Conform or Suffer: The Darkness of Beauty

Chapter 36 Terrible Parties

Luxury Hotel Room

*

Yoleta looked at the piles of snow beneath the window. Her temporal watch turned on. The guards in the hotel didn't speak.

She dialed the room phone, and she sat on the bed's gold blankets. Paintings of hundreds of past queens stared back. Each woman resembled a doll version of themselves. Their eyeballs were covered with buttons.

Flint answered his phone. "Did they show?"

"No, and it's been days." She closed her eyes to avoid looking at the paintings.

"Something is wrong," he said. "I've lived through this timeline three times, and Zill always attacks you at the hotel, or at least I think she does."

"I don't remember any of it except for bits and pieces." Her body yanked through time and space, and she stood inside Quig and Grew-Ella's kitchen and watched them.

They were holding a tablet computer in front of them. Their bodies were slowly unfrozen, but they didn't see her.

"Thank you all for finishing the quiz. I checked over the answers and awarded bonus points for anyone who found the added typos in the text," Grew-Ella said.

"We'll give you an extra three days to turn in your short stories, but tomorrow you'll be writing flash fiction. Your story must be up to fifty words." Quig turned off the screen.

"I graded papers this morning, so we have the rest of the day all to ourselves." Grew-Ella wrapped her fingers around his wrist.

"Whatever will we do with our time?" Quig held Grew-Ella close to him, but he jerked his head and squealed. "Don't startle me! Yoleta, how did you break into our apartment?"

"I thought I had camouflage mode on. Must have flicked off," she said.

Quig grimaced. "Why do you have a camouflage mode? Don't spy on us."

"This is an emergency. Chase hasn't shown up. He used your teacher's IDs to apply for an annulment the day before the storm. Everything is fine and magical because I flagged it as fraudulent."

Quig blushed. "Um, we wouldn't qualify for an annulment."

Grew-Ella grabbed Quig's hand. "Our marriage is genuine."

Yoleta raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"We're using our time trapped in the building as an impromptu honeymoon. You're not invited." He pointed to the door.

"The watch picks where I shift," Yoleta said.

Grew-Ella's phone rang, and she trembled as she answered in a stilted voice. "Hello, Chase."

"Gorgeous, you and Quig are not happening," Chase said.

Grew-Ella's face was hard. "You're on speakerphone, and Yoleta is here. Don't say anything personal."

"Chase, I've been looking for you." Yoleta grabbed the phone and handed it back to Grew-Ella.

"We're staying with friends, and you won't find us. Grew-Ella, I ordered you not to tell Quig you loved him," Chase said.

Her hands shook. "No, I told my husband I loved him, which I'm allowed to do after one week."

"Why would it matter if she told Quig? I knew you battered her self-esteem, but what game are you playing? You don't need two sisters in love with you," Yoleta said.

Quig spoke. "I won't tell Yoleta, even though I'm not bound by the contract."

Chase's voice quivered over the phone. "Yes, you are. She isn't allowed to love you because Zill or Vex picks who her husband is."