The Wicked Remain by Laura Pohl

Author:Laura Pohl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2022-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Six

Rory

May arrived as the end of the school year approached, and the treasure hunt went nowhere.

Rory had combed over the part of the castle she’d been assigned to no avail, her muscles and bones tired from the walking. But she was sure they’d come up with something. Nani was good with questions. Yuki was good with answers. Ella was good at cheering them on.

Rory wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be good at doing, so she tried to avoid feeling useless.

She hadn’t expected the letter. She hadn’t expected that the end to her tale was coming.

It’d arrived as priority mail, handed to her by Miss Bagley when she showed up to class that morning. It was enclosed in a white cream envelope issued by the palace, the letters golden. It was a message from her mother. Figured they would send it in a letter, but Rory imagined it would be safer. No one could hack it; no one but her would read it.

It said only that Uncle Émilien’s illness, a pulmonary disease, had gotten worse. That they were doing everything they could, but his lungs had begun to fail.

The letter said Rory had to go home.

Rory crumpled the paper in her hands, making a fist and throwing it in a drawer. They hadn’t even given her a choice—hadn’t needed to. She’d had never had a choice. She was a princess by birth, and when her uncle was gone, she’d become the heir apparent after her father.

The fact that it was her father filling her uncle’s place, and not yet her, gave Rory her only hope, but she still wasn’t free of the expectations that were created the moment she’d been born. Her parents had waited for her for a long time, paid for the most expensive fertility treatments, and what had they gotten? Rory, the family’s disappointment.

And in a week, maybe more if she was lucky, she’d have to leave her life as she’d known it behind. This time, there was no use relying on rescues. Her prison door had closed. She was trapped inside.

Rory took a deep breath as she got ready for her usual Friday match with Pippa, but her heart wasn’t in it. They hadn’t talked about the dance, which had felt like something conjured out of a book. They’d gone back to normal—because they were still in school, because they were just students, and nothing was going to change.

When she got to the gym, Pippa was already there, stretching. She adjusted her posture as Rory came in.

“What happened?” Pippa asked.

Rory hated that Pippa could read it so easily on her face.

“Nothing,” Rory replied.

“It’s not nothing,” Pippa said as her gaze followed Rory across the room.

“Why are you always so convinced you know better?” Rory barked back, immediately regretting it.

It wasn’t Pippa’s fault. If anything, it was Rory’s fault. She’d spent all her life pretending this wasn’t who she was, avoiding what she knew was inevitable, only for it to finally catch up to her.

“As you wish,” Pippa muttered.

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