Chapter 43

Ruby

The Queen finishes her lecture on the curse and Alice escorts me back to my room. Alice seems to be very pleased with herself as we walk back, and I think that I can hear the lock click when she closes the door, but I’m too preoccupied with this newfound information to care.

I have to find a way out of here. Regardless of whatever feelings for Atwood that may have arisen over the past couple of months, I have no desire to stay now that I know about the curse. Why didn’t he tell me sooner? Why would he be so desperate to have a mate that he wouldn’t warn me about a curse that will plague any of his mates?

I think back to Edith sitting on Atwood’s desk, flirting with him.

She can have him.

Taking out my phone, I open my contacts. My thumb hovers over Cayden’s name for a moment as I bite my lip, but then I press it and hold the phone to my ear.

He picks up on the first ring.

“Ruby? Is that you?”

I can’t seem to find the words right away. They get caught in my throat when I hear Cayden’s voice and I find myself unable to speak.

He’s silent for a few moments, then speaks again.

“Ruby? Are you there?”

“...Yes,” I answer in a hushed tone, looking over my shoulder at the closed door in case Alice or someone else barges in and catches me. Thankfully, the door stays closed.

“If you need to escape, just say yes,” Cayden says, as though he wants me to be discreet in case someone is listening.

I pause again, drawing in a ragged breath before answering him.

“...Yes. But not now. I need to prepare first.”

“Okay,” Cayden replies softly. “You’re bringing Tamara, too?”

“Yes,” I answer.

Just then, I hear footsteps coming down the hall toward my room. Now that my wolf has begun to emerge more since the night that Atwood was attacked, my sense of smell is also heightened. I can smell Atwood through the walls. He’s coming.

“Meet me in the forest behind the castle grounds next Friday at midnight,” I whisper hastily into the phone.

Before Cayden can answer, I hang up and shove my phone in my pocket just as Atwood knocks on the door. My heart is racing and I leap to the bed, picking up a book and opening to a random page before answering.

“Come in.”

The door cracks open slightly to reveal just as I thought: Atwood standing there, looking somewhat concerned. He hesitantly steps into the room and looks at the cover of my book for a moment before speaking.

“I just wanted to say something,” he says, folding his arms. I set my book down and sit up, doing my best to act as though I have been sitting here reading the entire time and not plotting my escape with another boy.

Atwood pauses for a moment, looking down at his feet. He seems to be choosing his words carefully.

“Just because I’ve pulled you out of school, that does not mean that you won’t receive an education,” he says, raising his gaze to meet my eyes again. “Same goes for your sister. I want you both to have the benefit of receiving a proper education despite your transgressions at school. It would be unfair of me to take that away from you.”

“Does that mean I’ll get to go back to school?” I ask, standing.

Atwood frowns and shakes his head sternly. “You’ve done nothing but create trouble for yourself at the Lycan Academy since you started,” he says. The disappointment in his voice is palpable, and it makes my heart race even faster. Despite all of this, and despite my plans to escape, I admit that Atwood is extremely handsome -- even more so when he’s angry -- and I can’t stop myself from becoming a little wet at the thought.

“I’ll be arranging a tutor for you soon,” he says as he turns back to the open door. “In the meantime, continue attending your lessons with the Queen.”

He pauses before exiting the room.

“And apologize to Edith.”

Before I can object to his request for me to apologize to Edith despite having done nothing wrong, Atwood leaves the room and closes the door behind him.

I take a deep breath now that I’m alone, feeling my heart rate slow down enough to relax a bit.

Next Saturday, I’ll meet with Cayden and we’ll make our final plans for mine and Tamara’s escape. For now, I need to make preparations.

We’ll need enough money for train tickets for at least Tamara and myself -- Cayden can likely cover the cost of his own ticket -- and we’ll also need money to purchase food and supplies along the way.

Once again, however, I’m stuck with a dilemma: how can I make money without making it obvious? I won’t be able to work for money, not only because I won’t be able to do it without being noticed at the castle but also because I simply don’t have enough time before my eventual escape to make enough cash to buy the tickets.

I really am stuck with selling something. But what can I sell that won’t be noticed, at least not right away?

I open my closet and start rifling through my things, desperately looking for something that might be worth something. But I’ll need plain clothes to escape in, so I can’t sell any of those, and besides, most of the unnoticeable clothes that I do have wouldn’t sell for much.

Jewelry is out of the question, too. There’s a large jewelry display behind glass in my closet, and that would definitely be the first place that anyone would look if I suddenly went missing without a trace. Every piece of jewelry has its own spot in the display, and it would be too obvious if something was missing.

Biting my lip, I spin around in my room and start frantically opening drawers, rifling through shelves, even looking under the bed for something… Anything.

As I search under the bed using my phone flashlight, something catches my eye.

I had entirely forgotten about this, but when I was first taken here for the wedding I stashed a box with some valuables from my old home in case of an emergency.

I pull out the dusty little box and set it on the bed, opening it to reveal what’s inside.

There isn’t much. Just an old journal, a beaten-up pocket watch that belonged to my father, and a children’s book with tattered pages that our mother used to read to Tamara and I when we were younger.

Just as I’m about to shove the box back under the bed, however, something silver glints from beneath the book.

Poking out from beneath the book is my mother’s brooch.

I pull it out and hold it up to the light. It has a silver border with a pearl cameo accent in the center that depicts a woman’s facial side profile.

My mother used to wear this brooch all of the time. It was her most prized possession. I can’t bring myself to sell this.

But then, I think about what my mother was like. It has been years since I even heard her voice, but I can hear it now in my mind, clear as day. She would have told me to sell the brooch, to do anything it takes to get away from Atwood and protect my sister.

I pocket the brooch with a sigh, coming to my final conclusion.

I’ll sell the brooch and use the money to escape with Tamara.