-EDITED CHAPTER-
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NOTE: Above is Helene's hairstyle for the party.

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"Step follows step,

Hope follows Courage,

Set your face towards danger,

Set your heart on victory."

― Gail Carson Levine

SHE STARTED OFF the second day late. As soon as she had climbed out of bed, she knew deep down that she had missed breakfast. She dressed herself even when the lady who had insisted last night insisted again to help her. She politely declined. After taking a quick shower, she changed into a black tank top and track pants. Grabbing her duffel bag with her training supplies, she raced out her room, asking the guards to take her to training room #12.

As soon as she got there, she joined the others as quietly and subtly as she possibly could. But as teachers always do, Cesare called her out.

"And you are?"

Helene smiled sheepishly at him, "Helene Seelie Galane, sir."

He eyed her and pointed out, "You're late."

"Well yeah. It's kind of obvious..."

"Get up."

It was Helene's turn to eye him. Slowly she did as she was asked and left her duffel bag on the floor.

"Come here. Beside me. You will be my assistant."

Helene fought the urge to huff and sit back down. She passed the Scars sitting around her, avoiding stepping on somebody's fingers or feet. Quickly and efficiently, she maneuvered herself to Cesare's side.

"Good. What's the quickest way to disarm your opponent and best them in a fight?" Cesare looked at her, waiting for her answer. Helene sighed and got into position so she could demonstrate it to the others. Casually, she plucked a dagger from Cesare's belt and handed it to him.

"Hold the knife so it looks like you are about to stab me." Helene instructed. Cesare eyed her but did as she said.

"Great. Now watch." As quick as lightning, Helene used her right hand to hold his wrist to keep it from moving forward and punched the knife out of his hand with her left. Helene watched with triumph as the knife went sailing past them. Cesare gave her an approved grin.

"Good."

Helene smirked at the Scars watching her and flipped her blond hair that hung in a ponytail. Then, she walked back to her spot and sat back down, earning many glares from most of them, but especially Axel.

"Everybody up," Cesare commanded and instantly everyone shot up. "20 laps around the room. No jogging. Full sprint."

There were a lot of groans and comments.

"Scratch that. Make it 30."

No one said anything.

DURING LUNCH EVERYONE was told of the ceremony being held that night. It was a ball, something Helene missed extremely. Especially the ones she had gone to in BlackWell, where there were disco lights and handsome men. She danced, drank, ate and had done everything anyone could possibly do at a party. And now, she needed more of those nights where she could drown herself in beer and alcohol.

Later, she sat on her bed thinking about what to wear. Ten minutes earlier, two women had come in holding dresses hung on hangers and sparkly heels and sandals, and among them were sets of various makeup kits and jewelry that Helene couldn't resist. They were walking back and forth, showing off styles of dresses and whole sets of clothes they had paired up to make the person wearing it look beautiful and matching. Being a girl, Helene couldn't say no to any of them. Very often she would pair up outfits, then quickly change the design entirely.

After half an hour of changing, screaming in frustration and yelling obscenities, Helene and the two maids managed to find Helene the perfect suit.

At the end, she wore a burgundy strapless dress which was tight around her waist and flowed as it went down. The material was soft and silky with jems and jewels ornamented onto the dress, making it sparkle under the light. Her heels were the same burgundy color except the straps were black like leather and they were long and reached a bit above her ankles. The heels were pointy blades and made satisfying clicking sounds when she walked.

Then came her hair.

One of the ladies brushed her sleek blond hair, commenting on her brown streaks that ran down. Then the two maids braided one strand of her hair up, and pinned it in place. Taking the curler one of them had placed on the switch, they curled the bottom of her hair, making it fall down in beautiful blond locks of curled hair.

Finally came her makeup. She asked them to keep it simple. So instead of adding heavy makeup, they tweaked around. One fixed her eyebrows, filling it in and shaping them a bit better while the other worked on her lips. She applied a light pink lip liner and filled her lips in with a light tinted pink lipstick, trying to make it look as original as possible. As soon as one was done her eyebrows, she moved on to her eyes. She added eyeliner and a bit of dark eye shadow, making her eyes stand out. She applied her mascara and the other one moved to her face. After they finished dabbing cosmetics on her face and applying contour and highlighter, Helene stood up, glad to be able to stretch her legs.

When she looked into the mirror, she gasped. She looked absolutely stunning. She would probably beat Ciara and the other royals who had been staring at her at dinner.

"You have five minutes left," One of the ladies told her as she fixed a lock of curl. "You should go."

Helene took in a deep breath and nodded. Then, plastering a smirk on her face, Helene walked out of her room and towards the ball room. She could already hear the loud booming of the music as she headed down the stairs which instantly began to curve and head towards the open ballroom. With every step she took, it brought her closer.

With a deep breath, Helene looked up and found many eyes staring at her. She continued to smirk and gracefully made it to the dance floor, catching more eyes and glares. She walked past the dance floor and towards the punch and the other drinks, passing the food stand. Silently, she memorized the spot and promised to come stop by later.

As she was about to pour some punch for herself, a hand stopped her and plucked the plastic red cup out of her hands and poured the red punch out for her. Helene looked up to find a very concentrated Legion. He scrunched up his nose in a cute way as he worked on not spilling the punch.

"You look like you are constipating."

Legion snorted, "You look very beautiful too."

Helene took the cup from his hands and pretended to check him out. No- scratch that- she was checking him out but pretended that he was meant to see her do it.

"You look..." Helene looked for a proper word. "Okay."

"Hmm," Legion nodded, a smile growing on his lips.

Helene had to admit. He looked way better than just okay. His blond hair was ruffled and pale under the light. His suit was perfect with absolutely not a single crinkle and his tie was straighter than her own back. His jawline was sharp, so sharp that it could probably cut better than a blade. Even his eyelashes seemed longer than hers. Helene suddenly wondered if he was wearing makeup too.

"Are you done staring?" Legion sighed impatiently, running a hand through his ruffled hair. "As much as I like seeing you flustered in my company, I would like to enjoy the ball. So please keep your staring to a minimum."

Helene nearly choked on her punch when she realized she had been staring at him. Directly at him. Blush instantly covered her cheeks and she somehow managed a somewhat perfect scowl. "Go away. You are ruining my day."

Legion rolled his eyes and extended a hand. "Want to dance?"

"Of course," Helene purred and looked up, meeting his black demon eyes. "What an amazing idea."

Taking his hand with a grin, she led them both to the occupied dance floor. She placed her hands around his neck and he placed his on her waist. It took every single ounce of her training to keep a cool expression and an easy yet strong posture. Easing her tension away was a bit harder, but it slowly melted away as she swayed with the song.

Their dance was a bit quick and efficient. It was sometimes very fast and sometimes slowed down to a snail's pace. Either way, Helene enjoyed every bit of it, gliding on the dance floor, her heels clicking and her dress swaying. Sometimes she caught people staring at the heir of Belwick and a mere guest of the Fight it To Win it competition dancing together as if they belonged with each other forever. It still took everything to fight her blush whenever she found Legion staring at her very intently, enjoying watching her squirm and struggle under his stare.

Finally, after at least three songs and three dances, Helene broke away, sweating and panting. What she really needed was a lot of alcohol and food to keep her busy throughout the entire night. As she was making her way to the food stand and to fulfill her promise earlier, she bumped into Cassius. He stepped back with a very startled and uncomfortable look.

"Helene," He muttered.

Helene plastered a fake smile. "Why, hello friend who ditched me on the first second of our amazing trip! It's so good to see you. How have you been doing? Any new girlfriends? Maybe a one night stand? How about friends? Or do you just sleep with them and then move on-"

"Helene!" Cas interrupted with a very horrified expression. "I don't do that!"

"Oh yeah?" She looked at him with a challenging expression. "Are you sure?"

"Yes I am," He replied, his voice lowering. "I'm sorry about ditching you earlier. I just wanted to make new friends other than you."

Helene made a face. "I'm not enough?"

"I don't mean that," He rolled his eyes. "Just new friends Helene. And I did. You remember Lilith?"

Helene made a growling sound under her breath. "Okay, so you basically replaced me."

"I did not," He protested.

"Yes you did. In a more...nice way."

"That doesn't even make sense and you know it. You're just making up some bullshit so you can find a reason to be mad at me. I know you Helene."

"If you knew me so well, you wouldn't have ditched me or as you are saying - went to make some new friends - which basically means ditching in a nice way."

"What?" Cas raised a confused eyebrow. "Ok, look. Can we like - I don't know - forget about this and just enjoy ourselves? And while we are enjoying ourselves, maybe you could forgive me too."

Helene rolled her eyes. "Come on. Let's go dance."

He was right. She had been looking for reasons to be mad at him because he was making new friends and she was not. Unless you counted the prince, but he was nice with everybody. The way he acted with her was no different from the way he was acting with the other woman he was dancing with at the moment. Helene watched them for a few moments before joining Cas and putting her arms around his neck. Sighing, Cas placed his hands on her waist.

Just as the new song was about to start, there was a loud crash outside. Helene sprang away from Cas as fast as she could and her hand snaked to the sword hidden under the flaps of her dress. She had tugged it on while she was putting on her dress in her room.

The doors of the ballroom burst open and a woman with jet black hair tied in a bun and a very serious face walked in with three other people trailing behind her. She wore full armor and was loaded with weapons. Her demon eyes landed on the king and queen who were sitting on throne-like chairs in the center of the room, sipping from long delicate cups. She approached them, her strides even and graceful.

"We've been attacked. The mortals decided to go against our peace treaty and bomb the nearest village. They are approaching in ships as we speak."

Her voice echoed loudly in the room, and a few people cringed.

The king and queen instantly stood up, horror on their faces. It was the queen who spoke up. "Are you sure it's the mortals? They wouldn't be so stupid to attack us when they know what we can do."

The woman nodded. "Our lookouts confirmed."

"Brenna," The king called the woman. "Make them check again."

Brenna shook her head. "We can't. By the time my spies reconfirm, they will have already gotten here. They have massive machines and are heavily armed. We must take action immediately, Your Majesty."

The queen opened her mouth then closed it. "And you didn't see these ships before?"

Brenna scrunched her eyebrows in confusion. "No we-" She paused. "We didn't. We just spotted them now-"

"They can't be mortals," Helene heard herself talk more than she felt it. "They must be rebels or else how would they have been able to glamour their ships?"

The girl Brenna looked her way. "She's right," she murmured. Then, "How can I be so stupid?"

The doors opened again and a man rushed in. "They are murdering the people at the closest village! We have to hurry! What action would you like us to take?"

"Send the soldiers out. Take these sons of a bitches out before they kill more people. The prisoners can be put into cells," The king's voice boomed.

Helene watched as the people who had just entered nodded and rushed back out as fast as they could, closing the golden doors of the ballroom behind them with a loud thud. As soon as they left, nervous murmurs and hushed voices began to rise and a few worried cries sounded, echoing the words Helene dreaded to hear.

SwynCrest was under attack.

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Edit: Why do I feel like the first 5 chapters of this book are like solid but then as I continue to read its going to get wonky?