Page 133 of Red Masquerade

How I managed to sneak one of the sequined evening dresses into my overnight bag without anyone noticing, I don’t know. But as I donned the dress, the fabric a midnight black, the skirt barely reaching my thighs, exhilaration coursed through me.

Knowing what I was about to do. Knowingwhowas going to be there.

Flora whistled as I turned in front of the mirror.

“I think he’ll forgive you,” she said.

“I hope so,” I grumbled. The dress fit like a glove, the beads scintillating in the lamplight of her room as I turned. It hardly covered my curves. “Maybe I need stockings.”

“Less is better.” She grinned. “We should’ve been wearing dresses like this the whole time.”

“If my mother ever found a dress like this in my wardrobe, I’d be forbidden from ever leaving,” I said, smoothing my hands down my front, feeling the ridges of the beads under my fingers.

“You were,” she deadpanned, patting the seat in front of her vanity.

In a few moments, she was applying all sorts of makeup to my face, lining my eyes darker than she ever had before, accentuating the rich, dark color of my irises. Penciling in my brows. Setting my hair in waves.

“I still can’t believe I can’t go,” Flora grumbled after she finished applying rouge to my lips. She took a step back to admire her handiwork, fingers at my chin, moving me this way and that.

“Dixon would kill me,” I said.

She rolled her eyes. “Yes, he’s been quite stuffy lately,” she huffed, capping the tube of lipstick she’d used. She quirked her lips before grabbing some powder and a brush. “Maybe if I dress sexy enough, he’ll forgive me.”

“Iwouldn’t forgivemyselfif something happened to you,” I said.

“Well, why do you get to go? Why can’t we say ‘screw their party’ and have our girls’ night?”

“Because,” I frowned. “It’s my house now, too.”

She sighed, shaking her head. “I can’t believe I’ve been banned from my best friend’s house.”

I stood and wrapped my arms around her. “Just for tonight,” I said. “Besides, I need someone to corroborate.”

The drive back to the manor took longer than I was expecting, the traffic over the bridges doubled this evening. The sky above us sparkled with a thousand stars, flickering like electric bulbs about to go out, their brightness only increasing the further from the city we drove.

“Drop me off here,” I said once we pulled into the drive.

I couldn’t even count the amount of people on the lawn. Even this close to the gates, groups of partygoers crowded the long gravel drive, all adorned in costumes, their best dresses, faces obscured by elaborate masks. Some in costume, red queens and jesters and a few even in gowns harkening eras long ago. There were a few faces who’d already lost their masks, their cheeks red from the alcohol they’d consumed, eyes shining.

The driver looked displeased as he stopped the car, worry bunching in his brows. Perhaps the most emotion I’d ever seen from one of the servants—Made vampires—in Vince’s employ. Though, I suppose hewasgoing against direct orders Vince had given him.

Without a mask of my own, I felt naked on the lawn of the house. I couldn’t deny the fear that was creeping up, that Marcel Brancato was here and would find me before I could evenseehim, or one of his goons, if he had any.

That was the frightening part—we just didn’t know what to expect tonight. It’s what had Vince so on edge. What had me glancing over my shoulder, over andover again.

I weaved my way through the crowd, heels crunching in the gravel. I felt their eyes—following me as they always did, but this time, it seemed I couldn’t escape anyone’s attention, being maskless, and almost as unclothed as the entertainers up in the house. My identity fully on show.

A few men tried to catch my eye, grinning, their eyes shadowed by their masks. Every single one of them could be with Marcel. Could be waiting for the right moment to—

“Hey.”

The voice came from right beside me. I nearly jumped from my skin as a lithe hand grabbed my arm, whirling me around.

Veronica eyed my dress, frowning at the way the beads skimmed the tops of my thighs. “Not so subtle, huh?”

I rolled my eyes, wrenching my arm away. “I thought I was bait.”

She sighed and motioned for me to follow. “You’ll certainly catch his attention.”