|ELENA’S POV|I crouch to my knee amidst the sea of laughter and chatter, praying so hard that someone will wake me up from the horrible nightmare that I have been plunged into for the last 6 days because I am surrounded by people, yet there's a palpable sense of isolation.After a while of staring into space, I give a smile that doesn’t quite reach my face as I advance with the guests that seem to be forming a cluster at other middle of the hall. I am physically present in the crowd, yet my mind seems to be somewhere else entirely. It’s as if I am in my world, a world where I am the only inhabitant. “What next?” I ask myself on the verge of tears feeling purposeless and useless because the past four days of my life have been spent trying to come up with ways to save Amelia, but it turns out that the person who needs saving is me who gives off finding excuses to justify peoples gutter behavior.“What more do I have to lose apart from what I have lost?” I ask myself as I watch the en

|ASHER’S POV|“Now that Mrs. Feisty is gone, can you tell me what that was all about?” Allen inquires as soon as Elena walks away and I sigh.“Why are you suddenly sending me away to let her take my place when we both know that she can’t do my job,” he laments.“I need you to do something else,” I inform him.“What can be so important?” he groans.“Keeping an eye on a lot of people,” I inform him.“But I have always been doing that while dispensing my duties well,” he complains.“Fair point,” I admit.“You just need an excuse to keep her close right?” he tries to reason with me.“More like keeping her safe,” I answer him but had sends me a dissatisfied look.“To you or anyone, I may not be transparent because I grew up in the palace where trusting people is not an option but I am still asking you to trust me even if that means asking for too much…keep trusting me till I can tell you,” I admonish.“How does it make sense that you can’t trust me with your deepest secret but I am suppose

/ELENA’S POV/“Can I sit here?” Allen inquires but I move away from where I was to make him understand that he is not welcome around me.“I am sorry for what happened earlier,” he apologizes as he takes his seat next to me but I scoff in disdain.“I feel like I must have made you feel stupid by my actions, considering the fact that you blindly trusted me, a stranger but the truth is that I really didn’t want to take advantage of you, I just had to do what I had to do,” he explains.“You don’t owe me an explanation, so just pocket it,” I answer him in a harsh tone, my words laced with disdain.“Come on Elena…” he urges but I look up and down at him condescendingly.“Ever since I started talking to you, I have not lied to you, I only took advantage of your desperation to help you into the palace as per Asher's orders,” he says in an attempt to justify his actions.“It's fine,” I answer him coldly.“You also lied to me to make me help you, so aren’t we even now?” he presents.“You are r

|ELENA’S POV|The shrill ring of the phone jolts me awake with my heart pounding in my chest as I fumble in the dim light, knocking a half-empty water bottle off the nightstand before my hand finally finds the offending device. Squinting at the bright screen, I swipe to answer, bringing the phone to my ear."Hello?" l let out with a voice thick with sleep, the word barely more than a mumbled grunt. “Were you sleeping?” the person at the other end of the call inquires and at the question, I run my eyes with my free hand, trying to shake off the remnants of a dream already fading from memory.“Girl!!!” Jayda lets out an exclamation that makes me curious as to why she is the one on the other end of the phone.“Where were you last night?” she inquires and I try to recall the events of the previous night even though my brain is still in the process of booting. “The more detailed you are about your movement the better,” she adds.“After texting you to rant about how stressful my day was,

|ELENA’S POV|“Jayda,” I say as soon as the call connects on the other end.“I have a bad feeling about this,” she says almost immediately.“Bad feeling about what?” I ask her confused “Every time you call my name like that, it means we have a problem,” she states confidently.“My life had been revolving around a whole lot of drama these days and at this point, I am so over it, but I am way too entangled in this drama and I don’t see a way out of it,” I Inform her as I start to seriously panic.“What is it this time?” she inquired sounding uninterested in the conversation.“The prince of hell wants me to plan a welcome party for 500 guests in less than 7 hours,” I inform.“Who is he welcoming?” she asks almost immediately.“I didn’t care enough to ask, but I think it is Celine,” I answer her.“Celine the Princess of Amazonite?” She asks alarmed “How am I supposed to know that?” I ask her “It can only be the Princess of Amazonite,” she says with conviction.“How are you so sure of t