“I did that to save you.”
“You’d already saved me, but you kept going. Plotting behind the scenes, trying to control every aspect of my life. Whenever you didn’t like my choices.” He raised his hand and snapped his fingers. The sharp click echoed in my ears. “Reset.”
“It wasn’t always about you!” Sometimes it was my own choices I hated, or Fitz’s, or Maximus’.
“You’re right, it was always aboutyou. You have to control everything around you. You created a pocket dimension so you could control every aspect of your world. Anything that didn’t go as planned, you erased.”
“No.”
He gave me an innocent look and said, “If you don’t like what I’ve said, this conversation never had to happen. Reset time, take us back to when we were kissing. I never have to say a word if you don’t want me to.”
I didn’t move, didn’t say anything, yet wewerekissing again, and I couldn’t tell if it was a new kiss or an old kiss. Honied apples and sour oranges flooded my mouth until I choked.
“Wilde.”
Petals spilled from my lips, my nose, my eyes, until I drowned in flowers.
“Wilde!”
Trey’s voice seemed muffled, far away, even as his weight on top of me pressed me into the dirt to mingle with the roots.
“I know you’re fucked beyond all belief right now, but we could really use your help!”
He shouted my name a third time, and like a spell, it pulled me from the dream.
I woke surrounded by flowers and chaos.
Interruption Seven
What Passes as Present Day
The Grimnight Forest
Finally Approaching the Former Lord of Grimnight’s Evil Lair
The first minion they came across threw down their spear and hissed, “I surrender.”
Cyril stared at them aghast. “Youwhat?”
The minion—a lacertian, Godwin thought, though he wasn’t always familiar with the lesser varieties of sapient—blinked large yellow eyes at the group. Then carefully, drawing out the s beyond reason, they repeated, “I surrender?”
“This is terrible minion behavior,” Cyril snarled, stomping forward. He snatched the spear up from the ground and shook it near the lacertian’s face. The minion’s shoulders hunched but they remained perfectly still. “Who trained you?”
“The Lord of Grimnight?”
Cyril sneered. “Why am I not surprised? Brutus never paid attention to management classes.”
Furrows formed on the lacertian’s scaled brow as they examined everyone from head to toe. “You are adventurers?”
“No, we are—”
“Yes,” Godwin interrupted.
Cyril scowled and whispered, “I thought I was in charge.”
Godwin ignored him. “We are adventurers here to challenge your lord in glorious battle.” All evil mages had to accept a direct challenge. He simply hoped the apprentice would follow the rules of his own council if he wouldn’t listen to the good wizards.
“The lord is not available,” the minion replied. “Would you like to leave a message?”
