By time Asher came to help me get ready I was three plates of food into my angry eating. Back in the Glade, I couldn’t have bouts like this. Food was scarce enough that eating it when you weren’t hungry was unheard of.

But I wasn’t in the Glade. Which was the problem.

Asher opened the door on his own when I didn’t bother to get up to answer it. I barely glanced up from my plate of fluffy pastries to acknowledge him before I went back to shoving them in. Jelly from one of the pastries squirted out and dripped down my chin. I swiped at it with the back of my hand causing Asher to flinch.

“Clarabelle,” he said softly, taking the seat across from me. “I don’t wish to alarm you but it seems like you have been possessed.” He waved a hand across the table and the pile of empty plates.

“I’m fine,” I mumbled through bites.

“No, you’re clearly not.” He shook his head and then tried to take away the plate in front of me. My hand swiped out and snatched it back. I glared at him as I stuffed more dough into my mouth. I could feel the sugar rush hitting my head and I didn’t want to stop.

Asher frowned and leaned back in his seat, one leg crossed over the other. “This isn’t like you. I’ve never seen you waste food like this. Nor would I expect it, given your upbringing.”

“And that’s the problem,” I growled, swallowing the food in my mouth. “Everyone thinks they know what is best for me because I’m not like them. I’m from the Glade. I don’t belong. I shouldn’t even be here,” I rambled on and then tossed the half-eaten pastry onto the table. “Well, I’ll tell you what, I’m the only one who knows what I can and can’t do. If I want to eat a million donuts, then I will. If I want to wear pants instead of your magnificent outfits, then I will. And if I want to be the convert for Patrick-flippin-Blordril, then I will be.” I paused and took a few shallow breaths before swallowing a couple of times. The rich food I’d been downing swirled in my stomach like a tornado, threatening to come back up.

I jumped from the table my hand over my mouth and muttered, “I’m going to be sick.”

Rushing to the bathroom, all the food I’d eaten came back up in burning clumps. A warm hand sat on my back and another came around and held my hair away. A cool cloth was pressed against my neck and Asher’s voice murmured soothingly in my ear. “There’s a girl. It’s alright. You can be whatever you want to be. Just don’t kill yourself with pastries. That’ll just mean they all won.”

Once I had emptied my stomach, I sat back and leaned against the tiled bathroom wall. “I know. Normally, I wouldn’t even think of wasting so much food, even food from the Core, but he just made me so mad. I came back to my room and saw the tray of fruit and cheeses and it made it even worse.”

“Who made you mad?” Asher asked, stroking my forehead with the cloth.

“Beaford.”

“Oh, that hack,” Asher scoffed. “He’s an old-fashioned fool, who wouldn’t know an ascot from a handkerchief. I wouldn’t take anything he says to heart.”

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “I didn’t, not really anyway. But the way he kept telling me I’d be more suited as his companion compared to being in such an important position as a convert.” I shook my head in disbelief. “I just couldn’t take it anymore.” I glanced over at Asher who watched me with a patient frown. “Did you know he’s the one who kept having Tillie brought back?”

“Really?” Asher raised a brow. “I can’t see that.”

“Truly, he said so himself.” I nodded. “Something about not being able to make up his mind. Or some bull.”

Asher sat next to me on the floor, his eyes focused on something off in the distance. “At least, now she can never be invited again. She’s over twenty-one now.”

At his words, I sat up. “What’s up with that anyway? What does being over seventeen and under twenty-one have anything to do with being invited?”

My sponsor shrugged. “I suppose it’s because that is the time in your life you are supposed to be searching for who you are. Where you belong. After twenty-one, you become harder to sway to their ways. But don’t take my word for it.” He smirked and caressed the side of my face. “I’m just the help.”

I snorted and rose to my feet with him. “I doubt anyone would ever see you as just the help. You’re too nosy.”

“Too true,” Asher responded with a smile. “But as it were, my nosiness is what is going to make you the new convert of Patrick-flippin-Blordril.”

“How?”

“Well,” Asher moved to the vanity, “First off, making sure you looked fabulous on all occasions was a must, but you also did a lot of the work for me.”

“How so?” I cocked a brow at him. I didn’t think I’d done anything except make myself look like an idiot, commit treason, and then get into a brawl. That didn’t sound like the perfect candidate to me.

Asher gestured for me to sit down at the vanity and began to work on my hair. “If you had been prim and proper like the rest of those wretches that were invited, Patrick would have glanced your way no more than for a second.”

“Not my fault you made the shoes miles high,” I retorted and tried to turn and glare at him but he forced me to sit forward.

“Then, your answers to the interview questions, I couldn’t have been prouder to have you as my guest. Nothing that comes out of your mouth is fake or insincere. I bet they’d never expected someone like you to walk through their doors.” He chuckled as he twisted my hair this way and that.

“I hadn’t planned that either,” I muttered.

“I know! Which is what made it so great.”

“More like I’m lucky to have my head after yelling at them.” I tried to slouch in my chair but Asher tugged on my hair making me wince and sit up straight once more.

“Well, you have made more than your impression on our leader just from those two incidents but last night was the cherry on the top.” He paused as he pinned my hair into an elaborate updo and slid a small tiara into place. Moving around to sit in the chair his companions usually used to do my makeup, he sat in front of me. “Why did you go to that girl’s rescue? You barely know her.”

The question shocked me. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“That,” Asher pointed a face brush at my face. “That right there is why you will make a difference in the Fold.” He brushed the bristles across my face as he continued speaking. “You didn’t have to help her, it wasn’t like she was your best friend. In fact, most people would have let her get hurt simply because she was the competition.”

“But that’s not right.” My mouth dropped open at his words. Would the rest of them really not have come to her aide simply because they wanted her out of the running?

“This may come to a shock to you, my dear Clarabelle,” Asher said as he lined my lips. “But people are selfish. They don’t go out of their way to help anyone—even a child. What you showed was compassion. Something this world deeply needs.”

“Hmmm.” I didn’t know what to say to that. My father had raised me to care for everyone. As the overseer one neighbor’s problem was yours. You couldn’t not get involved because it would be inconvenient to you. Then no one would get anywhere. I wanted to believe there were good people in the world and they weren’t all like Asher described, but it was hard even for me.

“There,” Asher stated, getting to his feet and moving over to the bag he’d brought in with him when I was stuffing my face. The thought of food made my stomach roll. “Sadly, this will be my last outfit for you. Then you will go on to bigger and better places.”

“But we’ll see each other again, right?” My throat clogged at the thought of never seeing Asher again. He had been my one constant since I’d come here, and losing him and his gaggle of ladies seemed impossible.

“Of course,” Asher said. “You think my girls and I would just abandon you?” He clicked his tongue as he shook his head.

I glanced around the room, not for the first time wondering where the others were. “Why didn’t the others come?”

An emotion ran over Asher’s face before he gave me a grim smile. “I made them stay behind this time so I could have some alone time with you before the final event.”

“Why?”

Instead, of answering me, Asher unzipped the last dress bag and revealed a large ball gown of shimmering crystal blue material. Each movement made the tiny gems on the skirt shine like diamonds. In awe, I walked toward it. I fingered the bodice, the material silky and smooth against my skin.

“Do you like it?” Asher eyed me, little lines on his face showing his apprehension.

“I love it,” I said, beaming up at him. “It’s your best by far.”

Asher helped me into it, the material moving across my skin like a dream. I stared at myself in the mirror as he zipped up the back, still not quite believing I was wearing something so beautiful. If either of my stepsisters could see me now they would die on the spot. They’d soon see it though, I had no doubt the cameras would be there tonight, and in this dress there was little chance all eyes wouldn’t be on me.

Suddenly, I couldn’t wait until the ball.