"Hey," a voice says, jolting Amelia back into reality. "Mia? What's wrong?"
Felix.
Amelia wraps her arms around his neck and allows him to comfort her, if it'll only be for a moment. Normally, she wouldn't show her weakness, but under normal circumstances there weren't any triggers.
"It's okay. Relax. No one's going to hurt you," Felix says, his almost seductive tone calming her frazzled nerves.
Amelia allows herself to soak in his wonderful and newly familiar scent of lemons and baby powder. His presence has become comforting to her, setting her at ease, especially knowing that he can fight and defend himself when needed.
And if he can defend himself, he can protect her too.
But the theory would only work if she isn't seen as a threat to Emilie, and currently, Amelia has a feeling that the woman knows what she is up to.
It would explain her sudden bouts of kindness thrown her way.
No one's that nice.
Especially not a de Vanily girl.
"I'm so sorry Felix," Mia says, pushing him away. "I-I should meet the others."
She moves to leave the room and Felix grabs her wrist, causing her to hold in a hiss.
"Wait."
Mia slowly turns around to find his blue-gray eyes staring at her intently. If only this is another world. Maybe she'd be able to give him a chance.
Even if she could, what if he doesn't feel the same way?
What if he's as bad as him?
Or worse?
She thought ... was an amazing person when she first met him, but as the relationship went on, he became toxic and controlling with a quick temper and a tendency to get jealous out of nothing.
"What?" Mia throws her hands. "Are you going to use this against me and manipulate me?"
She attempts to walk past him, but he stands in front of her.
"No, I'm not. I just want to know what's wrong."
"As if you care about me," she scoffs. "The only person you care about is yourself and your sister."
He raises an eyebrow, "I don't know what I did to cause you to think this of me, but I'll have you know that I do care. You are a good person Mia, I can tell. Just like I used to be."
"You don't know what I've done."
"Nothing that anyone has done is beyond redemption."
"Even what Benjamin Stone did to me?"
Felix's mouth gapes. "What did you just say?"
Amelia looks at him curiously. "Why? Do you know him?"
"I'm the one that killed him."
He was the one that murdered Ben Stone all that time ago?
Wow. But what reason would he have to kill him except...
Oh no.
This was just too good.
Mia lets a laugh escape her lips and Felix looks at her as if she were crazy.
Ben Stone not only hurt Amelia, but he hurt Emilie.
Now Mia knows exactly what Emilie went through, unless she got it worse.
Now that is a peculiar thought.
How long were they dating? Was it the same time he was with Mia? Or did Ben find her after Mia finally escaped him?
"He's Emilie's ex." It wasn't a question.
Felix nods grimly. "The bastard deserves to rot for the things he did to her...and you."
Felix eyes her wrists, noticing the scars.
"He did that to you too, huh?" he asks softly.
Amelia tries to shake away the horrid thoughts and decides that Felix isn't helping.
"Don't speak of it please," she begs softly. He clears his throat, clearly uncomfortable being the one to bring it up.
"Now I feel bad for kissing London," Mia confesses.
Oh, she doesn't feel bad at all. But Felix won't need to know that.
"Why?" he asks.
Amelia eyes Felix seriously.
"Because Emilie likes him. You can't mistake the way they're looking at each other."
She sees Felix clenching his fists and tries not to smile. If Emilie is indeed onto her, then Amelia needs to fight back. And what better way to fight back than to make her brother go Papa Bear on her?
"They are so cute together, whispering on the couch in the drawing room, don't you think?" Mia asks innocently. "I'm glad she is able to get over all this quicker than I am."
Felix stands there, staring off into the distance and gritting his teeth.
Oh mama, this is going to be good.
"I'm meeting the others," she calls over her shoulder. "You can join me if you'd like."
"Oh, you bet I will."
***
Amelia looks in the observatory to find the others are no longer there and kicks Felix when he mentions he saw them walking to the library.
"Didn't know that's who you were looking for," he claims.
Once they reach the room, the two stop outside the door.
"Thanks for telling me about London," Felix says. "I wasn't aware how smitten Emilie is with him. Much appreciated." He reaches for the doorknob just as Amelia did and their hands touch.
"Sorry!" They say in unison.
Felix quickly opens the door and waves Mia to go in first. She politely smiles in return.
What a gentleman.
"Oh, hey Mia!" James greets. "Did you find the bathroom?"
Shoot! She still has to pee!
"Uh...I kinda got side tracked."
Emilie walks up to her and eyes her brother up and down. "We can tell. Where'd you come from, Felix?"
"I was searching for you guys when I ran into Mia in the teaching room," he explains. "She was rather..."
Mia hurries to step on his foot.
"Er—she was looking at something on the board."
Amelia doesn't bother to hide her frustration and tosses her hands in the air before walking over to James to help him search the shelf. She knows better than to hang around London.
Especially now that Felix is suspicious of him and Emilie.
Amelia shakes all those thoughts out of her mind and focuses on finding a second map to compare the one she found in the observatory. There's got to be more than one map of this place.
Felix and Emilie disperse and look around the library as well.
There is a blissful silence, the only noise being the sound of pages flipping and spines bending. Oh, and James' coughs every time he opens a book too quickly, causing dust to float into the air and his lungs.
While searching the shelves, a title catches her eye.
Second Chances: A Guide to Being Good.
"You've got to be kidding me..." Mia mumbles. Luckily, no one seems to have heard her. She pulls the leatherbound book off the shelf and to her surprise, it's a handwritten journal.
She thumbs through the pages and reads the dates at the top of the pages to find that it's from almost a hundred and fifty years ago!
Amelia turns to the last page written in and nearly drops the book.
It's dated two weeks before she ended up in this wretched place.
Knowing this must have some useful information, she tucks it under her shirt and pretends to observe a chair on the other side of the room. She makes sure the others aren't looking before slipping the book underneath the cushioning of the chair so she can read it later.
"Find anything?" Felix asks.
Everyone shakes their heads.
Then Emilie pulls something off one of the shelves and smiles. Another scroll tied with the same red string as the one they found in the observatory is in her hands and she carefully unrolls it on the large table.
"Quick! Where's the other scroll?"
London spreads the second parchment next to the other and steps back.
"Bingo," Emilie murmurs.
Mia turns her head to find that they are two parts of a whole.
The second map.
If only she had a camera she could use to take a picture! Now she'll either have to pull the map out now or wait for a chance to look at them alone.
Like she's going to let these fools know what she's found!
"That's it!" Felix says, his voice actually sounding excited for once. "The solution to the clue is a map, remember? This is it!"
He looks at Mia and she internally groans.
Felix knows what she had found, as she was stupid enough to have dropped it in the teaching room not long before he found her. The turd must've picked it up because Mia doesn't have it and she is sure that she didn't see anything on the floor when she left.
"Wait, put them together." Mia pushes the two scrolls together and a message becomes clear.
The next clue.