Page 82 of Once a Villain
“This is the closest launching room to the imperial box,”Jamie said. “You’ll come up among the scenery, north of their model Thames. You need to gonow,” he added. “I can feel the tear even from here. I think the timeline’s about to hit the tipping point. If we don’t—”
Joan held up a hand to stop him. She’d heard something close by.
Jamie mouthed a question, and then his eyes widened as he heard it too. People were walking this way.
Joan tiptoed to the chamber door and risked a quick look. She pulled back.Guards, she mouthed. She held up eight fingers to the others. There was nowhere to hide but behind the door, and they wouldn’t all fit.
Tom squared his shoulders.
“No!” Jamie breathed as Tom walked out into the corridor. Before anyone could stop him, he scrambled after Tom.
And now therewasroom behind the door. Joan, Ruth, and Nick shuffled into the small space. Joan’s heart was in her throat.
After a minute, a guard said, “Hey!”, sounding startled. “Where did you two come from? Where are your credentials?”
I’ll handle it!Ruth mouthed to Joan. As Joan moved to stop her, Ruth whispered into Joan’s ear, as stern as Joan had ever heard her: “Stay here! If they catch you, they might kill you—you’re human!” Ruth peered around the door and slipped out of the room too—presumably choosing a moment when the guards weren’t looking. She marched up the corridor. “Where’s the bathroom?” she said loudly. “That guy just sent three of us down here, and we’ve been walking forages.” She sounded so irritated that none of the guards replied immediately.
Joan clenched her hands into fists, wishing it wereherout there. She and Nick were still crammed behind the door, Nick a solid wall at her back.
“Whosent you down here?” the first guard said.
“Oh, just escort them out.” Joan could almost hear the second guard’s eye roll.
“But what are they doing down here? No one should be down here!”
“Who cares?”
“I’ll escort them,” the more sympathetic guard said.
Joan tensed. A long beat went by, and another beat. When there was no more conversation, she risked a quick look around the door. The corridor was empty. They’d all left. Now it was just her and Nick.
“All clear,” she whispered to him.
He visibly released the breath he’d been holding. “Let’s do this, then,” he whispered back.
He sorted through the gladiator clothes he’d retrieved: a short leather skirt and tunic. Joan glimpsed his trousers coming off, and quickly turned to the elevator controls, heat rising to her face.
They still hadn’t kissed in this timeline, but ever since that night in the garden, it had been coming. Joan felt electricity rush through her every time he looked at her. Every time they touched.
It hit her now that this might be their last moment alone together. She swallowed hard, tears burning the backs of her eyes as she tightened the scabbard around her waist and looked over the levers and buttons next to the platform.
She felt rather than heard Nick moving closer, and turned. “Oh,” she heard herself say stupidly. Her mouth was suddenly dry.
He stood in front of her, dark hair tousled, a short sword buckled to his own side. The gladiator outfit should have seemed like a costume, but it didn’t. The leather was slightly worn, and the whole thing fit him like a glove. He looked like a hero of old.
He took another step, and they were breathing the same air, his hands cupping her waist. Joan tilted her face up, heart pattering. She could sense Nick’s desperation—as strong as hers. His eyes burned into hers as she tilted her face up for the kiss.
His hands tightened around her waist, but instead of kissing her as she knew they both wanted, he gave her an odd, apologetic smile—just a twist of his mouth—and he moved her gently backward, as if guiding her in a dance, steadying her as she tripped and stumbled over something.
“Nick?” she said uncertainly.
He touched something close to the ground and jumped back. Joan lunged after him instinctively, but not fast enough. She gasped in fright as caged walls sprang up around her, as a low ceiling shut her in. He’d put her in the wagon. In the cage.
“What are youdoing?” She grabbed the cage bars, shaking them as the other humans had, but they wouldn’t budge for her either.
Nick’s eyes were gentle on hers. “I know what you were planning. You were going to come up with me.” He gestured to the sword at her waist. “I couldn’t let you do that.”
Joan could taste unshed tears at the back of her throat. She hadn’t said a word about that, but it was true. Her planhadbeento join him up there. “Let me help you,” she whispered. “Please.”
