The Diary Keeper ["The Dark Legacies" Series]

Chapter 54: Sweet betrayal

"So, Grace has this idea that you might be the key to finding the Clockwork Heart. It's like she's got this hunch that you know something or can lead her to it. It's a bit of a long shot, but you never know with Grace.

And guess who she sends on this mission to get you to spill the beans? Yep, yours truly. I was sent to the dormitory to basically make you work for Grace, to get any info out of you that might lead us to that mechanical heart. It's a high-stakes game, and I was in the middle of it all, trying to figure out if you have the answers we're looking for.

We all played it off like Grace and Harper weren't my family. We acted like I was working for Grace for the money. I was really planning to set you up... Until my conscience started eating at me.

I saw that you're truly a good person. I realized my family wasn't right in this whole story. And I stopped dragging you into all of this. Yeah, I made a lot of mistakes, and I realized it too late. But better late than never.

Grace has been after you for a long time, ever since the day Amos passed away. She forged the inheritance will. In fact, there was no will. Old Mr. Di Flores had no one to leave his property to - his only daughter died a long time ago."

Now that I've connected the dots, it's becoming crystal clear. That whole business with the forged inheritance will, the one that caused all this chaos... Mrs. Coleman was the mastermind behind it.

"OK, Kaira. Who is your father, after all?"

"My dad, Wade Crowley, used to be the mayor of Ravenwood. He had money and power, and I guess that's why Grace married him in the first place. It wasn't exactly a love story for the ages, to put it mildly. He was just a human without any magical abilities and he found out that Grace was a witch only after their wedding. I am still not aware what his reaction was.

I was just a few months old when things went downhill fast. My dad got killed, shot with a gun, and they never found out who did it. It's a tough thing to grow up with, never knowing what really happened to your own father.

As I grew older, Grace and Harper became my mentors in the world of magic. They showed me the ropes, taught me the secrets, and it was like unlocking a whole new dimension of possibilities.

But here's the thing - Harper, she did something really crazy. She swiped the real deal, the Clockwork Heart, from Di Flores Manor. That thing's like a ticket to immortality. With it, they could live forever, never age a day.

It's a real head-scratcher, trying to wrap your head around the lengths people would go to for power and eternal life. And with that Clockwork Heart in their possession, Grace and Harper were playing a dangerous game, one with consequences I could hardly fathom.

One day, out of the blue, the Clockwork Heart vanished into thin air, leaving everyone in the dark about what happened. It was like a disappearing act that no one saw coming, and it left us all scratching our heads. Grace wanted to make you dig up the truth and, with your own hands, retrieve the Clockwork Heart for herself.

Nobody had a clue where to find it or why it had vanished. It was as if the key to eternal life had slipped through our fingers, and the mystery surrounding its disappearance cast a shadow of uncertainty over everything. It was a puzzle with no clear solution, and the clock was ticking as we searched high and low."

"It's unbelievable..."

It's like one of those puzzles where the pieces are scattered, but now I'm slowly putting them together. Mrs. Coleman wants that Clockwork Heart, and she'd stop at nothing to get it. I know I have to find it earlier than Grace.

"Grace, she's got this seriously dark magic going on. See, she managed to turn a bunch of ghosts of sorcerers into shadows. They're like her own personal army that's always at her beck and call.