Chapter 96

• The months slipped away, barely recognizable, barely there, and then suddenly it was as if I’d always been alone, like it was normal to pad through the halls without Darren by my side. Calls, messages, each one fleeting, each one hurting as much as it healed. I touched the place where he should have been: beside me, reaching for my fingers, inhaling my scent, losing himself in it. But he wasn’t there, not even close. Most of the time, I only had messages to console me. Reading his handwritten letters to help me feel like he was near me. We had been able to have a few video chats, which was nice even though it made me miss him even more each time. I was given a crystal that would allow me to contact him if it was urgent. The light on his end would glow and let him know I needed to speak to him. But I would have to wait for his call. The crystal wasn’t a communicator, and all communication had to be initiated by him first.
• Months of not knowing. Months without him. At least Lyle was with me through it all. He was there to help me lead the kingdom. And we always ended the day going through evidence of the brainwashing case. Just a few weeks ago, we made our first breakthrough, discovering the curse affected nearly every noble family, with the poor souls brainwashing each other. But we were able to narrow it down to ground zero. Two families who were the first to be brainwashed. All they remembered was a dreamlike walk in a glowing green room, with mossy walls that lit up the dark.
• The mastermind had made them brainwash one another, an elegant cruelty that chilled me, making me wonder what kind of enemy we faced. Months of frustration and confusion, nothing adding up, nothing making sense, and then finally a thread to follow, a piece of the puzzle that led us to our biggest clue: green glowing moss.