Chapter 306

Luca’s face bursts into a grin, I think loving the confidence with which I declare that none of our little group are going into battle without the others by our side.

“What, you don’t believe me?” I ask, grinning at my mate.

“You just…” he shrugs, smiling and shaking his head at me, “have absolutely no authority to make that kind of claim.”

I sit up straight. “I am a Princess of this nation,” I say, tilting my head a bit.

“But you’re not in the line of command,” he says, holding out a hand to me. “Listen, Ariel, I have utter faith in you – you just…have no grounds on which to make that call.”

I twist my lips to the side, considering this. “Well then,” I says quietly, mostly to myself. “Looks like I’m going to have to get some grounds.”

Luca hums his support, nodding to me, and I heave a little sigh and turn my eyes up to him. “Is that all the news you wanted to tell me about?”

“That’s the gist of it,” he says with a shrug. “I’m sure Rafe and Jacks will have more to fill you in on in their own way.”

“Okay,” I say, my eyes glittering now with a bit of devious excitement. “You ready to do Faiza’s homework with me?”

Luca quirks his head, picking up on my strange shift in mood. “I don’t know, Ari – am I?”

I laugh, leaning forward and grabbing his hand, pulling him up to his feet. “You are – just trust me,” I say, beaming up at him when he stands straight. “This is right up your alley. You’re going to love it.”

“I kind of already do,” he says with a smirk, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “Anything that’s got you this excited is bound to be interesting.”

“To say the least,” I say, grinning and heading towards the door, grabbing his hand as I do. We stop to scoop up our bookbags as we hurry out.

“Where are we going?” Luca asks, laughing as I pull him along the hall.

“To Daphne’s room!” I call over my shoulder, giving him a grin.

My mate looks at me with surprise but then hurries his steps, as eager to hear what I’m planning as I am to show him.

A few minutes later, I rap excitedly at Daphne’s door.

She opens it quite quickly – almost as if she was waiting for me. “Hey!” Daphne says, her eyes as bright and eager as her smile. “Come in!”

“Hi hi!” I say, laughing and wrapping my friend in a hug. “Did Faiza come up?”

“Yes, I met your terrifying teacher,” Daphne says, giving me a hug and then moving to give Luca one after he closes the door.

“Terrifying!?” I gasp, looking around at the few boxes that Faiza dropped off here. “She’s not terrifying, she’s nice.”

“You…have a different definition of terrifying, Ariel,” Daphne says, giving a little laugh and crossing her arms as I look up at her with a surprised grin. “I think it may come from the fact that you grew up calling the scariest Alpha in the nation ‘dad’ and being bounced on his knee.”

“My dad is not scary,” I say with a frown, defensively crossing my arms over my chest.

Daphne opens her mouth to object, but Luca beats her to it. “Trust me, gorgeous,” he says, crossing his own arms and giving me a level gaze. “Your dad is scary. Terrifying actually is the right word.”

“He’s very nice in repose,” Daphne eagerly qualifies, holding out a hand to me. “But…I don’t think anyone wants to cross him.”

Luca’s face pales at some memory but I just roll my eyes at both of them and turn back towards the boxes. “You guys are crazy, dad’s a big softie. What’s in these?”

“I don’t know, I didn’t open them,” Daphne says, coming over to me as I sit down between the boxes, starting to dig in.

“Have you no curiosity?” I ask my friend, my eyes glittering with excitement.

“Oh, I have plenty of curiosity,” she says, folding her legs elegantly as she sinks to the floor next to me, peering into the box I’ve started to open. “I also have a job.”

“Job schmob,” I mutter, waving Luca over to us. He, too, takes a seat on the floor.

“What’s all this?” he asks, likewise peering into the boxes.

“Disguises!” I say, laughing as I pull out a silky black wig that looks a great deal like Faiza’s own hair – why on earth would she need this?

“Ohhhh,” Daphne says, beginning to eagerly dig into the box, pulling out article after article of interesting clothing. “Oh, there’s some good stuff in here…”

“What on earth is all this for,” Luca murmurs, pulling out a short candy-pink wig and peering at it, baffled.

“My assignment,” I say, pulling out more objects of clothing and accessories. “It’s my new assignment, while Faiza takes some time off. She wants me to concentrate on being able to blend into my environment, to change my personality to become…whoever I want people watching me to think I am.”

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.”

“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 lace netting 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,” I say, pitching my voice way too high, “my name’s Daphne, I’m a 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 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 our bond. “As cute as you are as a redhead…what…what on earth are you talking about? Where…the hell 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.