I couldn’t help looking over my shoulder, feeling like there was someone watching me, following me. The fact that the Queen was walking almost twice as fast as I was, ahead of me, didn’t do anything to ease my emotions either. It was almost like she felt the energy in the air—or she knew something about this place that she wasn’t telling me. It was almost like she was running away, now that I think about it…
There was something about this part of the palace that scared me, that made me want to turn around and not come back. It looked a lot older than the other parts of the palace—a lot more broken…
When I turned forward again, desperate not to fall too far behind the Queen, my eyes fell on the cracks that lined the wall up front, starting in the very centre, and spreading out like a sp
