The Beauty Trials


 Contents
 
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Dedication
 Excerpt From the History of Orleans
 Chapter 1
 Chapter 2
 Chapter 3
 Chapter 4
 Chapter 5
 Chapter 6
 Chapter 7
 Chapter 8
 Chapter 9
 Chapter 10
 Chapter 11
 Chapter 12
 Chapter 13
 Chapter 14
 Chapter 15
 Chapter 16
 Chapter 17
 Chapter 18
 Chapter 19
 Chapter 20
 Chapter 21
 Chapter 22
 Chapter 23
 Chapter 24
 Chapter 25
 Chapter 26
 Chapter 27
 Chapter 28
 Chapter 29
 Chapter 30
 Chapter 31
 Chapter 32
 Chapter 33
 Chapter 34
 Chapter 35
 Chapter 36
 Chapter 37
 Chapter 38
 Chapter 39
 Chapter 40
 Chapter 41
 Chapter 42
 Chapter 43
 Chapter 44
 Chapter 45
 Chapter 46
 Chapter 47
 Chapter 48
 Chapter 49
 Epilogue
 Acknowledgments
 About the Author
 
 
 
 Guide
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 Table of Contents
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Text copyright © 2023 Dhonielle Clayton
 All rights reserved. Published by Hyperion, an imprint of Buena Vista Books, Inc. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information address Hyperion, 77 West 66th Street, New York, New York 10023.
 First Edition, February 2023
 Designed by Zareen Johnson
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Clayton, Dhonielle, author.
 Title: The beauty trials : a Belles novel / by Dhonielle Clayton. Description: First edition. • Los Angeles ; New York: Hyperion, 2023. • Series: The Belles • Audience: Ages 14–18. • Audience: Grades 10–12. • Summary: Rebellious and outspoken Edel Beauregard enters the Beauty Trials—a deadly competition to find the next Queen of Orleans.
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022026352 • ISBN 9781368046923 (hardcover) • ISBN 9781368055468 (ebook)
 Subjects: CYAC: Beauty, Personal—Fiction. • Contests—Fiction. • Fantasy.
 Classification: LCC PZ7.1.C594725 Bel 2023 • DDC [Fic]—dc23
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022026352
 Visit www.HyperionTeens.com
 
 
 The Goddess of Beauty left behind her very own caisse for the first queen of Orléans. It contained four precious instruments she used to beautify the early humans.
 First, a golden comb with the sharpest and widest teeth to ensure each hair had its place and to instill a sense of composure and equilibrium.
 Second, her pomegranate leaves from which to brew her powerful nectar.
 Third, a jeweled chalice from which to drink the sacred liquid and fill themselves with strength and a steadfast manner.
 Fourth, a mirror made of glass to show them the truth of all things.
 But when the God of the Sky cursed the humans and Beauty made the Belles, she imbued the caisse with a set of challenges. When awakened, an egg of death would hatch and loose the objects, each one setting forth a trial to determine which woman had the right qualities to rule Orléans with her divine blessing.
 Beauty made a bargain with an enemy, the Goddess of Death, to keep the caisse safe in her caves until the kingdom needed it to select a new ruling house.
 Every participant who failed the Trials would be Death’s for the taking.
 from The History of Orléans
 
 
 
 
 For those who have faced many trials in pursuit of beauty.
 Contents
 Title
 Copyright
 Dedication
 Excerpt From the History of Orleans
 Chapter 1
 Chapter 2
 Chapter 3
 Chapter 4
 Chapter 5
 Chapter 6
 Chapter 7
 Chapter 8
 Chapter 9
 Chapter 10
 Chapter 11
 Chapter 12
 Chapter 13
 Chapter 14
 Chapter 15
 Chapter 16
 Chapter 17
 Chapter 18
 Chapter 19
 Chapter 20
 Chapter 21
 Chapter 22
 Chapter 23
 Chapter 24
 Chapter 25
 Chapter 26
 Chapter 27
 Chapter 28
 Chapter 29
 Chapter 30
 Chapter 31
 Chapter 32
 Chapter 33
 Chapter 34
 Chapter 35
 Chapter 36
 Chapter 37
 Chapter 38
 Chapter 39
 Chapter 40
 Chapter 41
 Chapter 42
 Chapter 43
 Chapter 44
 Chapter 45
 Chapter 46
 Chapter 47
 Chapter 48
 Chapter 49
 Epilogue
 Acknowledgments
 About the Author
 
 People are drawn to death. They flirt with it like the bayou moths that draw too close to our red sill-lanterns, coveting the heat, only to burn themselves alive in the candlelight.
 Orléans is that moth now; the rooftops of Trianon flicker like ignited wicks, and three guards lift a dead courtier on a stretcher out of the Chrysanthemum Teahouse. Windy-season rain soaks her lace veil. I watch as one of her arms flops out, grayish in color and haggard, a broken branch at her side.
 You’re supposed to feel something when a person dies, when the light in their eyes is snuffed like a candle. A twinge in your stomach. A pinch in your heart. A fallen tear skating down your cheek. But after watching my sister Valerie die and since burying Amber and Arabella, nothing inside me moves. Maybe it’s better that way.
 Noelle, another Belle at this teahouse, rushes to my side. “Did she really fall from the balcony?”
 My eyes remain fixed on the dead woman and the crowd of agitated onlookers. “She attacked Kata during a beauty session. Ended up falling from the tenth floor.”
 “But why?”
 “Wanted more treatments than her ration token allowed. Thought she could bully it out of Kata. When she didn’t get what she wanted, she cast herself off.”
 Noelle presses a hand to her waist-sash. “They usually just throw tantrums. Spit and curse. The attendants force them to calm down. I can’t believe she’d do this.”
 “I can,” I reply.
 Anguished faces press against the teahouse windows from outside. The citizens do this across the kingdom every week when the teahouses open for ration appointments. Their fists knock; their hands wipe away streaks of rain to have a better look at the Belles. The handles of their parasols clobber the glass until cracks spread like lightning bolts, eager to storm in.
 I should be afraid. Their energy hums with anger like bees in a kicked hive. They want a return to the old way—Belles in the teahouses and unlimited beauty work for those who have the right amount of spintria. But