Page 99 of Once a Villain
She felt it when it gave way—sand poured over her hand, pooling on the ground.
“Itworked,” Aaron said. “And the lions are still in their stasis. Each creature must be individually frozen.”
Nick was still upright, so some of the stasis around him was still intact, Joan guessed. She pictured him frozen in an ice block that she’d half melted away.
There was no sign of injury on him—the tunic must have been covering his wounds. He was clearly dead, though. He stood there, utterly and unnaturally still, expression absent of everything that had made himNick.
Tears stung Joan’s eyes. “I’m so sorry,” she said to him. “I’m so sorry this happened. I miss you so much.” She felt Aaron’s hand warm on her back, and she took a shaky breath. “We can’t leave him here to be stared at,” she whispered to Aaron. He needed to be buried properly. To be able to rest in peace. If she couldn’t give him anything else, she had to give him that.
“We can’t take him with us,” Aaron said gently. “Not today. The Argents would know it was us. We can give himsomedignity, though.” He reached for Nick’s neck, as gently as he’d spoken to Joan. To Joan’s surprise, he removed not the necklace that held the ring but the numbered pendant at his throat. Aaron pocketed it with a slight grimace. He’d hated those pendants from the moment they’d arrived here.
Nick looked better without the numbers—marginally more himself. Joan swallowed hard. She stood on tiptoes to take off the finer chain that held the signet ring. She was careful not to touch his skin—some part of her just didn’t want to know for a fact that he was cold.
She unclasped the chain and then tugged the ring from under Nick’s tunic. As the black metal brushed her fingers, the timeline seemed to shudder, as if a gust of wind had blown into the room.
“What wasthat?” Aaron whispered.
“I—I don’t know,” Joan said. “But it happened last time I touched the ring too.” She pulled the ring from Nick’s neck now, dropping it into her palm.
And then, to her shock,Nickshuddered.
Aaron startled back, and Joan steadied him before he fell into the stasis behind him. Or maybe she was steadying herself. She could feel herself shaking.
Had that really happened? Had she imagined it? Did she just want Nick to be alive so badly that she’d hallucinated movement?
Nick’s chest inflated with a gasping breath.
“Nick!” Joan put her hand on his chest. His heart thumped under her palm, and a sob of relief and shock tore from her throat. She turned to Aaron, shaken. “You were right!”
Nick was alive.
Twenty-Nine
Joan kept her hand pressed to Nick’s chest as color returned slowly to his face. She needed to feel the continuing beat of his heart; needed the proof that he was alive.
He groaned, the sound pained and confused, and Joan’s own chest tightened.
“Nick?” she whispered.
Under her hand, his heart sped up.Joan.Her name was on his lips as he found her gaze.
His fogged expression bloomed to fear as he spotted the lions and bears behind her, poised to strike. He reached for her—to pull her behind him, Joan guessed. His breath quickened as he realized he couldn’t move his legs—he was still frozen in stasis. And then he wasreallypanicking, gasping for air.
“Nick, it’s okay! You’re okay!” Joan said, desperate to comfort him. She bent, with shaking hands, to unmake the stasis.
Freed, he staggered, knees buckling. Aaron swore and caught him before he could fall, supporting him with Joan’s help. Even with both of them, it was a struggle to hold him up. Nick wasn’t much taller than Aaron, but his muscled build made him a heavy weight.
“Where...” Nick’s voice rasped. He wet his dry lips and tried again. “Where am I? What’s going on?” Joan’s heart wrenchedat the fear and confusion in his voice.
Did he remember what had happened? How had he survived? Joan shook off her own questions. Nothing was going to be answered right now.
“It’s all right,” she reassured him again. “We’re in a—a—” She couldn’t bring herself to saytrophy room. God, she hated the Argents. “We’re in the Argent house. All those animals are in a stasis. They can’t attack us.”
“We need to go,” Aaron said tightly, glancing toward the door. “There’ll be people here soon, and they can’t see Nick likethis.” His voice was strained from Nick’s weight, but there was a more pained note in there too.
Joan turned to him. While Nick had gained color, Aaron had lost it. The full implications hit Joan then, all at once. She and Aaron had slept together last night. And now Nick was alive.
“Aaron—” she started, needing to reassure him. But he shook his head. Joan swallowed. Shehadto talk to him, but they couldn’t have a conversation right now, she knew. Cassius had said he was sending in cleaners. They had to get out of here.
