Chapter Four Wilde
Three Days Later
The Kingdom of “Woe”
Picking Up a Passenger
Something looked different about Princess Delilah Woeful. I watched subtly from a spot beside the carriage as she tackled Trey to the ground, giggling with glee. The laughter didn’t fool me—I’d seen the claw marks she’d left behind on the imps.
Ah, that’s the problem.
This version of Delilah did not have cat ears or a tail.
The only time I’d seen her without them had been during our final confrontation.
Her neck was bare of the ever-present collar that granted her the feline features.
It’d probably been lost while she’d fought the minions.
It was a good thing she wouldn’t remember me, or she’d probably blame me for its loss.
As if she’d read my mind, her large brown eyes suddenly found me and narrowed into suspicious slits. Feline features or not, those were the eyes of a predator.
I instinctually froze, like a rabbit trying not to be noticed in the weeds.
She still had Trey pinned to the ground, which put her in a perfect position to pounce. “You,” she said, drawing out the word as long as three letters allowed.
She can’t possibly remember anything. No one remembers anything.
I tightened my clasped hands behind my back and stared straight ahead, refusing to distinguish myself from the crowd.
“Can I help you load your luggage, Your Highness?” I asked, keeping my voice light even as my heart threw itself against the cage of my ribs, trying to escape before the claws came down.
Delilah tilted her head to the side. Fluffy brown curls covered her shoulders and fell into her eyes, curtaining her face. The longer she drew this out, the more the others would notice her suspicion.
Trey looked between the two of us and elbowed Delilah in the ribs. “Stop ogling, it’s impolite.”
“I am not ogling!” she declared. “I would never objectify the staff, especially not right before we meet our future spouses!”
The term future spouses pierced me like a dagger in the chest, a sharp reminder that if I didn’t play my part correctly, Trey would marry one of the other royal champions.
Last time, it’d been his mission to convince them to embark on a quest. This time, all knowledge of his evil father had been erased, so he was free to do as he wished.
Even marry someone else.
Trey rolled his eyes and pushed his cousin off him, rolled to his feet, then held out a hand to help her stand. “Get in the carriage.”
She sniffed in offense but accepted his help. To prove she hadn’t been ogling me, she purposefully had one of the other attendants assist her into the carriage.
I sighed in relief. Once we were on the road, we would have some distance between us, and whatever suspicions she had of me could fade into oblivion.
“Wait,” Rick said.
My relief instantly tightened into tension.
Now that Delilah had drawn attention to me, did Rick recognize me from the shopping district?
It’d been a brief encounter, so I hadn’t disguised myself before taking this position.
If two people recognized me, I would have to abandon my post and find some other way to get closer to Trey.
“Where are your parents? Shouldn’t they be seeing you off?” Rick asked.
“Oh, that. Mama is busy running a kingdom and Kit is—” Delilah finished her sentence by waving airily. “Neither of them have time for something as silly as a goodbye. I’ll see them again soon.”
“Delilah.”
She hummed and gave him an innocent look.
“You did tell your parents we were taking you to Misfortune, correct?”
Delilah gasped in deep affront and placed her hand over her heart. “Uncle Rick, do you think I would sneak out?”
“No, not at all,” he replied with an insincere smile.
“So, you won’t mind if we have a little chat with Kit before we leave, right?” Brendon added blandly. They walked off without waiting for her response.
“Wait!” She hopped down from the carriage and ran after them into the castle.
While they worked out their farewells, I focused on helping the other attendants load the luggage.
With the addition of Delilah’s trunk, Connor wanted to rearrange everything to make it fit better.
The soft sound of a cleared throat interrupted our work.
I glanced up, then froze with one hand stuck in a trunk’s handle.
Trey shifted uneasily from foot to foot, glancing between me and the other attendants.
It looked like he wanted to ask for a private word.
Anticipation buzzed in my veins at the idea of being alone with him again after so long.
In the end, he opted for a public apology.
“I’m sorry if she made you uncomfortable. ”
“No harm done,” I replied. My arm was suddenly yanked to the side as John, the senior attendant, tried to subtly take the trunk from me. He hadn’t realized how tightly I’d been clutching the handle. I released it and mouthed an apology, then turned back to my work.
“Right, well, I’m glad. She’s kind of …” Trey trailed off, his attention drawn to the front doors of the castle.
Curious, I looked in the same direction.
A knight in shining helmet strode toward the carriage. The rest of the armor seemed to be missing in action. Two attendants followed behind them, balancing a trunk between them.
“Do you have to bring the helmet, Kit?” Brendon asked as he followed the knight.
“It’s the only bit I could find,” Kit replied, their voice made tinny by the metal. “So yes, I do.”
“Why do you need armor at all? We’re not likely to fight any monsters on our journey,” Rick said.
“What if the children have to go on a quest?”
“Then we won’t be invited,” Brendon reminded them.
“But Delilah could wear the helmet, couldn’t you, kitten?”
“It’s too big for me,” Delilah protested. “And my hair will get in the way.” She grabbed her fluffy ends and covered her eyes, pretending to blind herself.
Trey watched his family in bemusement, so distracted by their arrival that he once again forgot my existence. “You’re coming with us, Kit?”
I frowned at this development. Kit Holmwood-Woeful, Consort to the Queen of Woe, had not originally joined the royal champions in Misfortune.
They shouldn’t have been here at all. But as I looked at the helmet, I realized that I had seen them during the final fight in the throne room, fighting the lord’s minions.
They’d bashed that same helmet against a lacertian’s head.
The knight’s presence added another complication.
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Kit declared. “Haven’t been to Misfortune since the—” they cleared their throat awkwardly and ended their sentence with—“you know.”
From Trey’s expression, he didn’t know, but he also didn’t ask.
The attendants dropped Kit’s trunk, and we rearranged everything a second time while the royals climbed into the carriage.
It was my turn to join the coachman up front. He had told me to sleep, then chattered non-stop the entire ride, so I’d given up on my nap. Trees lined the roads, offering some respite from the bright afternoon sun.
The area looked familiar, but I couldn’t determine why.
I’d barely spent any time in the Desolated Lands, just long enough to sneak a look at Treasure and pass along the master’s messages.
Honestly, the Desolated Lands didn’t look that different from the outside world.
Perhaps the foliage was a little more vibrant, the fields a little more fertile, and the population disturbingly homogenous, but otherwise everything looked familiar.
“Stop!” someone shouted from the carriage.
The coachman yanked up on the reins, drawing the horses to a juddering halt.
Other voices came from inside, quieter and harder to decipher.
Delilah insisted, “We’re about to be attacked by bandits!”
The guards immediately closed ranks, weapons drawn to prepare for an attack. Long minutes passed with no movement on the road or in the trees.
Why does she think there are bandits? It wasn’t impossible of course—I’d denied dozens of people a job in the lair, so of course they must be out there somewhere, finding a way to survive—but there were no signs of an ambush.
As I peered through the trees, I finally realized why the area looked familiar.
During the original journey, Trey hadn’t brought his mirror with him.
The lord had stomped around the lair, furious with his son for cutting off communication.
I’d volunteered to take Treasure a message, to confirm that it was the same boy I’d met as a child.
My plan … had been poorly thought out. To stop the carriage, I’d cut down one of the trees to block its path. Unfortunately, I’d timed things wrong and almost crushed the carriage. Treasure had been hurt in the collision and needed a health potion to recover.
Delilah had almost caught me in the act, hissing and yowling about bandits, just like she was now.
I’d felt horrible about the whole incident, but an evil mage never apologized. Cutting down the tree had produced results, and Trey had come out of it fine. Worse than fine—he’d been an absolute asshole. Our first conversation had been filled with cursing, accusations, and disobedience.
Surely, he could not be the same sweet boy who’d fed me and begged his father to bring me home.
Not this man who crassly called the master ‘old man’ and challenged every little thing I said.
Either this was someone completely different, another of the master’s underlings, or spending over a decade in the Desolated Lands had spoiled his personality beyond repair.
Of course, it was the same Treasure, and I’d come to appreciate his thorns as much as the soft center they protected.
Eventually, the guards relaxed and reported no sign of any bandit activity.
“I’m sorry,” Delilah murmured. Her voice traveled more clearly than the others, which meant she was probably sitting in a spot close to me. “I really thought we’d be attacked.”
The coachman was given permission to continue, and the rest of the day progressed without incident. However, the coachman and guards remained on alert, so the chatter fizzled out.
I should have taken the opportunity to nap, since I would probably be up late into the night fixing whatever mess the minions had made of the lair—again—but I kept thinking about Delilah’s odd behavior.
First picking me out of a crowd, then raising the alarm about bandits that didn’t exist. It had to be a coincidence, a quirk of her personality I hadn’t witnessed during our short time together.
Unless she somehow remembered the events from the first time around.
Unease roiled in my stomach, lingering with me for the rest of the journey.