Agent Rogue: Espionage

Chapter 11

I looked different.

          Collins had shown me the outfit beforehand to gain my approval, but the image of myself wearing it along with the mask Scotty made, and the makeup I applied had not formed fully in my mind.

          Almost sheer midnight-black fell loosely from skinny straps, daring to plunge down my chest area where the dress synched in. The rest draped down, the slit exposing a leg freshly tanned from a day in the sun. Gold accented the outfit in the form of glitter delicately dusted down the straps and bodice of the dress, and twisting metal around my upper arm that matched the necklace and brought to life the evening's theme: mythical creatures.

          My own, it seemed, was a dragon of black and gold, and its body coiled itself around my neck, the open-mouthed head resting against my collarbone, ready to spit fire.

          That fire resided in the pale orange and gold around my eyes, lined in black. I gulped at the sight of it, and the long earrings hanging behind my curled hair twirled.
"Amber, do you have the—masks?" Derek closed the door behind him, not taking his eyes off me.

          We had all chosen a room stable enough to get ready in – one that wasn't destroyed by time – and I had nabbed one of the only mirrors. Derek had finished dressing, donning a tuxedo as dark as my own, but the shoulders and collar had been brushed in gold, and the matching dragon located itself at the folding buckle of his belt.

          He whistled. "Oh my god, just look at you!"
I glanced down at myself. "It's not that bad!"
"You think this is the face of someone disgusted? Darling, you're stunning."
I exhaled a relieved laugh. I had worried it had been too much, but surely those already at the ball had spared no expense. Unfortunately for me, I had no other women accompanying us to converse with. "Thank you."

          He blinked and tore his eyes away. "Now. Masks?"
"Scotty has them," I replied, slipping on another gold ring. "I think he has to test the connection to the cameras or something. I didn't really listen."
He nodded, then pursed his lip that tugged into a smile. "Have you told him yet?"
I had avoided him all day. If my best friend was not so busy trying to frantically tie up the final pieces of our plan, he would have noticed. "No," I admitted. "I don't know how to word it. Besides, he's been busy all day."
"Amber."
"He has!"
He glanced at the door then back at me. "You can't keep this from him."
"I know."
"After the mission?"
I nodded, but the knot in my stomach made me grimace. "He'll be angry."
"Why?"
"It's just Scotty, isn't it? It's not a personal thing with you. I could be marrying anyone and he would be upset."
He grinned. "Glad to know I'm special to him."
"You know what I mean."
"I do. He's protective, maybe a little possessive, but after what you told me about your ex, I don't blame him. And he's your best friend. I know him well enough to say that he'll support whatever makes you happy."

          He knew how I felt about Derek, so perhaps he was right. The two of them still argued, of course, and threatened to kill each other every other day but it had reached the point where I know longer debated if I believed them on the matter.

          "Yeah." I nodded, expelling a sigh. "You could be right."
"Not 'could be' – I am."

          I rolled my eyes.

          We joined Collins and Davis at the base of the stairs, the former smiling quietly with the other grinning. Collins looked radiant dressed in bright white, his tan kissed by the sun to match the threads of gold seamed into his blazer and bow, the colour sparkling in his blue eyes. Various sleek, white feathers had been sewn into the shoulders to offer the illusion of his mythical being for the night: the Pegasus. Davis, on the other hand, wielded bolder colours in a suit of deep purple accented in crimson red in the form of sequins threaded in a swirling pattern of flames – a phoenix.