Chapter 12 Yes... No... Maybe.

Chapter 12 Yes... No... Maybe.
Amaris jerks back stronger than she intends to, startled. “What? Why?”

Rhea edges closer, wringing her hands. “Mum, don’t just shout it like that… what if she figures it out?”

Rosetta hisses in return, “She won’t. She’s never figured anything out in her life!”

Amaris’s brows knit together. “Ma’am… what’s happening?”

“NOTHING!” Rhea squeaks.

“Absolutely nothing!” Rosetta echoes.

Mr. Hanxton yawns loudly. “It’s something,” he mutters.

Rosetta smacks him with a wooden spoon.

Amaris takes a small step back. “You want me to… leave?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“…Maybe.”

Rosetta elbows her daughter. “Rhea!”

Rhea straightens. “What mom means to say is… you should run an errand. A very long errand, far away from here.”

“Yes… Go away,” Rosetta echoes. “Far away.”

Amaris stares. “To where?”

“Away,” Rhea repeats.

“That’s not a place.” Amaris retorts, her nerves getting stretched taut.

Rosetta exhales shakily, pacing the floor. “Fine then. We’ll… we’ll pick a place. Somewhere safe. Somewhere where you won’t talk to anyone important or… or royal or…” She swallows thickly so she won’t say too much. “Or dangerous.”

Mr. Hanxton yawns again. “Or that palace so we save both sides the stress,” he mumbles.

Rosetta’s eyes nearly fly out of her skull as she turns on him. “PORTER!”

He blinks slowly. “What?”

Amaris’s heartbeat stutters. “The palace? What’s at the palace?”

“No palace!” Rosetta yells. “Forget he said that! Your ears are malfunctioning!”

‘Are you sure it’s not their ears malfunctioning? Possibly their brains too? I am sure we are losing some sort of physical quality just listening to them.’ her wolf mutters wryly.

Amaris tries to stay calm. “Why can’t I go to the palace?”

That question turns the entire room into a still pond. Rosetta and Rhea freeze mid-motion, eyes wide like terrified deer.

“No reason!” Rhea squeaks. “You just can’t go there, do you want to lose your head? Haven’t you ever heard of how the King cuts people’s heads off upon every slight provocation?”

Rosetta nods frantically. “The palace… is… haunted by the owners of the heads.”

Mr. Hanxton snorts quietly. “I highly doubt that is true.”

Rosetta facepalms, sighing heavily like all the frantic lying is taking a toll on her physically.

Amaris frowns deeper.

Something is wrong, very wrong and it’s either with these trio or whatever it is they can’t tell her is eating up at them on the inside. They’re hiding something, that much is pretty obvious but the gravity of what it is, is running them insane.

Rosetta clears her throat, smoothing her dress. “Anyway. As I was saying, you’re going to Wilhelmina’s.”

Amaris perks up a little at the familiar name. “Wilhelmina?”

“Yes,” Rhea says, relieved. “Go to Madam Wilhelmina Wrighton right this instant, help her with whatever she needs help with, just be gone until we send for you or something.”

“Don’t pack anything, you won’t need them,” Rosetta adds quickly. “Just go.”

Amaris hesitates. “Do you… need something delivered to her?”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Maybe.”

Rhea flutters her hands. “Just go and… help her. Or greet her. Or… scrub her floor. We don’t really care about that. Just go for now, trust me, it’s for your own sake.”

Mr. Hanxton waves lazily from his chair. “Bye, kid.”

“Porter!” Rosetta screeches. “Don’t make it obvious!”

Amaris’s stomach tightens. That word again.

‘Obvious.’

Like there’s something she’s supposed to realize.

She tries to catch Rosetta’s gaze, but the woman looks everywhere except at her.

“Why do I need to leave right now?” Amaris asks softly.

For a full moment, no one speaks.

Then, Rosetta plasters on the fakest smile Amaris has ever seen. “Because you’re… annoying to have around!”

Rhea nods furiously. “Yes! You’re annoying, especially today!”

“I’m always here,” Amaris says quietly.

“And that’s the problem,” Rosetta blurts before she can stop herself.

Rhea nudges her hard in the side as she grunts, regaining her mask. “I mean… you’re underfoot. Always annoyingly underfoot and everywhere, we need to not see your face for sometime too.”

Amaris lowers her gaze, something stings in her chest. She shouldn’t care, but she does.

Still… she can feel the truth humming beneath their lies, kinda like they’re already grieving her departure, but refusing to say it aloud.

Rosetta weakly waves a hand toward the door to show her out. “Shoo already.”

Mr. Hanxton nods once. “I think these two would like it better if you take the long route.”

Amaris grabs her cloak weakly. “Okay. I… I’ll go. See you sometime.”

As she steps outside, her wolf hums. ‘A long errand, huh? They’re hiding something from you.’

Amaris sighs. “I know.”

‘Want me to dig into their heads?’

“You can do that?!”

‘Yes?’

“No…”

Her wolf yawns. ‘Suit yourself.’

Amaris adjusts her cloak and starts down the familiar path toward Wilhelmina’s home.

Behind her, inside the house, some level of sanity finally returns to them as the mother and daughter duo finally sigh.

Rosetta collapses into a chair, her fingers shaking violently while Rhea clutches the countertop, pale as milk and her knuckles white.

Mr. Hanxton simply pours himself tea, contemplating whether the fast thinking and schemes would deter his women to now be able to keep the drinks down unlike the ones that turned cold ages ago.

“She has to go,” Rosetta whispers. “We can’t keep her, it’s as we’d been ordered then.”

Rhea nods, voice trembling. “If the palace collects her…?”

“They will,” Rosetta cuts in sharply. “They always honor Damon’s decrees, even after death.”

“But… but what if they don’t? They didn’t really know about it, you know?” Rhea whispers. “What if she stays?”

Rosetta squeezes her eyes shut. “If she stays,” she says, voice cracking, “we will all die.”