The Hidden Luna Queen 2

Grinning, I turned to Charlotte and Maggie, who wore similar looks of awe and glee. "I love it! Let's find more."

It must have been close to an hour or two, but it felt like mere minutes before we left the store, arms full of shopping bags. Maggie needed a moment to organize all the bags to be able to carry comfortably, so I was fine to wait. However, Charlotte, in all her excitement, took off running down the crowded sidewalk, all but making me panic and run after her.

"Ch-Cora! Please, slow-" All of a sudden, my shoulder caught against that of an unfortunate passerby, making me stumble momentarily. In my haste, I'd failed to pay attention to where I was going.

"Oh-"I gasped, briskly dipping my head at the startled person whose shoulder I'd bumped. "I'm terribly sorry about that-!"

But because I was in a hurry to catch up with an overzealous Charlotte in the middle of a crowded street, I couldn't tarry around with strangers. I had no choice but to avoid further contact with the stranger, not meeting their gaze or offering more as far as apologies went, and continued to run after the disguised princess.

If karma was real, it would come after me somehow, but I couldn't care.

I just needed to catch up with Charlotte!

I panted, struggling to catch my breath as I came to a stop next to the princess, who had stopped by another storefront. "You really should be careful in large public spaces like this. There's only so much Maggie or I can do if something were actually to happen." Despite herself, Charlotte rolled her eyes at me playfully. "You really are starting to sound like a concerned big sister," she drawled with a teasing grin, and her comment made my heart skip a beat. It was the first time anyone had said that to me, and the first time I truly felt like a protective big sister.

It was such a wonderful, enlightening feeling.

"You don't need to worry about me so much, Maeve," she declared with mirth. “I am related to Xaden, after all...”

As she spoke, her voice slowly began to fade away, while my attention was diverted elsewhere.

I began to feel a small prickle in the back of my mind... a cold chill crawling up my spine in warning-something restless and uneasy, as if someone was watching me from behind. I recalled with dread that this felt very similar to that one morning in the palace after my first banquet.

Similar to that morning when I had somehow managed to sense

Isabelle's malicious presence before she showed up.

Was... was she here?

Holding my breath, I briskly turned around. Quickly, I scanned every

passing face that I could see, every nearby shop window where people might be lurking, but the street came up clean. It was a completely ordinary scene.

Had I... imagined it? Of course, it was entirely within the realm of possibility, but I couldn't just ignore my instinct. Not when it had been right the last time.

"Maeve," Charlotte's gentle voice spoke up, sounding a little worried. "Is everything okay?"

Warily, I glanced around the street one last time, but it was all for naught. I couldn't see anyone suspicious, nor a face that I would recognize. "Y- Yeah..." I muttered, distracted, until I felt her concerned hand touch my arm. "Maeve?" Charlotte pressed.

I needed to stop. Take a breath and relax. No one was there.

"I'm sorry," I said, turning back to her with a small smile. "I just thought I dropped something from one of my bags, but everything's fine."

I didn't want to lie to her, but this day in the capital had brought out such happiness in Charlotte that I didn't have the heart to frighten her with something that I couldn't fully explain. For all I knew, it could've been instinct, but it also very well could just have been an everyday case of paranoia.

Charlotte blinked. "Oh!" She took the opportunity to peer up and down the sidewalk, as well. "But nothing fell, right?"

I shook my head.

"What a relief! One less hassle for us all!"

All of a sudden, we heard harsh, ragged panting slowly approach us. Glancing behind us, a visibly out-of-breath Maggie came rushing over as quickly as she could whilst carrying a small load of bags.

"My word-" she choked out, prompting Charlotte and I to try to hide our smiles, borne out of sympathy and slight amusement. "You ladies must remember that I am not quite as young as I used to be." "I'm sorry, Maggie," I apologized in earnest. "Are you alright?"

Her face reddened, although I wasn't sure if it was because she'd overexerted herself or if it was embarrassment on her part. "Quite so," she said. When Charlotte took advantage of the moment to snag a bag or two from the housekeeper's hands, she feebly tried to protest.

Charlotte, though, was not having it. "I want to carry these," she insisted," and you are not to stop me."

It was an order, and Maggie had no choice but to reluctantly obey. It was the only order Charlotte would make the entire outing.

As the three of us became engrossed in conversation, moving on to visit another shop, my paranoia eventually faded away. This was my first outing with people I considered my friends... and I was having the time of my THIRD PERSON POV She hadn't been seen.

It was close... so, so close, but she managed to stay hidden.

Hiding around the comer of a beauty salon, Bella's heart pounded frantically against her chest as she watched a dreadfully familiar-looking girl walk down the sidewalk of the ever-popular Mona Road.

life.

All this plotting and communicating with Luna Victoria was taking a toll on Bella's precious mental health, so she'd decided to take a much-deserved shopping trip to treat herself for all her hard work. A few hours later and a few thousand dollars spent, thanks to her father's credit card, she was blissfully minding her own business in search of her next stop to splurge and shop the rest of her heart out... when it happened.

The moment her dainty shoulder had been all but rammed into, almost throwing her to the ground and soiling all of the new, gorgeous-and expensive-outfits she'd bought, she shook with boiling rage. How could anyone dare to smack into her like that?! Clearly, they either had no clue who she was or simply thought themselves better than her.

Whoever this person was would pay dearly for that grave mistake.

She'd swung her head in the direction of the lowlife responsible for the crime, ready to give them hell until she caught sight of dull, black hair that dangled from this person's head... pale skin muddled with those hideous impurities called freckles... and then, she heard that voice.

That quiet, insecure voice that grated against her delicate eardrums like broken glass against a chalkboard.

That was a voice she would never forget.

But before she could take a moment to really take in the girl's face, to confirm if it was in fact who she thought it was, it was too late. The girl had already dipped her head in a pathetic attempt to apologize and returned to scurrying down the sidewalk without another word.

Stunned, Bella had slipped behind the corner of the nearest building and kept her eyes firmly locked on that girl's retreating figure. She watched as she met up with another young woman further down the street, appearing similar in age to that of Bella, with heavy eye makeup and a large sunhat obscuring the color of her hair. It was too far for her to clearly make out the face of this new girl, but there was something oddly familiar about her as well. Something that she couldn't quite pinpoint yet.

But then, as if by some miracle of providence, the girl that knocked into Bella turned around, glancing around in her direction. And her heart felt ready to burst and drop at the same time. That face... it could only have belonged to her little plaything.

That damned Maudy Mae.

So... she was still in the capital, then. From what Bella recalled, that brat had never been the type to venture far beyond her territory, which told her that she had to have been in close proximity to the capital, if not living here, or knew somebody that could bring he here.

But the point was, she was here. And Bella was here. Perhaps she no longer needed to scheme her way into Princess Charlotte's circle.

Maybe this was her chance to get whatever information she needed.

Quickly, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed the number of her partner in crime. If there was anyone who could advise her on what she needed to do, it was the proud and conniving Luna of Moonstone, herself.

And it wasn't long before her posh, refined voice buzzed through the phone. "Bella. What is it?"

"I'm sorry for bothering you, Luna, but she... I-”

"Look," Victoria sharply cut Bella off. The vague sound of items being stuffed into a purse could be heard over the phone. "If you mean to waste my time, then we should really reschedule that for another day. I'm getting ready to visit Sarah." Bella's heart lurched. "No, please, this is important!" she insisted in

hushed tones, clutching her cell phone for dear life. "I-I think I saw Mau- Maeve."