Dark Prince & the Doe

Chapter 64: Daffodil

Chapter 64: Daffodil

Anne

Anne groaned, kicking her heels off her tired feet. The ice-cold floors were a soothing relief to her tortured toes and blistered heels. She shuffled through her notes on The Hunt's Laws. Atrezino's records were wrong on most accounts, but that didn't mean The Hunt was not brutal – it was. Many of the laws remained unchanged from over a millennium ago when the Immortal Larmalee crossed the River and entered the Mortal Lands to claim human men and woman.

Both Prince Larken and Calden were so nonchalant about the more twisted elements of these traditions. It made her uncomfortable. She had yet to witness such acts of brutality, but she kept seeing flashes of it between their nearly human façade. How long would it be before blood was spilt? A shudder trailed down her spine.

Even the tamer traditions had a darker side. Before tonight, she had no idea there was a specific protocol for the Gift of Denial: it was calculated based upon both families' wealth and rank. Since she was a princessa and he was a prince, she would be forced to pay him quite the hefty Gift. How many hunters took advantage of this law as a lucrative money-making scheme? A legal hostage fee – that's what it was. Disgusting! And they had the audacity to judge her people for betrothals?

She slapped her notes down on the desk. A single piece of paper fluttered and fell to the floor. Crouching down, she shoved her hand under the desk, patting around for it. She dragged it out of hiding, along with an entire colony of dust bunnies.

She unfolded the piece of paper. Huh, it wasn't one of her notes. It was a handwritten poem called "Daffodil."

She read through it, snorting quietly to herself with every poorly written verse. It didn't make any sense; it wasn't even about daffodils! Unless it wasn't a poem? Her father based his codes around flowers. She'd been taught how to decode them, but she'd never had the privilege of receiving a coded message before. Curses, she didn't bring her flower book with her.

She ran her finger down the poem. There were 32 lines. She closed her eyes and tried to picture the flower book in her mind. The 32nd flower in the book would break the code. It would have to be about halfway through the B section...either Blood Blossom, Blue Bells, or Blue Rose. As she decoded the message, it became apparent Blue Bells was the correct flower.

MIDNIGHT LIBRARY AGR THREE TWO FOUR COME ALONE TRUST NO ONE MAP BLOOD REVEAL

Anne worried her bottom lip. She wasn't sure what AGR meant. She double-checked that she'd solved the puzzle correctly, but she got AGR again. AGR324? Most of the books had numbers on their spines, perhaps she was meant to find a book in the library? How odd.

According to the decoded message, there was a preset Blood Reveal Enchant. She took the tip of a clean, sharpened pen and jabbed her thumb. After rubbing the blood around her fingertip, she pressed it to the bottom of the page, leaving a reddish-brown thumbprint. The paper crinkled and resonated with heat. A map appeared in faded blue ink, outlining the secret tunnels Gale had shown her. There was a path that led right to the library. The paper's corners curled and blackened, smoke spiraling up from it.

"Wait!" Anne squeaked, grabbing another pen, and rushing to write down directions. The paper curled quicker and quicker into a ball. Ivory white to brown to black. She touched the page and it fell apart into a pile of spent ashes.

She sighed and rubbed at her temples. It was likely a trap. She did not have time for this, she had to meet up with Calden and give her nightly report to Izeal. She slapped her hand through the ashes, spreading them across the wood and spiraling into the air.