Royal Obligations

Chapter 42: Chased By A Demon

I couldn't leave the palace. Not now. Daisy won't stop until all the Schreaves are dead and a new bloodline can take over to carry out King Clarkson's plan. I wasn't going to let that happen.

"Lila..." He trails off and I just shake my head.

"Trust me. Can you do that?" I ask and his composure shatters and he gives me a nod.

"Yeah, okay. I can do that."

"The tears on my cheeks are good because it will look like I had been crying. I mean, I was but not over the reason a certain person might think."

"I'm not following, but you said to trust you so fine." Forrest says as he kisses right below my jaw and I grab his arms to keep from crumpling to the floor.

"I'm supposed to walk out of here angry and upset not hot and bothered." I scold him and he moans in protest.

"I'll have to stop by your room later, Lila." Forrest says with a boyish smirk on his lips and I can't help but smile.

"Fine. Whatever." I say lamely before taking a deep breath and fixing my hair. My eyes still had to be red from crying and that's the only thing I was counting on. I place my hand on the door handle and crack it open before slipping out like I slipped in.

"Come on," Elise hooks her arm in mine and brings me over to the cart with all her cleaning supplies.

I grip the cleaning cart tightly like I'm fighting back tears and keep my body tense until we round a corner.

"Jesus Cordelia are you okay?" Elise asks in a worried tone and stops the cart. "What the hell did you two talk about?"

Better for her to believe I was mad at him too. "I walked in on him doing, um, it, with Daisy."

"No." Elise says simply, unable to believe it. "Daisy is like..."

"A ghost?" I finish for her. I shake my head. "I don't know. But... I just want to head back. I need to rest. I haven't been doing that lately-" I begin but Elise grabs me by the arm and pulls me against the wall as footsteps walk by. The footsteps go into the room just on the other side of us and the door is left open just a crack but enough so we could hear the conversation.

"I don't know what to do." The voice sounded like Hero no doubt. "How am I supposed to deal with all of this without him?" She cries quietly.

"I'll help you. That's why I'm here," Anders says gently. "Before you know it you'll be back on your feet. I know you will-"

"No. Anders. You don't understand." Hero says in a strangled voice.

"I do understand, Hero. He was my brother too-"

"I'm pregnant," Hero blurts out and Elise and I look at each other with wide eyes.

"We should go." I whisper but Elise shakes her head.

"We could stay just for a little bit..." She trails off and I slap her arm. "Ow," She hisses through her teeth. "What was that for?"

"This isn't our business." I tell her. "Let's head back to my room before we both get in trouble."

Elise seems hesitant but she agrees. We try our best to pass the door unnoticed and it seems to work. We climb in the elevator and it wasn't until we were back on the floor where all the selected slept did I feel safe to let out a long breath. "We did it. How did we manage to pull that off?" I ask her only half joking.

"No one ever notices the help," Elise winks and we head back to my room. She parks the cart right outside my room and we enter together, but my smile drops as soon as I see Daisy standing in the middle of my room.