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15:05 – 15:20: Break in the Summer Room
15:25 – 16:45: Introduction to the Fourth Dimensional Road
18:00 – 19:30: Dinner in the Winter Room
19:35 – 21:45: Personal Time in the Autumn Room
22:00: Lights Out
When I reach the end, I clear my throat. “Um, here’s a question,” I say. “What the fu—”
Before I can finish, Braxton’s phone buzzes; he leaps from his seat and mumbles something about needing to speed things along. “When you’re ready,” he says, already on his way to the door, “I’ll be downstairs.”
“Wait—so you’re seriously not going to explain why I’m scheduled to take a class in sword fighting and survival skills?”
He stares down at his feet for a long, tense beat. When his chin finally lifts, his gaze burns with something I might easily mistake for remorse, self-loathing, or shame, if I were foolish enough to think this guy was capable of feeling any of those things.
“I know you won’t believe this,” he says. “But I volunteered to give you the tour hoping that we could be friends.” He rakes a hand through his hair and narrows those astonishing blue eyes that’ve probably won over plenty of hearts, just not mine. “I know it’s all really intimidating, but if you can put aside some of your anger and give it a chance, you’ll see—”
“And if I don’t give it a chance?” I cut in. “What then? Will Arthur let me leave?” I run my gaze over Braxton’s face, trying to peer past the beautiful veneer he wears like a mask, to get to the truth he’s unwilling to share.
When he does speak, his voice is grave, his body shifting uneasily. “Don’t be so quick to choose that route,” he says. “It may not lead where you think.”
Before I can ask him to elaborate, he’s out the door, leaving me with the hiss of flames in the hearth and the disquieting echo of his words.
