Page 1 of Once a Villain
One
“We have to get out of here,” Joan said. They were all crammed together in a dead-end alley, but they couldn’t linger. A patrolling guard was making his way along the river walk, a gold pin marking him from the scattered people on the path. “There’s a guard—”
“I see him,” Nick said grimly.
“There aretwo.” Aaron indicated a slight woman farther up the embankment, a hint of gold glinting at her collar. Joan hadn’t clocked her at all.
A cold wind blew across the river, cutting through Joan’s gauze dress. She wished she still had her coat, but she’d had to dump it last night, and there was no way to retrieve it now. She folded her arms as she surveyed the guards, the unfamiliar skyline. Where could they go?
On the other side of the Thames, glass towers reflected the thunderous sky. A tinted image shimmered in one of them: a sea serpent engulfing a sailing ship. Monster sigils were everywhere now: winged lions and serpents emblazoned on buildings, rippling on flags. A reminder that the world didn’t belong to humans anymore.
Now monsters reigned.
Joan turned to Jamie. “Do you think your family would helpus?” The Lius would remember the previous timeline. Surely they’d take them in.
The wind lifted Jamie’s smooth black hair. He’d seemed lost in his head since Tom had vanished, but he made a visible effort to focus now. “Liu territory is just across the river. If we can get there—”
The rest of his words were swallowed by the nearby rumble of an engine. Joan and the others retreated instinctively into the shadows as a hearse-black boat emerged from under London Bridge, its pace the slow menace of a patrol. The golden lion of the Monster Court stood stark on its flank, teeth and claws bared in attack.
Joan’s cousin Ruth swore under her breath. “Well, we can’t stay here.”
Beside Joan, Nick shifted, a muscle jumping in his jaw. Joan knew what he was thinking. The last time they’d sought refuge with the Lius, Nick had been restrained, his mind controlled. Joan half expected him to argue now, but after a beat he just nodded. “Let’s go,” he said.
They slipped into the thin crowd, trying to blend in, trying not to look like the fugitives they were.
Joan knew she should keep her head down, but she couldn’t resist another glance across the river. This new London was a strange beast. Dark smoke drifted from chimneys and settled in the sky in a gloomy pall. Familiar landmarks were gone—Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s dome. In their place was a new skyline of Gothic spikes and soaring glass.
A few hundred paces to the west, London Bridge straddled the river. Not the practical concrete bridge Joan knew but the one Eleanor must have dragged here—OldLondon Bridge, its houses and shops quaint and strange, like a miniature Shakespearean village on the Thames.
Here, on the walkway, a man strolled by in a Roman tunic, and then a woman in a medieval gown, the heavy velvet sweeping the pavement. It was clear that monsters had no fear of discovery anymore.
Joan swallowed. All of this was wrong. It waswrong. This world wasn’t supposed to exist. Her sister, Eleanor, had seized control of the timeline, reforging it into one where monsters ruled. And Eleanor had used Joan and Nick to do it. She’d put a gun to Joan’s head, and given Nick a choice: Joan or the world.
Joan had known what Nick would do. She’d been so sure.Nick had been a legendary monster slayer: the human hero who killed the predators among them. Given a choice between dooming humans and saving Joan, he’d only ever do one thing. Joan had closed her eyes, waiting for death.
But Nick had chosen Joan.
Joan tried and failed to catch his gaze now. He was on the far side of the path, walking with Jamie and Ruth, a dark flick of hair concealing his expression. Joan had the feeling he was avoiding her. She didn’t blame him. He had to be regretting his decision—now that he’d seen all of this.
“Hey,” Aaron murmured, falling into step beside her.
Joan tried to smile at him. “I keep expecting to be arrested.” Or worse.
Aaron feigned a neck stretch to check on the guards. “They’re still just patrolling,” he reassured her. “They don’t know we’re here.”
Joan nodded. A part of her couldn’t believeAaronwas here. For months, she’d held the memory of him quiet and close. In the privacy of her own mind, she’d conjured that posh sprawling-mansion, boarding-school voice, never believing she’d actually hear him speak again. She hadn’t wanted him to be in danger like this—to be on the run with her again. And yet some part of her was horribly, selfishly glad to be back with him.
Aaron ran a tired hand through his golden hair. Sometimes, it was hard to see beyond his otherworldly beauty, but Joan knew him well enough to register the dark circles under his eyes, the gray tinge to his complexion. When had he last slept? When had any of them?
“You okay?” Aaron asked.
Joan had been about to ask him that. “Areyou?”
“Oh yeah. I love what your sister’s done with the place.”
Joan’s breath came out in a huffed laugh, surprising her. “It’s like Dracula made a city. All dark clouds and spikes.” As she spoke, she heard the plod of approaching footsteps. She swallowed and adjusted her hair, keeping her neck covered.
Underfoot, the stone tiles were storm gray. Aaron’s own footsteps were soothingly even against them. A steady heartbeat. Joan tried to focus on that as she walked, and not on the crawling feeling at her nape.
