Chapter Fourteen Trey
Present Day
The Capital City of Misfortune
Trying Not to Get Hit by Traffic
When the strange man fainted, Delilah cried out in distress and wriggled out of Kit’s arms. She elbowed Father out of the way and cradled the man’s head carefully in her lap. Long white-blond hair fell over his face. Delilah gently pushed it aside, tucking it behind his ear.
His features were delicate in sleep. Soft, snowy eyelashes. Pink lips parted as he slowly breathed in and out. Dark bruises circled his eyes, marring his pale skin.
Familiarity tugged at my heart, and I took a step forward. I know you. But I didn’t. I’d never met him before. He was too striking, too beautiful, to be forgotten.
Dad reached his side before me, lips pressed into a thin line as he examined the man’s face.
“Is he alright?” Delilah demanded.
“He’ll recover,” Dad reassured her. “Since he appeared in the middle of the road and then whisked you to the sidewalk in a blink, I assume he’s a mage?”
She nodded rapidly, dislodging the loose tears clinging to her eyelashes.
“That’s powerful magic. He looks exhausted, has he been sleeping well?”
“I don’t know!” she wailed. “It’s not as if we share a bed!”
The words share a bed echoed in my head, and my fists clenched at my side. With great effort, I forced them to relax. She specifically said they don’t share a bed. And why am I jealous, anyway? I don’t even know him!
“Who is he?” Kit demanded, joining the circle around the man.
I was now the farthest person from him and that felt wrong. I wanted to shove everyone out of the way, to take Delilah’s place, cradle his head in my lap and run my fingers through his silky—why am I so sure it’s silky—hair.
I ignored the impulse and forced myself to take a step back. Then another, for good measure.
“His name is Wilde,” Delilah sniffed. “I was on the road to Misfortune when I was attacked by bandits.”
Dad’s pretend shout of ‘Bandits!’ came back to me. Did he know that was happening to Delilah? In the same way I knew we were coming to Misfortune?
“He saved me and offered to travel with me.”
Jealousy, hot and crooked, spiked my heart, twisting to lodge firmly under my ribs. I glared at my cousin for a moment until I remembered I had no reason to be mad at her. This didn’t feel like the empty-room memories, it felt new in an old way, not that that made any more sense.
“I thought he could help us with our quest,” Delilah finished.
“I’m not sure he’s fit to go anywhere at the moment,” Dad said.
“No! He has to come!” As soon as the words escaped Delilah’s mouth, she pressed her lips firmly together and refused to elaborate.
“Ah, I see,” Dad murmured with a soft, knowing smile.
No, stop looking at her like that! Like you’re approving a good match! I turned to Kit, eyes wide, silently begging them to stop whatever this was.
“So he saved you?” Kit repeated.
Delilah nodded again.
Kit sighed. “Then we better look after him.” They nudged Delilah out of the way and scooped Wilde into their arms.
“How should we explain our unexpected guest to the Unfortunates?” Father asked as he followed Kit to the carriage.
“Well,” Dad said, smirking. “Easiest answer is young love—”
“No.” The word snapped out of me, sharp and fast as an arrow.
Dad blinked, surprised and perhaps a little wounded by the blow.
“I mean …” I didn’t know how to explain the twisted feelings stabbing through me.
Dad watched me for a second, then said, “Fog?”
I nodded, shook my head, then shrugged, because I didn’t know what else to do.
He patted me sympathetically on the shoulder and didn’t ask anything else. He climbed into the carriage after Father and Kit, leaving Delilah and I to squeeze ourselves into the remaining space.
The carriage could fit six people, but not comfortably, especially when one was unconscious. Kit tried to prop up Wilde, but he kept slipping to the side. Eventually, they simply put him between themself and Father, holding him upright between their shoulders.
Father knocked on the carriage roof and instructed the coachman to continue to the castle.
The second the horses moved, Wilde slipped forward. I lunged to catch him, but Kit’s arm lashed out first, stretching across his chest. They grimaced and muttered, “This is going to be annoying.”
They’d barely finished complaining when Wilde’s eyes blinked open. He lifted his head, and his unfocused gaze fell on me. His eyes were as black as his hair was white, and they reflected my own stunned face back at me.
After a few seconds, his eyes finally focused, then widened in shock.
“Wilde, wait!” Delilah lunged across the short gap, grabbing his hands and holding them tightly between hers. “You’re fine,” she said through gritted teeth. “No one was hurt. There’s no reason to panic.”
Wilde, Delilah, Father, and Kit disappeared.
“What the fuck?” Dad shouted. He leapt toward the seat where they’d just been, feeling around on the empty cushions. He slammed his fist on the roof to stop the coachman and threw the door open, looking around frantically. “They’re outside!”
We scrambled out of the door, bumping our shoulders as we squeezed through a space that was only meant to accommodate one person at a time.
Delilah still held on to Wilde’s hands even as he thrashed, trying to yank them out of her grip. “No one was hurt!” she insisted. “You’re fine, I’m fine, Trey’s fine, everyone is fine!”
“No, it wasn’t … I can’t do this. That was a bad start—”
Kit reached out to break the pair apart, but Delilah hissed at them, and they took a step back. “Kitten, it looks like he doesn’t want to be here—”
“Too bad, because he’s here now and he’s not going to run away like a coward!”
That finally stopped Wilde’s thrashing. He scowled at her, his chest rising and falling with rapid, uneven breaths. “I am not a coward.”
“Prove it,” she sneered, then released his hands.
Wilde remained where he was, struggling to catch his breath. He looked between Kit and my fathers, then his eyes landed on me. Something crossed his face I didn’t know how to describe—like he’d been stabbed in the chest and was happy about it.
Delilah fixed her hair, fluffing it around her round, human ears. “Wilde, please allow me to introduce you to my family. This is Kit, my parent, and these are my uncles, Rick and Brendon. And this is my cousin Trey.”
He was quiet for a long time. Finally, he bowed his head, eyes downcast as he said, “It’s nice to meet you.” Then his head shot up and he glared at Delilah. He grabbed her arm and pulled her close, whispering something in her ear.
“Well, you didn’t tell me that!” she whined.
“You should have asked.”
“How was I supposed to ask which name to use while you were unconscious?”
Father looked between them before asking quietly, “Would you prefer we call you something else?”
“It’s fine,” Wilde said, waving away the offer. “Wilde is my preferred name; I just don’t always use it.”
Something about the discussion of preferred names triggered a memory. A young woman with cornsilk hair and midnight eyes behind huge circle glasses, glossy lips parted in surprise.
I eyed Wilde carefully, learning the shape of him: a little below average height, slender silhouette, narrow shoulders. Maybe I’d met her before, instead of him? But when I tried to think of where, it had the same empty room feeling as the rest of the memories.
“Are you alright now, Wilde?” Father asked. “Can we continue?”
Delilah stared Wilde down and said sweetly, “Yes, Wilde, can we continue?” The words seemed to have a deeper meaning when she said them.
Would I have to watch them share secret looks and secret words like this the whole time? If so, this quest would be miserable.
Wilde stared back at her, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “Yes, we can continue.”
Like he’d cast another spell, everyone suddenly sprang into action.
We filed back into the carriage, this time making it all the way to the castle without any magical interruptions.
I watched Wilde from the corner of my eye.
He refused to look at me, or anyone, focusing instead on his hands clenched in his lap.
The whole ride, I couldn’t help wondering: what were we continuing? And what was just beginning?