Page 189 of Swallow Your Sorries

I study her, studying me for a beat before sighing. “Just tell me what you want.”

Her lips press into a hard line. “I will. Right before the play.” She tries to walk around me but I grab her arm, stopping her.

“You don’t want me to cheat you, but what about you? How can I trust you’ll keep your word?”

“Faith,” she smiles. “So long as you give me what I want, I’ll give you what you want.”

“And why the hell would I accept a barter without knowing the terms? You’ve asked for outrageous things before.”

“Like?”

“When you made me blow dry and flat iron your hair, when I lost that bet last year.”

“What’s so absurd about that?”

“It took eight fucking hours.”

“And you gave me those horrible bumped ends.”

“Aria!”

She shrugs. “Look, those are my terms. What does it matter what I want? You’d doanythingto have Elle be your princess for one night, right? I wonder why that is?”

Again I say nothing.

“Now look at who doesn’t want to share.”

“Why’s your clit suddenly hard for Elle? Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for her.”

“Too?” she quips. “Are we twinning?”

I’m not getting anywhere with her, but I know who’s about to get closer any minute as I see Étienne cooly strolling down the path that leads to the hall.

He may look calm, but Étienne always looks calm. Bubbling deep inside his perverted mind are thoughts I don’t want to analyse as his eyes subtly flicker around the grassy patches and benches in search of who’s right in front of me.

I bite my cheek in thought. “After we make our deal, when will you drop out of the playexactly?”

“The play starts at seven. I’ll conveniently get ill at six-thirty. I’ll make it look real so I don’t get into Mistress’ bad books.”

“How will you do that?”

“By taking a few prisoners,” she smiles but doesn’t elaborate and I don’t have the energy to pick apart her conniving brain. “In the meantime, keep practising the choreography with Elle, so she stays sharp. As she’s my understudy, it shouldn’t seem too suspicious. Just don’t tip her off. She’ll get in her head, and when she gets in her head, she always fucks up. Unless, of course, that’s your plan?”

I ignore her. “Fine. We’ll meet the night before the play and I’ll give it to you. Whatever it is you want.”

“I like the way that sounds,” Aria says thoughtfully. “Maybe Elle’s taste isn’t so tragic.”

“Says the girl in love with her possessed stepbrother,” I say as she flounces off right in time to join Étienne, who laces his fingers with hers.

I stay hidden behind the dining hall until they disappear inside before stalking off to the forest line. I have an appointment.

Aria, the deal, the trade, whatever it is, I’d worry about later. For now, the only important thing is that Elle will be my Cinderella.

Just like the prince, I’d scoured the town for her, and now that I’ve finally found her, all I have to do is slip on her glass slipper.

Elle

“Reality is a cunt, isn’t it?” Rin singsongs as I finally climb the stairs to Maple House that evening.

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