Chapter 1
Ayana Frost sat straight up in bed in the middle of the night, eyes wide and heart racing. Her phone was ringing. She groaned loudly and groped around her nightstand in the dark for my glasses, then clicked on the lamp.
By the time she got ahold of her phone, she’d missed the call. She looked at the time; it was only ten-thirty. Only two hours of sleep, she groaned again. As she was looking to see who called, she got a text message from her fiancé, Carlos. “I need to talk to you now!” It read. “Come to my place quickly; it’s urgent!”
A million questions ran through her head as fear, worry, and confusion did a dance in her mind. She quickly texted back, “I’ll be right there.”
Ayana grabbed the first thing she could put her hands on, the flowery sundress she wore to work today, slipped on some sandals, and was out the door. She didn’t bother with makeup or underwear. She figured if it was important enough for him to call her at this hour, then it had to be more important than her appearance.
A few minutes later, she hopped in her hovercar and sped over to his condo as quickly as she could without getting pulled over. The Camelot police were some of the worst elves she’d ever met. She parked haphazardly and took the lift to his treetop condo.
As Ayana rode the lift, which moved much slower than she would have liked, she stared out the glass at the sprawling city in the trees. Camelot was the oldest Elven city, built in the oldest forest in the world. It was a marvel of magic and engineering. An expansive metropolis built into and around the trees without disturbing them any more than necessary. The view from this lift never failed to take my breath away, even at night.
She sighed and turned away from the view, checking her reflection in the shiny door of the lift. She noticed having her raven-black hair in a braided ponytail made her pointed ears stick out more than usual. She reached in her purse and quickly popped a couple of earrings in and hurriedly threw on some eye shadow, making her emerald green eyes stand out. Quickly, she dabbed on some lip gloss on her full lips, then took a wet wipe to her face.
Just because a girl just got out of bed didn’t mean she needed to look like she just got out of bed.
Ayana turned left and right, looking herself over. She felt like her little white dress looked good against my dusky brown skin. Most High Elves turned their noses up at Dark Elves, but Carlos always told her she was beautiful. He loved her short, curvy body, and she loved him. She couldn’t wait for them to start their lives together, hopefully somewhere far away from his hateful mother.
The lift doors opened right in front of his condo door. It was made of a beautiful light wood and was imprinted with his family crest, a robed Elven mage with his face to the sky and his arms stretched wide, with five stars arching between his hands. She smiled to herself. Carlos’ mother insisted on putting the crest on the door even though his was the only one on this floor. That’s rich people for you; they need to show off their status even when no one is looking.
Ayana straightened her dress and rang the bell. Laughing and shushed whispers came from inside before the butler opened the door. The tall, well-dressed elf literally looked down his nose at her before leaning over his shoulder and announcing, “Sir, Ms. Frost is here to see you.” His old, monotone voice sounded like he was trying to talk through a yawn. It reminded Ayana of how tired she was. Carlos yelled from the other room, “Yes, yes, show her in.” It sounded like he was laughing. Strange.
She followed the butler into the sitting room, a little annoyed that she couldn’t see around him. What she didn’t expect to see was a room full of well-dressed elves. They were all laughing and talking while they sipped champagne. She looked around, suddenly feeling very underdressed and acutely aware of her lack of underwear.
Carlos was standing there, front and center, with his mother, Katherine; his sister, Eliza; and some woman Ayana never met hanging on his arm. She walked over to Carlos, and he looked at her like he was surprised to see her. Before she could ask a question, he spoke with a quizzical look on his face.
“Ayana, darling, what are you doing here?” He stood there smiling, making no move to dislodge the strange woman from his arm. Ayana narrowed her eyes, looking up at him confused.
“You asked me to come. You texted me and said you had something urgent to talk to me about.”
He recoiled with a look on his face like she just said the most ridiculous thing in the world. After a moment he looked over at the strange woman.
“Eviline, dear, is that what you were doing with my phone? How terrible of you.” Eviline giggled, then stood on her tippy toes to kiss his cheek.
Carlos sighed, then looked back at Ayana apologetically. “Well, this is not how I wanted you to find out, but this is an engagement party. Eviline and I are going to marry to solidify the partnership between our families and their companies. You understand. It’s business.”
His words hit her like a ton of bricks. Her jaw went slack as words failed her. Her head spun, and Ayana was forced to take a step back. She could feel every eye in the room on me.
“But… you said… you said you loved me.” She managed to choke out weakly. Tears were already welling up in her eyes.
Eviline let go of Carlos’ arm and leaned in close to Ayana’s face. Her voice was dripping with venom as she spoke. “You thought he loved you? You poor thing. You really thought a high elf like Carlos could love a poor, simple, dirty, little dark elf like you?” she laughed right in her face. “You were his plaything, a toy he used to pass the time. High elves don’t marry trash like you. They throw them to the curb where you belong.”
“Eviline McCoy, that will be quite enough.” Carlos chided the woman. She said something back, but Ayana couldn’t hear.
Her heart was beating in her ears, and her eyes stung from tears. Her breathing became fast and heavy. Her chest hurt, knees were weak. She looked around the room, wide-eyed, lips trembling. People were whispering and laughing; some were pointing. She had to get out of there. She was on the edge of falling apart and didn’t want to do that in front of all these people. Ayana turned and ran for the door.
