Chapter 53
Kingsley
Screw usable thumbs. Being a frog was easier by far.
Always landing on his feet, for example.
Such was not the case when he was released from the entrapments of the vines, falling—or rather thudding—in front of Blade and Clare. Pushing himself up onto his stomach, dark hair flopping into his eyes, Kingsley murmured, “Ouch.”
“You passed!” Clare’s eyes glittered, her smile wide. Alexander hadn’t seen one of those smiles in a long time. “And you’re human again! Oh, thank goodness. Thank goodness.”
Alexander could feel that she was happy for his goodness. In the goodness of his choices.
And though it wasn’t true, Alexander hadn’t the heart to take that victory from her.
“Moira! Three out of five is majority. What say we end this now.” Blade threw his arms wide, yelling at the librarian who had once again disappeared.
But there was no need to barter, as Rebecka’s eyes shot open, Tatianna’s following shortly after.
Both women choked, clutching the ground the moment the vines released them.
Alexander acted upon instinct and immediately kneeled to help them up.
It was odd—in his frog body, he had never kept up with this habit, choosing irreverence and wit over courtly manners.
As time passed, he’d assumed all his distinctly human traits would have gone.
Yet here he was, offering his arm to a maiden in distress like the princely cliché he was.
Tatianna gripped his hand, snapping him from his lost thoughts. “Oh gods, that was horrific.”
“Are you okay?” Clare asked frantically. “What happened?”
She released a large exhale, forcing a serene expression onto her face. “It was Evie. But it wasn’t. I don’t— Trystan was in armor. Benedict’s crest.”
No. No. It couldn’t have all been for nothing. Alexander would not allow it.
He’d made concessions to his morals he never thought he would, allowed himself to be pushed around the chessboard like a pawn merely hitching a ride.
Alexander took Tatianna’s shoulders; his earnest expression was met with her eyebrows shooting up. He spoke slowly, had to be understood the first time. “The king’s crest?”
Tatianna nodded, softening. “It was them, but it wasn’t. A different them, I think. It was who they would’ve been in the story. If Evie had kept her powers, if Trystan grew up…the prince. I’ve seen the outcome of that, and believe me—it’s ugly.”
Alexander went rigid.
Becky, who appeared too dazed to add anything, leaned on Blade for support. “Did you have to choose whose side you’d be on?”
Tatianna swallowed. “No. I had a choice to change the past, which in turn would change the future. A future in which Clare and I had never separated. We were married—” The healer choked on her next breath, and Clare flinched.
“I said no; of course I said no.” Shivering.
“It wouldn’t have been right, and I— Well, I like us now.
” Tatianna gave Clare a reassuring look before asking Becky, “Yours?”
But before Becky could speak a word, Moira appeared in a cloud of sparkling mist. “Hello, my little doves. What a splendid job you did!”
Blade glared, releasing Becky only to step closer to the woman. “You put all of us through deadlands-level torment, and for what?”
Moira folded her hands in front of her. “I’ve been alive a millennium too long. I like a little entertainment occasionally, too.”
Alexander swallowed around a lump forming in his throat. “Then we’re done?”
Moira’s blue eyes glittered. “I’m afraid not.”
Tatianna tugged herself up, regaining some of her strength—enough to argue, “We all passed!”
Alexander believed it was Moira’s genuine amusement that pushed the group to catch on. Just in time for the woman to murmur, “Not all of you.”
And then, Rebecka Erring fell to the ground.