Princess Delilah Takes Over the Narration
Twenty Minutes Later
Back at the Windermere Plaza
Because Someone Kept Undoing Her Errands
Delilah never thought she would be so sick of shopping.
First, she’d chosen the perfect outfits with Angelica, then she’d started in on her list with Fitz, and now she was marching toward an apothecary all because Wilde had reset time twice.
At first, she’d thought it’d been for selfish reasons.
As she knelt next to him, she’d seen the fresh ring of bruises around his neck.
Heard his whispered plea to keep Maximus away.
She’d given Angelica and Fitz their original assignments, then dragged Maximus with her, claiming that she needed someone to carry all their purchases. He was a quiet, unassuming presence next to her. The last person anyone would suspect of murderous impulses.
She stopped in the middle of the hall and demanded, “Why don’t you like Wilde?”
Maximus’ brow furrowed. People flowed around him, giving him a wide berth, but they barely noticed Delilah. They accidentally jostled her shoulders and pushed her out of their way, throwing her off balance and ruining her grandstanding.
This wouldn’t do at all.
She grabbed Maximus’ arm and dragged him into the shop, hiding between a row of bottles. “Well?”
A muscle ticked in Maximus’ jaw. He stared down at his hands, opening and closing his fists, as if he could still feel the slender throat clutched within them. “I don’t know how to explain it. Everything’s blurry and confusing, but … I think he’s evil.”
“And?”
Maximum’s head shot up, his expression confused and wounded, like a puppy shooed away from their meal.
What the puppy didn’t realize was that the food on the floor was not his to eat and could harm him if he wasn’t careful.
“My favorite author is an evil hag, and she writes the most delicious romance novels. Her husband is an evil mage, and he helped my uncles fall in love. ‘Evil’ is only one part of who they are.”
“But evil doesn’t belong here,” Maximus insisted, with the full conviction of a proper royal champion. “That’s why we have the Kingdom Defense Spell.”
Delilah sighed. How to explain this to him? Not everyone had grown up with evil friends and family. “Is murder evil?”
“Yes,” he said, quickly, with no room for argument.
“Is murdering an evil mage evil?”
His mouth snapped shut and his brows bunched together.
“If murder is evil, then it shouldn’t matter who the victim is.”
Maximus shook his head sharply, refusing to accept her explanation. “It’s not the same if you’re trying to save people.”
Delilah nodded along with him. “What if an evil mage helps more people than they hurt?”
“Evil only cares about itself. It doesn’t help anyone.”
She knew some happily employed minions who would argue otherwise.
In the time she’d spent at the Lord of Grimnight’s lair, she’d seen how the minions flourished under Wilde’s care.
At first, the lair had been as grim as his title, black floors and walls, trees growing through every possible opening.
Within a few days, Fyodor and a handful of orcs cleared away the old growth, polished the floors, and decorated the walls with personal effects.
Wilde had barely noticed the changes, too focused on his own work.
When a group of bandits took over the nearby buildings, instead of chasing them away, he’d simply waved off the guards’ concerns and said, “No one else is living there.”
Delilah had watched him treat the imps gently, scolding them when they caused mischief, giving them extra snacks when they behaved. They’d fluttered and danced around him, more like little faeries than fiends.
The people he’d helped weren’t always human, but that didn’t mean they mattered any less.
What would happen to them if Wilde was no longer their master?
Would they find a new one? Return to their old one, wherever he was?
Would they threaten royal champions again, kidnap maidens for ransom, steal to eat?
“Give Wilde a chance to prove you wrong,” Delilah murmured. “Stop looming, stop glowering, stop threatening him.”
Maximus was now glowering at her. “What if he betrays us? What if someone gets hurt?”
She knew Wilde had put magical contingencies in place to prevent serious injury, but she couldn’t explain those to Maximus. After all, if Wilde was the problem, he could never be the solution. “Then we’ll work together to help each other heal.”
Maximus continued to glower at her for a long moment before his anger melted away. “I’ve been an ass,” he muttered. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why, but I don’t like him.”
“We don’t have to like everyone,” Delilah said, trying to sound conciliatory but sure it was more exasperated. “Now, if you don’t mind, I want to finally finish our shopping.”