After lunch, we dived into the schematics of the ballroom and tried on the clothes Keagan had stolen for us. In Madeline's excitement, she had told me where Lord Anderson was going to display the Dragon Ring. Fortunately, it was a place with easy access to. Unfortunately, it was in the most open place in the whole venue; the main hall. The Ring was going to be protected in a tightly locked glass case and defended by four personally hired guards.

We took two full days to come up with a plan to get the Ring and when we had finished, we ran the plan by Dad. He said it sounded fine, but we always had to account for things not going by our plan. We took extra precautions and finally the night of the ball came.

We put on our ball attire and walked confidently out the door toward the Anderson estate. I was in a pink sleeveless mini dress that ended right above my knees giving me full mobility while Keagan and Talcum were in loose, but well fashioned formal coats. We put on our masks right before entering the main hall. I showed the butler our invitation and he let us in.

All three of us gasped when we saw the Ring standing in the middle of the room.

"It's so exposed," sighed Keagan.

"Yeah, but now is not the time. We have to wait a little longer," I replied.

"Stay within sight of each other now," Talcum interrupted and we walked off in separate directions to mingle and make more connections with the rich and noble.

I spotted Madeline at once and walked quickly over to her.

"My little Lyra of a lily!" she exclaimed when she saw me. I stood beside her as the woman she was talking chatted about her extravagant dress. I turned and caught sight of Talcum talking with Lord Anderson and some other older looking men. Keagan was closer to me and was talking to boys about his age or older. I walked away from Madeline and her conversation disinterested.

I managed to squeeze into a group of girls about the same age as I. They were all young ladies of rich nobles with connections to the royal family.

"Oh my gosh! Really?" the one in an ugly yellow dress squealed.

"What? Tell me!" I pried trying to sound interested. These girls just loved attention and were always trying to attract the eyes of rich or good-looking men.

The girl in a green dress turned and exclaimed excitedly, "Didn't you know? Caspian Chisholm, the third prince was invited to Lord Anderson's ball!"

"Eeee!" shrieked the girl in a blue dress, "He's so dreamy I could faint!" The other girls nodded and I rolled my eyes.

"Did you see that tall guy with the blue eyes and dirty blonde hair? He is totally my type," sighed ugly yellow dress pointing in Keagan's direction. Keagan? Handsome? I thought. I looked over at him and shrugged. "I guess..."

"He is so cute!" blue dress said.

"We should go say hi to him!" green dress exclaimed and the three of them walked off.

I felt a sharp pain in my chest as I saw them walk off. Brushing it off, I took a few deep breaths and went to the food stand to get a couple of bites to eat. When I had wandered back to the girls, they were chattering again.

"He is so good looking, but his personality is quite troublesome," complained blue dress.

"Who? Him?" I asked pointing at Keagan.

"Yeah, him," said green dress.

Keagan caught me pointing at him and shrugged. I winked and made a face that told him that I had no control over whatever these girls were doing. He laughed and went back to his conversation.

Yellow dress suddenly turned to me and said, "Your eyes are very pretty."

Surprised, I said, "Thank you."

"What color are they? They look violet!" butted blue dress.

"Oh, they're blue, but because of the lighting and color of the sequins they may appear violet," I explained. I could tell that none of the girls understood what I had said, but they accepted it for an answer. I had on a mask covered in purple sequins, so I used that as my excuse for purple eyes.

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