Pandemonium by Willow Anderson

Author:Willow Anderson [Anderson, Willow]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-05-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Lace decided she was done with festivities for the day. Killian was missing, and the Ringmaster was holding him prisoner for the sake of entertainment. Her insides were beginning to feel as though they might crumble at any moment as she thought on the riddle. Though Marianne had given her a valuable insight into illusion, she still had no idea what she was supposed to do.

Returning to the palace, Lucille helped the sisters sneak back to their rooms undetected. Or so, Lace thought until a soft knock sounded on her door, and Robert entered. In his hands, he held a familiar black box.

“Sister,” he said. His words were laced with suspicion as he laid the box onto her bed beside her. “I see you’ve been busy again.”

“What do you mean?” Lace tried her best to play dumb, but the fire that flashed through Robert’s eyes told her he was done with her tricks.

“Is this why you’ve been sneaking away?” He pointed at the box. “A secret admirer perhaps? One that you’ve been running around with day in and day out?”

Recoiling, Lace let her own anger wash over her. “How dare you insinuate that of me! You’re my brother, and as such, you should believe better things of me.”

“What am I supposed to think?” Robert waved his arms in exasperation. “With the way you have been acting, you have left me no choice but to assume.”

Opening her mouth to speak, she closed it instead. She was furious that her brother would think so little of her, but she also knew that in a way, he was right. What choice had she left him? Even though she was not doing the things he accused her of, she was also acting as though she was. And to make matters worse, there was no talking her way out of it. She couldn’t tell him what she had really been doing. Her chances of being locked away would go straight to one hundred percent if she did. Plus, she would immediately get eliminated from the competition. She wasn’t willing for either of those things to happen.

"I know you think I've been acting inappropriately, and maybe in your eyes, I have," Lace began, “but I'm not doing anything to tarnish our good name.” She tried to pour reason into her words. To make her brother see that she was not an enemy. To her surprise, Robert relaxed just the tiniest bit.

“Can you tell me what you’ve been doing then?” Robert inched closer to the bed, and Lace invited him to sit. He sunk in beside her, and Lace could feel the tension in his body. A part of her felt guilty for being the cause.

“I’ve just been enjoying the festivities and day events,” she said.

“Without guards or a chaperone? Lace, you know the rules.”

“I know the rules just as well as you do. I also know that you know what it feels like to constantly be under the eyes of others. Can you not just

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.