Dying to Marry Him novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Reception

The five of us were dressed for season two by people we never saw.

Five new gowns lay across five beds, each one the right size.

Mine was midnight blue with a high neck, and it had pockets.

I had never loved a stranger so much as the one who sewed pockets.

"Mine has pockets too," Loretta said in the corridor, in emerald green.

She held up a fork she had stolen from breakfast. "I'm going to stab someone."

"Please wait for a signal," I said.

The nurse and the girl in gray walked behind us, close. The girl in green kept hold of my sleeve.

A new set of doors stood at the end of the hall where the chapel wall had been.

Gilt threw them open himself.

"Ladies, gentlemen and creatures of the deep," he said, "the Reception!"

The ballroom was huge, white and warm, with floating blue candles on the ceiling.

A band played something I did not recognize.

Every seat and every table was full of monsters.

They wore tuxedos and ball gowns and, in some cases, wings.

A woman with a tail sat beside a pale man with too many teeth, and both of them were eating canapés.

They turned to watch us come in, and they all began to clap.

"Season two is a celebration," Gilt cried. "You have survived the first three nights, and now you meet your admirers."

"Each survivor dances once with the Master. Please enjoy."

Rook stood at the far end of the ballroom in his black tailcoat.

He wore both gloves again. The left thumb was still stitched in red.

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