The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy



Luca and Daphne make appreciative noises as I explain, as fast as I can, Faiza's plan for me over the next few weeks. That I'm supposed to take time practicing how to control the way I am perceived in a room of strangers. Not only how to draw all attention to me in a room, but also how to disappear and become someone unnoticeable – a maid, a member of the serving staff. How to play it sexy and lure people away into corners, or how to play it so stupid that people think I don't understand what they're saying. Just to...become whoever I need to be to get my job done.

"Why on earth does she want you to do this?" Luca asks, frowning at me and then at all of the stuff. "Why this, when the war is coming to such a....... crux?"

My voice is a little softer now, some of the excitement leaving it. Because this is something that Faiza and I discussed quite seriously and at some length. "Faiza thinks that I'm more useful as a spy than on the battlefield," she says quietly. "Neumann and she have been giving me good reports. She thinks it's more likely that I'll be... behind enemy lines, rather than on them."

"Whoa," Daphne says, her eyes going wide. Next to her, Luca goes rigid at the idea.

"I know," I say, my shoulders curling in a bit under the weight of the responsibility. "She's taught me a lot about how to do things unseen - how to pick pockets and locks, how to slip something into someone's drink - but in order to do that stuff...I've got to get into the room in the first place. Which sometimes means...not being Ariel Sinclair. Or Ari Clark. I've got to learn to become...other people too. Or at the very least, other versions of myself." "Holy crap," Luca whispers, staring at me curiously. "That is...no small task."

"Yeah, that's what all this is for," I say, spreading my hands out to encompass all the stuff Faiza left in Daphne's room. "This is all on loan, by the way, but she wants me to practice being...comfortable in other people's skin. Adopting new identities, making it convincing."

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"Other people's skin and their hair, apparently," Luca murmurs, lifting a shaggy brown wig experimentally. "Who on earth is this supposed to be?" I just laugh and snatch the wig from his hand, returning it to the box.

"Wow," Daphne says, pausing as she rifles through the second box to look at me with interest. "I would have...no idea how to do any of that." "Yeah, me neither," I say with a little sigh, shrugging my shoulders. "That's why she wants me to go practice out in the real world."

"How the hell are you going to do that?" Luca asks, doubt in his voice.

"Well, that's where you come in, babes," I say, grinning and reaching out a hand to rest on his forearm. "You're taking me out tonight." "What?" he breathes, staring at me like I'm insane.

“Actually,” I say, laughing and reading for a long wig of curly auburn hair. "Technically, you're taking...Daphne."

I shake the wig out and toss off my

cap, quickly stretching the laceting with my fingers and settling it onto my head. That done, I sit up quite prim and proper, and press my fingers delicately to my chest. "Hi," | say, pitching my voice way too high, "my name's Daphne, I'm as seamstress at Alpha Academy, and I like long walks on the beach and

Daphne bursts out laughing, giving me a shove. "That is so not me!"

"I'm a workaholic with high-fashion ambitions, and I like to dress my princess friends in very skimpy gowns -" "You loved that gown!"

I give up the act, laughing too hard

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along with my friend and wrapping her up in a hug, murmuring my apologies and that I don't mean any of it. She just nods, accepting my teasing with the good grace with which it was intended.

"All right," Luca says, smiling between us even as he shakes his head, though I can feel his anxiety down outbond. "As cute as you are as a redhead...what...what on earth

are you talking about?the

hett am I supposed to

take...Daphne?"

He holds out one hand towards me, pleading for an answer.

“Like I said, handsome mate," I say, leaning forward to grin at him. "You're taking me out tonight - to the bars in Newtown, so I can test my skills." For the second time this hour, Luca pales in shock.