THE ROYAL CROWN WARS

Chapter Thirty-Five

"Don't worry one hair on your pretty little head," Lizzie mocked.

"We can do this, Alex. We can do this," I giggled.

Dean's eyes narrowed. "The two of you can stop now. It isn't funny."

The phone flashlight shined a small path as Dean led the way while Lizzie and I walked behind him. The secret passageway wasn't as scary anymore. There'd never been any monster, it'd been Charlie the whole time.

"Oh God-" Dean jumped back. A small mouse ran alongside the wall and disappeared into a hole. "This is where the two of you have been spending all your time this week? It's disgusting. It's absolutely disgusting. And, how do you know where we're going?"

We pointed towards the fork in the secret passageway. "If you go right, we'll end up back near my room and if we go left we'll end up back in the basement. Well, sort of. If you go left then right, you'll end up near the crown room. If you go left and then another left you'll end up in the basement. You just have to learn your way around."

"The blueprints help too," said Lizzie.

Dean waved his hand. "I don't wanna know. I don't have to explain more to your parents than I already will."

It took about 15 minutes to end up back in the basement. I knew we were getting closer because it kept getting colder and colder. It was a lot nicer when I knew where we were going and could actually see. Minus the cold.

Why couldn't they afford to put heat in all the places in the palace?

I stepped back into the basement and wrapped my arms around myself. Charlie sat meowing on one of the boxes.

"Charlie," Dean said. "I'm glad you're still alive." He glanced around and then frowned. "This is where your uncle left the two of you?"

I nodded. "He's apparently not too concerned for our safety. Or, how cold it is around here."

"I should..." He trailed off. Dean sighed. "I'll deal with him later. Right now, we need to find a place to hide the phone but to make sure that it's perfectly in view. Where do you think he'd expect to find you?"

"It can't be too close to the secret passageway because then he might get suspicious."

"By the stairs," said Lizzie. "We can move some of these boxes to hide the camera."

"By the stairs?" asked Dean.

"She's right. He's going to think that we just want to leave and won't be up to anything because that's right where he left us."

He nodded. "Alright, help me move some of these boxes."

We all grabbed a box and started to stack them together. With every box we moved, we tried to steady the phone wanting to make sure it was at the right angle. It was either too low or too high. By the time we'd found the perfect angle, we'd moved around 30 boxes.

Tiny beads of sweat formed on my forehead. How could I be sweating at this temperature?

The phone faced the stairs, and the stacked boxes would let Dean hide from Christian. If my uncle suspected anything, then the plan wouldn't work. Everything needed to go perfectly.

"Alright, now all we have to do is wait for Christian to come down," he said. "You girls sure about this?"

We nodded. "We've gotten this far, and you're here now. You're not going to let anything happen to us."

"No, I won't," Dean said. "I've got your back. And, uh, hey girls, I'm sorry for not believing you about everything."

I smiled. "And, we're sorry for suspecting that it was you."

"Me?" Dean pointed a finger into his chest. "You thought I'd stolen the crown jewels?"

I nodded. "You kept getting in our way, and you kept telling us this was a bad idea."

"I'm an adult. It's my job."

"Thanks for all your help," I smiled.