Free Princess for Hire by Lindsey Leavitt

face flush.
    “Hank, meet Desi Bascomb, our newest surrogate. We came to pick up Desi’s manual.”
    “Oh, right.” He ran over to another desk and rummaged through a tower of tangled cords and spare parts. “Sorry for the mess. Things have been pretty hectic. We finished installing that new PPR interface and found out some of the multimedia components aren’t compatible with the Princessnet security shield.”
    Lilith raised an eyebrow. “What does that mean in English?”
    “Ah well, there’s a programming glitch. When the PPRs come in, the network computers go haywire and start levitating.” Hank smiled when my eyes widened. “Magic and technology follow different rules, so they’re bound to butt heads sometimes. Right now the levitation is totally getting in the way of our monitoring system.”
    “So no Princess Progress Reports are coming through?” Lilith asked, alarmed.
    “Just for a bit! No worries. Ah, here we go.” He held up a silver touch-screen computer/phone that he carefully placed into my hands.
    “Seriously, don’t drop, shake, break, or lose this. This is an exquisite piece of technomagical machinery, and it’s worth some serious dough.” He scratched his chin. “Well, I’ve got to figure this PPR thing out before the Lady Carol wedding, so uh…glad to have you on board, Desi. Peace out.”
    We returned to the loud chaos of CC. Meredith was standing in the doorway, her eyes scanning the room.
    Lilith enveloped me into a hug and whispered, “Last thing. Meredith may seem hard on the outside, but she’s actually rather soft. Well, her ideas are soft. Limiting. Too… of the people for my tastes. So don’t listen to her. Use your training. If you can make it through her boring gigs, we’ll make sure Level Two is completely A-list, all right?”
    I pulled away. “Yeah. Thanks.”
    Meredith marched over. “Where have you been? I’ve been looking everywhere.”
    Lilith gave me a tiny wink. “Just showing Desi around. She’s such a quick study, we had some extra time.”
    Meredith looked skeptical. “Well, that’s good news, because Desi’s got an important assignment we need to get to. Let’s go.” She motioned for me to follow, and huffed away.
    “Remember everything I taught you, Desi dear,” Lilith said. Then she lowered her voice. “It might be the only help you get.”

Chapter
9
    M eredith waited for me in the hallway. “Training.
    Good?”
    “Great! Lilith is—”
    “Awful. I know. Sorry you had to deal with her.”
    “No, I think she’s amazing. Really helped me out. Totally warm and—”
    “Condescending?”
    “Informative, actually,” I said.
    Meredith raised her chin. “Right. Opinions on that matter vary greatly, but some of us aren’t as good at reading people as others.”
    I shrugged. As far as I was concerned, Lilith was easier to read than Gracie’s flash cards, and so… not Meredith.
    “Did you find your missing sub?” I asked.
    “Yes, thank you, and I don’t need your cheek,” Meredith snapped. “Only a mild case of hypothermia. And thanks to her, you have a gig that’s probably above your level.” Meredith surveyed the empty hallway and opened the door next to Central Command. A broom closet. “Get in.”
    I followed her, wondering what level of crazy she had finally reached.
    “Princess Simahya is Level One, but that’s only because she’s the youngest sibling and slightly…odd.”
    “Odd?”
    She huffed. “Contrary to what Lilith may have taught you, odd royals are royals too.”
    “Meredith, I never said—”
    “Now”—she cut me off—“since we’re running late, I’m going to have to break protocol and launch from here. Don’t tell. Just another outdated rule.” Meredith pointed her phone into the darkest corner and leaked the bubble out. “Come on. You need to rouge up soon. And you can read about your first job while we fly.”
    Once we were safely in the air, Meredith gave me a quick tutorial on my manual