BooksBarbecue
Back Reverie
Chapters (53)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Letter from the Author
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Contents
  6. • One •
  7. • Two •
  8. • Three •
  9. • Four •
  10. • Five •
  11. • Six •
  12. • Seven •
  13. • Eight •
  14. • Nine •
  15. • Ten •
  16. • Eleven •
  17. • Twelve •
  18. • Thirteen •
  19. • Fourteen •
  20. • Fifteen •
  21. • Sixteen •
  22. • Seventeen •
  23. • Eighteen •
  24. • Nineteen •
  25. • Twenty •
  26. • Twenty-One •
  27. • Twenty-Two •
  28. • Twenty-Three •
  29. • Twenty-Four •
  30. • Twenty-Five •
  31. • Twenty-Six •
  32. • Twenty-Seven •
  33. • Twenty-Eight •
  34. • Twenty-Nine •
  35. • Thirty •
  36. • Thirty-One •
  37. • Thirty-Two •
  38. • Thirty-Three •
  39. • Thirty-Four •
  40. • Thirty-Five •
  41. • Thirty-Six •
  42. • Thirty-Seven •
  43. • Thirty-Eight •
  44. • ∞ •
  45. • Thirty-Nine •
  46. • Forty •
  47. Epilogue
  48. Acknowledgments
  49. Excerpt from Be Dazzled
  50. One
  51. Two
  52. About the Author
  53. Back Cover

“Okay, listen to me Kane. The climax of The Devil in the Lily happens the night of Augustine’s wedding. My wedding, that’s happening right now. If I’m right, Katherine is going to try to stop Helena and Johan from eloping, and Helena is going to shoot her. That happens during the fireworks in the book. My husband told me those are at midnight. That means we need to find Katherine and make sure she discovers Helena’s plan, but not too soon. Only soon enough to get murdered. Oh, it’s so good! I love this.”

Ursula looked truly enthralled to be acting out this book, but Kane couldn’t shake a churning uncertainty that something was off. Nothing was ever this easy for him.

“I’m not Elliot, but here’s the plan.” Ursula sat Kane down. “Stay here. You’re Cousin Willard, a side character who tried to run away at the start of the book but got caught and dragged back, then put in some sort of institution. He doesn’t talk and barely listens. Basically a warning of what happens to those that defy societal expectations, like Helena and Johan will by eloping. The point is that this is a Beazley family affair, and you should stay out of it, okay? Let me and the Others handles this. Just chill until we can get Helena and Johan to elope, and then we’ll come find you once the reverie is ready to be unraveled. Okay? Okay.”

Wait! Kane mouthed.

“What?”

Don’t leave me.

Ursula took his hands.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything. You have nothing to worry about, okay? Just get ready for the unraveling, and promise me you’ll stay here.”

“I—”

“Don’t say it. Just do it.”

She hustled into the crowd, leaving Kane to wait with his fear.

And wait he did. Just not there. Whether it was his usual anxiety or a sharper instinct, Kane found himself edging the patio, watching the faces in the crowd. He wondered who they were. Were they completely made up by the reverie, or were the faces memories of people Helena knew? Perhaps her mind had gathered all the ghosts of her past to inhabit her imagined world, to witness her triumph over her rival, to respect Helena here in ways they’d failed her in her actual life.

It didn’t feel right.

Guests pressed into couples beneath archways festooned with vines and glittering berries. Kane slipped into the ballroom, gasping at the towering pillars, glowing chandeliers, and a skylight striped with sunset. He found himself at a table heavy with fruits and pastries, where he saw the strangest thing. Topping off the lavish display was a birdcage, which was odd, but the birds within it were even odder; they were assembled from delicate feathers of porcelain, with chrome beaks and unseeing eyes made of ball bearings. Little, ornate machines.