Two reviews last chapter. Not bad. It did take me a while to finish writing this, though. In my defense, I had no wifi.
Hehe.
*runs away*
Every few blocks we walked, Stryker and I seemed to find ourselves in a new, completely different and unfamiliar area. It was like the shakes had tossed all the stories around like rag dolls until they formed a jumbled, messy beast of a thing straight out of a badly written fantasy novel.
Eventually, I came to my senses and could walk/function on my own because I knew that laying around and sobbing my eyes out like a wuss wouldn't fix a thing. Stryker still kept a hand either on my shoulder, my arm, or the small of my back at all times, though. I think that he's convinced himself that he can hold me together by doing that, and I let him, because I know this is his way of dealing with things.
Suddenly, a pale hand closes around my wrist and yanks me hard to the right. My side crashes through the demolished bottom part of a building, bringing the rest of my body tumbling after into a bunch of stacked crates. They topple down on me, one covering my eyes so that I can't see my assailant.
My heart pounds frantically, and I can feel my pulse on my aching side. I get ready to shove off the crate and attack, but a tiny, delicate little sneeze stops me in my tracks. I slowly unmask my eyes, taking in the long, slender fingers covering the giggling mouth of my own customized version of Sneezy.
"Sorry." She stumbles over the word because of her laughter.
Stryker chuckles and swings an arm around her, ruffling her perfect caramel waves.
"S'okay, Sabrina. Where's everyone else?"
"Well, Aiden and Stryker's army of idiots are down the street a little ways. I was just out for a walk and thought I saw something in here. It must've been a trick of the light. I don't see anything now."
"Was it this?" Stryker asked, his voice trembling ever so slightly.
He holds a little silver charm, the chain it's attached to dangling between his fingers. My hand reaches up to my neck out of habit, trying to snatch at something that's not there.
He'd given me the necklace when I turned twelve. I'd never been one for jewelry, but I never took that thing off. For some reason, I always felt that the twisted, gnarled silver tree suited me.
It had disappeared during the change.
"I had this." Stryker states, scowling in confusion. "When I was still all brainwashed by the queen. I remember looking at it and wondering where it came from and why it was there. She caught me playing with it and confiscated it from me. How could it have gotten here?"
He moves behind me and clasps the necklace up a few notches so that it rests against the skin just below my collarbone. I reach up and trace my finger over the familiar grooves. If you look closely enough, there's a little I and an even smaller W formed by the twisted branches.
"Do you think it was left as some sort of message?" Sabrina questions, silver eyes squinting with concentration.
I wrinkle my nose, trying to come up with a plausible explanation. A thought hits me, and I suck in air through my teeth. "We need to see Aiden. You aren't going to like where this is headed."
She nods and gestures for us to follow her. It turns out that this "down the street" place she had spoken about earlier was a flipping castle at the end of the road.
While we ate Wendy's bacon and waffles, apparently they were getting chummy with Ariel or something.
"Cinderella." Sabrina corrects when I voice my thoughts.
"You have got to be freaking kidding me. Of all the strange, twisted things that could've happened..."
"Hey, it's not like the troops would've fit in some ordinary old basement during the quakes." She shrugs defensively. "By the way, there's a ball tonight. We were planning on going."
"No." I respond immediately, crossing my arms.
"Come on, Princess. It's not like you can just refuse the invitation."
"My name's Ivory. And why not? Will they execute me if I do?"
"I might if you keep talking."
Stryker earns himself an elbow in the ribs for that one.
We walk past a large gate in the front, and Sabrina leads us up a painfully long spiral staircase to an open room near the top.
Aiden sits at a desk, with one hand shoving his hair out of his face while he scribbles out notes on a page. He almost stands at our approach, which would've sent scattered papers everywhere, but something in my expression must tell him he'll want to stay seated. "What's up?" He inquires uncertainly.
I grip the charm with one hand and try to rush it out as fast as I can. "Someone planted this where they knew I'd be, so I'm thinking that it had to be Gabe because of his special talent type thing, but the specific person that was in possession of this item last was working against us, so I maybe almost think that Gabeisworkingforthequeen."
A stifled chortle comes from behind me. "Well, that sucks."
Well, that random person summed up the situation perfectly. That's exactly what I would want to hear if I found out my brother was a traitorous scumbag.
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-Dictatorship