A Shattered Song ✔️

Chapter Eighteen: Plans

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Plans

Evelyn was still in shock.

She had expected to die soon. If not today, then tomorrow, or the next day. Worthless trinkets weren't worth the cost of keeping. And that, New Evelyn realized, was exactly what she was to most Fae. Maybe not to Melody, because of some long forgotten memories. And maybe not to Ivy, for reasons Evelyn couldn't yet determine. And maybe not to Briar, if only because Evelyn had been a last chance at saving the girl called Primrose, whom Evelyn suspected had been the one asleep in the beautiful bed when Evelyn had been escorted to the room she could now only associate with fire. Fire on her skin. Fire in Briar's panicked, desperate eyes. Fire choking her to death in a necklace of smoke.

But now a determined Melody and a hopeful Ivy were discussing ways out together at a whisper, and Evelyn was still reeling from the thought of it all.

"...trusts you..." Ivy was saying. "...can escort her...like a prisoner..."

"She'll see. She'll know." Melody was closest to Evelyn, who sat on the other bed, and so her words were easier to understand. "The Lady always knows."

"We need a distraction." Ivy decided. "But first...we're getting Evelyn out, Melody. But what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Are you staying, or going?"

At this, Evelyn froze. And so did Melody - she apparently hadn't thought about this. "I..." She said. "I...this is my home. But so was...the other place. Wasn't it?" She directed this to Evelyn.

"Yes." Breathed Evelyn, not sure what she wanted Melody's answer to be.

"I like it here." Said Melody honestly. "I'm not sure I want to leave."

"If you're going to stay, I'd say you should be the distraction." An apologetic Ivy explained. "If not, it will be me."

What?

"What?" Evelyn voiced the thought aloud.

"Well, what did you think it would be?" Ivy seemed irritated. "Glamouring someone won't work - people can sense that, and they'll realize it for what it is immediately. Nothing is ever out of place, so we can't throw a rock or something or it'll be just as obvious. That leaves us."

"But-"

"Chivalry has no place here." Ivy interrupted. She turned back to Melody. "So?"

Melody hesitated. Evelyn wanted to scream at her - obviously she should leave. Had she forgotten all that had happened?

Several minutes ticked by. Finally, Melody said, "I- I think I'll go with Evie."

"Good." Ivy said, brisk and buisnesslike. "So you'll escort Evelyn down the hallway under a glamour. Make it seem like you're taking her to the Lady Briar. Meanwhile, I'll cause a distraction in the next hallway over. There is always a guard at the gates - you'll have to kill him."

Evelyn blanched.

"You'll run for the hills, and use entry b-4 to access the town over from Evelyn's. Otherwise, it'll be too suspicious. Got it?"

The two nodded.

"Say it. What entrance?"

"B-4." Melody said in a monotone at the same time Evelyn stammered, "b-b...something."

"Be glad you have Melody, then." Ivy said, unamused. "Your plan is to...?"

"Pretend I'm glamour in Evelyn into going to Lady Briar." Melody recited. 

"No." Ivy told her. "You will not pretend to glamour her. You will glamour her. They will sense it otherwise."

Melody nodded jerkily. 

"But what if it goes wrong?" Evelyn wanted to know.

"Then you die. Simple as that. Melody gets taken back, probably gets her memories erased, and I'll be imprisoned again." Ivy showed no emotion. "So...no time like the present, right? Who knows how long Evelyn has."

Evelyn's eyes widened. This wasn't how it worked in the books. It took much longer to plan...but Ivy was right. Who knew the amount of time they had left? 

Ivy walked towards the door and opened it. "I'll go first." She said.

And she did.