Once An Eve Novel

tried. “It will be.”
    “Let’s get you two back inside,” Joby said, stepping forward. Pip kept staring at the table.
    “Pip?” I asked, waiting until her gaze finally met mine. Her skin was pale, her freckles faded from so many hours indoors. “I promise everything is going to be okay.” I wanted to go on, but they were already getting up, their hands crossed at the wrists behind them, ready to go inside.
    “Will you come back?” Ruby asked, turning to me.
    “I’ll try my best.”
    Pip slipped inside the building without saying goodbye. Ruby followed after, glancing over her shoulder one final time. Then they were gone, the door falling shut behind them, the hollow click of the lock stiffening my spine.

forty
     
    WHEN I RETURNED TO THE CITY, I GRANTED REGINALD MORE interviews. I spoke of my great excitement for the wedding, of Charles’s commitment to The New America, and of my visit to the School, all the while comforted by the questions that would arise once I disappeared. People would have to wonder what had happened to me, their Princess, why I had gone missing on one of the biggest days in recent history. The King wouldn’t be able to explain it away so easily, as he’d explained away everything else. Each day that I was out in the wild, on the run, meant one more day for the City to think about where I was, to question what I had said, to remember all the rumors that had circulated after Caleb’s capture. Enough people had seen the soldiers grab me, had watched as my hands were bound and I was brought inside.
    Harper had reached me through the paper only once more, to confirm the plan was in effect. Now I stood in the suite, staring out the window for the last time at the crowded City below. The morning sun reflected off the metal barricades lining the sidewalks, showing the extensive route that wound around the City center. People were already assembling on the main road. The streets were packed all the way to the Outlands.
    The door opened behind me. Beatrice was in a cerulean blue dress, squeezing her hands together nervously. I stepped forward and pressed her fingers between my own. “I told you, you don’t have to do this. You don’t have to help me. It could be dangerous.”
    “I want to,” she said. “You have to leave today—it’s not a question. I just hid the ring.” I wrapped my arms around her, not wanting to let go. In just an hour, the King would come to my suite, ready to escort me downstairs to the car, its engine running, waiting to start the long procession. He’d find the room empty, that silly white dress laid out on the bed. He’d move through the Palace, scouring the dining room, the parlor, his office. On one of the floors he’d find Beatrice, in a search of her own, frantic to find my ring before the procession started. She’d tell him that she’d just left me in my room, that I’d insisted she look for the missing piece of jewelry, afraid that it had slipped off somewhere outside the suite.
    “Thank you,” I whispered, the words feeling inadequate. “For everything.” I looked around the room, remembering how she had washed my scarred wrists when I’d first arrived, how she’d sat on the bed with me, her hand on my back as I fell asleep. “As soon as I reach the Trail I’ll look for Sarah,” I whispered. “We’ll get her out in time.”
    “I hope so,” she said, her face darkening at the mention of her daughter.
    “She’ll come back to you,” I insisted. “I promise.”
    Beatrice smiled, then pressed her fingers to her eyes. “Clara’s just down the hall—wait for her signal before you leave. I’ll stay here for another forty minutes,” she said. “All the entrances should be clear now. I won’t let anyone come in.” She fell back into the room, gesturing for me to go.
    I crept toward the door. The lock had been plugged the same way the one in the stairwell had, a wad of paper lodged in its depths, preventing it from latching. I listened for the soldier. He stood right beside the door, his heavy breathing filling the air. My hand was on the knob, waiting to hear Clara’s voice.
    After a few minutes the sound of footsteps echoed against the wood floors. “I need help!” Clara called down the corridor. “You there—someone has broken into my suite.”
    I heard the soldier’s muffled reply and the argument that followed, Clara insisting he go with her right then, that her very life was in jeopardy. As they started down the