The Shadow Prince

chapter twenty DAPHNE

I sit in my private TV room in the east wing of the house, flipping through the channels, looking for some sort of report on what happened to Pear, but apparently the local news comes on much later in California than it does in Utah. I find myself fighting to keep my eyes open. I don’t want to fall asleep. Because every time I start to drift off, all I can see are those fiery green eyes staring back at me.…

I sit bolt upright when I hear a hissing noise, only to realize that I left the TV on the animal channel. A cobra dances on the screen, hissing at a mongoose. I don’t wait to see who wins the fight, and hit the power button.

The clock on the wall says it’s just after ten o’ clock. Which means it’s just after eleven in Ellis. It’s been longer than twenty-four hours since I’ve spoken to anyone back home. I don’t have my cell, so I don’t know if any of them have tried to text or call me, and at the moment, I feel desperate to hear a familiar voice. I know it’s too late in the evening to try my mom, but CeCe and Jonathan are usually up until at least eleven thirty on a Saturday night.

I pick up the handset for the landline and dial CeCe’s number. It goes to voice mail after a few rings. I’m not all that surprised, since she never answers numbers that she doesn’t recognize. I listen to her voice on the message service, her comforting tone coming through, even on a recording.

“Hey, it’s me,” I tell the voice mail. “This is my new home number. It might be the best way to reach me for a while. Talk at you later … I miss you.”

I hang up and try Jonathan. Luckily, he answers.

“Hey, honey,” he says, and I can hear him turning off Saturday Night Live. “About time you called. Tell me about your day.”

And for the first time, the trauma of the day comes crashing in on me, and I burst into tears.

Jonathan coaxes me into telling him what happened, and I relay the story of my nearly disastrous—but thankfully not—audition and how that led me to finding Pear in the grove with Tobin. I tell him about the gashes on her arm, and how the security guards didn’t believe me when I said that I thought she’d been attacked. I leave out how I know who the perpetrator probably is—because I know if my mom gets wind of that part of the story, she’ll demand that I get on a plane and fly home immediately. She might even come out here and drag me home herself.

Even with everything that happened today, I am not ready to give up and leave.

It’s just past midnight when I fall asleep to Jonathan’s dulcet, reassuring tones as he tells me that everything is going to be okay.