boring business talk,” Victoria said with a grin. She held her arms out and put one around my shoulders, and one around her friend’s on the other side of her. “It’s Friday. We’re going to throw a legendary Upper party in Tyne Hall. They’re supposed to be renovating it, but I paid off the security team, and it’s all ours for the night.”
Cheers erupted around me, and I joined in halfheartedly. I’d really been looking forward to kicking off my shoes, crawling into a comfortable pair of pajamas, and curling up with a book tonight.
I also had to be home by eleven at the very latest to take my bedtime pills, and I suspected that might present a problem when Victoria was involved. She was one of those go big or go home types as if going home was such a bad thing.
We did go home to change, and she was buzzing with high-strung energy when we got to our floor. She bounced off the elevator and jumped up and down, twirled, and pointed towards my door.
