Page 13 of Wicked Royals
“The White Houseissouth-east from here, so that could work,” I mused. “But if we wander too far off my usual path, we could get lost, so we’ll only explore within reason,okay?”
“Okay,Mom,” Marissa said in an acidtone.
We kept going down the tunnel. A couple of minutes later, I realized my left shoe was starting to feel weirdly loose. I was wearing the latest Valentino gladiator heels, and they had straps that laced up and around my legs, all the way to my knees. One of the straps must’ve comeundone.
“Give me a second,” I said, crouching to have a look. “I need to fix myshoe.”
My friends didn’t stop walking, but they slowed down, dawdling upahead.
Feeling with my hands, I located the ends of the shoe straps on my left leg. They were still tied together. The shoe shouldn’t be loose atall.
Frowning, I pulled my phone out of my clutch and shined the light on myself. “Oh, shit,” I muttered. One of the straps had snapped halfway down my leg, so cleanly that it almost looked like it’d been cut with a pair of scissors. It didn’t matter if everything was tied together at the top; the shoe would still feel loose and hang off my foot due to the lack ofsupport.
So much for designerquality.
“Hurry up, Willow!” Marissa called back tome.
“There’s something wrong with my shoe,” I said. “I think I can fix it, though. Give me a fewminutes.”
She groaned. “It hurts my feet more to stand still in heels than it does to walk inthem!”
“Me too,” Katesaid.
I sighed. “Okay, whatever. Keep walking. You’ll get to another split in the tunnel in about five minutes, and you need to turn right there. I’ll catch up when Ican.”
They took off without anotherword.
I let out another sigh as I tried to figure out what to do with my shoe. If I could just retie the broken straps together somehow, I could easily fix the issue. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple. The broken parts weren’t long enough to tie back together in a knot, even when I yanked them as tightly together as Icould.
“A-ha!” I whispered to myself a moment later as a stroke of inspiration hit me. My hair was in an updo, and underneath all the fancy pins and tucked-in braids, there was a hair tie. I could use that to connect the straps backtogether.
It took five painstaking minutes to remove every single bobby pin in my updo, along with all the intricately-plaited parts around the edge. Finally, my long auburn hair tumbled over my shoulders, allowing me to grasp at the hair tie and yank itfree.
It took another couple of minutes to fix the straps, but it seemed to work. I stood and took a few steps. Everything felt fine. If I walked extra fast, I should be able to catch up with my friends soonenough.
I started typing a quick text to Marissa to let her know I was on my way. Then I remembered there was no cell service down here. With a frustrated groan, I stashed my phone back in my clutch and hurried down the tunnel. My eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness by now, so I didn’t need thelight.
After passing multiple alcoves and tiny pitch-black passageways leading to god-knows-where—I'd always been too scared to explore those particular parts—I reached the fork where I needed to goright.
Before I could turn, I heard an odd scraping sound from somewhere on the left part of thefork.
My pulse began to race. “Marissa?” I tentatively called out. “Simone?Kate?”
They must’ve misheard my directions and turned left instead of right, and the sound was the click-clack of their shoes on the cement. At least that’s what I told myself. Deep down, I knew it could be anyone or anything, but that thought was too terrifying to pay more than a millisecond of attention to rightnow.
The sound came again a few seconds later. This time it was close enough for me to surmise that it was the footsteps of someone in heavy flatshoes.
My breath hitched in my chest, and I began to back away into the other side of the tunnel. As I moved, a masculine voice echoed in thedarkness.
“Willow? Is thatyou?”
I couldn’t tell exactly who it was, but it sounded like one of my Secret Serviceguys.
My shoulders slumped, and I let out a groan. Obviously, my detail had figured out what I’d done, and they were here to tell me to go home rightaway.
“Look, I’m sorry, okay?” I said, pulling out my phone. “It was just meant to be a bit offun.”
I switched the flashlight app on and shined the light down the tunnel to confirm that it was my security detail heading towardme.
