Filed to story: The Vampire Prince’s Bride
“Word sure travels fast around here,” I replied.
“It does,” he agreed. “Especially because it’s most unusual for a witch to be a lady’s maid. Do you have many witches in your kingdom?”
“No more than any other.” I tried to make my response as general as possible. However, I knew that by avoiding his questions, the conversation was hardly engaging.
If I wanted him to keep me around, I needed to retain his interest.
But I was at a loss of what to talk about. What could I possibly say? I was pretending to be someone I wasn’t, from a kingdom that didn’t exist. I was more or less a ghost, devoid of a history of my own.
Didn’t our history make us who we were today?
When I’d first danced with Sean in the village square, I’d been quick to open up to him about who I was and where I came from. Now I had no idea what to say.
Perhaps I should ask him about himself? It seemed like a good plan at first, except that everyone knew so much about the prince that most of the typical questions I could ask would be an obviously desperate hunt for a thread of conversation.
But I needed to say something, or else he would surely ditch me before this dance was over in exchange for a more interesting partner.
“What’s your favorite part of the Vale?” I asked the first question that popped into my mind.
“The mountains,” he answered quickly. “As far away from the palace as possible.”
I tilted my head, his response unexpected. “You don’t like the palace?” I asked, despite knowing his feelings on the topic. When we’d talked before-when he knew me for who I truly was-he’d told me that he felt trapped in the palace.
Would he be as open with the mysterious Princess Ana as he’d been with the unguarded human blood slaveScarlett?
“What’s not to like?” He smiled and twirled me around, giving me the impression that that would be the extent of his answer. “So, Ana,” he continued. “What talent will you be gracing us with tonight?”
“Talent?” I nearly tripped over my own feet, but I caught myself just in time. “What do you mean?”
“Each of the visiting princesses will be performing a talent immediately following dinner,” he said. “There should have been an information card waiting for you in your quarters after you returned from the parade.”
“I saw no card,” I muttered, trying to figure out what must have happened to it. Had I simply missed it? I’d been so focused on requesting that Geneva pretend to be my lady’s maid and preparing for that ball that I hadn’t thoroughly explored my quarters.
But you would have thought that such an important note would have been in a place where it wouldn’t be missed.
The more likely-and more nefarious-conclusion was that someone had removed the card from my room. Someone wanted me to be unprepared for the talent portion of the ball and to embarrass myself. And who had access to my room?
My guard, Tess.
I fumed at the possibility of her trying to sabotage me. It made no sense. What could she have against me? She didn’t even know me.
“I take it from your reaction that you haven’t prepared a talent?” Sean’s voice pulled me out of my spiraling thoughts.
“I haven’t,” I admitted, my cheeks heating under his gaze. “I must have missed the note.”
Better to claim fault than to accuse a member of his staff of sabotage.
“I’m sure you can come up with something quickly.” He winked. “Perhaps you can sing? Or play an instrument? That’s what a few of the other princesses are doing.”
I shook my head, blinking away tears. I couldn’t sing while in my own body, and a ballroom few of onlookers wasn’t the time to experiment with this body’s vocal chords. As for playing an instrument, my parents had let me stop piano lessons in elementary school when they’d come to terms with the fact that I was way too active to sit down and practice each night.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“Nothing.” I chuckled, trying to appear less worried than I was. “Just that I don’t think I can wow this audience with what I remember ofTwinkle TwinkleLittleStar.”
He laughed at that as well, which did help ease my worry. But only slightly.
“Do you want to be excused from the talent portion of the night?” he asked, serious again. “I can explain that you didn’t receive your notification, and that you didn’t have adequate time to prepare…”
“No, no,” I said quickly, since not showing a talent would make me look like even more of a loser princess than I already felt. “I’ll think of something.”
I hope.
“If you need anything for your performance, let a member of the staff know,” he said as the music ended. “It was lovely sharing this dance with you, PrincessAna.”
“Thank you,” I said, and then realized that I should say something else in return. “I enjoyed dancing with you, too.”
But the next song had already started, and he’d whisked one of the other princesses off in a dance… leaving me to figure out what I was going to whip up for my so-called talent.
Scarlett
I f I could return to my quarters, I could see Geneva and wish for her to bestow a royal talent upon me.
But every time I tried to leave the ballroom, someone stopped me. It seemed like every noble vampire in the Vale wanted to speak with Princess Ana to ask about the Seventh Kingdom. The furthest I got was the restroom, but there were other ladies in there. I couldn’t risk using the ring to call upon Geneva where anyone might see her.
Finally I made it to the exit of the ballroom. But as I was about to step out into the hall, someone blocked my path-
Tess.
“Where are you going?” my guard asked.
“I need to fetch something from my room,” I told her. “For my talent.”
She watched me blankly. It almost looked like she didn’t know what I was talking about. But who else could have hidden the note?