Page 21 of The Princess of Portals

Nevada sighed.

“Sorry. It’s just that…” I glanced from one dress to the other. “Are there any dresses here with a bit more…more?” I indicated the sleeveless bodices.

“I’ll go check.” Nevada flitted off, moving with delicate, seamless grace, like a spring breeze kissing a field of blossoms.

My thoughts returned to the General, the missing Apprentices, and the Order of Kings. They were all connected. Somehow. I was missing something. Something important.

Harlyn, one of the Techno Knights who’d tried to kidnap the Apprentices, had told me he’d been hired by the Order of Kings, a mysterious supernatural group that was amassing power all across the Many Realms.

A Fixer named Brett had witnessed mercenaries stealing Government supplies. Or so he’d thought. Actually, the mercenaries weren’t taking the supplies from the Government. They were giving the supplies to the Government. As it turned out, someone in the Government had made a deal with the Order of Kings: supplies in exchange for Apprentices. The Government traitor gave the Order easy access to the Apprentices, and the Order took them away. Some of the Apprentices, like my friend Kylie, were still missing.

Bronte had never gotten magic. The General had made her a Knight Apprentice anyway and sent her to the Castle to spy on the Knights and Apprentices.

Apprentices were missing because the Order of Kings wanted them—for whatever reason—and a Government traitor had helped the Order get them. The General was connected to the Knight Apprentices because he was in command of the Castle and its Knights—or at least he had been up until yesterday. And the General had used Bronte to spy on the Knights and Apprentices.

The question was why. I had a hard time believing the General would sell out the Apprentices for a few crates of supplies. There had to be more here. He had to want more. What was I missing? How were all of the weird things that had been going on connected?

“Savannah? Oh, Savannah!”

Nevada’s voice called out to me, piercing the miasma of disconnected theories and unpleasant thoughts. I hated not knowing things, particularly when those things were probably right in front of my face.

“I’m here, Nevada.”

She was right. I had to focus on picking out a dress. And on helping my best friend pick out a dress. Those were problems that I could solve. Unlike all of the other problems swirling around the universe.

“Sorry, I was just…”

“Distracted?”

“Sorry,” I said, sheepish. “But I’m here now.”

“Worrying about finding a date for the Masquerade Ball?” she teased me.

“Wait, do I have to take someone?”

“I don’t think you have to. But it might be more fun that way.”

Going through all the drama and embarrassment of finding a date to the Ball sounded like the exact opposite of fun, so I deflected. “Who are you taking?”

“Troy Davenport.”

“He’s one of Orion’s Apprentices, right?” I asked.

“He is.”

“He’s cute.”

Nevada blushed.

“If you’re into the tall, dark, and handsome sort anyway.”

Troy was also one of the guys who thought I was a freak. But I was trying really hard not to hold that against him.

I looked at the dresses hanging from Nevada’s dressing room door. “Troy would like the black one best.”

“How do you know?” she laughed. “You haven’t spoken two words to him since we arrived at the Fortress.”

“I don’t have to. I can tell what he likes.”