Page 65 (1/2)

Chapter 1

The only flaw in Lila’s plan was Tristan

Again

She cast a not-so careless eye toward the LeBeau athered at the base of the auction house stairs The dozen woed at the collars of their fory afternoon The LeBeau coat of arer poised to strike, had been stitched in lavender on the breast of their suth cotton rather than leather The group chugged bottles of ice water, a balainst the late October heat wave, and fanned their coats to reveal tranq guns underneath One of theThey all chuckled before separating once more to pace

As the chief of her family’s militia, Lila had been party to such jokes for years It was likely a barb against the paparazzi, or the so-called press behind the stanchions Microphones in hand and cameras at the ready, they stood at attention while their flashing bulbs captured the scene Of course, the joke ht have been aimed at the heirs who flowed up the silver-carpeted stairs toward the auction house, wilting under their finery

Predictably, the highborn had ignored the weather The heirs wore their autu coats while the men panted in their vests and coats and breeches, their cravats tied and pinned at their necks Everyone wore their fahborn sparkled with jewels and sweat as they ran the gauntlet of press and photographers, vainly dabbing at their foreheads between photos and interviews, desperate to enter the cool lobby and the ballroom beyond

And they all suffered

All except Lila She’d visited the fa they alter a dress froly, they’d scissored off half the blood-red fabric and dyed a pair of gloves to es that crisscrossed her palms She’d earned them the weekend before when she’d been trapped in the middle of a riot Of course, few people knew the real story She’d told everyone she’d been in a motorcycle accident So far, everyone believed her

The other highborn stared at her dress, half jealous, half gru that her clothes too closely reseh, expertly tying together the trends The bodice of her backless dress hardly covered her breasts, and the silken skirts barely brushed her skin The slit had been cut as high as was proper, allowing for a delightful breeze between her legs She’d balked at the ical spiders, for it didn’t stifle her in the slightest

With her dark hair set in tureat deal less like a militia chief and more like the eldest heir to one of the richest and most powerful families in New Bristol, and perhaps all of Saxony

Which she was Sort of Only fifteen woeneration could call the in line to becohter stood first aht, Lila had traded away her spot a decade ago in order to join the Randolph militia She shouldn’t have been allowed on the silver carpet at all Instead of an heir, she should only rank as a highborn

Her h The Randolph family had only fourteen official heirs, but everyone understood who held the fifteenth spot, no matter how often Lila resisted the ier sister Jewel froes, herher to sit on a council made up of matrons and prime heirs

The fact that Lila had never officially accepted her position as heir rankled the others

The fact that everyone accepted it for her rankled Lila

It also ly fuzzy—except her place in the auction house line Only hborn functions As an heir, even an unofficial one, she had to wait, just like the others