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“Where are you from, Rowan?”
This is not a road I want to go down. The more information I give her, the more she’ll be able to give to the police once I’ve disappeared with the diadem. “I was born abroad, but my parents raised me in the States. Here and there.” I stop and point upward.
She cranes her head back.
“The spiral stair was another of Virginia’s ideas. She liked the dizzying look of it, the way it climbs all the way to the third floor and has stained glass skylights at the top.”
She smiles, the warmth of her memory lighting up her delicate features. “I used to love standing here and looking up. Sometimes I’d put my arms out and spin so fast I thought I’d pass out.”
“I think Virginia would’ve loved that.” I watch her, my heart tripping over itself as I take her in. She’s stunning, a beauty that sends heat racing along my skin. But that’s not why I’m here. She’s a distraction, a stunning, innocent one that threatens to throw me off my purpose.
I won’t let her. I’ll find my diadem, steal it, then leave this place for good. No more Devereauxs, and certainly no more of the girl who threatens to stymie my search and shake my focus.
4
CHARLIE
“Are you moving in?” Rowan asks, placing my giant roller suitcase down in front of the bed. There was no way I was getting it up the stairs. The bedroom is the same one I’d stayed in when I was a kid. It’s bigger than my dorm room. A sense of belonging tries to settle over me, but I push it away, not wanting to get attached.
“Ahh, I…” I trail off. I have no clue how long I’m going to be here. Grams thinks I’m here for a week. That’s the amount of time I have to talk her into letting me stay longer. I know Mom wouldn’t allow me to go back home. That way I wouldn’t have any other option but to go back to school. Not that I wanted to go stay with her.
I’m not very good at lying. I’m shocked I’ve made it this far without being busted somehow. Thank goodness my mom is so wrapped up in her own things, thinking I’m tucked away at school, that I’ve only been texting with her. But I know that’s only going to last so long. Soon enough, she’ll be back to trying to control my life.
“This thing weighs more than you,” Rowan adds, filling in the silence.
I glance down at myself. The suitcase has almost everything I own. I’d shoved whatever I could in it until it was full. I had to sit on it just to get it closed. It’s not even my suitcase. I stole it from Clare Thompson, promising myself that I wouldn’t feel guilt over it.
Clare has made my dorm life hell. I thought college would be different from boarding school. It wasn’t. It was just another set of mean girls with new names to learn. One of the downsides to being at a fancy school is everyone is rich. Something that I’m not. The only reason I was even able to attend was because of Grams. I’m awkward by nature, and knowing that I wasn’t in the same financial situation as the rest of the girls there only made that worse.
“I had to pay extra because it was over the weight limit.” I nod toward my bag.
I didn’t know that was a thing–that your luggage was only allowed to weigh so much or you got charged for it. It was an expense I hadn’t been counting on. I’m going to need to get a job.
I brush my hands down the front of my dress that now has wrinkles in it. Wait a second, did he make that comment because I’m curvy? At least curvier than all the other girls, it felt like. It was one of the many things Clare pointed out when she was throwing her jabs at me.
“I didn’t mean that like how it sounds,” Rowan rushes to say. “You’re just tiny.”
“Tiny?” I smile. “I suppose to you everyone is tiny.”
“Shit, sorry. I was only teasing.” He runs his fingers through his short brown hair.
I can’t stop staring at him. I was worried he might ask if I had a staring problem. Which I think I do. Is it him or the fact that I’m not used to being around the opposite sex? The boy that sat next to me on the plane didn’t cause this reaction. He also didn’t smell as good as Rowan either.
“A fun teasing? Right?” Would that be considered flirting? I don’t think he meant it to be mean. He’s been nice so far but distant too. He could merely be putting up with me because I’m Grams’ granddaughter and he works for her.
