Page 55 of Flame and Fury

I probably should’ve expected to see Saffron, and yet I didn’t. Lark and Saffron were both ousted from the games after the Hydra challenge.

“I forgot to mention who else is here,” Lark says quietly, her eyes rolling.

The two look like they’ve been receiving very different treatment at Nathaniel’s house. Lark’s clothing is threadbare and a dingy white, while Saffron is wearing a bougie nightgown. The kind with feather cuffs and hems. Her makeup is as thick as always. Her bottle-red hair looks freshly dyed and is swept off her neck in a complicated updo.

Even more shocking than Saffron, is the sight of Estella walking into the room behind her.

“What are you doing here?” Saffron and I ask at the same time. Only her question is directed at me, and my question is meant for Estella.

Estella gasps and then covers her mouth with her fists. “Wren, what happened?”

“No, seriously, what is she doing here?” Saffron glares at Lark as if she magically conjured me out of thin air and my appearance is all Lark’s fault.

“I came to fix a leaky pipe. What the hell do you think I’m doing here?”

Saffron rolls her eyes, and then clomps over to the corner of the room in shoes a stripper would raise an eyebrow at. She flops down on a cot and throws her arm up over her eyes, blocking us out as effectively as possible in a shared room.

Estella slowly approaches the table where I’m sitting. Her eyes drop to the two bandages on my chest before taking in the bloody tank top.

“Is that from the challenge?”

I lower my chin and examine my clothes, imagining how she’s seeing them.I point to where the bullet went in on the right side of my chest. “The blood and this bandage, yes. This…” I point to the other bandage. “That’s a welcome gift from Nathaniel.”

Estella looks ill. She’s still wearing drab colors, and I’m starting to wonder if I was wrong about her. Maybe the bright clothing was the anomaly, and she usually goes for more earthy tones. Although, her pink hair leads me to believe that’s not the case.

“Why are you here?” Now that the surprise fades, it’s strange to see her outside of the training compound.

“I was brought here to get you ready for a dinner tonight.” Estella sounds uncertain. She fiddles with one of her box braids, before throwing it over her shoulder and crossing her arms.

“But I’m out of the game. Why would you have to keep dressing me? Wait, what kind of dinner?” Gods, I hope for her sake that she’s not expected to jump every time Nathaniel snaps his fingers and wants her to dress someone up. Am I surprised? Not really. That’s exactly the kind of preferential treatment Nathaniel and his ilk believe they are owed.

“Nathaniel requested that you have a private dinner with him. I’m supposed to get you ready for that.”

Lark throws me a pitying look. Saffron makes a disgusted sound from the corner of the room. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any shittier. I should know better by now. Things can always get worse.

CHAPTER31

WREN

As usual, Estella has outdone herself. Unfortunately, it’s all for Nathaniel Rogers. My makeup tonight is soft and gives me as much of an innocent look as possible. Estella doesn’t know the meaning of half-assed and has left my hair down, but added glamorous curls. It’s all especially impressive because I wasn’t allowed to shower. I had to scrub my pits and wash off the blood and dirt of the last challenge in the tiny sink in the bathroom attached to my new room.

When Estella showed me the dress selection, she kept apologizing until I told her to stop. Every single gown had a plunging neckline. They were the only choices Estella was given.

The dress is gorgeous. It’s a shiny black satin with a thin halter that ties around my neck, the deep neckline draping below my breasts. The skirt flows to the floor, but there’s a high slit up my thigh that provides plenty of movement. No doubt Nathaniel wants to see the evidence that I’ve been properly marked as his property. Jokes on him, I’m not taking this bandage off, so the lines of the sleek black dress are ruined by the puffy white gauze taped to my chest and the matching one where the bullet was lodged. The wounds from the rebar have already healed, but you can’t see them in the dress, so I don’t bother with a fake bandage.

At eight o’clock, the door opens, and Grima slinks into the room. His eyes roam up and down my body. My skin feels dirty. The man doesn’t have a mustache to twirl, but I swear he’s practically rubbing his hands in glee.

“Come with me, they're waiting.”

My gaze darts over to Estella and Lark. They? I thought this was dinner with Nathaniel.

I follow Grima, preferring to be behind, but he keeps slowing his steps, forcing me to walk beside him. My high heels click on the shiny black floors that run throughout Nathaniel’s house. How does anyone live here and not get depressed? Everything is so dark and gloomy. The whole place makes me want to huddle in an oversized hoodie and write creepy poetry.

The servants’ quarters are farther away from the main section of the house than I realized. It takes us a few minutes to get to the part of the house that I recognize from the party Nathaniel held here. Grima walks me to the dining room but doesn’t go any farther. He waves me inside, a cackle of glee hissing through his teeth.

I step inside the room and stop. It's not just Nathaniel. Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, and Aphrodite are all waiting for me.

Nathaniel and the gods are standing in a loose circle, holding drinks, and looking like old friends catching up. There are no chitons or traditional god attire this evening. Zeus and Nathaniel are both wearing suits. Nathaniel has a tie on with his signature huge knot, but Zeus has the first few buttons of his shirt open.

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