Entangled

Chapter 17

"I messed up,"

Saying the words out loud, Liatta was forced to acknowledge what had happened wasn't a new nightmare, but her reality.

She lifted the blanket over her head to block out the light and the weight of the fabric steadied her anxious mind.

Why did she have to show she was mad? She should have just shoved down her anger and pretended. What Mr. Arach had to say about Anita shouldn't matter, he was evil and cruel.

But it did matter, hearing the same little brother that Anita spoke about with such tenderness twist her life in such a vile way filled Liatta with too much rage to ignore. And now Mr. Arach was going to kill her, probably slowly and painfully, and she would never see Anita's grave.

Liatta bit her lip. Or meet the person who wrote the letter.

In her right hand, Liatta held the envelope she had found in Anita's room. When Mr. Arach had arrived, Char had taken the envelope and escaped with it. Liatta was grateful for the spider's quick action.

If Mr. Arach had found the letter...Liatta didn't know what would happen but she doubted it would be good.

And she doubted even more that she would be able to keep the letter if he knew about it. Liatta wasn't sure what she was going to do with what she learned but she did know that she wanted to make that decision herself.

The person who wrote it said that they would tell her what happened to Anita so Liatta would wait and decide when she met them.

Liatta drummed her fingers on the sofa cushion.

No, not met. The pieces had begun to fall together in Liatta's mind, forming a theory that she found impossible to disregard.

Liatta had already met them, hadn't she? The person who led her there, was probably Grimm.

She couldn't be completely certain, but the strangely familiar compulsion, gold slithering in the corner of her eye, combined with Grimm's odd insistence that she left her room in the first place.

Everything pointed to her being the one who led her there.

Liatta bit her lip.

Everything pointed to Grimm being the one who led her there...because Grimm had practically waved every sign in Liatta's face.

The few times she had met her, Grimm had been cruel and capricious, but she never seemed so careless that she would accidentally leave that many clues for Liatta to find.

She thought back to the woman's confusing actions the last time she met her. Liatta hadn't known what she was trying to do or say, but after this her actions made a bit more sense.

She was going out of her way to show Liatta her...what did she call it? Her family crest. She wanted Liatta to find Anita's room...and she wanted Liatta to know that she led her there.

The question was why?

~℘~

Theus sat down on the sofa next to Liatta's sleeping form, completely encased in a cocoon of blankets. He watched the slow rise and fall of her chest as he thought back to the day before.

"You are a monster,"

"That fact is undeniable, but what you did as a child in self-defense is not why."

Ridiculous.

If even his sister, who had seen everything he had gone through, had tossed him aside like he was stained forever as soon as she had finished using him, why would he believe that anyone else somehow thought differently.