Immediately we are swarmed by what feels like hundreds of people. I see a group of men grab Maven and pull him down a corridor while about ten ladies push me into an elevator. Once we're inside, one lady starts working on my hair while another pulls a measuring tape around my waist. She starts calling out numbers and another lady starts writing them down. A lady pulls a dress over my head and starts lacing it up. There's a different lady down by my feet, taking my shoes off and replacing them with sparkly heels. Two other ladies grab my hands and start quickly doing my nails. The lady who was doing my hair, moves to the front of my face and starts putting on makeup. The elevator stops abruptly and all of the ladies exit the back. I'm about to follow them, but the door closes and the door on the other side of the elevator opens. Looking out, I see a huge ballroom with hundreds of people sitting around at tables. I step out of the elevator and up on the stage, I see Maven. My gut tells me to get up there with him but my feet seem frozen. I just sort of stand there until Maven says, "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, the future Queen of Norta, Mareena Barrow!" Everyone politely applauds and I finally find the courage to walk over and step up on the stage. Maven looks me up and down and smiles. I look to my right and in the window, I can see that they've cleaned me up really well. I almost look like a different person. Maven starts talking so I turn back to look at him.
"Our wedding is in about four weeks. With this wedding, we are ending the war. Not only will this be good for the palace to lift the sadness since Queen Elara passed on, but it will be good for Notra to have its first Red Queen." The nobles start to applaud. Maven looks over at me and signals for me to come to him. I do. I take his arm and we walking off the stage. As soon as we're out of the ballroom, Maven grabs me by the shoulders to really look at me.
"You clean up nicely, Mare."
"You don't look so bad yourself." He pulls me into a short kiss. When we break away, I can see it's clear he had the same elevator experience I had. He's wearing a grey suit and the perfect amount of cologne. His hair has been smoothed back. I can't stop looking at him. He's mine. No, that's not right, he isn't mine. Cal is mine. Cal is who I want, right?
Maven walks me up to my room. He reminds me to be ready at 2:30 for wedding planning and tells me to start trying to think of people I want to invite. As I start to open the door, he gives me a little kiss on the cheek. I smile and close the door behind me. Immediately, I know I have to start my "invite" to Cal. I already know that he won't want to go. Who would want to watch the girl they love, marry not only their worst enemy, but their brother? I see that there's paper sitting around on the desk in the corner of the room so I go over and grab it. I open some drawers and eventually find a pen. I sit down at the desk and start to write.
Dear Cal,
I have arrived safely at the palace. Maven has been being suspiciously nice. I don't trust him. He probably won't let me invite you to the wedding but I'm gonna anyway. You probably don't want to come. Anyway, the wedding is in about four weeks. You'll hear the official announcement soon. I just wanted to let you know that I'm fine and that I can do this. Maven says that depending on how the wedding goes, he might even let me visit you sometimes. So I guess that's it. Don't forget that I love you and that I'm doing this for you. Please, never doubt my love for you despite what anyone says.
Love,
Mare
I put down the pen and read over my note. Then I set it aside to write invitations to Kilorn, Gisa, Shade, Bree, Tramy, and my mom and dad. I tell each one how much I love them at that I'm sorry and that this was to keep them safe, but I don't really mean it. I know, deep in my heart, that I did this only for Cal.
Hi. I'm about to get on my flight home and had some time to kill so here's an update for y'all. - just jules