Princess at Heart (The Rosewood Chronicles)

Lottie had looked everywhere. Now she was exhausted from dragging herself around the school in the fog, searching for Jamie. It was like walking through a nightmare. Part of her wanted to believe what had just happened was all wrapped up in Ellie’s misguided attempt to push her away, but it felt too cruel, the pain too harsh.

She came to rest on the bridge between the field and the main campus, staring down at the river below. She was sure she could see herself reflected in the water. Only it wasn’t her face. She saw Liliana and William Tufty. They both lived inside her, in her blood.

‘What do you want?’ she asked, her voice echoing back at her.

Her ancestors stared up from the river, silently watching her, as though they were trying to tell her something. It hurt too much to look at them, a bitter reminder of her uncertain future. A well of shame overflowed as she remembered all the awful things she’d said to Ellie, embarrassed that she’d lost everything.

Picking up a pebble, Lottie tossed it into the water, scattering the faces. ‘If you’re not going to help, then go away!’

Feeling a sob rising, she turned violently, rubbing her face, and asked the only question she really wanted an answer to. ‘Jamie,’ she whimpered, ‘where are you?’

She looked up to see a black shadow at the other side of the bridge, its tail moving from side to side.

‘Mreow!’ Vampy’s head tilted to the side, his yellow eyes narrowing at her salt-crusted cheeks.

Shocked and confused, Lottie made a sound like a twisted laugh. ‘Do you know where Jamie is?’ she asked the cat, her feet propelling her forward.

Vampy purred in response, fur slick and wet. He began rubbing against her legs, pushing her down the path, before skipping into the main campus.

‘Hey,’ Lottie called after him, wiping her nose with her hand, not caring how pathetic and disgusting she looked.

By the time they reached Stratus Side, Lottie knew where they were going, and her heart thundered in her chest – not from the exertion but from something unknown – and a prickle on her skin made her feel like an animal in the woods, sensing danger that was out of sight.

Vampy stopped at the door, howling furiously.

‘It’s OK,’ she cooed, reaching down to pick him up and cradling him over her shoulder. ‘Everything’s going to be OK.’ Somehow it made her feel better to be comforting him. ‘Now what’s got you so upset?’ She pushed open the Stratus door. ‘You want to go down to the study?’ Vampy purred at her neck, sending calming vibrations over her skin. ‘Is Jamie down there?’ She was met with another pained howl, which she quickly shushed.

Something was off. She could feel it in the way Vampy shivered in her arms, and in how her emotions had turned numb, part of her held captive, afraid of something she couldn’t pin down.

As she’d done so many times before, Lottie turned the ‘W’ on the Elwin statue, and with Vampy purring nervously at her ear she made her way into the dark.

‘Hello?’ she called, a weak, naive part of her hoping Jamie might be down there.

Switching the fairy lights on, the room came to life with a rosy glow, only it wasn’t the warm light she was used to. The light filled her with the same nervous dread as the flicker of a predator’s eyes in the dark of the woods.

In spite of their argument, Lottie wondered if she should go and get Ellie. Then she saw the papers strewn across the floor by the desk. Her private sketches laid bare like a bleeding heart.

At her side Vampy began howling again. ‘Shh, shh,’ she cooed, frowning as she tried to make sense of the mess, but the cat kept on.

‘Vampy, please, I –’

She looked up and she was sure her heart stopped.

In the centre of the dressing table was Jamie’s wolf pendant, shattered, just as Claude’s had been.

Laid out on the floor beneath the severed wolf were all her clues from Claude, a conversation that mapped out the terrible truth.

Jamie had got to it first. She’d been too late.

Vampy let out another wail, and it was as if it came from inside her own head.

Tears spilled down Lottie’s cheeks, blurring her vision while her hands reached for the note tucked into the mirror.

Jamie’s writing. The words caught in her mouth, each one like a kiss and a bite.

Lottie,

I have left to find my family. I’ll come back for you and free you from the wolves.

I am your Partizan, and I promise I’ll always keep you safe.

Jamie

She had to tell Ellie.