Chapter 22 22: the locket, princess

Chapter 22 22 FIRST
SORAYA
"If you think we will be best forming bonds, and sitting through bonfires then you are sorely mistaken! You need to understand that we are in survival mode here, Adele!"
By the time I entered the house, I noticed that it had been arranged, even the room upstairs where Daryl and I had seen the blood words were sparkling bright.
A fireplace burnt just by the side of the living room, and a shelf had been brought with selected books lined in height order.
I didn't know what it meant to be part of the Gala team, but with how it was being painted, it looked like it would be a big deal.
Adele, Dolly and I were put in one room. Then Ilana and Elle in the other, and Axel, Ethan, and Daryl in the room upstairs. I had a notion—that the school wanted a blood bath before the gala. They would get one, because the room pairing is insane.
I was staring at Adele with a deadpan face as we set up our sides of the room. The room was huge I noticed. I hadn't come in here the night Daryl and I were here so 8 couldn't tell what the interior looked like. But it was so beautiful—hauntingly so. The aura in the room was just as dark as the whole house. There was a fireplace just right by the door, and also a shelf.
Then beside each of our queen size beds, was a closet and table set up. I wondered how the school had got all these done in a few hours.
"I think something is wrong with the school, Soraya. For the past five days, it's been one tragic attack to the other," A frantic Adele was babbling, blinking her eyes rapidly and tugging dangerously at the white strands of her hair.
"If she doesn't keep quiet, I'll throw her out!" Dolly stepped into the room with a menacing look, slamming the door shut while she dragged in her luggage behind her. Her bed was opposite mine, while Adele's was beside me.
I clicked my tongue at her, regarding her with just the same look she was giving us. "How about you being nice!"
She snorted, settling down on her bed with a jolt. "That's rich coming from you."
I reached for the dagger by my hips which I had immediately put in place after Sir Sinclair told Daryl and I that we were no longer murder suspects. Adele pressed my hand down, knowing what I was about to do. "Stop it, Soraya," She pleaded.
I rolled my eyes, pushing myself off the bed and making my way out of the room. "Whatever."
Dolly hissed loudly, the sound following me as I went into the sitting room, which to my surprise has Sir Sinclair and a woman standing right at the door.
"Hey there Miss Karter. Where are the rest?"
I glanced at the clock hanging over the fireplace, squinting to be sure that it was already past six in the evening. Because somehow through the incident at the library, we moving in and all—time had run so fast I couldn't quite catch up.
"What is going on here, Sir Sinclair?" I questioned.
The man smiled, a smile I had come to detest because it was an herald for death missions. "We are here for your first training, and I brought with me Lady Galina—a detective from Fenrir's bureau of criminology. She is here to put you all through your first task."
I heard the door shut from upstairs, and I don't have to look up to know who it was. Daryl Ender's scent was strong enough to tempt me into tilting my head to take even a glimpse at him. I didn't.
"You said what now?"
Sir Sinclair looked up at the stairs. "Ah, there you are Daryl. Get the rest of you now, will you?"
"Uhm who is she?" Ilana was the next person to come out of her room, clad in a teal coloured gown like she was attending a ball or something. The princess didn't know what was at stake here.
"She is Lady Galana. Renowned detective in all eight packs of Eden," Ethan announced, making his presence known with Axel behind him, and his sister coming out ot her room as well.
The woman, Lady Galina smiled at him. "Well said, Ethan. I will advise we keep the flattery to a minum however." She kept her face from, scanning us like she could predict our next moves. "Come you all. Sir Sinair tells me we have a case to solve."
Elle furrowed her brow in confusion. "Are we still on that?"
"Well," Galina glanced at Sir Sinclair. "According to your instructor here, I believe I am to guide you through the basics of solving a murder mystery."
Daryl stepped down the stairs, his footsteps echoing through the tight silence that permeated the air. "They brought you here to get students to do your work for you."
"You must be Prince Daryl. Must I courtesy your Highness?"
Daryl ignored her, finally walking into plain sight. In his hand was papers, seemingly written notes, which he threw on the table. "These are the similarities I found between the two bodies, which quite surprisingly bear similarities to the way Princess Eve Lucan was found dead in this very house, decades ago. I don't think we need a detective to teach us that now. Do we?"
We all froze.
Even Sir Sinclair looked like he was beaten at his own game. When had Daryl done his research and found this? And why the heck was I annoyed that he had not told me about it.
"The princess died a natural death. Everyone knows that," Galina argued, her prim and proper mask slowly slipping away. It was like there was panic in her eyes.
"You don't know what you're talking about Ender. Have you gone nuts?" Ethan was arguing, supporting Galina.
"But he is right," Adele's soft voice cut through the chaos. She had two papers with her, and she turned it to us where someone had drawn clearly how the bodies were found dead, and on the second paper was a drawing of another which I didn't recognise, sprawled in the same way.
"It is right here."
Sir Sinclair suddenly turned to Daryl, snatching the papers from Adele's hands. "Where did you find that?"
"If you mean the drawings of Annie and Ms Lily. I got that simply from my memory. As for Eve Lucan's? That paper was clutched in Ms Lily's pocket right before she was attacked."
I blinked. How had I not noticed that?