ara

fter I hung up with Caspian, a stir at the entrance a

hed. She was wearing the Atelier gown-the genuine one. It was beautiful, undeniably so, the fabric catching

triumph, found me immedia

posure cracked. She had never seen it before. No one had. It was a ghost of f

Her smile returned, sharpen

e paused, her gaze doing a slow, insulting sweep of my gown. "Oh... what

ching. "An obscure artisan.

guests to hear. "Julian, isn't it funny? I spent so much time picking out a beautiful Atelier gown for Elara

ing his brow. "Elara, why didn't yo

Seraphina, and smiled. "B

ced. Her voice was pitched to carry, drawin

earing an unknown designer to an event like this... well, people might get the wrong idea. They might think you couldn't afford the real thing." She lau

d. Eyes raked over my Nightinga

hat? She's not

ess looks in

You can't trust thos

only genuine piec

nd amusement. Seraphina had planted the see

ncially, you could have just told me. I would have lent you something appropriate." She reached out as if to touch my sleeve. "But

d I saw the familiar flash of disappointmen

hina is right. You should have worn the

I looked at him, at the man who had just chose

, you have no idea what embarrassme

was a blade. "You said Atelier has only one gen

er chest, triump

nd me a gift-a gown supposedly from the same designer-if you knew it would

t white. "I-that's a

fake so that when I wore it, you could expose me in front of ever

e guests began to look a

ltered. "Elara, that's

This is the delivery receipt from your assistant, Julian. The one who brought me the box. And this-" I pulled out another pie

had left traces-paid invoices, rushed orders, a des

f all color. "That's-that'

"But if you'd like, we can call in an expert to

double doors of the ba

nce, but magnified a hundredfold. Every werewolf in the room froze, their instincts

turned towa

black suit. Behind him stood the elegant, silver-haired Arthur Reynolds-the former edit

ve of the crowd, until they found me, standing

ence of his own nephew. He walked through the crowd

ural, he shrugged off his suit jacket and draped it over my bare shoulders. The fabric was

is voice a low, chiding murmur meant only for me,

g so little? What i