Chapter Fifteen Wilde
Too Soon After a Terrible “First Meeting”
The Castle of Misfortune
Ignoring the Irony
An attendant met us in the courtyard. Their face remained stoic as six people climbed out of the cramped carriage. They bowed low and said, “Queen Davina sends her regards and apologizes that she could not meet you in person.”
“We thank her for her hospitality,” Brendon said, “and we apologize for bringing along an unexpected guest.”
The attendant’s gaze flicked between all present before refocusing on Brendon. “Please, allow us some time to adjust your room assignments to accommodate everyone. In the meantime, Prince Fitzroy has invited the prince and princess to his private residence.”
“And Wilde too,” Delilah piped up. “It’s important he joins us.”
The attendant hesitated, the lines around their mouth deepening in distress.
They probably had instructions to keep uninvited parties away, but didn’t want to argue with a royal guest. In the end, they pretended to please the royal in front of them, while subtly signaling to another nearby attendant to run ahead with a message.
“Delilah, you can’t invite people to meetings when you aren’t the host,” Trey scolded as they followed the attendant through the halls.
“What do you expect Wilde to do? Keep our parents company? Kit will interrogate him the moment they think no one is watching, and I don’t want to find out who would win in a fight.”
If it was a sword fight, Kit had one serious advantage over me: knowing how to wield one.
Trey’s gaze raked over me from head to toe.
Why don’t you assess me with your hands? I swallowed the bold question, knowing it was too soon.
“Besides, if he’s going to join our quest, he might as well be there from the beginning,” Delilah said.
“We don’t even know if we’re going on a quest yet!”
The attendant dutifully ignored Delilah and Trey’s argument. Or perhaps they were listening intently so they could share the details of the royals and their strange guest with the other staff members.
The bickering continued until we arrived at Fitz’s residence. I stepped past the others, hand outstretched to open the door. A sword blocking my path startled me out of the unconscious habit. The guard narrowed his eyes and gestured with his head for me to back away.
Delilah watched me curiously, her head tilted to the side.
Trey’s eyes were narrowed as he looked between me and the door, a slight furrow in his brow.
I stepped back and lowered my hand, muttering something that could pass for an apology.
The attendant cleared their throat and stepped forward to pull on a bell rope to announce our arrival.
The door flung open, and Fitz beamed at us in excitement. “Welcome to House Fitz. You must be—” he trailed off as his gaze landed on me. “I’m sorry, have we met?”
“No,” I said, jerking my head to the side to avoid eye contact. The last time I’d seen him, he’d been on bended knee professing his love to a woman who didn’t exist. You seduced him! Delilah had claimed, and now embarrassment flooded me at the memories of our brief friendship.
“This is Wilde, he’s a mage who is going to help us on our quest,” Delilah declared. “And I’m Delilah, and this is Trey.” She grabbed Fitz’s hand in both of hers and shook it in an exuberant greeting that sent his glasses sliding down his nose.
“Pleasure,” he said, his voice faint, as if she’d sucked all the air out of the room.
After a few seconds, he straightened himself to his full height, only an inch or two shorter than Trey.
“You’re the first to arrive, but I expect Angelica and Maximus will join us shortly. Willow, you should know the way—”
We both froze.
I started to raise my hand, fingers pressed together, but Delilah grabbed it and hissed, “Stop that.”
“I apologize,” Fitz said, shaking his head. “You remind me of … someone.”
“That seems to happen a lot, lately,” Trey drawled. His eyes never left my face. Any other time, I would have loved to have his full attention on me, but I wanted to gain his trust, not engender suspicion.
I glared at Delilah and tried to free my hand. “Let go.”
“Coward.”
Dammit, I am not letting the same insult influence me twice! But this wasn’t a problem I could solve by running away. If Fitz remembered me now, he would probably remember me even after time reset. Delilah had already proved that.
I relaxed, physically lowering my shoulders and unclenching my jaw. “Let go,” I repeated.
One by one, she pried her fingers away. She watched me the whole time, a cat daring a mouse to run so she could chase it.
Fitz looked between us and asked slowly, “Are they always like this?”
“I have no idea, I’ve barely known him for ten minutes,” Trey replied. It was a casual dismissal, like he didn’t care to know me any better than he did now.
The words burned a little hole in my heart, eroding my confidence in this plan.
What if the quest changed nothing? What if, when we finally spent time together in this new world, he saw me as nothing more than his cousin’s friend; a stranger; an uninvited guest?
What if the only world we could be together in was the one where he died?
It was too soon to answer any of those questions.
All I could do right now was keep my face blank as the thoughts raced through my head.
Fitz led the way to the sitting room. “Sit wherever you like. I’ll prepare some tea.”
I instinctively headed straight for the same chair I’d always sat in, then stopped a foot away from it. Had Fitz seen me? Did it spark another memory? Swiveling on my heel, I redirected and sat in the very center of the nearest couch.
Delilah plopped down next to me, curling her legs up under her to get comfortable. She leaned her head against my shoulder and smiled. The smile was for everyone else’s benefit as she hissed in my ear, “You promised you wouldn’t reset time whenever you do something stupid.”
“I didn’t promise, I made a statement,” I replied, keeping my expression neutral. “They aren’t the same thing.”
“Fine, then promise me right now that you will only reset time if someone is in danger.”
I stared straight ahead in silent refusal.
Delilah grabbed my face, pinching my cheeks between her fingers as she yanked my head to look at her. She opened her mouth to scold me, but then cried out in pain. She released me as someone else’s hand, wrapped firmly around her wrist, yanked her away.
Trey’s eyes flicked wildly between Delilah and me, his face flushed with anger.
My breath caught as I stared back at him. Maybe more than a stranger after all.
“Ow,” Delilah said, the sound too deliberate to indicate real pain.
Trey immediately dropped her hand and backed away. “It looked like you were hurting him.”
“Well, you didn’t have to hurt me,” Delilah pouted.
“Sorry,” Trey muttered, guilt curving his shoulders until he hunched in on himself. He dropped into the closest chair and stared down at his own hand as if he didn’t recognize it.
“We’ll talk about this later,” Delilah threatened as she slunk off the couch and moved to a chair as far away from her cousin as possible.
Fitz pushed a cart into the room and beamed at his guests. “Who wants tea?” The smile slipped as he saw how far apart we all sat and sensed the awkward atmosphere. “Everyone alright?”
A bell chimed.
Delilah flinched and glared at me.
I rolled my eyes and gestured vaguely toward the ceiling, wherever the doorbell came from.
“That’ll be one of the others.” Fitz headed toward the door, then paused and said, “I know you’re all … friends? Are you friends? Whatever you are, try not to kill each other while I’m gone. Bloodstains are a bitch to get out of books.”
We sat in complete silence for several seconds.
Then Delilah finally jumped to her feet and grabbed a small plate from the tea service, piling it high with little treats.
One of them almost slipped off the plate, so she stuffed a corner of the cookie into her mouth and held it delicately between her teeth as she balanced her plate and a cup of tea in her hands.
I watched her flounce over to my usual chair—no, not mine anymore—and set her things on the table. Then she settled down in it and removed the cookie from her mouth only to dunk it into her tea. She kept uncomfortable eye contact with me the whole time.
Was she threatening to drown me if I didn’t behave? Or perhaps give me a bath? Cats hated baths, maybe she found them threatening.
Then she bit a chunk off the cookie with a sharp snap of her dull teeth.
Definitely a threat.
The door opened to admit Fitz and the new arrival.
Maximus was so tall and broad that he should have been intimidating—had been intimidating, the last time I’d seen him—but something about the way he held himself conveyed a shocking softness.
He shuffled slightly behind Fitz, his head ducked as if embarrassed to be a head taller than his host and trying to make up for it.
When he finally looked up to examine the room, his eyes landed immediately on me.
His expression hardened in an instant, like molten metal plunged into cold water.
“Who are you?” he demanded.
Fitz shoved his glasses up to rub his eyes, thoroughly exasperated with his guests, who had only been in the same room for ten minutes yet were already at each other’s throats. And the quest hadn’t even started yet.
I stared steadily at Maximus, refusing to let his harsh tone intimidate me.
Unlike Delilah, there was nothing I could offer him to persuade him to join my side.
If he remembered me, he would do everything in his power to separate Trey and I.
Calmly, I rose and offered my hand to him, “My name is Wilde. I’m a friend of Delilah’s, and I’m a mage here to help your quest.”
Maximus glared at my outstretched hand, refusing to take it.
Fitz cleared his throat and proclaimed with exaggerated excitement, “Wow! A mage! Won’t that be helpful!” The bell chimed again, providing a potential distraction. “That’ll be Angelica. Maximus, why don’t you help me get the door?”
Maximus didn’t move.
Fitz’s expression hardened and he stepped between us. “I know that sounded like a question. It wasn’t.” He grabbed Maximus’ hand and dragged him back out of the room.
Trey watched them go in confusion. “Have you and Maximus met before?”
“No,” I said.
Delilah’s eyes widened and she clapped a hand to her mouth. “Oh shit. Does he—” she cut herself off, her fingers digging into her own skin in an effort not to spill my secrets.
I shook my head sharply. No, he didn’t remember. Not everything, at least. If he remembered, he wouldn’t have needed to ask my name. He probably also wouldn’t have allowed Fitz to drag him away. Maximus always instinctively disliked me, and I suspected his hostility stemmed from that.
I sighed and put my head in my hands, covering my eyes. If Angelica also recognized me, I was resetting time, whether Delilah liked it or not. Just another plan that didn’t work out. I could start over with … what was it now? Plan E? Or were we all the way to F?
The door opened again, and Angelica breezed through it.
“I know I’ve made the journey a hundred times before, but I hate it every time.
Oh, my favorite tea! Thank you, Fitz, this is just what I need.
” She noticed me halfway through pouring a cup.
“I didn’t realize anyone else would be joining us.
” She set the cup down and gathered her skirts for a low courtesy. “I’m Princess Angelica Calamitous.”
“Wilde,” I said, searching her face for confusion, recognition, any excuse to try again. All I found was open curiosity of meeting a new person.
The sound of the door closing made me jump. Fitz leaned against it and offered the room a tired smile. “Now that everyone’s here, we can start the meeting.”