"And what did we find?" I asked for the umpteenth time. Like asking the same question that I already had the answer to would change anything. " After searching long and hard for hours.""Nothing." I could feel the pain in Zoe's voice. It was raw and undiluted, with a little hint of tiredness and irritation. I could understand her because I felt the same way, if not worse. " Nothing at all."It was frustrating. I know I'd been saying that but I was getting to the point where I would burst, literally. Hours and hours of hard work bore nothing, nothing but an aching head and sore limbs. After we'd stumbled on that storage room again, we felt blessed. As if the moon goddess had us in mind,the room was bursting with desks of different shapes and sizes alike. At the very sight of it, Zoe and I felt like we were in heaven. Not until we started searching though.After combing through desk after desk, smashing some locked drawers and tables too, I was down with the flu. Who knew dust bunnies c
"What?" My voice was barely a whisper. If I wasn't the one who'd just spoken, I would have doubted if that monosyllabic word actually just left my lips. I wasn't even sure Zoe heard it, despite being inside me so that definitely counted as something. " What did you just say?""Bailey?" Zoe called out slowly. " Are you okay?" She definitely didn't hear me so maybe this was a good time to reconsider if I actually voiced out my thoughts or I just exclaimed loudly in my head."Bailey, you're getting me worried." If she was getting worried, then what did she think I would be feeling. " Say something.""What did you say?" I asked again. I needed confirmation. Maybe, somehow, I'd misheard and was panicking unnecessarily. " I'm not sure I heard you properly.""Those designs on the table." Zoe spelt it out again. If she was trying to be mean or just being brutally honest, I actually had no idea. " Belong specifically to the royal family.""Wow." I got up from the ground, just to dive into the
I stood rooted to my spot as Noah's footsteps became more pronounced. He hadn't spoken yet, he didn't have to. Who else would walk in here with the audacity that he just displayed? He literally slammed the door. "What are we going to do now?" I heard Zoe ask inside me. She knew better than to voice it out, or I'd be doomed. Both of us. " Bailey?" I paid her no heed. I stood unmoving, like the very action would pause time so I could sneak out of here and pretend like none of this ever happened. The door slammed shut and I prayed to the moon goddess that maybe somehow, he'd walked out again. But the gruff exhale that followed told me, once again, the moon goddess had decides to ignore me when I needed her the most. "Stupid dignitaries." I heard Noah mumble. He was angry. Was there ever a time he wasn't? I didn't know much about where he was earlier but from his tone, I was guessing a meeting didn't go well. " How dare they defy me? His voice was more close and I came to the conclusi
My heart beat seemed to be increasing with each passing second. I still had my hand to the door knob, my poor limb frozen in place. I wasn't thinking straight, I couldn't even think clearly. Moments before I could push the door open, I heard a voice. A voice that screamed terror, a voice I wasn't ready to face who it belonged to.I refused to believe he had just spoken. I just saw him, a couple of moments ago, muttering peacefully in his sleep, so how could he? The photograph! But it didn't make that much of a noise, it shouldn't have woken him up, unless in real sense, he wasn't really deep in sleep."Where do you think you're going?" I could hear his voice play dangerously loud in my head. "You didn't think I'd let you leave so easily, did you?"I shut my eyes tight. There was something I always did when I was scared. Any time I got scared, which was really rare, I always closed my eyes and sort of tried to wish whatever danger I was in. It worked a couple of times, if you could cla
It didn't make sense. Or maybe it did but I just didn't want to admit it. Noah's voice was stuck in my head and his words kept ringing, their heaviness warping around each section of my mind.Everything, literally everything I'd heard from the beginning of my investigation stood against the one sentence I heard from Noah's lips."She cheated on him." That was impossible. It didn't make any sense. I had no personal relationship with her but somehow, cheating didn't sound like something Noah's mother was capable of. Her framed photo came to mind, confirming my reassurance. I didn't believe it and wouldn't believe it."How can you be so sure?" Zoe's voice cut through my thoughts. " You just said it yourself that you had no personal relationship with her. So how can you just conclude?""So you're with Noah then?" I felt my voice go slightly higher than I'd expected it to. I had no idea why I was heavily supporting her but it made me mad to hear anyone talk trash about her, even Zoe. " You
I didn't need a seer to tell me I sounded crazy at this point, I could feel it from Zoe's uneasiness. She didn't believe me, I wasn't sure I believed me either. It was only a hunch but the rate at which I'd jumped on it scared not only me, but Zoe too. I couldn't back down now, it was too late already."Are you sure about this?" Zoe called. Sometimes she always managed to ask the right questions at the right times. Or maybe, the right questions at the wrong times. If this was the right time or not, I couldn't quite tell. " Do you think this will work?"Honestly, I had no idea. I'd sprung upon the first idea that came to mind and I wasn't quite sure it would work out. I couldn't tell that to Zoe though, if she hadn't found out already, you know with her having the ability to read my mind and all."Yes." Luckily for me, my voice didn't come out as hoarse as I thought it would. It sounded chill, confident and if I wasn't in this predicament, I would have believed everything was under con
I picked it up and headed back to the shelf. Once there, I wiped the dirt from my hands and that brought a thought to mind. My eyes went back to the bookshelf and landed at the top. I didn't know why but I was drawn to that spot, and in one swift movement, I wiped the handkerchief/ rag over a particular dusty spot and what it revealed had me giddy like a six year old."Yesss!" I cried out in pure excitement. " I found it!""G18?" Zoe called. " Where is it?""No, no, not G18." I toned my voice down a little. " This is A1 but you know what that means, right?""Yes." Zoe didn't sound too thrilled to be looking around more bookshelves but I bet she wanted to get to the bottom of all of this, just like I wanted to. " If there's an A1, then there's supposed to be a G18 too.""Exactly." And with that, I set out to work immediately. The other shelves were even more dustier than the previous ones. I was searching in no specific pattern but the more I searched, the more dejected I started to f
"You're kidding right?" Was the exact same reaction I had when I'd just finished some of the books and pieced two and two together, so seeing or feeling Zoe rather have the exact reaction was proof that I wasn't crazy and most importantly, that I wasn't wrong. " Tell me you're kidding.""I'm not." I replied, settling on the chair in front of my vanity. Flashbacks from some of the scenes in the books played in my head and I shuddered momentarily. " I really am not.""How could someone do those kind of things?" It was mortifying to be honest. Mortifying wasn't even the right word for it. " And to your wife too. ""Or any woman for that matter." I chipped in. Just because they were married, that didn't give Oliver Sage the right to hit her. The worst part is, he hit her in worthless situations even when it wasn't her fault. " He was a monster.""Well the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, they say." Zoe quipped. " It truly doesn't. Do you think that's contributed to the Alpha's mental