Incognito

27

Zac was already tired of it all. The tasteless food they ate while peasants starved, the quiet chatter while musicians played for no one, the dresses that cost more than a year's worth of cloth made at a mill. Everything wasted in his honor to please him and he sat glumly stirring his bland soup. He raised his glass for one of the maids to fill. A black shirt swept up beside him and began to fill his glass with expensive wine. A splash fell on the white tablecloth but Zac remained staring at the floral centerpiece that must have cost a fortune in winter. He was unfazed until the maid whispered a polite sorry and excused herself.

Zac carefully turned pretending to watch the musicians. The mia looked beautiful even in the black and white maid costume. With the delicate mask over her face, the stick-thin figure that a corset didn't make and her hair gorgeously plaited any man would have turned. But Zac was astounded to realize that the mia resembled her sister to the point that they could be mistaken for one another. The mia was taller, her brown hair was redder where Beth's was gold and comparatively the mia looked starved and muscular but otherwise, he would have thought Beth was a maid tonight rather than the angel seated across the table. Zac raised his own black mask to study Beth. She had blue eyes.

The second course came followed by the third and fourth and still Zac's stomach was jumbled. He felt something foreboding as he sat in his prince costume. Besides, after weeks of eating the little bit, the mia stole, and with the king's daughter flirtatiously eyeing him, his stomach was barely satisfied with his mid-day dinner. Supper simply did not sit well with him.

Unfortunately, neither was dance after dance with the princess Fallyn, giggling in his ear and stroking his eye. Rather than listening to her purr seductively, Zac searched the ballroom for the mia hoping she would reunite herself with Beth before the parties' end of dawn. He also found himself searching for something else, anything suspicious to calm his unsettled fears. He found a man dressed like a thief of old and a girl in a revealing costume crying out as the man hugged her roughly from behind but nothing firs his apprehension. The song ended and he bowed to his partner, still lost in thought as the next dance began.

"Zacary!"

He looked down and suddenly saw that his partner was no longer a blonde princess in layers of white and pink, but a brunette angel with wings and sparkling eyelids. She bit her bottom lips as they switched hands and began to walk the other direction.

"Everyone had been whispering about how strange you have been acting. You stare into space, you have barely touched the alcohol and the princess is the only girl you have interacted with tonight." She dipped into a curtsy and spun back into Zac's arms. With her back to Zac, she daintily stepped forward and backward as Zac led her. He spun her out and back in, their faces almost touching. "You are keeping something, Zac," Beth whispered. "Something from me, something from everyone." the song started again and Zac dipped her. When she came up, she was so close their noses touched. He breathed and the feathers on her mask ruffled. "I will find out, Zacary Holden. You can't act like this forever." The last chord played and she dropped into a hasty curtsy. Zac closed his eyes and rubbed his face. When his eyes opened, Princess Fallyn was back and Beth had disappeared into the hordes of people hiding things.

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Mia could not stay in anymore. She simply stood stoic with a tray of pastries no one was interested in eating, worried, and anxious. She drew up and rushed out the servant entrance. She could not face Eliza, not after two years. She should find Prosper and escape into the forest. As long as Zac didn't follow her she could leave traceless. Stepping out of the party was not difficult but the mia did not know where the nursery that held Kallie and her baby was. She began up the stone staircase lit with torches. The mask she wore obscured her vision and being away from Prosper made her heartbeat too fast. Light up ahead flickered and a door slammed. The mia climbed the stairs faster, rushing past hallways and doors. She halted quickly. One lone torch sat unlit. Peering around the mia saw no evidence of life. Slowly she crept up the steps of the corridor that was all too quiet. She was about to reach the light when the door nearby opened and Darcy stood there sword raised. The mia let out a yelp and stumbled backward.

"I apologize, ma'am. If you point me to the party no harm will waylay you." She could barely see his dark eyes under the black mask he wore.

The mia stood in shock.

Darcy waved his sword. "Which way?"

"Darcy?" The mia lifted her own mask.

"'Gelica?" Darcy's sword clattered to the ground as he ran to hug his sister. "I almost did not recognize you with the guise and the powder... 'Gelica, what are you doing in the duke's castle?"

The mia still gaped at him in disbelief. "I saved Zacary Holden."

Darcy stepped back.

"Now, I am sorry, but I must find the nursery-"

"There's no time!"

"There is always time for Prosper."

Darcy looked into her eyes. "Our father and Richard's gang are raiding the castle and assassinating the whole Holden line. They plan to kill anyone even remotely in the way. I must save Eliza before it's too late."

The mia felt light-headed. Her father was here. The monster she feared was coming for them all.

"Come this way." She began to race down the hall, back to the ball, back to Zac, and back to Beth with her brother on her heels. She was not sure she could forgive him for not taking a stand but at least he was willing to fight now. The knife she stole from the scullery earlier felt heavy on her side as she ran and halted abruptly.

She held up a hand for her brother's silence as she surveyed the ball as lively as she left it. No gang, no father, and no assassins to be seen.

She spun and pushed Darcy back. "I see nothing amiss."

"If you plan to kill nobility would you let everyone know first so they could be ready?"

She nodded at him. "Find the angel. I am going for the prince."

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Zac was dancing the waltz with the princess Fallyn when a man tapped him on the shoulder. He let the man dance and was about to exit the dance floor when a maid snatched his hand and his waist and forcefully led him into a waltz. His feet ached and his stomach growled but he continued when he saw who it was.

"You are going to cause a scene. The talk shall all be about the maid who danced with the master's son."

"That is where you are wrong, my friend. The talk shall be about the dead Holden line and the Averie massacre."

Zac froze. The mia gently tugged him back into the dance and he stumbled into her. Before he could speak, she began.

"Richard's gang will be here any minute. My brother is getting Eliza. We must get Prosper and get your father safely away."

Not another word left her mouth before he began to tug her out of the swirling skirts and tapping boots. He pulled her past the buffet table and past maids offering food. They escaped the ballroom and turned down corridors and wind up stairs. Zac does not stop until he is in front of the nursery. He knocks sharply twice and they both exchange a glance when no one answers. The door is locked from the inside when Zac rattles the doorknob. In frustration, he rams his shoulder against the wooden door praying no baby sits behind it.  Only when the door falls does Zac hear the wailing. Kallie knelt crying while some baby slept and some toddlers played. When her eyes hit Mia's the tears fell more heavily. She stood.

"He came...and...and." She sniffled.

Zac strode forward and grasped her shoulder to calm her heaving. "What is it, Kallie?"

The woman gasps in precious air. Her eyes never left those of the mia.

"A man...he took Prosper."

Zac barely had enough time to catch the mia before she hit the ground.