Page 16 of Once a Villain
Five
Joan pushed between narrow aisles of clothes, trying to keep up with the guards.
“What the—” Ruth chased after Joan, trying to catch her arm. “What are youdoing?”
Joan shook Ruth off and kept moving, barely registering her words. “That’s the receptionist from the inn!” she whispered. “Ronan! He was trying to help us!”
The market had already bustled back to life. People had gone back to eating their meals and buying clothes as if the arrest hadn’t even happened.
“Joan!” Ruth grabbed her arm again. “Stop!”
“We have to go after them!” Joan said. The guards were heading for the big archway at the front. In two minutes, they’d be out of sight.
“Why?”
Joan scrabbled for the note, and gave it to Ruth—her eyes still on the guards. “He was waiting formewhen they caught him.”
Aaron hissed through his teeth as he read over Ruth’s shoulder. “Hedidrecognize you from that poster.Fuck.”
“We’re going to lose him!” Joan said. She opened her mouth to tell the others what Gran had said—that this guy could help them stop Eleanor. But... she couldn’t say she’d heard Gran’sdisembodied voice in an empty closet. They’d think she was losing it—especially Aaron, who’d been there and hadn’t heard anything. “Humans are suffering here,” she said instead. That was still true. “We have to fix this timeline. And it sounds likethat guy’s been fighting Eleanor.” He’d just been arrested for it. “We’re going to need allies against her—allies who know this world. And...” She spread her hands. “He tried to help us.We need to—”
“You’re right,” Aaron said abruptly. “We need to go after him.”
Joan closed her mouth and then opened it again, too surprised to answer. She’d been hoping to convince Nick and maybe Ruth and Jamie. But Aaron never ran toward danger. She finished her sentence: “We need to helphim.”
Aaron met Joan’s gaze. His beautiful features were hard. “I don’t know about helping him, but we have to get to him before an interrogator does. Because if Eleanor’s guards are anything like the King’s, Ronan will tell them everything they want to know. He’llbegto tell them.” His words had a dark undertone that made Joan blink. He’d hinted once that he’d been interrogated by the Court himself—perhaps when his mother had been arrested.
Nick made a soft sound of agreement at the back of his throat, and scoured the market. “There’s another door past the arch,” he said. “Another exit. We’ll come out onto the same street, and it won’t be so obvious that we’re following them.” When Joan turned to him, Nick echoed Aaron grimly: “That guyclockedyou, Joan. We need to get to him before he’s interrogated. If we don’t, Eleanor is going to know you’re here.”
They hurried after Ronan, emerging at a door far enough up the street that they were hidden by the darkness. About twenty paces away, a convoy of five black cars with winged-lion insignia stood under a pool of streetlights. Joan swayed forward, frustrated, as Ronan was bundled into the front car.
“I’m innocent!” Ronan said.
“Tell it to the Queen’s justice!” a guard snarled at him.
A minute later, the convoy pulled out of the Serpentine’s enclave and slipped away into the night.
“We’ve lost them!” Ruth said.
Joan shook her head. Even knowing it was hopeless, she sprinted up the dark street, trying to keep the convoy in sight, trying to keep herselfoutof sight. She’d felt sickened and helpless ever since she’d arrived in this timeline. She’d seen humans being caged and beaten, their life stolen. And now someone had tried to help her—someone Gran had told her to find. And he was going to be interrogated and hurt because Joan hadn’t seen his note in time. Because she’d broken into a different room and hadn’t used the key.
Behind Joan, heavy footsteps sounded. Nick overtook her, and for a second he was so fast that Joan almost wondered if he’d be able to keep up with the cars. But he couldn’t. The convoy was already turning left onto another street.
Nick kept running, though. It took Joan a moment to see why. There was a bus stop up ahead, with a bus waiting there, signaling left.
Nick leaped onto the bus and stood in the doorway, holding the door open. Joan put on a burst of speed, and Nick offered a hand to help her in, and then Aaron.
Nick didn’t seem out of breath, but Joan was; her throat burned as she gasped out: “Ruth and Jamie?” She searched and saw them—through the back window—way behind on the street, Frankie still in Jamie’s arms.
“They’re not going to make it,” Aaron panted.
The bus door was already closing. Joan held her hands under the interior light, indicating to Ruth that she and the guys would come back to the inn as soon as they could.
After their frantic sprint, the interior of the bus was almost eerily silent. There was no one else in here—not even a driver. The bus was navigating itself.
A message flashed on a sign overhead:Present ID and pay.
Joan ignored the flashing message and peered out the windshield, into the night.
