Chapter Seventeen Wilde
After Midnight
A Pleasant Guest Suite in an Unfortunate Castle
Exhausted
“I forgot how annoying Fitz is,” Delilah groaned as we stumbled into our assigned suite.
I would be staying with Delilah and Kit, while Trey and his fathers were across the hall. I looked over my shoulder at the closed door, wishing I was his guest instead of hers.
No one was in the shared space between bedrooms. Either Kit had already gone to bed, or they’d assumed we would all meet in the other room first.
Delilah flopped facedown onto the couch and mumbled something into the cushions.
“I can’t hear you.”
She turned just enough to free her mouth and demanded, “How did you ever seduce someone so heartless?”
“I did not seduce him,” I snapped, wrapping my arms around myself.
The more she said it, the more I wondered if it was true.
Seduction wasn’t evil on its own, though plenty of evil entities included it in their skillset.
But I didn’t want anyone except for Treasure, even if it was only to use them for my own means.
“Are you sure? Because he still seems a bit in love with you. Every time he mentioned his research, he got this faraway look in his eyes, like he missed someone.”
“We are not discussing this.” To drive home the point, I teleported to the lair, leaving her behind to enjoy Misfortune’s hospitality.
I stood in the middle of my bedroom, waiting for something to happen. It took several long minutes for me to realize that I was waiting for the imps to fly screaming through the halls, crying about how they couldn’t find their master.
But that wouldn’t happen again, would it? We were beyond that chapter now. No more minion interviews. No putting out the same fires. I hadn’t realized how much I’d relied on everything being the same until it changed.
I poked my head out into the hallway, searching for a minion. To my surprise, a lacertian stood right beside my bedroom door. “What are you doing there?”
“Guarding,” the lacertian replied.
I waited a beat for a longer explanation, but none followed. “Why?”
The lacertian’s scaled brow furrowed. “It’s my assignment.”
“I didn’t assign you to stand there.”
They looked around and muttered, “Is this a test? This feels like a test.” The words had so many s’s they were hard to decipher in the minion’s soft, hissing tones.
They straightened and recited as if from a manual, “My leader has assigned me to protect the Lord of Grimnight between the nighttime hours of eight and four. I’m not to leave my post unless one of the imps bears a signed seal with new orders.
” After a second, they added, “Or for assigned breaks, but then I’m supposed to find someone to take over for me. ”
I frowned. “I don’t need a guard.”
“Respectfully, my leader disagrees. You said he could assign the guards as he saw fit, as long as the lair was protected. This floor is part of the lair, so I guard it.”
I was too tired to argue with a minion over his job. I started to close the door, then poked my head out again, “Does anyone need anything?”
“No, my lord. The lair is quiet.”
That didn’t sound right. “The imps aren’t up to any mischief?”
“No, my lord.”
“No one’s threatened to storm the fortress?” I’d turned a lot of minions aways. Surely some of them had to be upset.
“No, my lord.”
I wracked my brain for another problem that might have occurred while I was gone. “There’s really nothing?”
“The lair is safe. Please focus on your evil plots.”
“Well … alright then.” I closed the door.
Then, because I wasn’t a coward, I teleported back to the suite.
Kit shouted and grabbed a decorative vase from a mantle on the wall.
They’d raised it over their head, preparing to throw it at me, when they registered who I was.
I tensed, waiting for them to hit me anyway, but they simply set their improvised weapon back in its place.
“Wilde, you can’t keep doing that,” they scolded.
“Please walk into the room like a normal human.”
I nodded curtly, even though I didn’t plan to heed their advice.
Delilah snored softly from the couch.
“So, how did it go today?” Kit asked as they moved to the kitchen.
They poured a glass of water, sized me up for a moment, then poured a second one.
They slid it across the small counter in a silent order for me to drink.
“I tried to ask the kitten, but she fell asleep halfway through the first word.”
I accepted the glass of water and drank it greedily.
I hadn’t realized how dry my throat was until the first drops touched it.
When I’d drained the whole thing, I set it down, and Kit filled it up again.
“Does Delilah think she’s a cat because you call her kitten, or do you call her kitten because she thinks she’s a cat? ”
Kit considered the question carefully. “She is a cat, in her own way, just like I’m a man when I want to be.”
There were three barstools at the kitchen counter, a cozy little place to dine.
I sat on one stool and cradled the cup in my hands.
It was cool against my overheated skin. I should have probably spent the night in the lair and teleported back in the morning to save energy.
“Is it a disguise, then? One that helps her stand out rather than blend in.”
Kit watched me for a long moment before asking, “Are you having a gender crisis, Wilde? Because if you are, I’m an excellent person to talk to, having gone through a few myself.”
I scowled. “I am not having a gender crisis. I’m perfectly happy as a man.”
“Except when you’re not.”
“This isn’t about gender, it’s about—” I snapped my mouth shut. Why was I talking to them about this anyway? Once they learned who I was—what I’d done to their daughter, before our tentative truce—they would skewer me with a sword. Or bash my head in with a vase.
Kit waited patiently. They didn’t try to egg me or on or tell me that it was getting late. They simply sipped their water while I decided how much I wanted to say.
Sitting at a counter, glass in my hand, a stranger willing to listen, reminded me of the tavern Melvin the Magnificent used to perform in.
People spilled all kinds of secrets when they were drunk and desperate.
I’d never been drunk before, but I was certainly desperate.
“Have you ever wanted something so bad every part of you ached? But any time you reached for it, it seemed farther and farther away?”
Kit arched a brow and said carefully, “I think so.”
“Did you ever catch it?”
A soft smile touched their lips as they confessed, “I did.”
From their expression, they were happy with the results, which meant they couldn’t really understand where I was coming from. “What if you only caught part of it?”
“I don’t understand.”
For thirteen years, I’d strived to earn a title as an evil mage.
I learned magic on my own and through various experts.
I found the master I’d been dreaming of since our first meeting, thinking he could fulfill my needs.
And now I’d stolen his title, his lair, and his minions.
The only thing I didn’t have was his son.
“When I tried to catch it, it ripped in my hands, splitting into two distinct parts. I could only keep hold of one while the other slipped through my fingers, but that was the part I valued most. Every time I chase after it, something goes wrong, gets in my way, slows me down. Before I know it, I’ve lost it again.
” I looked up at Kit, hoping they only saw enough of the metaphor to answer my question and not so much to understand what it really meant. “What do I do if I can’t catch it?”
Kit stared at me for a long moment, then huffed out a breath. “Fuck, Wilde, that’s a tough one. Where did Delilah find you?”
I pushed up from the stool. “Never mind, that was a stupid question.”
“If you can’t catch it, you have two options.”
I paused, waiting for them to continue.
“You let it go.”
That meant abandoning all my plans and schemes.
Dissolving the pocket dimension. Allowing time to flow normally, uninterrupted, no resets or takebacks.
I’d solved the biggest problem—Treasure was healed, he was in no danger of dying.
But if I let things take their course now …
in a timeline where he didn’t know me, and nothing connected us.
I’d lose him. And I was too selfish to give him up. “Or?”
“Or you get better at running.” Kit clapped a hand on my shoulder and said, “You know how you do that? Sleep and eat and take care of yourself. And no more teleporting when you can walk!” They grasped my other shoulder and turned me around, marching me straight to the bedroom. “Go to bed, Wilde.”
“You wanted me to tell you about the meeting,” I protested.
“You can tell me in the morning.” They practically pushed me into my room, then closed the door behind them, leaving me in the comforting dark.
I was so used to following the master’s orders that I’d crawled into bed and pulled the covers over me before I realized what I’d done.
I thought of Trey’s constant disobedience, both annoying and endearing, and started to push myself back up.
I only got halfway before the weight of exhaustion pushed me back into the mattress.
My eyes drifted shut, and I fell asleep with Kit’s advice still echoing in my head.