The longer Wilde stared at Fitz, the more unease twisted in my chest, clawing at my scattered memories and coming away with new insecurities. It was easy to find Wilde’s hand under the table when we were connected. I slid mine into his, palm to palm, and squeezed.
Wilde’s gaze finally shifted to me. Because of the handcuffs, we’d sat close together, the seats of our chairs pressed flush. He had to tilt his head up to look into my eyes. At this angle, it’d be so easy to lean down and—
“Pleasedo not kiss at the table,” Angelica begged. “We’ve had enough spit and hair and everything else in our meal for one day.”
I laughed, Wilde didn’t.
Instead of addressing the question to him, I asked the whole table, “How do you defeat an evil mage?”
The answers all came one after another, almost overlapping.
“Kill him.”
“Imprison him.”
“Thwart his plot.”
“Turn him good.”
Only Wilde hadn’t offered a suggestion. I bumped my shoulder against his. “How would you defeat an evil mage?”
“Kill them,” Wilde said, dispassionate, like he was talking about swatting a fly.
Delilah gasped. “Wilde! You can’t saythings like that!”
Wilde nodded toward Maximus. “He did.”
Maximus glared at first, then his expression softened into confusion when he realized Wilde had agreed with him.
“We are the good guys,” Delilah insisted.“We don’tkill people.”
“Chosen Ones kill evil mages all the time,” Wilde replied. “Why should royal champions be any different?”
“But we can’t kill theLord of Grimnight,” Delilah continued through clenched teeth. Her eyes bugged out as she silently but not subtly tried to convey another message.
Wilde wasn’t even looking at her to catch the message. “The Good Wizard’s Council prefers imprisonment, at least until a trial is completed. However, they only interfere during truly egregious evil plots, which typically means the victim isimportant, though they’ll happily tell you otherwise.”
“You don’t seem to like the Good Wizards,” Maximus said. “Why is that?” His question had a quiet, coaxing hostility that I didn’t like.
“Anyone who says they are the authority on all that is good in the world is either delusional or lying,” Wilde said. His flat expression and tone didn’t invite any follow up questions.
“How do we imprison an evil mage?” Angelica asked, even though she’d originally suggested it.
“Youcan’t,” Wilde said. “Only the councils are powerful enough to imprison a mage in specially enchanted crystals. Though the Council of Evil only chooses imprisonment if they want the option to use the mage later.
“As for thwarting his plot,” Wilde continued, nodding at Fitz who had offered the suggestion. “You’d have to know what it is first.”
Fitz’s brow furrowed. “Isn’t his evil plot to take over the city of Traumstead? Turn it into a haunted forest?”
“Is it?” Wilde asked.
“I … well … isn’t it?” Fitz repeated.
“If you don’t know, you can’t thwart it.”
“Not true,” Delilah piped up. “There are plenty of ways to unintentionally thwart evil plots.”
“Is unintentional enough when you need guaranteed results?”
