“All I want you to be is you,” he whispered against my mouth, and tears wet my lashes.
All I want is for you to succeed.That was what Will had said, how I’d become convinced that true love didn’t exist. Bryce made me wonder if maybe it did after all.
When we broke apart, we were both sniffling and wiping our eyes but trying to be sneaky about it, so we were basically just looking away from each other while carrying on a conversation.
“I’m sorry I left.” My voice wobbled. “I should have talked to you, especially since you warned me about miscommunication.”
“And I’m sorry if I ever made you feel like you weren’t good enough,” Bryce said shakily.
“You were right, though,” I warbled. “I was being more of a jerk than I really am.”
“It’s okay. I like it when you’re a little mean to me.” He turned back to face me, tilting my chin so I’d look at him. “And yes, I’m crying. I’m on a battlefield, and I thought my girlfriend dumped me, which I seem to remember makes it okay.”
“Correct,” I said, biting my lip and trying not to look too pleased, even though him using the wordgirlfriendmade my heart jump a little.
“Look, I don’t expect you to promise you’ll never leave.” Bryce wiped grime and tears from my cheeks. “But here’s the thing. Now you’re free of the potion, I trust you’ll at least provide a warning—preferably using colorful, unmistakably angry language—if you intend to walk out on me again. Don’t ever pretend to like me, then blindside me. That’s the one and only expectation I have for you.”
I smiled. “You’re allowed that one, Bryce.”
Someone kicked me in the shin. I pulled away from Bryce to find Kelly standing over us. She shoved my phone screen in my face:
YOU HAD BUT ONE TASK. THE KING GOT AWAY.
Bryce’s eyes went huge when he saw Kelly’s… unique stylus. “Do I even want to know?”
“Probably not.”
Bryce looked at me. “You do realize if we free everyone’s minds, the kingdom will, objectively, be worse off.”
“That must be why Greg didn’t tell us his plan,” I said. “If we knew what he was up to, we’d know the portal wouldn’t open back up for us, and we might not have helped him.”
In a flash, I considered helping Amy to restore peace so theportal would open, and we could go home. But then I remembered how it felt to be controlled, and a big part of me didn’t totally disagree with what Greg was trying to do.
I’d been stifled twice in my life, once by society, the second time by magic. “People should be allowed to be less than perfect,” I said.
“But the kingdom was at peace before. The people were safe and kind.” Bryce groaned. “Why is this so complicated? I thought storybook villains were just supposed to go around doing evil things for the sake of doing evil things, not because they had a good reason for them. What’s up with that?”
“We know what the right choice is,” I said softly. “We were brought here for a reason.” I stood and held out a hand, helping Bryce to his feet as well. “Let’s be the bad guy’s Chosen Ones.”
If this world wanted to try to show me what a despicable person I was, fine. I’d prove it right and burn it down. The people should have been allowed to live outside of their prescribed capes. They should have been allowed to say what they meant, to question authority, to quit or fail or succeed in whatever ways they chose.
Kelly waved impatiently, so we took off, following her out of the courtyard and into the castle.
“All this running is going to be the death of me,” Bryce said.
“Don’t be insensitive, Bryce,” I snapped. “Kelly was…” I dropped my voice. “Unalived.”
We burst into the throne room, where we were immediately surrounded by many guards and told to drop our weapons.
“Now that I think about it,” said Bryce, “we should’ve sneaked in here in the dead of night or something.”
“Dead of night?” I whispered viciously. “Bryce, we talked about this. Kelly isdead. Her life isover. She was probablymurderedon a battlefield or something. Why are you making her feel worse about it?”
“Well, well, well,” said Amy, stepping forward. The king stooda little way behind him, surrounded by even more guards. “I can’t say I’m surprised, Bryce. I should have never trusted you after you already betrayed us once.” Amy shook his head mournfully. “Everything I’ve done has been for the good of the kingdom. We have never seen peace such as this, but you would rather have chaos.”
The guards closed in.
“Bryce”—I drew out his name—“tell me you have a plan.”
