“Since everyone knows where everyone is and we’re not under attack, we should all go to bed,” I said, shoving Delilah and Wilde back into the room. It’d be awkward to share with three people, but we could suffer through it for one night.
I shut and locked the door and turned back to Wilde, ready to berate him for his recklessness.
He held up his cuffed wrist and said, “Will you unlock this now?”
I grabbed the empty cuff. Because Delilah had slipped out of it, the seam was still closed. I barely breathed as I said the command word to make sure Wilde couldn’t overhear it. When the cuff popped open, I closed it back over my own wrist and held it up for Wilde to see. “You pull that shit again, and I’ll lock you to the bed next time.”
His eyelashes lowered and he murmured, “I’d prefer to lockyouto the bed.”
The bold statement was so unlike him that I just stared for a moment. “What?”
He stared back at me, expression blank, and then also said, “What?”
“You said—”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Wilde,” Delilah whined. “I am too tired for you to reset time again. Can you please both pretend you did and deal with your feelings in the morning?”
Wilde abruptly turned away and walked toward the other side of the bed. “I’ll sleep on the floor.”
I followed him over—I didn’t really have a choice, unless I wanted to yank him backwards. “No, it’s fine, you take the bed—”
“So you can lock me to it?” He grabbed a pillow and tossed it on the floor, then lay down without taking a blanket or any other bedding.
The room had two beds, and Delilah curled up on the second one. Even after the distress of being trapped as a cat, she still acted like one. She was softly snoring before I’d recovered my equilibrium.
I lay down on the bed, one arm hanging off it, and stared up at the ceiling. Today had brought a lot of unexpected revelations. The Lord of Grimnight was my father. I had to kill him to save the Desolated Lands.
And I kind of wanted Wilde to lock me to the bed, as long as he stayed with me.
Interruption Six
An Uncertain Amount of Time Later
Walking Through the Grimnight Forest
Confused
The Grimnight Forest was no longer cursed. The ancient trees remained but the unnatural darkness had dissipated, allowing sunlight to stream through the canopy for the first time in fifty years. Ghost wolves did not howl in the distance. More importantly, people filled the forest. Dozens, if not hundreds, working together to clear out the overgrown flora and cut down the trees.
“Not so grim anymore,” Cyril observed.
Lucinda sighed despondently as she watched a group of people chopping a felled tree into logs. “What a waste of a perfectly lovely tree.” The tree’s knots formed a haunting face, screaming in agony and rage. Yet there was something lackluster about the features—as if the tree was ready to retire from its long career of horror, perhaps become a nice side table or log for the fire.
“Does this mean … the quest succeeded?” Francesca asked.
Godwin sighed. “In the original timeline, their quest succeeded. However, because the apprenticeresetthe timeline, the quest never happened.”
“But they broke the curse!”
“This is one of the reasons people should not meddle with time,” Godwin groused. “Once the curse’s physical anchor was destroyed, it ceased to exist in this world, and thus time can no longer affect it. Regardless of how the apprentice manipulates the timeline, there are things he cannot change. This is how chaos is born—by creating a world with altered fates and paradoxes and unexplainable events. So yes, the curse was broken, but not by the champions, who, in this timeline, have not completed their quest.”
“I don’t understand.” The queen sounded so small and uncertain.
“He’s saying that the children did all of that work for no reward,” Cyril replied. “Quite common, when you work with a good wizard. How much did you charge the royal families for that crock of shit you call a spell?”
“It isnota crock of shit! It is a work of art! The hardest spell I’ve ever—” Godwin snapped his mouth shut and froze, waiting for the pocket dimension to kick him out.
