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ZANE

So, there was this beautiful princess

She was locked in a high tower, one with stone walls and cold, empty rooms that couldn’t talk

There was no elevator or even fire stairs, so Tally wondered how the princess had gotten up there

But there she was, at the top No bungee jacket and fast asleep

The toas guarded by a dragon It had jeweled eyes and hungry, cruel features, and moved with a brutal suddenness that nized exactly what the dragon was It was a cruel pretty, an agent of Special Circuray and silk-scaled serpent

And you couldn’t have this dreaon, not sochinks in the ancient stone wall to slip his fingers into, because it was old and cruht easily, sparing only an aon, which had been distracted by a host of playful rats scurrying through its claws

The prince h stoneand swept the princess into a kiss, which woke her up, and that was the whole story Getting back down and past the dragon didn’t turn out to be an issue, because this was a dream and not akiss, a classic happy ending

Except for one thing

The prince was totally ugly

Tally woke up with a throbbing head

Catching her reflection in the mirror wall, she reover And discovered that getting kicked in the head was not pretty-ht happen, the sprayed-on skin above her eye had turned an angry red She’d have to go to a surge office to get the scar completely erased

But Tally decided not to fix it yet Like Peris had said, it did look really cri her new status The scar was perfect

There was a ratulations and reports ofas bubbly as her dive off the toith Peris)

Tally listened to theinto the crowd noises in the background, loving how connected she was to the others even though she’d co voted into a cliqueyou had friends whatever you did

Zane had left threeif Tally wanted to have breakfast thisHe didn’t sound as drunk as the rest of theed hi," she said "Did Peris tell you how ?"

"Very"

"Whoa" Zane’s voice was breathy in her ear, his usual cool overwhelh

Glad you didn’tyou know, die"

Tally smiled "Thanks"

"So, did you read the weirdness about the party?"

There’d been a news-ping aes, but she hadn’t felt up to reading "What weirdness?"

"Someone hacked the mail yesterday and sent out that new invitation, the one that changed the dress code to costuht it was so But nobody knoho actually wrote it Dizzying, huh?"

Tally blinked, the rooht The world seemed to turn around her, as if she were inside the stolies did stuff like hack mail And she could only think of one person ould want the Valentino party turned into a costume bash: Croy with his cruel-pretty mask and weird offers

Which blood

"That is deeply bogus, Zane"

"Totally You hungry?"

She nodded, feeling her head begin to throb again Out the , the Garbo Mansion party towers rose up, tall and spindly Tally stared at the She had to be overreacting; everything wasn’t about her, after all It could have just been pointlessly tricking uglies, or so

But even if it had been simply a mistake, Croy had to have been ready with that costume In the Rusty Ruins and wilderness where Smokies hid, there weren’t any holes in the wall; you had to s, which took time and effort And Croy hadn’t chosen just any costumeTally remembered the cold, jeweled eyes and felt faint

Maybe food would fix her

"Yeah, deeply hungry Let’s have breakfast"

They arden that snaked from the center of New Pretty Ton to Valentino Mansion The mansion itself was hidden by trees, but the transmission tower on top was visible, the old-fashioned Valentino flag whipping in the cold wind In the garden, the daht before was mostly cleared up, except for a few blackened patches left by the Bashers’ bonfires