I honestly still did not understand what was going on. Shane and Irina kept referring to me as Lena

more information about this new life if I was going to s

to meet my sup

ked down a long, dim corridor to the main family wing of the manor. The Hale home was large an

wo young women were sitting. Alice

would wish she still possessed. She was wearing a gown meant for the ball which was a shimmering silver thing t

ith disgust. "Father, why is she out here? A

. "Rue is incapacitated. Lena wi

ything! She's been hidden for four years because she's useless. If Lord Al

k veil, Alice. She won't speak. She will stand behind you and melt into the crowd. She i

that strong. She had been going to the ball for the past 4 years and she wasn't picked. What makes her think this

blanket despite the warm room. She was also very beautiful, though in a

shivering slightly

ster what she must

e. Her eyes were cl

t any attention. If you draw the eye of a vampire, especially the Lord,

me understand that it means danger.

" I asked, unable t

rankly a waste of the resources that we should have poured into your sisters. You brought the family nothing but st

. My parents' emotional neglect had been

how we maintained the façade," she muttered to me. "When people ask, you are an extremely distant cousin who just arriv

or in my voice. The memories were blurry, incomplete and felt fa

u were sixteen, except for mandatory tutor sessions. We told people you were sent away. You have li

d, she was kept hidden. I looked at Rue again. She caught my eye and th

parents. It was the first genuinely kind thing anyon

ther one of Rue's hand-me-downs that was intentionally plain to make sure I faded into the backgro

ructed. "It hides your features. You will be

ered his final warning. He emphasized the co

appeals to him. He has never chosen a female since the murder of his father four years ago. His mother, Queen Mother Mira is alive but she has been in perpetual mourning. This is

didn't understand but I was goi

d Irina into the lar

eye, I repeated in my mi