Then Nora dropped out of the sky, and our worlds changed. Even more so when Samil attacked Bellamy and Sebastian. Since then, it’s been one thing after another. A darkness we can’t escape. And it feels like only the beginning.
Honestly, it feels like it’s been coming for Bellamy.
After dinner,I call Sebastian, and the two of us talk for the better part of an hour. He vaguely remembers hearing about the emerald but didn’t realize it was in Desta’s tiara. It’s creeping us both out, but one thing is for certain: Marie is still around, and she’s not done.
It has me questioning who Marcella is even more.
I wasn’t going to call her tonight.
I said a lot of things to her last night, and I’m already putting myself out there too much with her. I know she won’t call me. I know she won’t tell me her secrets, even if I suspect part of her wants to. Sebastian told me about the rug and how she fired three people today. I was shocked he did it that way, trusting her to that extent.
“What if she works for Marie?” I questioned him.
“It’s a possibility, but why would Marie risk anything inside the palace? And why now? She doesn’t know we know about her.”
I step out onto my balcony and sit in the lounger. I pull out a cigar and light it, puffing black smoke into the sky. “I don’t know. The questions are mounting one by one.”
“One thing at a time. The cameras didn’t get any visual on Marie, so we’re forced to go by her old employee picture. With that, Javier is calling in favors and likely breaking laws I don’t want to know about. He has a hundred kilometers periphery from the break-in home on any public cameras.”
“Except the facial recognition is reading a face that’s twenty years younger than it is now and taken from a picture that’s twenty years old.”
I take a smooth drag and blow out two smoke rings.
“It’s a long shot. The truth is, we’re going to have to get lucky like we did with the fingerprints. I’m not saying we give up this chase, but I don’t want this to consume you more than it already is.”
“I want that tiara back. I want that emerald.”
“It’s not going to break the curse.”
I close my eyes and nod. I know that. But I still want it back.
“What do I do about Marcella?” I ask, changing the subject. “Should I confront her? Tell her that I know she’s Ella, and see where the chips fall?”
“I don’t know. At some point, if she won’t talk or lead us to her true intention for being in the palace, we have to detain her.I know you care about her, and I don’t take that lightly, but I know you understand what I’m saying.”
“I do.” I take two more puffs and stub the burning end into the ashtray. The moon is high in the sky, the hour nearing midnight, and all I want right now is to see Marcella’s pretty face. “Why couldn’t I have fallen for a Bellamy? Someone sweet and easy?—”
He chuckles. “There’s nothing easy about Bellamy.”
“There is, though. The only reason she was difficult was because you were a beast and worked so hard to resist her for as long as you did. Marcella warns me off at every turn, yet she talks to me, sleeps with me, teases me, and gets vulnerable with me. I see so much when I look at her. I don’t want to stop. I don’t want to go back to how my life was before.”
“But her warnings have meaning behind them.”
“Yes.” I stare out at the small village sprawling around me, most of the lights in the buildings and homes out. It’s quiet and dark and peaceful. “That’s what I fear. Her warning is real. She told me the night at the wedding that she wasn’t safe. So why can’t I do the smart thing and let her go?”
“Because she’s under your skin and you don’t think she’s dangerous. Maybe I’m daft, but I don’t see it either. I didn’t with Charlotte, though. Not until it was too late, so perhaps our instincts are off. I have an attendant on her, and her face is set up to trigger notifications in our system. She’s in her room, and in the three days you’ve been gone, she hasn’t gone anywhere she shouldn’t or done anything she shouldn’t.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Call her and see what she’s doing. You won’t be able to sleep until you do.”
He’s right, and I disconnect the call. She may be under my skin, but this Marie thing has me spooked. The tiara has me spooked. And there’s a woman who promises me she’s dangerous.
I press her number and video call her.
This time, she doesn’t make me call her three times. She picks up on the second ring, her sleepy face front and center on my phone.
“Couldn’t stay away, could you?”
