Princess at Heart by Connie Glynn

Author:Connie Glynn [Glynn, Connie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241458389
Publisher: Penguin Random House Children's UK
Published: 2020-12-03T00:00:00+00:00

19

Lottie had never felt so guilty in her whole life. She needed to go somewhere she knew would cause suspicion. Unfortunately the only distraction she had was Jamie, even if it made her feel like the worst person in the world. So she’d sent Jamie to Haru, knowing it was the only way to guarantee he wouldn’t follow her.

It had taken a little bit of snooping, but it wasn’t long until she heard about an Ivy student resembling Ellie’s description who had been seen wandering into the mysterious back buildings of the art department, with rumours spreading that perhaps she’d joined the secret underbelly of Rosewood’s cult artists.

The Rosewood art facilities were some of the best in the world. The clear white hallways with their introspective abstract paintings and marble statues were more like a museum than a school. Every piece was an insight into the creative minds that dwelled within the school. On a regular day walking through the echoing mezzanine was peaceful, with soft chatter coming from the classrooms and the smell of wet clay or sulphur spilling over from the pottery room’s kiln.

But this was not a regular day, and with begrudging acceptance Lottie ventured past classrooms she knew, and through the doors at the back that would take her to the old building. As soon as the doors boomed shut behind her, the world turned tight and claustrophobic, rooms overflowing with junk and old art pieces that could be scavenged and claimed by other students like an ocean of debris blocked her path.

Still Lottie went further, imagining Ellie making this same trip weeks ago, until she found herself at the centre of the maze, at the winding staircase leading up to what used to be the photography department. The wood was misshapen into waves, and chains hung over most of the doors, and others were barred like they were keeping in some terrible Kraken. Only one door showed any semblance of use, with three baby-doll arms reaching out of the cast-iron fixtures round a closed peephole, looking like trapped souls in a witch’s den.

I will be kind, I will be brave, I will be unstoppable, Lottie repeated to herself, lifting her fist to knock at the cursed door. However, before she had so much as made a single tap, the door flew open and Lottie nearly tumbled into a girl with blood-red hair and eyebrows covered in piercings, drawn on so thick they looked like creatures with tiny metal legs.

Blinking away her shock, the red-haired girl’s face split into a wide grin, a tongue piercing glinting. ‘Well, well, well, if it isn’t the little princess herself.’

‘I need to talk to you about someone who came to visit a few weeks ago,’ Lottie said, refusing to let herself be intimidated.

‘You’re in luck,’ the girl said, moving out of the way to let Lottie through into the pitch-black corridor beyond. ‘Stephanie said we were to let you in immediately when you finally came.’

Lottie gulped, a cold chill running

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