Page 83 of Office of the Lost

Crispin had never seen a floor plan of OotL.He imagined it would be surpassingly strange-looking, the way the corridors combined, split up, and recombined.

Not only that, but the layout seemed to change from time to time.Usually he justknewwhere things were, or they came to him as he had need of them.But maybe Bidulla had blocked that, too?

He scratched his head, staring hopelessly at the three tunnels.

“Um, Crispy?”Leo’s warm hand touched his shoulder.“Are we lost?”

“Not… exactly.”He could still sort of feel the Oracle, as if its eye was on him.But he couldn’t sensewhereit was.“Maybe if we….”

The hallway shifted, momentarily flashing in a blur of bewildering colors.When things settled, Bidulla was standing in front of him with sour-looking mercenaries at her back.

His enormously tusked boss seemed as surprised to see him as he was her.

Crispin fell back and heard the whisper of Aspin’s sword being drawn.

The mercenaries settled easily into a fighting stance, drawing what seemed like a thousand daggers that sparkled under the harsh fluorescent lights.

Crispin had mere seconds before this devolved into a bloody melee.

“Stop!”He put all the strength of his position as the future king of the fae into his voice, and the hallway shook.

Everyone froze.

Bidulla blinked and then looked him up and down, as if really seeing him for the first time.“You’ve changed.”

Coming from her, that was high praise.“Yes, I have.I’m not the meek little desk fae you sent out to collect Leo.”

One of her huge furry eyebrows raised at the nickname.She glared at Leopold as if he were a cockroach stuck to her shoe.“Thisthingis a danger to the Connected Worlds.Surely you’ve seen the damage it has done to hundreds of thousands of citizens.It must becontained.”

Crispin didn’t like the way she said that last word.“Leo is not a thing.You can’t just bottle him up and leave him alone for the rest of eternity.”His anger was threatening to boil over.He took a deep breath to calm himself and felt Leo’s warm hand slip into his.“Besides, look how well that worked the last time.Where was he when he did all thisallegeddamage?”It was real damage—he’d seen it himself—but he wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction.

“What did I do?”Leo bit his lip.

“Nothing that can’t be fixed.”He squeezed Leo’s hand.

Bidulla charged on, as ogres tended to do.“We’ll do better.Lock him up in a place so deep and empty that he’ll never be able to break out.”

“Like behind the Red Door?”He glanced at his mother.

Cerillia had the grace to blush.“There is nosafeplace.Trying to bottle him up… to bottle Chaos up… it’s always going to find a way out.”

Bidulla blinked again, as if seeing Cerillia for the first time.

And perhaps she had.Ogres were also notoriously short-sighted.“My Queen.”She went down on one knee.“Surely you must see how dangerous this…thingis.”

Cerillia drew herself up, and for a moment she was her old self—powerful, mysterious, and scary as the Oark of the Black Forest.“Thisthing ismy future son-in-law.” She put a hand on Leo’s shoulder.“I made a huge mistake when I exiled his father through the Red Door.Chaos only works if there’s Order, and Order can only exist when there’s Chaos to be organized.”

The ogre sputtered.“But Your Majesty?—”

Cerillia took a regal step forward and placed one hand on Bidulla’s oversized, hairy chin.“Look at him.”She forced Bidulla’s gaze down onto Leo’s face.

They locked gazes, and Bidulla’s eyes went wide.“It’s… he’s… so beautiful.Why did I never see that?”Her eyes rolled up and she slumped, hitting the ground and causing the floor under Crispin’s feet to shake.

Leo leapt forward.“Is she okay?”He knelt next to the ogre.“She’s still breathing.”

“Just overcome.She’ll be all right.”Cerillia grinned.Her glamour had departed once more, but she still had that air of royalty.

The mercenaries sheathed their knives and stepped back.

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