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Her eyes flashed with something that looked like jealousy, and then she was speaking up again, filling me in on what she’d heard. For the first time in months, I felt like she was my friend again.
“I think she’s coming here,” Carina told me. “I think they’re arranging for her to come back, but very briefly. I think she’s being sold to someone else… But Thorn wanted to check up on her before she was sent to him.”
“When is she coming?” I asked breathlessly.
“Tonight,” Carina said. “I think she might be here now.”
Immediately, I was off my feet, my eyes glazing over as I stared at Carina.
“I need to see her,” I said urgently, and she nodded, like she’d been expecting this all along. “Will you show me where she is?”
“I will,” she said. “I think they are in the rose garden. Come with me.”
“But,” I stopped in my tracks. “How will we sneak out past the guards.”
“There’s a way,” she said. “I’ll show you.”
She offered me her hand with a kind smile. I wondered whether this could reignite our friendship. Whether we could rekindle our relationship and maybe be as close as we were that night when she told me she was pregnant.
I wasn’t sure whether I could trust her, but her smile was convincing, and I was desperate to see Amber. I had so many questions for her…
I took Carina’s hand and ran soundlessly down the hallway. Thank God we were both dancers and knew how to run on our tiptoes, not alerting a single person to our presence.
She led me to a stairway I’d never seen unguarded, and we descended it until we arrived in the kitchen. I looked around us curiously, since I’d never been there before. It was full of expensive equipment and some food waiting on the counters to be prepared for dinner. But there were no guards or maids in sight.
I followed Carina through a pantry to a door I would have missed myself. Once she opened it, I saw the garden lying behind it, illuminated by the sunsine, the shadow of the sinking sun painting it in beautiful colors.
“Come on,” Carina said conspiratorially. “We have to go. Quickly.”
We ran outside, still holding hands as we made our way into the rose garden.
We were almost there when she pulled me behind a tree.
“Make sure no one sees you,” fretting around me like she was worried.
There was something in her eyes that unnerved me. Something like care and love for me, but it was masked by something far more sinister.
I shook my head to get the thought out. How stupid of me to be having these worries. She’d just told me about Amber, surely she was finally starting to come around to help me.
I nodded as she fussed over me, preening and primping me.
“You look pretty,” she said absent-mindedly. “Pretty for tonight.”
The words seemed strangely ominous, but before I had time to dwell on them, she was pulling me further into the gardens.
The sun set into the sea and we were engulfed in gorgeous, blood red rays of sunshine.
I wanted to stop and stare at nature’s show, but it seemed more important to get to Amber.
When we’d reached the rose garden, I realized I hadn’t heard any voices, any indication that Amber was really there. I wondered why that was, but then something else caught my attention.
Carina had come to a stop.
We were deep in the rose garden, a couple of steps away from where my own little bush was, with the beautiful white rose.
Carina was staring at me now, her eyes illuminated by the sun and making it look like a fire was burning in her gaze.
“Where is she?” I asked, panic bursting through me in short waves of shock. “Where is Amber?”
“Amber who?” Carina asked in a sing-song voice.
Right away, I sense the trouble that had been lurking beneath the surface all this time.
“She’s not here, is she?” I asked tensely, realizing how fucking foolish I had been.
I’d just taken her word for it, not told anyone where I was going, and going right outside with Carina, trusting her blindly.
“Of course not,” she replied in a voice so cool it chilled my bones. “But you are, and that’s all that matters, Harlow.”
“My-my name is Rose,” I managed weakly, and she laughed in my face.
“Not for much longer,” she replied sweetly, her foot kicking something behind a cherry tree.
Clear liquid started spilling all over the grass, soaking my sandals and my feet. I stared down in confusion, following the liquid trail to a large plastic container behind the tree.
I might’ve managed to fool my mind, but the smell of the stuff was unmistakable.
Gasoline.
I turned to run, but in a split second, Carina was in front of me yet again, grinning wickedly as I tried to catch my breath.
