Page 98 of Once a Villain
It was a frozen zoo. Around the room, lifelike animals were in postures of attack: bears roared, lions and wolves clawed at the air, stags bucked. Some of the animals were long extinct—Joan spotted a snarling saber-toothed cat, a huge auroch, a mammoth. The walls were covered with more animal heads: wolves, tigers, deer. There had to have been hundreds of them.
“The heads on the walls are stuffed, but the ones on the floor are all in stasis,” Cassius explained. “It’s a facet of the Patel power—they can freeze things in a moment in time. We paid them rather a lot to set this up. But it was worth it. It preserves the bodies without damaging them. These trophies will be like this forever.” He gestured. “And here’s what you came for.”
Joan followed his gaze, and the room tunneled into a sickening swirl. The centerpiece of the room was a re-creation of the colosseum arena, set up like a diorama in a museum.
In the middle of it wasNick. He stood, blank-faced and lifeless as a waxwork, in his gladiator costume. Two lions and a bear had been posed in a semicircle around him, as if attacking him.
A wave of nausea rolled over Joan as she realized strangers had had their hands on him. He’d been cleaned up—someone had washed off the blood and sweat and dirt from the arena. They’d posed him in this disgusting room, manipulating his arms and legs to make this obscene display. Evenin death, he was being humiliated. Joan put her hand over her mouth. Was she going to be sick?
Aaron touched her waist gently, and Joan took a deep breath. From here, she could see the thin chain that had held Nick’s signet ring. The ring itself wasn’t visible—it must have been tucked under his tunic.
Cassius beamed. “Better than a waxwork!” He walked into the diorama, toward Nick. “I really thought you’d executed him a couple of weeks ago. It was most confusing when he returned to the arena yesterday.”
Aaron exchanged a look with Joan. She could see him calculating how to answer. “I thought so too,” he said carefully. “I killedsomeone. Maybe a lookalike.”
“Or maybethisis the lookalike.” Cassius gestured at Nick. He seemed displeased by the possibility that he might not have the real Nick Ward in his trophy room. “We’ve been speculating that the boy in the arena was just part of the show. He doesn’t quite look like the gladiator, does he? No scars.”
“The guy I killed had scars,” Aaron said. “Joan,careful—” he added as Joan took a step toward Nick.
For a second, Joan had no idea why he’d said that. She drew a breath to ask, and then a small fly swooped in front of her and stuck in midair, unmoving.
“Spoilsport,” Cassius said to Aaron, chuckling. To Joan, he said: “Yes, do be careful where you step, or you’ll be stuck in the stasis too. You’ll be part of my zoo.”
Joan stared at him. He must have walked into the diorama along an invisible safe path.
Cassius added to Aaron, “Fun thing is, some of the animals are actually alive in there. At least, the lions are. Not sure aboutthe bears.” He turned back to Joan. “Well, come on, sweetheart. Can you guess how to get in? Were you watching me?”
He’d swiped away his footprints as he’d walked in. Joan couldn’t see them. But there was a solution right here:sand covered the floor—to mimic the arena, Joan supposed. She bent to pick up a handful and tossed it toward the diorama. Some of the sand stuck in the air, like the bug had. But more of it fell, revealing the beginning of the path.
A flash of irritation from Cassius. “Do you know how expensive that will be to clean up?” He strode back, grabbing Joan’s arm, his other hand rising to strike her. She shook him off, and then Aaron was there, standing between them.
“If you touch her again... ,” Aaron said. It was soft, but Joan suddenly realized that Aaron—usually ice cold—was struggling to control his temper.
Even Cassius heard the dangerous note this time, and he seemed thrown by Aaron’s reaction. He clearly hadn’t expected the cruel head of the Oliver family to defend a human from correction. “Well... ,” he said slowly. “I hope you don’t mind if I leave you. I have rather a busy morning. We’ll be opening the doors to the public in about an hour. I suppose”—he looked at the suspended sand with distaste—“that I’ll have to send in someone to clean this up first. Please excuse me.”
And then he strode out and was gone, and it was just Aaron and Joan in here with Nick.
Joan released a breath as soon as he was out of sight. “Probably should have waited till he left to do the sand thing,” she admitted.
“Oh, fuck Cassius.” Aaron craned, looking into the diorama. “Is Nick wearing the ring?”
“I can see the chain.” At least they hadn’t stripped Nick of his things.
Joan and Aaron worked together to reveal the full path through the stasis. When they were done, they’d managed to get within three paces of Nick. He stood there inside the stasis, unnaturally still behind the veil of suspended sand. He’d been posed as if he was fighting, his short sword raised, and his shield tight against his body.
Joan swallowed. He was close—touchably close—but there was no way to get to him without being trapped by the stasis.
“There must be a way to turn off the stasis,” Aaron said. “Like a button in here...”
“Cassius said the lions were alive,” Joan said. She glanced over her shoulder; their open, snarling mouths were barely three feet away. If they turned the stasis off, she and Aaron would be lunch.
“Maybe you can try unmaking it,” Aaron said. “Just the section where Nick is.”
“I don’t know if I can just do a section.” Joan glanced over her shoulder again.
“Well... if all the sand drops at once,run.”
Joan reached out a little nervously—thinking not only of the lions but of the bug that had hit the stasis and been trapped there. What if her hand got stuck?Don’t think like that, she told herself. She reached farther, picturing the stasis vanishing under her touch.
