Your lady-in-waiting (not Clarissa’s!),

Brynn

Chapter 7

The Prince of Thieves

The sun is up, and today is my first—and hopefully last—time committing a crime.

It’s break-in day at Happily Ever After Scrolls!

After enjoying a round of bouncing and a filling stew Logan made for dinner, we all tucked in for much-needed sleep.

This morning, I was woken by Demetris, my trusty dove friend, with a note from Brynn detailing the goings-on at Royal Academy. Hearing about Olivina’s new rules and how she reassigned Brynn to Clarissa made me want to spit fire!

“Good morning, sleepyheads!” Prue teases. “Eat up! We have a big day ahead of us. We’re finally leaving the forest!”

The ship is alive with activity. Corden is putting finishing touches on some costumes. Alongside him, a large teakettle whistles from a conveyor belt that is churning out French toast and eggs. Prue is going over plans on her magic mirror and Heath, Logan, and Sasha are already helping themselves to breakfast while Sasha tells them all she knows about HEAS headquarters.

“Show me the girls’ dormitory!” I hear Raina say. She’s standing in front of the hacked magic mirror watching a live feed of Royal Academy.

The mirror does as it’s told. A grainy view of the long hallway in the girls’ dorm comes into view. Brynn runs by the mirror with a neatly pressed sequin gown in her arms. “Coming through! Rush delivery for Clarissa Hartwith!” She’s sweating and looks petrified.

Clarissa opens her bedroom door. “It’s about time you got here! Hand me that dress.”

That’s no way to talk to my lady-in-waiting. Just the thought of her having to cater to that girl’s every whim upsets me all over again.

I hear sobbing and look over. “That’s supposed to be my dress!” Raina sputters.

Now that I really look at her, I notice the dark circles under her eyes. Has she been up watching this mirror all night?

“Marta and I worked on the design last week. I had to call in three favors to get enough crystals to bead the train of the gown. Now it’s Clarissa’s, and she’s going to be named Miss Future Reign at the masquerade ball for sure.” She slumps down. “It’s the biggest event of the social calendar for first-years, other than the anniversary ball, the winter ball, and the first ball,” she tells anyone within earshot.

I’m the only one paying attention.

She may be upset, but Raina has never looked more luminous. Before she started watching the mirror yesterday, Corden gave her a full beauty workup with a Genie of the Lamp skin treatment, Under the Sea kelp hair masque, new makeup, and a half-up hairstyle. Raina was so excited about the results that she stared in the mirror for over an hour. That was before Prue let it slip that Raina could watch the mirror feed of Royal Academy whenever she wanted. It’s been all downhill since then.

“Ramona Mills and Charles Pullman are now in the lead for the Most Likely to Be Crowned superlative too,” Raina tells me. “The new list came out last night, and I thought we might have had a shot at being on it, considering the anniversary ball was just this week, but Olivina had our names pulled. I would have won best updo, for sure.”