Chapter Twenty-Seven Trey
Midafternoon
The Edge of the Grimnight Forest
Embarking on a Quest (Finally)
The moment the trees came into view, Wilde held up his cuffed wrist. “Release me.” The imperious I-expect-to-be-obeyed tone was almost cute when I was in control.
I could keep him chained to my side for eternity, and he was powerless to do anything about it.
Except maybe turn me into a cat. I’d stuffed the collar to the bottom of my bag to prevent him from getting any ideas.
I had to let him go eventually—despite what I’d said about fighting or running away together, navigating the trees while chained to someone else was a good way to get tangled around a trunk. But that didn’t mean I’d release him for free. “Say please.”
His eyes flashed defiantly. I had a vague memory of being in his position once, going to my knees and begging him to kiss me. How far could I push him? Heat curled in my stomach as something else occurred to me: What will he do in revenge?
Every tense muscle in Wilde’s body promised retribution. Then his shoulders relaxed, and his expression shifted into something like sorrow before it became carefully blank. “Please.”
Teasing him was only fun if he played along. “Cramp,” I said aloud.
The cuffs snapped open and fell to the ground. Shock broke Wilde’s calm as he stared at his bare wrist. “Why ‘cramp?’”
I sighed. “Sometimes it’s better not to ask my dad about his choices.” I gathered up the cuffs and stuck them in my bag in case I needed them later. “Try not to panic-teleport when we face the inevitable monsters.”
“I wouldn’t abandon you.” He looked so soft and serious that I couldn’t tell him I was less concerned about him running away and more concerned about him passing out in the middle of a fight and becoming monster food.
We caught up with the others at the edge of the forest. They glanced at Wilde’s free wrist without acknowledging the change. “Everyone ready?” Fitz asked. He waited for confirmation, then we walked into the forest together.
Our first few steps were cautious, unsure of what to expect from a formerly cursed forest. Everyone stuck close as we peered into the shadows searching for monsters or magical traps.
For a few seconds, it was unnaturally quiet, the only sounds our boots crunching over leaves and sticks.
And then … the sweet trills of birds calling to one another.
Once that note of normalcy broke through the stillness, our formation relaxed, and everyone naturally spread out.
Delilah gamboled ahead, bouncing and running along the twisted paths, stopping abruptly to examine a bug or leaf.
Angelica strode forward with purpose, ignoring both the freshly bloomed flowers and the malformed trees.
If she had any say in the matter, we’d march straight up to the Lord of Grimnight’s lair and demand his surrender.
Fitz kept a steady pace, his head bobbing as he tried to keep an eye on the curling roots and the emerald canopy at the same time.
Maximus had the longest legs, so he could have easily outpaced everyone, but he stayed exactly in the middle of the group, trying to keep an eye on everyone at the same time.
Wilde walked in step with me. He never looked at me, but if I slowed, he slowed, and if I sped up, he sped up. Maybe he’d gotten used to walking in sync while we’d been bound, or maybe he just wanted to be near me.
I inched closer to him and whispered, “Wanna hold hands?”
He shot me a startled look and snatched his hand away from me, as if afraid I would grab it without his permission. “Absolutely not.”
“Why not? I’m feeling light and lonely,” I said, shaking my bare wrist at him. “Like I’ll fly away.”
He ignored me and tried to speed up, but my legs were longer than his, so he couldn’t escape me without flat out running away or teleporting.
“I remember you being a lot bolder,” I said.
“You don’t remember anything,” he snapped.
I’d only meant to tease him, but his anger sparked my own. “And whose fault is that?”
He froze and looked at me like I’d stabbed him through the heart. A phantom pain spasmed through my stomach to match. “You think it’s a burden to forget, but I have to look at you every day and remember everything while you don’t even know who I am.”
The accusation twisted the phantom pain in deeper. I’d never understand the source of it if he continued to run away at the first sign of confrontation. “You won’t stay long enough for me to learn!”
“Don’t lecture me on staying, Treasure Banes.” He spat my name out as if it burned his tongue. “You’re the one who left me in a bed alone because you didn’t care enough to stay!”
“Um, guys.”
We’d slept together? This was the most he’d ever shared about our previous relationship, and he was wielding the information against me like a weapon, slicing into me so we had matching wounds rather than shared memories.
I stalked toward him, using my height to force him to look up at me.
“Maybe you wouldn’t let me get close enough to care.
Maybe you’ve been running this whole fucking time. ”
“I am not running away!” We were almost nose to nose now—or nose to chin—anger steaming the air between us. I wanted to shove him against the closest tree and kiss him until he shut up. Until he became limp and pliable in my hands, too subdued to remember magic existed.
“Guys?”
“What?!” We shouted at the same time, glaring at our forgotten audience.
Fitz pointed to one of the trees. “We have company.”
Muffled giggling came from behind the trunk.
A vibrant green, barbed tail flicked into view before a purple hand caught it and dragged it back to safety.
After a long moment of silence, a high-pitched voice whispered, “Why’d they stop?
” Then a small, horned head stuck out around the tree.
The imp’s eyes widened when it realized it was being observed, and it hurriedly hid itself again.
Imps loved drama. The fastest way to recruit them was to stage a fight, the more ‘secrets’ spilled the better. They liked to hang around evil mages, helping their plots as often as they hindered them. Any imps hanging out in a formerly cursed forest probably served the Lord of Grimnight.
I gestured Delilah over and whispered, “Sneak around the other side and grab one.”
“I don’t want to hurt it!”
Usually, her feline instincts had her chasing all sorts of small creatures around. Why did she have to be so stubborn now? “Then grab it carefully.”
She glared at me but lowered herself into a crouch and stalked around the side of the tree.
The imps squealed, half fright and half delight, as she pounced at them. They fluttered in two different directions, one flying above her head, the other zooming straight toward us. Its batlike wings smacked me in the face as it dove straight into Wilde’s arms, cuddling up to his side.
Delilah caught the other imp, and it shrieked until its scream dissolved into giggles. She lowered it and tucked it under her arm, trotting back to us.
The imps pointed accusing claws at each other. “You got caught!”
“Nu-uh, you got caught!”
Accusations were tossed back and forth like a ball until Wilde barked, “Quiet.”
Both imps snapped their mouths shut.
Maximus narrowed his eyes. “Who do you work for?”
Together the minions crowed, “The Lord of Grimnight.”
“So, you’re here to spy on us,” Fitz said.
“Nu-uh, we’re messengers,” the purple one explained.
“Which means you can’t shoot us!” The green one stuck its tongue out in a taunting face. “That’s the rules, and you’re the good guys, so you have to follow the rules.”
“Why should we follow the rules when we know the evil mage won’t?” Angelica asked.
The imps shivered under her cool stare and tucked themselves closer to Delilah and Wilde, like those were the only two people here they trusted.
“Ease up,” I said, waving for the others to give them space. Maximus hesitated the longest, but he finally took a single step back. “What’s your message?”
The green imp in Wilde’s arms relaxed first. It glanced up shyly at him and then turned to the rest of the group and announced with purposeful capitalization, “The Lord of Grimnight is Very Scary.”
We waited, but no further message followed. “Is that it?”
The imps exchanged a look. Then the purple one shouted, “There are monsters in the woods!”
“We know,” Fitz said.
“Don’t go that way,” the green imp said, pointing slightly to the right of our path. “Or you’ll run right into his lair!”
Fitz looked in that direction then gave a bewildered, “Thank you?”
The imps leaned toward each other, whispering in another language. Then the purple imp said, “And especially do not stop at the lovely, renovated cottage! We made the beds fresh, and they are ours, and not for dirty questers to put their stinky human feet in!”
“But the patrols don’t come out this far,” the green imp said, “so we trust that you will honor your word and not go there.”
The imps looked at us expectantly.
Fitz figured it out first. “We promise not to go there?”
Satisfied, the purple imp turned its face up to Delilah and said, “Let me down.”
Delilah opened her arms, and the imp flew away.
The other imp launched out of Wilde’s arms, chasing its companion through the trees.
As their laughter faded, Angelica said, “Tell me this time at least that you all thought that was weird.”
Fitz nodded. “Likely a trap. An evil mage might be tempted to go somewhere forbidden, so he thinks we’ll fall for the same tricks. We’ll go that way,” he said, pointing in the opposite direction of where the imps indicated, “and we’ll stay far away from any ‘lovely cottages.’”
I didn’t remember everything about the Lord of Grimnight, but I didn’t think he was that stupid. If anything, he would do the opposite. “Imps aren’t that bright. He might have told them to send us on a different path, so they literally told us not to go down the correct one.”
“What does the map say?” Maximus asked.
Fitz pulled it out, frowning as he examined it.
“It’s quite old, drawn long before the forest was ever here, but the most direct route is where the imps pointed.
However, I suggest we travel like this,” he said, drawing a semi-circle loop that would bring us through the opposite side of Traumstead.
“It will take longer, but the Lord of Grimnight’s minions will be looking for us from the wrong direction. ”
“Are you sure you want to take that path?” Wilde asked, his calm gaze locked on the map.
“Yes?” Fitz replied, not sounding sure at all. “Why, is something wrong with it?”
“It’s different than I expected, that’s all.”
“Different is good though, right? We don’t want the evil mage to anticipate our moves.”
Wilde shrugged, like the decision didn’t involve him at all.
“Unless you know something we don’t,” Maximus said.
“I know a lot that you don’t, Maximus, most of which you’ll never learn.”
Maximus narrowed his eyes but dropped the conversation.
“Can we go, please?” Angelica demanded. “I’d like to make some progress before dark. It’d be simply embarrassing to spend our first night an hour from the border.”
Fitz packed up his map and we started moving again. This time, we stayed in a closer cluster and kept an eye out for any other minions spying on us from the trees.