Cin d'Rella and the Golden Apple : Circle of the Rose Chronicles, Book 2

by S. J. West

  “I’m starting to think I should have prepared for my escape a little better than I did,” he says as he runs his fingers through his hair.

  “There’s no way you could have anticipated what happened yesterday. My dad’s clothes will work fine until we can get you new ones.”

  Coltan grins as he considers me. “I look forward to having you pick out something you would like to see me in. Maybe I can wear it on our first official date.”

  “You haven’t officially asked me out yet, so I don’t know when that will be.”

  Coltan walks up to me and takes ahold of one of my hands. “Cin d’Rella, would you please do me the great honor of going out with me on a real date as soon as the opportunity presents itself? I may not be able to afford to take you to the best restaurant in town, but I do promise that I’ll do everything within my power to make sure you have a good time.”

  “I . . . can’t say yes to that just yet,” I tell him regretfully, especially when I see his crestfallen expression. “Like I explained yesterday, I have to speak to Commander Ford before we can officially start dating.”

  Coltan nods his head, letting me know he remembers our conversation.

  “Will you be coming back here once you’re finished at Shadowspire?” he asks.

  “Yes. I’ll tell Gus to return too so we can all compare notes on what we’re able to find out. While we’re gone, feel free to freshen up. This room has a private bathroom, which is one reason I chose to stay in it. After sharing a bathroom with the other girls for eight years, I really wanted one of my own.”

  Coltan smiles and nods his head. “I can understand that. I’ll clean myself up and be ready by the time you return.”

  I begin to feel funny about leaving him here all alone. I almost feel as if I’m abandoning him, even though I know that thought is preposterous.

  “Will you be all right here by yourself?” I ask him, unable to hide my unease.

  “I’ll be fine, Cin,” he reassures me. “I’m the last person you need to be worrying about right now.”

  “I care, so I worry,” I tell him as I touch his shoulder.

  “And I’m glad you care,” he says with a pleased grin, “but there’s no need to worry. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “We shouldn’t be long,” I say. “Most of the archives have been computerized. It should only be a matter of typing in his name and pulling up his records.”

  “Then I’ll be waiting here for you when you get back.”

  I start to walk out of the closet but hesitate and turn back around.

  “Is something wrong?” he asks me as I return to him.

  I reach up and give him a kiss on the cheek.

  “I needed to do that before I left,” I tell him as I walk backward out of the closet. It might have been a smooth move if I had actually made it out of the opening, but instead, I end up walking straight into the doorjamb and stumbling. Thankfully, I catch myself before I fall.

  “Are you all right?” Coltan asks, doing his best to suppress a laugh.

  “Yep!” I say, finally finding my way out of the closet and into the bedroom. “I’ll see you later!”

  I make a quick about-face and exit the room with as much dignity as I can muster.

  When I walk out of the house, I find Gretel sitting on the steps waiting for me.

  “Are you ready?” she asks.

  “Yeah. Let’s take your car. The windows of my car got blown out during the supernova.”

  “Have you told Coltan what Darcy told you the last time you saw her?”

  It takes me a moment to figure out what Gretel is saying, but then I remember my stepsister’s revelation about her parentage.

  “I hate to admit it, but I totally forgot she claimed Edward Prince was her father,” I say as we head down to Gretel’s little red sports car. “Give me a second. I have some letters from the Guild I should probably leave with Marlene since Gus will be helping us. I don’t want to leave them sitting in my car while we’re gone.”

  Once I retrieve the letters, we get into Gretel’s car and head to Shadowspire. As we travel there, I begin to wonder if I should mention Darcy’s claim to Coltan. I’m sure he wouldn’t be too surprised to learn Darcy was his half-sister, but would that knowledge do anyone any good now? I finally decide I should tell him because I don’t want there to be any secrets between us. If he cares enough, he can ask his father if her claim is the truth. Although, from what Darcy told me, it sounded like Edward never knew she was his child.

  “Who or what do you think wrote that passage in the book?” Gretel asks me.

  “I don’t even have a guess,” I tell her. “In order to know more, we have to wait until it shows itself to us.”

  “That’s so weird,” she says. “I don’t like the idea of some unknown creature lurking around and writing us cryptic messages that don’t really tell us anything.”

  “It would be better if it wrote precisely what it wants us to know, but maybe it can’t. Maybe it’s restricted in what it can say.”

  “Maybe,” Gretel says with little enthusiasm. “Let’s talk about what happened between you and Coltan last night after you left the hospital.”

  “Not much more than what he told you back at the house. Kalder suggested I take him somewhere so he could tell me about his mother, and that’s why I showed him my spot over in Greenhouse 10.”

  “You took him to your private spot?” she says, turning her gaze from the road to look at me. “You don’t even let me go there with you! He must be special. Did you do anything else there besides talk?”

  Gretel’s hopeful inflection verifies what I’ve always known about my best friend: she’s a hopeless romantic.

  “No. We simply talked while we were there,” I say, hating to disappoint her. “But we did sleep together.”

  Gretel stomps her foot on the brake, almost causing me to have a case of whiplash.

  “You did what?” she asks loud enough to hurt my ears in the cramped confines of the car.

  I laugh because I purposely tried to shock her, but I never imagined she would actually look traumatized by my joke.

  “We literally only slept together on the couch inside Maximus’s study,” I say, unable to contain my laughter. “I had you going there though, didn’t I?”

  “Girrrl,” she says as she takes her foot off the brake and begins to drive down the road again. “You’re lucky I love you the way I do or I would hit you for scaring me like that.”

  “We haven’t even kissed yet,” I say. “Well, not on the lips anyway.”

  “The two of you haven’t had the best of luck with timing,” she says. “Besides, the anticipation of that first kiss can sometimes be better than the real thing.”

  “I seriously don’t think that’s going to be the case with us,” I say. “But I do need to ask Commander Ford if I can start dating Coltan. I honestly don’t know what she’ll say.”

  “I don’t think she’s ever said no to someone’s request to date a person.”

  “But no one has ever asked to date a Prince either,” I point out.

  “What if she does say no, Cin?” Gretel asks. “What will you do then?”

  “I really don’t know, Gretel,” I say as I consider the possibility yet again. “The more I’m around him, the more I can’t imagine my life without him in it.”

  “I know you’re a stickler for the rules,” she says to me, “but don’t let anything tear the two of you apart. You’re different when he’s around, and I prefer seeing this softer side of you that he’s able to bring out.”

  “This might be a pointless dilemma soon anyway. If we can find the objects we need to get from Briar Rose’s other sisters, we can end the curse and live our lives the way we want to.”

  “Do you really believe we’ll be able to do it?” Gretel asks.

  “I don’t have any doubts that we will.”

  As Gretel pulls up to the front of Shadowspire, nervous tingles run down my spine as I consider
asking Commander Ford if I can date Coltan. What I said to Gretel is the truth. I’m not sure what I’ll do if she forbids me from dating him. Should I even ask her? I would rather speak to Maximus about it first and get his advice. I pray he awakens soon with all of his memories intact.

  Chapter 11

  As soon as we walk into Shadowspire, Gretel and I head straight up to the archives room where all of the records about arrests and court verdicts in Briardale are kept. We don’t attempt to converse with any of our sister Thorns because of the million and one questions they will have for me about yesterday that I would rather not answer. Once we reach one of the computer terminals, Gretel sits at the keyboard and types in the name Henry Hollan.

  “Holy cow,” she says as a long list of arrests pops up for Henry.

  “What are all those?” I ask as I lean over her shoulder to look at them for myself. “There seem to be a lot of drunk and disorderly arrests. Scroll down to the bottom. His last arrest should be the one that landed him in the asylum.”

  Gretel does as I ask, but she stops just short of the bottom. She places the pointer of the mouse on one arrest that’s labeled: Suspected of the First Degree Murder of Abigail Hollan.

  “Isn’t Abigail Isabel’s mother’s name?” Gretel questions. “I thought she died in an accident.”

  “Isabel has never told us all the details surrounding her mother’s death,” I say.

  “I don’t think she was ever told,” Gretel replies.

  “Maybe it wasn’t an accident after all,” I say as my eyes linger on the word “murder” in the title of the file. “Open it so we can read the final report.”

  Gretel clicks on the file.

  According to the record, Isabel’s mother drowned in the Lonely River. Her father was seen holding her hand as they jumped off the Neverwhere Bridge together. At the time, the Thorns didn’t know if they were trying to commit suicide or if Henry dragged his wife there and pulled her off. Abigail died from the fall, but Henry survived. He later claimed that the river was a conduit between our world and the one he visited years before. The incident was ruled as attempted suicide by both of Isabel’s parents, and all charges were dropped.

  “So he was attempting to get back to this other world by jumping off the bridge and into the river?” Gretel asks with a raised brow. “I’m telling you right now, Cin, I’m not jumping off the bridge.”

  “Neither am I,” I say. “Keep scrolling down so we can see his last arrest.”

  This time Gretel doesn’t stop until she’s at the end of the charges against Henry. The last entry is marked: Delusional Paranoia and Child Endangerment.

  Since I know what happened during this arrest, I search for where it took place: Paisley Park, south side of lake.

  “We have a location,” I say, feeling relieved that it wasn’t that difficult to find the information.

  “I’m glad we found it, but what are we going to tell Isabel about her mother’s death, Cin? She doesn’t know the truth,” Gretel points out.

  “If we tell her what her father did, I’m not sure even someone as sweet as her could forgive him.”

  “Are you suggesting that we lie to her?” Gretel asks with a deep frown.

  “No, but I think we should give her father a chance to tell her himself,” I reply. “Isabel was young when it happened. I doubt her father thought she would be able to understand what they were trying to do.”

  “Do you think her mom jumped into the river willingly?”

  “If Henry had tried to force her to go with him, she would have been kicking and screaming the whole way there, not holding his hand like the witnesses reported. Maybe she was tired of hearing him talk about the other world he went to and wanted to either prove to him that he had imagined it all or prove to herself that he was telling the truth.”

  “I don’t like this, Cin,” Gretel says, closing all the files and standing up from the chair. “I don’t like withholding the truth from one of our best friends.”

  “I don’t either, Gretel, but do you have a better idea?”

  Gretel sighs deeply and ends up shaking her head.

  “This sucks,” she says. She keeps her eyes on the ground.

  “I know,” I agree. “But there’s nothing else we can do about it.”

  “Hey, is anybody there?” Isabel says over our com bracelets.

  “You talk to her,” Gretel says. “I can’t right now.”

  I raise my wrist up closer to my mouth. “Gretel and I are here, Isabel. What’s going on?”

  “My father is awake!” she practically screams. The sound of her happy voice makes me wish I could join in on her joy. If Gretel and I hadn’t found out the truth about her mother’s death, we would be.

  “We’ll be right there, Isabel,” I say. “Are Scarlet and Kalder with you?”

  “They just walked through the door,” she tells me. “Hurry over, Cin. I want to introduce you to my dad.”

  “We’re coming,” I reply. “See you soon.”

  Gretel grabs my arm and shakes her head. “I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I can lie to Isabel.”

  “Don’t think of it as lying. Think of it as protecting Isabel,” I say. “She’s waited years to have her father back in her life, and now she does. I refuse to hurt her over something that none of us can change. Her father’s obsession with this other world might be the reason her mother is dead, but we have to give Henry a chance to tell her what happened himself. It’s not our secret to tell.”

  “I still don’t like it,” Gretel huffs as she crosses her arms over her chest.

  “I don’t either, but we need to make the best of a really bad situation.”

  I walk out of the archive room and head toward the elevator. I don’t want to have an argument with Gretel. We have so much that needs to be done that I don’t have the energy to deal with her guilty conscience right now.

  On the drive to the hospital, neither of us say a word. Gretel is upset with me for asking her to lie to Isabel, and that in turn makes me a bit peeved at her. We’re not going to see eye to eye on this matter. I know I’m right, just like Gretel thinks she’s right. But when we walk into Henry Hollan’s room, I hope Gretel realizes there’s no way we can burst Isabel’s happy bubble. At least not yet.

  “You’re finally here!” Isabel says joyously as she waves the two of us over to her father’s bedside. As Scarlet rises from the chair set slightly behind Isabel to stand by her side, Anwen waves to me from her perch on Scarlet’s shoulder.

  While Gretel and I walk to the end of the hospital bed, I keep a close eye on Henry’s reaction to me. I have no way of knowing if he’ll remember speaking to me while his spirit was roaming freely from his temporarily dead body. I don’t see any sign of recognition, but I do see a man who is happy to be reunited with his daughter. Henry is holding onto Isabel’s hand as tightly as she is holding on to his. Unexpectedly, I feel a pang of jealousy over seeing them together. I would give almost anything to be in Isabel’s shoes and have a chance to see my own father one last time.

  “Dad,” Isabel says, “this is Gretel and Cin.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you both,” Henry says, smiling at us brightly.

  “It’s nice to finally meet you too, Mr. Hollan,” I say.

  “Please, call me Henry,” he insists. Henry locks eyes with me. “Have we met before? You look so familiar to me for some reason.”

  “Cin is Oliver d’Rella’s daughter,” Isabel answers. “Maybe you met her when she was little.”

  “Oh, yes! Oliver! How is your father doing these days?” he asks innocently.

  “He died eight years ago,” I inform him.

  “Oh,” Henry says with regret. “I’m so sorry for your loss. I had no idea he was gone. He was a great man, you know. He did a lot for this city.”

  I nod my head in agreement because I don’t want to talk about my father right now. The subject is an emotional trigger that I would rather avoid.

 
“Have you asked him any questions yet?” I ask Isabel.

  She shakes her head. “No. I thought you would want to be present to hear what he has to say.”

  “Questions about what?” Henry asks, looking between me and his daughter expectantly.

  “We need to know how to get to the other world you’ve talked about,” I say.

  Henry pulls his blanket up and draws back.

  “Is this some kind of trick?” he asks with a wary expression. “If I start talking about it, will you lock me up again?”

  “This isn’t a trick,” Isabel reassures her father. “We need to go there to find someone.”

  “And something,” I say, since Isabel wasn’t at breakfast and doesn’t know the full story yet. “But first, we need to know how to get there. Can you tell us?”

  “I tried to return there many times after my first visit,” he says. “I thought the entrance was at the bottom of the Lonely River, but I could never find it again. Then I thought that perhaps the exit could also act as an entrance, but I could never figure out how to get the portal to open.”

  “The exit?” I ask. “Are you talking about Paisley Park?”

  “Yes,” Henry says with bright eyes. “How did you know that?”

  “It’s where Commander Ford arrested you,” Gretel replies. “We just read the report.”

  “I still believe there’s a portal at the bottom of the Lonely River,” he tells us, “but it’s too dangerous to attempt to reach it. While I was inside the asylum, I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and why the portal in the park never opened for me again.”

  “What’s your theory?” I ask.

  Henry looks at Gretel and says, “You are the key to reopening it.”

  The room grows as silent as a tomb. Finally, Scarlet finds her tongue.

  “What do you mean, Henry?” she asks. “Why would Gretel be the key?”