Chapter 3 - Betty

Sabrina

I come out of Cosy’s cramped little bathroom about forty minutes later, munching on my third chocolate croissant, my cousin’s fuzzy bathrobe wrapped warm around me. “These are delicious, Cos –“

“Oh, cut it, Sabrina,” Cosette mutters, scowling, lounging on her bed and flicking through some gossip site on her tablet. The tablet I sent her for Midwinter. But no need to rub that in now.

“I mean it,” I say, taking another bit and then holding the flaky end of it out towards her. “You got really good – so crispy, yet so soft. This stupid school lucked out when it hired you as its pastry chef.”

She ignores my very nice compliments, lifting her eyes to mine, her face stony. I smirk. Clearly, she’s used the last forty minutes to get super pissed off, all signs of my frantic sweetheart cousin tucked away. “What are you planning?”

“Just some light espionage,” I say, plopping myself down on the edge of her bed. “A little mischief, only a smidge of murder –“

“No. Murder.” She sits straighter, leaning towards me as she glares.

I hold my fingers close to my face and pinch them close together. “A lil bit of murder? Just a tinge?”

She growls, the wolf she so rarely gives any space in her personality finally coming out. Her blue eyes flash and she kicks me, hard enough that I screech and go flying off the end of the bed.

I groan, rubbing my sore butt as I get to my knees and glare at her over the edge of her blanket. “Not nice, Cosette.”

“I swear to god, Sabrina, if you’re going to murder someone I’m going upstairs and telling the Head Mistress right now!”

“Well, then the person that gets murdered will be you!” I flash my teeth at her, climbing back up onto the bed. 

“I’m serious!” she says, getting all worked up, though it’s not as funny now that I see she’s genuinely upset. “I like my job here – and I like the people I work for! I don’t care what leverage you have over me - if you’re going to put any of their lives at risk I’m not going to stand for it –“

“Oh, they’d all throw you under a bus if it worked in their damned courtly favor, Cosy –“

She scoffs at me, shaking her head.

A frown takes my mouth as I growl and lean towards her, gesticulating at her with what’s left of the croissant. “Every single one of them would push you off a cliff if it worked best for them - and if you think they wouldn’t then they’ve got you all wrapped up in their bullshit politics –“

“There are good people here!”

“None of them are good!” I shout, losing my cool. “You think I’m the villain! You think my family are the bad guys! But we’ve done more for the people of this nation than the rich and the monarchy have ever done!”

“Oh, tell yourself what you want, Sabrina,” Cosette murmurs, looking back at her tablet. “Your family has been marked as a crime dynasty for a reason.”

“The monarchy was the original mafia,” I mutter, shaking my head and shoving the rest of my dinner in my mouth. “You’re just too spellbound by the lure of the shiny crown to forget it. No one gets rich by mistake.”

We’re quiet for a long time - so long that my anger fades, replaced by exhaustion. My shoulders slump, my eyes starting to drift shut, no matter how hard I try to keep them open. But I’ve been running for days – and what sleep I got was wet, and cold, and –

“I’m sorry,” Cosette says quietly.

I look over at her, surprised to find her eyes on me, not on her tablet. Surprised to find real sympathy on her face.

But my wolf bites at my heart for that because Cosette loves me. She always has. She’s been my best friend – probably my only real friend – since we were children. The sympathy – it’s all I’ve ever gotten from her.

Cosette is…perhaps the only person I feel safe with anymore.  

“I’m sorry that your dad got caught, but only because it means your life fell apart too,” she says, her eyes moving over me, taking in my too-thin face, my ragged hair.

I look away, not knowing what to say. I clench my jaw. Dad raised me to be tough. Tough girls don’t cry.

“You can stay here with me,” Cosette says, leaning closer. “I’ll get you a job –“

“No,” I say, snapping my eyes back to her. “I have work to do. I have a plan.”

She sighs, shaking her head at me. “Just give it up. If you keep going you’ll go down with them.”

I shake my head. “I’m doing this. And you’re going to help me. And if you don’t I’ll tell them about your connection to my family and you’ll get fired anyway.”

Her mouth slowly falls open, shocked and betrayed by my ultimatum.   

Cosette’s connection to the nation’s most vicious crime family is cursory, her mother only the sister-in-law of Romeo Lupa long enough to produce a single set of twins before she died. But it’s enough. If this stupid school finds out? Cosette is toast.

And she knows it. I know it. But I’m out of options – the monarchy took them all away from me two weeks ago, backing me into a corner. And wild dogs, trapped?

We fucking bite.  

Cosette frowns at me, shaking her head, her mouth pressed to a thin line. “I can’t believe you’d do this to me.”

“Look,” I say, soft and slow. “I’m not going to hurt anyone. I’m just going to make some connections, get some information, and get out of here. I promise. A month – maybe two. I’m gone by midsummer with no harm done. Okay?”

She looks me up and down like she doesn’t believe me.

I fight a smirk because – like I said – Cosy is cleverer than most give her credit for.

But nothing I said was a lie.

At least, not technically.

I move, starting to crawl towards the top of the bed. “Come on, Cosy-wosy,” I say, all sing-song, using the nickname she hates.

“Brina!” She lifts her foot, a silent threat for a kick I know won’t come.

“Pleaaase!”

“I’m not helping you commit crime!”

“I know!” I say, flopping down next to her and pulling her with me. I put my head on her shoulder, just how we always used to lie as kids. “You’re just letting me crash.”

She sighs. I can feel her give in. Gratitude races through me and I relax for the first time in weeks.

“Hey,”  I whisper. “Tomorrow I need you to…kind of steal me an outfit.”

She gasps, trying to sit up so she can protest in a more dignified manner, but I wrap an arm around her, hugging her close. “Sabrina!”

“Just one outfit!” I say, keeping my arm tight, laughing. “The sluttiest one you can find.”

She goes still, staring at me like I’m crazy. “Oh, come on,” I say, grinning at her. “I know you know which of these rich girls has a short skirt we can steal for one day. Just one day!”

She groans, slumping back against her pillow, covering her face with her hands. “I don’t even want to know.”

I sigh, settling my head on the pillow too. “I love you, Cosette.”

She takes a deep breath but keeps silent. She stays that way for so long that I really do start to fall asleep, my body giving in to the exhaustion that’s been weighing down my bones for days.

But I hear her when she says it, quite soft.

“I love you too, Sabrina.”

I fall asleep warm and content, a smile on my lips.

***

The next morning, I tug on the end of the little skirt that Cosette “borrowed” for me as I sit down at the Prince’s table, not wanting my mostly bare ass to come in contact with the cold wood.

But I fail.

Apparently, the girls of Witloch Seminary outdid even my expectations when it came to expensive and slutty. My bad for underestimating them so much.

But Prince Maxwell doesn’t notice, smiling gently at me as he sits in the chair next to mine.

“Don’t worry,” he murmurs, nodding towards his two friends. “My Betas don’t bite.”

Shame, I think, running my eyes over the pair of Betas who look curiously at me – one with rather dull brown hair cropped short, the other with lovely auburn curls. Both of them Alpha-quality, both of them…stupid hot.

But I shove that opinion away and giggle as I turn my eyes back to the Prince, beaming up at him, hero worship in my eyes. “Oh, I didn’t think they would. You’re all so nice.”

“Philip, Kai,” Max says, turning to the pair who frequently take spots two and three on the list of most eligible bachelors in the kingdom, “I’d like you to meet….”

He turns back to me with an embarrassed smile and – god, seriously, is that a blush on his cheeks? This is going to be…way too easy.

“I’m so sorry,” he murmurs, rubbing the back of his neck with an embarrassed hand. “I didn’t even get your name.”

“Oh, hi,” I say, my shoulders going up around my ears, my words breathy and shy as I give an awkward little wave. “I’m Betty.”

“Betty,” Max says, smiling so kindly at me. “It’s really nice to meet you.”

I smile up into his face, thinking that he’s very mistaken in that.

Because I am, in fact, his worst goddamn nightmare.