Plan D
The minions were settled and preparations were made. It was time to meet the other champions. Before we left, I needed to explain the spell to Delilah. “My plans have not quite …” I trailed off, trying to find the right words.
“Worked? Like, at all?” she said, brown eyes wide and innocent.
I scowled at her. “Gone as planned.”
“That’s repetitive.”
Her argumentative nature reminded me of Trey—they’d practically grown up together, so the similarities made sense. Sparring words with her might be good practice, but my wit was rusty, and I was too tired to polish it off. “I’ve created a few contingencies to help the process. If you hear this sound—” a low bell tolled, like a clock striking the hour “—that’s your ten-second warning that time is about to reset.”
Delilah tossed her head back and groaned. “I don’t wanna do this all again. Ijustgot my room how I liked it.”
“You aren’t staying here after today.”
She smirked and said, “I will when I visit you and Trey.”
“Why would you—” I stopped. We were getting off track. “The timeline won’t set back to the beginning.” I was also tired of the sameroutine: hiring the same minions, putting out the same fires, counting down the days until I would see Trey again. “It’ll only set back an hour.”
“What if that’s not enough time? What if someone used a slow-acting poison and we only discover it when it’s too late to find an antidote?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Then I’ll keep setting it back until we’re out of danger.”
“Do you decide what sets it off? Do I get a say at all?”
“No.”
“But what if I embarrass myself in front of everyone—”
“Then you can live with the consequences like a normal person.”
She crossed her arms and glared at me. “You don’t have to.”
I sighed. “I’m not going to reset time because I’ve said the wrong thing.”
“That’s good, because then we’d never get anywhere.”
My fingers twitched. What if I turned her into a cat, just for a little while? Brought her to the meeting and told everyone she’d cursed herself. Would any of them believe me?
“You’re looking at me evilly again.”
I took a deep breath and explained, “Time will only reset when something goes horribly wrong. Like if someone is in danger.”Or if the wrong person falls in love.I kept that part to myself. It was selfish to ruin Trey’s prospects with anyone else. I was fine with that—evil was always selfish—but I didn’t want to test the limits of Delilah’s morals.
“And the spell coverseveryone?” she asked, staring at me sternly.
“If you’re in mortal danger, time will reset.”
“What about Angelica? Fitz? Maximus? We’reallgoing on this quest you know.”
My jaw clenched. It would be simple to expand the spell to cover everyone, but it would also take more energy. The more energy I exerted on the spell, the less I had for the quest ahead.
“Wilde,” she said, a warning growl in her voice.
It amazed me how catlike she sounded without magical assistance.
“Fine, I will adjust the spell to covereveryone.” My gaze grew distant, the room fading around me, as I focused on the spell. Clockwork slowly appeared—gears and weights and springs—transparent at first before solidifying. Each piece contained a possibility: a flash of Trey’s smile, Delilah’s twitching cat ears, the soft touch of a kiss, blood on my hands.Soft moments and painful ones, things that happened in other timelines and things I wanted to avoid.
I carefully pinched my fingers, gathering magic as I pictured Angelica. A flash of a golden rapier clashing with a shadow sword. A snide question:Did he blackmail you? Enchant you, perhaps?The magic formed into a thread that I offered to the gears. The thread caught, and the gears pulled Angelica into the spell.
