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Back Princess at Heart Save as PDF
Chapters (49)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. The Rosewood Chronicles
  4. Dedication
  5. Prologue
  6. Part One
  7. 1
  8. 2
  9. 3
  10. 4
  11. 5
  12. 6
  13. 7
  14. 8
  15. 9
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. 13
  20. 14
  21. 15
  22. Part Two
  23. 16
  24. 17
  25. 18
  26. 19
  27. 20
  28. 21
  29. 22
  30. 23
  31. 24
  32. 25
  33. 26
  34. 27
  35. 28
  36. Part Three
  37. 29
  38. 30
  39. 31
  40. 32
  41. 33
  42. 34
  43. 35
  44. 36
  45. 37
  46. 38
  47. Author’s Note
  48. The Rosewood Houses
  49. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

It was the last push she needed to pull the box back into focus. As long as she could help the Wolfsons, she’d always have a place she belonged.

With one final bout of resolve, Lottie lifted the sword with both hands and struck it down hard through the middle of the box. The sound of the impact was a sharp twang followed by a small and satisfying click, the lock melting under the blade like butter.

It felt like magic, the sword hitting exactly where it needed to, and, like a chestnut, the box cracked open, the juicy insides peeking out.

There was no going back from here.

24

‘There you are,’ Lottie breathed, reaching hungrily for her prize, until her fingers froze, confused by what she was seeing.

Not in all her wonderings had she imagined that Haru had been telling the truth: the box did indeed contain a diary.

Humming in thought, Lottie picked up the red leather notebook, flicking through the pages, hungry for a taste of anything she could use against Leviathan. The contents were not the instant clue she’d expected; in fact it was entirely empty until about halfway through where the pages erupted with lines and lines of Kanji and Hiragana, all of which she couldn’t read.

She only noticed her mistake once she reached a page with an upside-down sketch of a cat, and she couldn’t believe what a fool she’d been. The back of the book was, in fact, the front, meaning it must have been a notebook Haru had kept since he was in Japan.

A part of her thought that perhaps, once she turned it over, she might magically be able to understand the foreign characters, but that was pure optimism. As she began making her way through the diary from the correct side, she realized how hopeless it truly was.

Everything was in Japanese, not a single line in English. Here it was, right at her fingertips, probably everything she’d need to figure out what Leviathan were planning, everything they wanted, and Lottie couldn’t read a single word of it.

A sudden pain in her bottom lip let her know she’d bitten down too hard on it in frustration. Despite her efforts to remain calm, her eyes swam with tears that threatened to spill over on to the diary.

With time running out, she hurried through the pages, desperate to find anything at all that she could use, when her attention snagged on three numbers, ones that she knew very well because she saw them almost every day.

In elegant handwriting were four sets of three-digit Arabic numbers.

2 2 1

0 0 9

1 0 9

9 9 9

Underneath Haru had circled some Japanese text three times, clearly indicating that this was significant, but it was those three numbers at the top that had made her pause. They were the numbers of her dorm room.