Page 69 of Once a Villain
“Your brother,” Tom said.
“Mybrother?”
“Are you talking about Robbie?” Joan saw him now in hermind’s eye, a miniature version of Nick with huge brown eyes behind glasses, a mess of black hair. “He’s just a little boy. A six-year-old.”
“No, this is an older one,” Tom said. “Sandy blond, about thirteen...”
“Finn?” Nick said. Joan’s chest tightened at the look on his face. He half turned, as if he instinctively wanted to get to his brother now, to protect him. “What wouldheknow of the arena?”
“He used to squire for your counterpart,” Tom said. “He’s been all over the colosseum—except the battleground itself.” He hesitated, seeing Nick’s face. “He’s being trained for battle,” he admitted. “It’ll be a few years before he’s old enough to fight, but people are anticipating it already. There are rumors that he’s beenverygood in training.”
“No,” Nick said. “No.I would never let my brothers anywhere near the arena. None of them.”
A strange expression crossed Tom’s face—Joan was beginning to associate that look with their cultural differences. “Your counterpart didn’tallowit,” Tom said slowly. “He didn’t have a choice. His family lives on Oliver territory. When the Olivers ordered him into the arena, he fought in the arena. When they ordered his brother to squire, the boy squired.”
Nick turned deliberately to Aaron, his expression dangerous.
“Well,Ididn’t send them in there,” Aaron said, taking a defensive step back. “My counterpart washelpinghumans. Remember?”
“Edmund Oliver made Nick’s counterpart a gladiator,” Tom said. “He had an eye for potential champions.” At their blankfaces, his brow creased. “All the families compete in the arena via their vassals. All the heads of family look for suitable fighters to represent them.”
“Really,” Nick said flatly.
“Except for the Hathaways—we’re not interested in team sports,” Tom said. He was still looking at them all as if they were alien to him. “In any case, Aaron deposed Edmund last year—around the time Nick escaped the arena.”
Aaron opened his mouth and then closed it again. Joan could see how much he wanted to probe Tom about what had happened with his father.
“I’ll speak to my brother, then,” Nick said. His mouth twisted, and Joan saw him realize he’d have to feign being his counterpart. He’d have to lie to his brother.
“I’m coming with you,” Joan said. There was no way she’d let him do that alone. Nick opened his mouth to argue, as Aaron had,but he must have been dissuaded by Joan’s expression, because he closed his mouth again and nodded.
“Just the two of you,” Tom said. “Humans here have a nose for monsters. They’re as good at picking them out as Olivers are. And no one in that house is going to talk with a monster around.”
Joan and Nick set out later that morning with memorized directions to a neighborhood north of Covent Garden. Under the gray sky, Covent Garden was dreary. It was raining again, and the sun was an insipid streak behind clouds.
Nick was a solid presence beside Joan as they walked. She wasglad for the chance to be alone with him, even in these strange circumstances. They’d never been on a first date; they hadn’t even kissed in this timeline, and yet here they were—walking through Covent Garden together the morning after sayingI love you, in some strange parody of how things might have been.
Nick clearly felt it too. “Not quite how I imagined taking you home to meet the family,” he said wryly.
“I’ve met Mary,” she reminded him. “And Robbie and Alice.”
His smile turned real and sad. “That’s right. I’d almost forgotten. The day we met. The day I found your phone....”
Joan reached for his hand, and he clasped back. She wished so much that they really were simply strolling around together, that they could just be together, that they could properly talk. But the focus had to be on this task ahead, she knew.
Nick’s hand tightened around hers as they turned the next corner. Covent Garden felt dangerous even in the daytime. Most of the buildings were vacant, their dark paint peeling and windows boarded up. Joan stepped carefully over a spray of broken glass.
Up ahead, a cheap-looking bottle shop was the only place open. A few men leaned on the wall outside it, drinking and watching Joan and Nick approach. They were all monsters—lacking pendants,but also lacking Nick’s muscled bulk.
Nick’s hand shifted from Joan’s grasp to rest protectively on the small of her back. At the same time, he moved to put himself between her and the men up ahead.
Joan suppressed the urge to tuck her pendant under the bodice of her dress. Tom had told them to keep the pendants visible.
Humans have to give fifty years to the monsters of their territory, he’d reminded them.That can be fifty years of labor or life—or a combination of both.
So we only have to worry about Olivers taking life from us?Joan had said.Since we’re supposedly from Oliver territory....
In theory, Tom had agreed.In practice, though, no one polices that. Any monster can and will take time from you—unless your pendant says you’re ranked high enough to be labor-only.
