Chapter Twenty-Nine Trey
The Next Day
The Not-So-Grimnight Forest
On a Surprisingly Pleasant Hike
“I’m bored,” Delilah complained as she dragged her feet through the leaf strewn ground. “This place is boring.”
“Do you want to be attacked by monsters?” Angelica demanded. “Because I would much rather have a nice, uneventful journey to the Lord of Grimnight’s Lair, thank you very much. It will help us conserve our energy.”
“It’s not that I want monsters,” Delilah said. “But I was promised monsters, so it’s a bit disappointing that all we’ve gotten so far are chatty squirrels.” She raised narrowed eyes to one such squirrel, who was currently scolding us for tromping through its territory.
“It isn’t very questlike,” Fitz said, adjusting his glasses, as if he might spot some much-anticipated danger if they were simply at the correct angle. “There should be some obstacles, shouldn’t there? Patrols, traps, monsters. Not just … walking.”
While they complained, I angled my steps to naturally bring myself closer to Wilde.
He was avoiding me again. I’d thought after declaring myself in front of the others, he would finally relax, talk to me, share parts of himself with me.
Instead, it felt like every step I took forward, he’d teleport ten feet away from me.
Thankfully not literally—but from the way he sometimes tensed, his edges flickering in and out of focus, he was barely resisting the urge.
“Stop it,” he snapped, his voice low and gaze locked ahead.
“Stop what?” I asked.
“Looking at me.”
“Am I not allowed to look?”
He’d tied back his hair, exposing the pale nape of his neck. A few white strands had escaped the tie, brushing against his cheeks. Every few minutes, he tucked it behind his ear, but it never stayed put for long.
Poor Wilde, even his hair won’t obey him.
“Not like that,” he finally answered, his voice so soft I barely heard him. Then he quickened his steps to catch up with Delilah.
She preened at him and declared, “Let’s play a game!”
“There aren’t any cows,” Angelica said.
Delilah’s brow furrowed in confusion. “I didn’t say anything about cows.”
“We shouldn’t be too loud,” Maximus said. The sound of his voice nearly made me jump. Somehow, I hadn’t noticed him walking up next to me. Someone six-and-a-half feet tall shouldn’t be able to sneak.
“Or we should be as loud as possible to draw the monsters out,” Delilah argued. “That way, they can’t surprise us later!”
“Or we’ll attract more monsters than we can handle,” I said dryly.
Delilah ignored our well-reasoned arguments and plowed ahead as if anyone had agreed to her silly game. “Let’s play ‘Exchange.’”
Despite myself, I sighed and asked, “What’s that?”
Angelica arched an eyebrow at me. “You don’t know it? It’s one children play.”
“Bullies, maybe,” Fitz muttered.
“Do you know it, Wilde?” Maximus asked, eyes narrowed at the back of Wilde’s head.
He didn’t even glance over his shoulder. “No.”
“Funny, since it’s so popular in the Desolated Lands. You’d think anyone who grew up there would know it.” Maximus’ unsaid accusations could have as easily applied to me, since I was the one who first admitted to being unfamiliar with the game, but he only focused on Wilde.
“Ah, ah, the game hasn’t started yet,” Delilah chided.
“The rules of ‘Exchange’ are as follows: you choose one person and ask them one question. They tell you how much the answer will cost you, and if you’re willing to give it to them, they have to answer the question.
” She stuck her nose in the air and replied, “So if you want to ask Wilde about his upbringing, he has to tell you how much the answer will cost. Well, Wilde?”
Wilde side-eyed her and said, “Pass.”
“That’s not how it works,” she protested. “You have to come up with some sort of price, even if it’s something silly like fetching the moon.”
“What’s the point if the price is impossible?” I asked.
“That is the point! To come up with more and more ridiculous tasks for people to do! Obviously, it’s more fun if you can do them and they’re just silly or difficult or embarrassing but sometimes coming up with a fun payment is enough!”
Wilde continued to walk silently forward, head slowly swiveling as he kept an eye out for danger while everyone else prattled.
“The person who was called on gets to go next,” Delilah wheedled. “You can ask anyone anything when it’s your turn.”
His shoulders twitched, a barely perceptible sign of interest, but he still refused to answer.
Sighing, Delilah said, “Maximus, choose someone else.”
Maximus glanced at me from the corner of his eye, the casual look bringing with it an impending sense of doom. “Trey—”
“Wait.” Wilde halted so abruptly that Delilah almost crashed into him. “I’ll play.”
Maximus’ lips worked for a moment; his expression difficult to read. Finally, he asked, “Where did you grow up?”
“If you want that answer, you’re going to have to climb to the top of that tree,” Wilde said, pointing up the tree in question.
Some traces of the curse remained, like the knots bulging from the tree trunk that resembled frightened and weeping eyes.
Right at eye level, a hollow opened in a silent scream.
Of course, the scream was a little less intimidating with a bird nest roosting in the open space.
Without a word, Maximus grabbed one of those knots and hoisted himself up the tree.
“Is no one worried about him falling and breaking something?” Angelica asked.
“As long as it’s not his neck, we’ve got health potions to patch him up,” Fitz replied, crossing his arms as he watched Maximus scale the tree. “Besides, this is actually great practice, in case someone needs to climb something later.”
Maximus reached the highest branch that would hold his weight and glowered down at Wilde. “Good enough?”
Wilde gazed up at him impassively, then nodded once.
Everyone tensed as Maximus climbed down the tree, more slowly this time. We all waited for his foot to miss, his grip to slip, a branch to break under his weight. When he landed back on the ground, we let out a collective sigh of relief.
“An orphanage.” Wilde spoke with little inflection and no explanation. It took me a moment to even remember what the question had been. Even Maximus seemed confused. Wilde stared at him, face blank, and offered him a single scrap of clarification. “I grew up in an orphanage.”
Silence descended over our group. Wilde glanced at me briefly before facing ahead and continuing through the woods.
Well, we certainly won’t attract monsters now.
I thought the game would end after that abysmal first turn, since Wilde was supposed to ask the next question. So I was surprised, almost fifteen minutes later, when Wilde said, “Fitz.”
“What?” Fitz stumbled, then pointed to himself, eyes wide in shock. He looked between Wilde and I, then asked dumbly, “Me?”
“Why are you always fidgeting with your glasses?” Wilde asked.
“What? I … they’re just—”
“Exchange!” Delilah reminded him.
Fitz gave her an exasperated look, then waved his hand and said, “If you want that information then … run around a tree?”
“Pass,” Wilde said, face still blank.
“Then why did you bother asking,” Fitz grumbled under his breath. “Angelica.”
“Do we even care about this game anymore?” she drawled.
“It’s my damn turn, so yes,” Fitz replied. “How many times have you lost a duel?”
Angelica narrowed her eyes at him. “If you want that information, drop and give me a thousand push-ups.”
“Gods no. Pass.”
While the others tossed questions and challenges back and forth, I slipped through the ranks up to Wilde’s side. His shoulders tensed, signaling that he knew I was there, but he didn’t pull away from time this time.
“I have a question for you,” I whispered in his ear.
“It’s not your turn.”
“I’m skipping ahead.” When he didn’t protest further, I lowered my voice so only he could hear it, “Did you like it when I fucked you?”
He stopped. The air seemed to still around us, the forest quieting, as if giving us privacy for this conversation.
He turned to look at me, black eyes glittering dangerously.
He raised a hand to my jaw and traced it with a light touch that made my skin feel tight and sensitive.
“I can’t answer that question,” he murmured, “because you’ve never fucked me. ”
I stared at him, confused for a second. “But you said we—” I cut myself off, stunned by the implication.
Wilde was shorter than me, delicate and pretty.
Just looking at him, I wanted to make his pale skin flush with desire.
To mark every inch of it with red and purple love bites.
The orders and haughty attitude made me want to rile him up until he was so angry he couldn’t think of anything but me.
From his injured expression when he’d talked about that night together, I’d assumed …
And I’d only ever topped, so I hadn’t even considered …
Did I seriously let him fuck me, and then get up and walk away like nothing happened? I was almost impressed with the other Trey, and not a little bit jealous.
Sound and the rest of the world rushed in before I wrestled my thoughts into submission. The others caught up with us, getting more into the game now. Delilah raced past me, ran around a tree three times, and then shouted, “I did it! Answer the question!”
Someone called my name, tried to pull me into the game, but I waved them off.
“Wilde—” I started, but he’d already turned and walked away from me.
Maybe it was for the best. I needed time to reorient our relationship in my head. To understand what I’d done, what he’d done, and what I might want to happen again.
And what I wanted to be different.