"Serena, please!"

"But Agatha is so insanely boring," Serena whined.

"I'll buy you something pretty, I swear."

"How expensive?"

I named a figure. Silence reigned on the hologram while she thought it over.

"Twice that and we have a deal. You'll owe me a favor."

"Done." I smiled. "You're a lifesaver."

"I know." She sniffed. "You might regret owing me one."

"I know." When she called in a favor, it tended to be huge. I didn't have a lot of other choices, though. I didn't want to go to Agatha's tea alone. "I'll pick you up in the levi-car."

"I'll get dressed." She turned off the call. I gathered my things before I went into the levi-car that I kept. It was an exorbitant expense that my father kept around as a status symbol.

Serena was waiting outside when I got to her place. She climbed in, then we both went to Agatha's tea.

"At least it's in a place that it's interesting." Serena looked around at the gorgeous explosion of flowers around us. "I've never seen so many different orchids together like this."

"It's lovely." I got out. She followed me down.

We must have been a minute early, because Agatha and her pets arrived just after us. I sighed internally. Agatha's over-priced get together was just a gossip session. I wanted it to be over with. If Agatha weren't related to me on my mom’s side, we wouldn't even have to be here. She despised me because I refused to be her lackey. I despised her because she only thought about herself.

"Arienne, darling!" Agatha came over to air-kiss me on both cheeks like we loved each other. "What a pleasure! And you've brought a little friend, too. Charmed." She air-kissed Serena, who was practically growling. Serena had very little patience for insincerity, which was unfortunate since Agatha was very rarely sincere.

"I have a room reserved." Agatha floated into the gardens, her puppies at her heels. They looked up to her since she was so wealthy and, if I were being honest, truly beautiful. Too bad we'd never gotten along.

There were teapots in three different colors waiting on the table.

"Pour for yourselves. We're not formal here."

I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes, because she just didn't want to do her hostess duties and pour for the rest of us. But her friends started passing the teapots around. I watched the steam rise gently into the air. We all passed around the sandwich platter. Serena and I were the only ones who wanted food, apparently. The puppies were fashionably thin, with Agatha as the thinnest of them.

"How did you enjoy that little soiree that Lord Georgius had last night?"

"It was fine. I spent most of it with the dowagers."

Agatha smiled. "I heard that you're interested in Yore fabric. Blood tells."

She couldn't stop herself from trying to insult my mixed blood. I wasn't embarrassed that I was half Yore, though. "That's right, it does."

"Did you enjoy Lord Georgius' company?" Agatha sipped her tea.

"He's very handsome." Two could play at this game. "What, are you interested?"

"No, but I heard that he's been sending bouquets to your house. Your mother told mine that she's expecting a formal inquiry any day now."

I felt like she had punched me in the gut. I knew about the flowers, of course, but if the rest of the Draka nobility learned about it, my fate would be sealed. My mother would never let me jilt Lord Georgius.

"You're so lucky." One of Agatha's puppies batted her eyelashes. "So gorgeous. So charming."

I almost gagged. I could not believe that we were talking about the same person, because he was so slimy underneath the noble polish.

"I have no idea why he's interested in me."

"You're pretty enough, I guess." Agatha looked at my face. "You look like your grandmother. She was supposed to be a legendary beauty. Pity that your skin is...dark."

I bit my tongue before I said something unwise. "You're so much more beautiful than me that it's hard to believe that we're distant cousins." There. A compliment might divert her.

She preened as all of her puppies agreed with me. Serena's eyes were laughing as she got busy pouring herself more tea.

"Regardless, Lord Georgius is the only one who has shown any interest in you. You should be happy."

"Even though his first two wives got divorces?" Serena apparently couldn't hold herself back anymore.

"Vile lies." Agatha drank more tea, her pinky extended. "My father says that it was just his wives trying to get more in the divorce settlements. Their stories were truly preposterous."

"Are you trying to convince Arienne to marry Lord Georgius?"

"She's not going to be able to do any better. Look at her! Her skin is darker than mine."

"Only because you stay away from sunlight," Serena growled. "You're cousins and look alike."

"Except her skin is brown." Agatha threw her hair over her shoulder. I had the dark hair that you'd expect from a Yore. Agatha was pureblood Draka, lighter in most ways.

"Anyways," I broke in, trying to stop them from fighting, "I'm sure he has a lot of options."

"Those former wives of his have poisoned the rest of the nobility against him. But your mother is a sensible woman. She knows that he's not going to get another offer."

I shivered, thinking of the look in Lord Georgius' wife’s eyes when I'd seen her at a small dinner at her parents' home. I didn't think that she had lied about the whole experience. I didn't want to live in a nightmare.

"What did he offer you to encourage Arienne to marry him?" Serena's eyebrows were raised.

"What makes you think that I can be bought?" Agatha tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"You're wearing five new bracelets on your left wrist. Jewelry? You're cheap."

Agatha's puppies sputtered at the insult. Agatha just raised one eyebrow, like she was far above Serena's insults. "You may think that now, but he's offered more. But I can only get it if Arienne tells her mother that she is excited about the match. The jewelry is just a down payment."

"Over my dead body," I said. "If my mother asks me, I'll tell her the truth."

Agatha shrugged as if it didn't matter, but I could see the tension in her shoulders. Whatever he'd offered was enough for her to try something dirty with her own blood. We didn't like each other much, but we were related. She picked up a teapot to pour herself more tea.

At that moment, a blaring siren, the kind that went off when there was an asteroid alert, made all of us jump. Agatha spilled tea everywhere. Tea dripped off of the tablecloth and into her lap. As she screamed from the scorching heat and her puppies leapt to her rescue, Serena grabbed my hand and towed me out the door, making the most of the opportunity.

Outside, the sound was even louder than it had been in the little room. I covered my ears as we climbed into my levi-car and we took off. We couldn't talk, but we went to Serena's house first. She waved and mouthed, "You owe me," before I sent my levi-car home.