Lily fell.
She screamed, scrabbling to escape, but Belle pounced on her, pinning her arms above her head. “What did you hear, you creepy little spy? Are you going to tattle on us to your mommy?”
At this, Lily stopped struggling. At this, Lily smiled. “It isn’t what I heard,” she said, just loud enough for Jack to pick up the words. “It’s what I read. One petal of belladonna. One petal of poppy.”
“Shit.” Belle scowled, heat flooding her cheeks. “Where is it?” she demanded, tightening her grip on Lily’s wrists. The smaller girl, to her credit, had not stopped squirming against her.
Now, against all odds, she managed to shrug. “Where is what?”
“The recipe for our witches’ brew,” Belle said calmly, her dark eyes revealing nothing. “It was part of the game. The potion I used to kill Prince Raven.”
“Raven doesn’t drink tea,” Lily taunted. “The recipe called for dropping two petals into a cup of tea, and she’s the only one who drinks tea in this household.”
“She?” Jack asked innocently, because Belle’s recipe had not included that word. No “he” or “she,” no “stepmother” or “Evelyn.”
“You know who I mean,” Lily said, blowing a white-blond strand out of her face. “The one who loves torturing my stepbrother.”
Jack’s stomach dipped at the words, and she knelt beside the two girls. “Have you seen her hurt Raven? Do you have proof?”
“There will never be proof,” Lily said, an edge in her voice. Her arms trembled where Belle had them pinned. “The wickedest monsters know better than to leave footprints.”
“You think she’s a monster?” Jack’s gaze shifted to Belle as the moon slipped behind the clouds. “Maybe—”
“She’s lying,” Belle snarled, leaning down to whisper in Lily’s ear. “I know you’ve been spying on Raven for weeks.”
“I’ve been trying to help him! To find out what she’s been doing!”
“Jack may fall for that, but she sees the best in everyone.” Belle pulled back, still holding Lily’s wrists. “I see the truth. The second I let you go, you’re going to run right to your mother.”
“I’m not!” Lily squealed, kicking out her legs like a rabbit. “I can prove it. Next month is the Apple Blossom Festival, and half the girls in town will be wearing flower garlands. If you wove a couple of belladonna blossoms into yours, no one would think anything of it.”
Belle narrowed her eyes but said nothing.
“And you,” Lily added, turning to Jack, “could add poppies to your garland. I could add lilies. They’re poisonous too, you know. If we leave blossoms all over her kitchen table, where she drinks her tea, everyone will think it’s an accident if a few petals fall—”
“You hardly even know Raven,” Jack broke in, the blood rushing through her ears. This plan was getting too specific. Too possible. “Why would you choose him over your own mother?”
Lily chuckled, and Jack felt fingers tickling her spine. “I’m not doing this for Raven. I’m doing it for myself.”
Jack swallowed, searching for bruises on Lily’s hands and feet. Cuts. Scars. “Is your mother hurting you, too?” she asked, as Belle leaned back on her haunches, letting go of Lily’s wrists.
Lily slid out from under her, clambering to her feet. “You could search me with a magnifying glass and you wouldn’t be able to find my wounds,” she said, striding toward the house.
“Wait!” Jack hurried after her. Belle followed more slowly, a wolf studying a rabbit she was saving for later. “What did you do with—”
“The recipe?” Lily asked cheerfully, and it was funny, how innocent that word sounded. Like they could talk about it in front of Raven, and he’d never know what they were planning. They could talk about it in front of his stepmother, the woman they were plotting to poison.
To kill.
“Oh, I tucked it somewhere safe,” Lily said, waving a hand. “It’s my protection, in case you decide to blame me for the entire thing. It has to look like an accident, and we have to be equally guilty.”
“We don’t need your help,” Belle said, joining them in the yard. The orchard sat at their backs; the great stone manor sprawled out before them. And on the wraparound porch, Raven held a tray of four drinks in his hands, one for each of them.
Including his stepsister.
“We do need her help,” Jack murmured, linking her arm through Belle’s. From a distance, they must’ve looked like a couple of school kids, gossiping and sharing secrets. And they were. “People in town know that we’re Raven’s best friends, and they might’ve heard us talking about his stepmom. They might suspect us if poppy and belladonna are the only flowers in her tea. But lilies? Named after her flesh and blood?”
The girls turned to Lily then, stopping her before she reached the steps to the porch. “Why are you helping us?” Jack whispered, her back to the house, and to Raven. “You could’ve let us take care of the problem. You could’ve kept your hands clean.”
Lily swallowed, staring at the dirt on her fingers. “If you’d grown up with my mother, you’d want to do more than get your hands dirty,” she said, as the moon broke free from the clouds, painting her a specter against the darkness. White hair. White skin. White teeth. “You’d want to bury her alive.”
4
Callous Lily
In the light Lily had withered, but in the darkness she bloomed. Hidden away in this gated place, she’d eaten to her heart’s content, never worrying about who was looking over her shoulder. No fingernails dug into her arm. No voice whispered in her ear to play the game a little longer, do as she was told, be a good girl.
Lily was not a good girl.
Being good led to obedience, and obedience led to being hurt. For the past three years, Lily had lived free of rules and free of pain. Well, there were some rules in the Rose Hollow Wellness Facility, but they were centered around not hurting people, and Lily was fine with that. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, didn’t want to lie or deceive.
But sometimes she didn’t have a choice. Like this evening, for example. Lily was sitting on the lip of a fountain, waiting for Jack to arrive at the facility. Jack had been calling her all day, but places like this restricted cell phone usage, so Lily had pretended to be unavailable for most of that time. Her phone had lit up at one o’clock. Three o’clock. Five. Finally, at seven thirty, Lily had answered.
Then she’d gone to wait in the courtyard.
Now she trailed her fingers through the water of the fountain’s pool, twirling the water lilies that floated on the surface. This courtyard had been her solace over the past few years. She’d come out here as often as possible, tending to the flowers or letting the coolness of the water soothe her skin.
It was unfortunate that she’d had to leave it behind.
There was a tinkling sound to her left, as someone pushed through the back door of the facility. Lily turned in time to see Jack approaching. Her old friend was hesitant, worry lining her face.