Page 46 of Once a Villain
As she led him there, she was clearly surprised that Joan and the others kept trailing awkwardly behind. “You don’t need an entourage, I’m sure,” she said to Aaron.
“They stay by my side,” Aaron said tightly. He didn’t want to let Joan and Nick out of his sight; not in a place like this.
Joan held her breath, half expecting Marguerite to tell them to wait outside. But Marguerite just ran a hand through her pale hair, seeming tired. “Very well.” She opened the door to the back room, and they all shuffled in.
It was a small staff room, with employees’ bags lying against the walls, and cups of half-drunk tea on wheelable tables. “Well?” Marguerite said expectantly to Aaron as he shut the door behind himself. “What did Nick give you?”
Aaron carefully didn’t look at Nick standing beside him. In the execution video, Nick’s counterpart had mentioned a series of interrogations before the recording had happened. “I, uh...” Aaron hesitated. What had his own counterpart told his mother? Clearly, Nick had given up something important.
Out of Marguerite’s view, Nick gently pressed his toe against Aaron’s heel.You need to be yourevil twin right now.
Aaron nodded slightly, seeming grateful for the reminder. He made a visible effort to transform himself. “Honestly”—his tone cooled to his counterpart’s—“I might have exaggeratedwhat I actually got out of him—other than screaming and wailing. He was quite the coward by the end.”
Marguerite didn’t respond for a long beat. “Are these your friends?” she said, indicating not just Ruth and Jamie but Joan and Nick too. “Do you trust them?”
Joan felt her mouth drop open. They were odd questions. Monsters and humans couldn’t be friends in this world. She shot Aaron a warning look, but he was already nodding.
“Good,” Marguerite said. “So cut it out, Aaron. Drop the act. I know it’s necessary in public, but I find it quite awful.” She drew a breath and turned to the other side of the room. “It’s safe to come out!”
Who was she talking to? Joan only had a second to wonder before a cupboard door opened. And then ghosts were here in the room with them. It was the red-haired man and his sister—the humans who’d just been executed by Marguerite.
The red-haired man registered Joan’s shock. “I felt the same when we were rescued,” he said to her shakily. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Joan stared. She replayed the executions in her mind: Marguerite had swiped at the prisoners’ necks, and they’d slumped. It hit her then that no one had checked that they were actually dead.
A smile spread over Marguerite’s face now, and Joan realized that her manner at the luncheon had been as false as Aaron’s. Joan felt like she was seeing her for the first time. Her real smile was as warm as sunshine.
“Alfie and Enid—” Marguerite said to the humans. Shegestured at Aaron. “My son, Aaron. He organized your rescue.” In response to their confusion, she clarified: “He’s the head of the resistance movement. You may know him better as the Wolf.”
Fifteen
Joan tried to absorb what Marguerite had said. Someone had been rescuing humans in this world—a man calling himself the Wolf. Gran had told Joan to find him and his followers.
It seemed they’d been searching for Aaron’s counterpart all along.
Marguerite smiled at Aaron now, love and pride brightening her face, and a sudden chill ran through Joan. Marguerite’s actual son was gone. He’d been overwritten when they’d arrived in this timeline. This Aaron was a cuckoo in the nest. They all were.
“Youorganized our rescue?” Alfie said to Aaron.“We knew someone was helping us, but not you. We’d never have guessed.”
“That woman selling confessions whispered to us that we should play dead on the block,” his sister said. “But...” Tears welled in her eyes as she looked at Aaron. “I was so sure you were going to kill us. Everyone says you order humans to the Oliver house, and they never leave. Everyone says you killed Nick Ward—the gladiator who escaped. They say—”
She cut herself off, but Joan could guess what else people said about Aaron’s counterpart. She’d heard some of the words already.Sadistic. Cruel.She’d thought them herself.
Aaron opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Joan knewhe’d been thinking of his own counterpart in the same way.
“Aaron has had to cultivate an image,” Marguerite said gently. “He and Nick have been working together against the Court for some time now. Nick’s death was staged.”
Joan heard herself make a soft sound. Beside her, Nick looked as startled as she felt. Aaron shook his head slightly, as if he couldn’t take in what Marguerite was saying. Anevil twin,a serial killer, Ruth had called him. And Lucien had spoken of him murdering humans, sending their bodies away in vans.
The truth was clear now. Aaron’s counterpart had been faking human deaths. He’d been using those vans to transport people to safety.
Joan hadn’t been able to face the thought of overwriting their counterparts when she’d believed that Aaron’s was a torturer and a murderer. Now, though, it seemed they’d erased people who’d been doing good in the world.
“Do you need safe passage too?” Marguerite asked Joan and Nick.
It took Joan a second to gather herself. She realized that this was the first time she’d been addressed as an equal in this timeline by a monster. “Thank you, but no. We’ve been helping Aaron. I’m Joan.” She gestured to the others, going down the line. Ruth. Jamie. “And—and Nick.”
Marguerite nodded at Joan in acknowledgment before turning to Nick. “An auspicious name. You remind me of him.” She sighed. “I know you all missed lunch.” She opened her clutch and offered small paper bags to Joan and the other humans. “It’s just almonds and dried apricots, I’m afraid, but it should hold youover until you can eat a proper meal.”
