Page 82

Breathe, Mara. Just breathe.

She was close…just within reach. I stretched out my hand, fingers opened wide as I wrapped them around Calista’s shoulder and pulled her back toward me, spinning her around. As she spun to face me, her surprised expression shifted, and her evil smile slipped into place as she arched a brow.

“Calista,” I breathed out.

“Oh, Mara,” she said, her voice saccharine. “It’s you…the little princess of Telvia.”

She was mocking me, but I had to keep it together. Blondie was a ticking bomb—one I couldn’t afford to let detonate. Not when all of my plans were already hanging on the edge. Not when Charles already believed me to be nothing more than some sort of Telvian harlot, pulled out of District 3 to play the part of Telvian royalty.

“Calista,” I said again cautiously, and I could hear it. I could hear the silent plea in my voice. “What did you see?”

She lifted her chin high as a dangerous grin curled on her lips. “My dear Mara,” she began, just a little too loudly. “I took you for a lot of things…” Her voice got louder with each word she uttered, enough that the people surrounding us started to turn and pay attention.

I smiled nervously at everyone before setting my gaze back on her. “Calista,please,” I begged under my breath. “Whatever you think you saw—”

She spoke over me as she shook her head with feigned disappointment and shock, one hand settling over her chest. “I just never took you for aslut.” The last word came out way too loud. If no one was paying attention before, they were definitely paying attention now. Everyone backed away from us.

My cheeks reddened as a tremor settled over my body. “Please,” I begged again, my voice coming out as a whisper. “It’s not what you think.”

“Tell me what I should think,Telvian.” She slowly stalked around me, like a jaguar circling prey.

I couldn’t breathe, a knot forming in my throat, threatening to suffocate me. And I was frozen under the accusatory gazes of hundreds of eyes as Calista walked around behind me. She stepped up close, bringing her ruby painted lips to my ear and whispered so that only I could hear her. “You might be the First Daughter of Telvia, but a bad reputation can kill a future just as much as a knife in the back.”

My eyes widened. My heart seized. My stomach churned. It all happened so fast,toofast. No one else saw it. No one else knew just how malicious Blondie really was.

But I did.

I knew.

And I felt it. Her hands clasped the fabric at my back, and sheyanked. The shawl dropped from my shoulders, slipping through my fingers, and cascaded to the floor. In one heartbeat, the landscape of my disfigured body was revealed to the world.

Naked truth.

Proof that I was worthless.

A weak body to be tortured.

Just a thing to be detested.

Broken.

“Oops,” she said dryly, stepping away from me. She didn’t stay to watch. She didn’t need to. Because one look at the crowd showed me nothing but repulsed faces.

I didn’t know when the music stopped, but it only made everything worse. Because I heard them—mutterings, whispered accusations, condemnations…

“Nobility doesn’t like that…”

“How ugly…”

“Pity…she had such a pretty face…”

“Who on earth would want thatthing…”

“How revolting…”

“It’s sickening…”

“What a disgrace…”