A Farewell to Charms by Lindsey Leavitt Read Free Book Online Page B

funny.”
    “About death.”
    “Death. Please. Genevieve obviously doesn’t think you need any more preparation. This job will be your chance to prove your worth, ensuring you’re Matched to a very desirable royal.”
    “Wow. I feel much better about the whole I’m-going-to-die thing.” I gave Meredith an exaggerated thumbs-up. “Why don’t you drop me off right now?”
    “About that.” Meredith braced herself against the doorway as her bubble landed. I pitched forward, but caught myself on her arm.
    “We’re here,” I said.
    “Maybe not the here you think. We’re at Façade. You’re not going to your next job in my bubble. You’re going in yours.”
    “But I don’t have a bubble.”
    She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Your deductive reasoning really astounds me.”
    “You mean…I get my own bubble?”
    Meredith led me out of the entryway and into the Façade lobby. “Yes. Welcome to Level Three.”

M eredith glanced down at her manual. “I have a quick errand to run. Why don’t you wait here in the lobby and I’ll pick up your bubble on my way back. You still have a half hour until you need to be on your job.”
    “Yeah, okay. I’ll be here.” I considered wandering back to the sub-sanitation room, but that field trip might have been a one-shot trip, and I needed more of a plan first. Maybe I could learn something useful from the royal relics littering the lobby. At least take some time to strategize for my next assignment. Or run away from it.
    The grandeur and sheer size of the room still astounded me, largely because Façade was housed inside the Tour Montparnasse in Paris, one of the few modern skyscrapers in the city. From the outside, you would have no clue that something like Façade could fit in here—and for good reason. Façade was far bigger than the “floor” it took up in the building. The explanation was the same they used for nearly everything: magic!
    There wasn’t a museum in the world that had a more extensive collection of royal memorabilia. Swords from long-lost battles, thrones from fallen empires. And my favorite—the tiara wall. Yeah, sorry. I still wanted a tiara.
    I would research the other items in a minute. I had a mission, after all. But for now, the shiny sparkles and jewels called to me. I pushed my face against the glass.
    “Miss Bascomb?”
    I didn’t move. “Yeah?”
    “May I help you with something? Would you like to try one on?”
    I suctioned myself off and spun around. Ferdinand, the receptionist, sat at the front desk, smiling kindly. I’d never really spoken to him, just some quick pleasantries whenever I zipped in and out of Façade. “Seriously? We can do that?”
    He jingled a set of keys. “For a Level Three? Certainly.”
    I put on Princess Grace’s first. Of course I did. Grace Kelly was one of my favorite actresses, who later married the Prince of Monaco. And to wear something she wore ? Forget about it. The tiara was surprisingly light and thin. The comb caught in my hair when I took it off, and Ferdinand had to untwist it for me.
    “Thanks,” I said. “I can’t believe they let us wear the tiaras. What if someone tries to take one?”
    “Façade has installed a tracking device on all the royal artifacts in this room. In fact, they have secretly installed the same device on most major royal heirlooms—crown jewels, priceless art, thrones, ancient weaponry. It’s all itemized in our system—you can log on right now and see where Princess Kate’s sapphire ring is, and by extension Princess Kate, since she’s probably wearing it.” He winked. “It’s a fun application to fiddle with when things are slow here. The royals have no clue how much we know.”
    “But aren’t you worried about a sub stealing something?”
    “That’s part of why we do the trace. Invented the program after a notorious former employee turned into a jewel thief.”
    “Yeah, I’ve heard about her,” I grumbled, annoyed that the one bad seed