Chapter 20: I'm Mr. Dunn
Malia dried the tears from her eyes with Meemaw’s handkerchief, then folded the cloth and put it back into her pocket. Crying had done her good; her sadness flowed away with her tears, like baggage lost in a flood.
Malia rose from her dark place in the hall, feeling cleansed. Now, her hardened heart could handle seeing Charles and Chloe together. She would return to the party and do her job.
But Malia could not find her way back. In her prior haste, she had paid no attention to where she was running, and now she found herself in an empty, unknown palace wing. She tried to retrace her steps, but the maze of halls and rooms grew quieter, more complex, and unfamiliar.
She sat on a cobblestone floor and gazed at the black, starless sky. Clouds plunged down the mountain and blanketed the palace in their dark mist.