The Shadow Prince

chapter thirty DAPHNE

I don’t realize that I have been asleep until the sound of a phone ringing wakes me up. In my groggy, disoriented state, I find I am unable to tell if what had happened in the last few hours—the party, Lexie near the grove, strange shadows and lightning, Haden walking me home—had been real, or if I’d merely been having the strangest dream.

I blink several times and my eyes focus on the dirty, torn blue dress that’s draped over the back of my vanity chair.

Nope, definitely not a dream.

The clock on my dresser tells me it’s early Saturday morning. Too early for social calls, I think as I pick up the phone.

It’s my mother.

Her voice is bordering on shrill, and the notes of concern ringing through her words are so strong that I panic, thinking she’s somehow gotten wind of what happened after the party and is about to demand that I pack my bags and come home. Instead, I realize she’s saying something about CeCe.

I sit up in bed with the handset pressed to my ear. “What was that?”

“Have you heard anything from CeCe in the last week?” she asks.

“No. I’ve left her messages, but she hasn’t called back.”

“Nothing? No texts or anything?”

“No,” I say, not admitting that my cell phone is probably in some guy named Haden Lord’s bedroom. Who may happen to be related to a kidnapper, according to my new bestie. “Why?”

“She’s gone,” my mom says.

“What? What do you mean, gone?” I try to keep the panic from rising in my voice, but Tobin’s talk of missing girls is making me as paranoid as he is.

“Demi, you’re being overly dramatic and scaring the girl.” I hear Jonathan’s soothing voice and realize I’m on speakerphone. Probably in the flower shop, the faint buzz of the old cooler in the background. “Hey, honey, how was the fancy party? You took pictures, didn’t you?”

“It was … nice,” I say. “But what’s this about CeCe? I thought she had the flu.”

“She quit,” Jonathan says. “In a note, of all things, and right before we needed to get all the orders in for the Harvest Banquet.”

“Why would she quit?”

“I don’t know,” Mom says.

“When did this happen?”

“I don’t know when she left,” Mom says. “She called in sick the morning after you went to California and didn’t come in for any of her shifts this week. I figured she must have been feeling really poorly, so I went over to her apartment with some of my tummy tea this morning, and, well, she was just gone. Her landlord said she left a check to cover cleaning and a note saying that she quit her job and was leaving town.”

“Why?” I ask.

“No idea. She’s never seemed interested in leaving Ellis.”

“I told you,” I hear Indie’s staccato voice from somewhere in the background. “She must have taken that new job.”

“What’s that?” I ask.

“Some woman called the shop a few days ago,” Indie says, coming closer to the speakerphone. “She was asking all these employment verification questions. Like how long CeCe had worked here, where she’d worked before, and stuff. I don’t get why everyone is worked up about it. So she quit and took a new job in a town that actually has malls and stuff.”

Honestly, I can’t blame CeCe, considering I’d left Ellis for bigger and better things. It just surprises me that she hadn’t called to tell me her plans.

“We were hoping you’d heard more from her,” Jonathan says. “I can’t get over her not saying good-bye.”

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Mom says. “She always seemed so happy here. Right up until you …”

“Right up until I left,” I say, finishing the thought for her.