#Chapter 250: Iris’s plan

Third person The blustery cold outside had turned Iris’s nose red and numb. She left her mud-soaked boots at the door of her bedroom and hurried to the kitchenette to start some water boiling for tea. It’d been wet and gross out in the tool shed behind the rose garden. But she went there because she was looking for something that would be useful on her planned journey through the dark, cold secret passageways of the palace, winding her way over to the door that opened into the study that adjoined Alexander and Fiona’s bedroom. And she’d found what she was looking for in the toolshed. An old gas lantern, one of those rustic, reliable kinds made of sturdy metal, with a thick glass dome holding a wick that burned kerosene. Iris figured it would be better than a flashlight, which could always stop working for some reason. And the heat from the torch might also help keep her and Lexi warm, especially when they were making their escape out that final part of the tunnels that led outside t