“That’s the plan,” I said with a nod. “How long will that take, do you think?”
He shrugged. “About three days. Assuming we’ll stop each night?”
“Oh, no. Let’s take breaks as often as the horses need them.” I assumed that a long journey by horse was very different than one by car. They had to need breaks for water and food andgetting some dumbass off their backs for a while. “You know when that’ll be, right?”
“Yes, of course.” He gave me a look like he couldn’t imagine why I didn’t know.
“Alright then, let’s get going.”
He’d said all of that without actually looking at me, but now he met my gaze. “By the way, we’re citizens, too.”
I frowned at him. “What?”
“You said a citizen hurt Francis. Well, we’re citizens, too.”
I cocked my head at him. “And you understand why someone could lump the four of you in with Prince Do-Nothing here, right? I mean, what were you even doing out there in that Field of Whatever-it’s-Called?”
Pinky flicked a glance at the prince and gulped a bit. “Racing.”
“Racing?”
He nodded, looking contrite at least. “We wanted to see who was faster, us on horses or Sol, er, His Highness flying.”
I did a slow pan to stare at Solaris. “Not playing, huh?”
He put his nose in the air. “I have nothing to say to you.”
“And yet you just said something to me.” I looked back out the window. “Tell Blue to get going, Pinky.”
He got a sour lemon look on his face. “He’sFrancis andI’mNicholas.”
“Sure. Frank and Nick. Whatever. Go away.”
I couldn’t get over the fact that these idiots were out there messing around instead of doing the work needed to break the curse. For three fucking years! So, no, I wasn’t going to show any respect. That would have to be earned.
In a few moments, the carriage jerked and started rolling forward. It kind of rocked back and forth, which was either going to lull me to sleep or make me seasick. I’d just have to wait and see on that. In the meantime, I tucked the hilt of the sword undermy ass to keep it away from Solaris and picked up the bundle of cloth from the floor.
Lars had gotten two sets of clothes for me—hopefully, they would fit. If they didn’t, I could wash and rewear what I had on, but I’d like to be less conspicuous at the very least. There was also a sack of dried meat and fruits, a big wedge of cheese, and two loaves of bread. One canteen held water and the other was beer. It seemed like enough for the two of us on a three-day journey, so I hoped the others had their own supplies.
I didn’t bother asking if Solaris needed anything since he’d been in the pub eating and drinking just fine not long ago.
Setting that aside, I checked what I had in my backpack. My water bottle was empty—should’ve filled that—and the only food I had was the trail mix Bridge had made for us all.
And now I was wondering again what might’ve happened to my friends. I felt pretty confident that they weren’t anywhere near here. If they were, they’d have run from the fire and found that town, too. Could it be that the few minutes between Milo and Bridge and then me and Zalman going through that fairy ring sent us to different places? But Zalman hadn’t landed on Solaris with me or been anywhere nearby either and we’d gone through at the same time.
“If people go through a fairy ring at the same time, will they end up in the same place or different places? What if there’s a few minutes between people? Could that mean they end up in different places?”
He didn’t even look at me. I shouldn’t have bothered asking aloud.Oh, well. Maybe there would be people way smarter than him I could ask once we got to the castle.
Assuming I lived through delivering the little prick. I was still a bit worried about that. Part of me was also hopeful there were people who wanted him to do whatever was necessary to break the curse. I’d find out when we stopped tonight.
I wasthe type of person who could spend all day alone, not talking to a single soul, and be just fine with that. After what felt like a few hours—both my watch and phone were dead—it was clear Solaris was not like me at all.
He was getting twitchy, his legs restless, and the chain kept scraping on the wood floor as he moved his feet. He stood up a couple times, but he couldn’t stand completely upright, so it only seemed to frustrate him. At one point, he did some squats and stretched his leg muscles, making me wonder if he was going to try and make a break for it. But all he did was sit down again with a huff.
A little part of me was fine with striking up a conversation, but I didn’t want to be the one to break the?—
“Why are you doing this?” he asked with full eye contact and a wicked frown.
