~Leah~
The dew on the grass in the High Class region didn't smell like the Outer District. Back in the shacks, morning air was a thick, stagnant soup of charcoal smoke, open sewers, and industrial runoff. Here, in this sprawling garden that felt larger than our entire street back home, the air smelled of damp earth and blooming jasmine.
I sat on a wrought-iron bench, my fingers tracing the cold metal. I never thought I'd live in a house with a garden. Austin—the Prince's right hand had moved us here under the cover of night, providing a duplex furnished to the heavens.
To my parents and my siblings, this was their birthright finally realized. To me, it was a terrifying dream that felt like it would shatter the moment I blinked.
And we had Waverly to thank for it. My sister. My brave, beautiful sister who had traded her soul to a Prince to lift us out of the dirt.
But as I looked at the house behind me, all I saw was a gilded cage filled with gutter rats.
