The Hidden Route Picked the Friend novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: Midsummer Ball

The Hall of Lanterns held three hundred people and a hundred lights.

Briony stood at the foot of the dais in the green silk gown, and she had never been so frightened of a room.

The gown fit.

Her braids were pinned into a crown, and her collar was gone.

Every head that turned toward her turned away again with a small flicker of surprise.

She was nobody's friend tonight.

She was the girl at the Regent's right hand.

Isidora sat above her on the dais in violet, warm and gracious, her hand resting lightly on the carved arm of her chair.

She had smiled at Briony when she arrived.

"The green is charming," she had said.

"I knew it would be."

Across the hall, the east door stood open on the night.

A man in a black coat with silver buttons stood in it, facing the room, his face a smooth empty plate.

He had not looked at her once.

She could feel it anyway.

Clem stood beside the Prince at the foot of the steps in her lilac gown with her curls up, white as paper.

Her fingers were laced in Anselm's.

Neither of them was pretending anymore.

Nine bells rang.

The orchestra stopped.

The Prince stepped forward with a glass in his hand, and a hush rolled out through the hall.

"To the King," said Anselm.

"Long may he live."

"The King!" said three hundred voices.

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