I held my tongue before I could remind her there was a lock on that barn, implying the dragon had been caged for a reason. She knew that as well as I did, and she felt bad enough as it was.
“Listen,” I said gently, “we need people to like us if we want to gain Charisma. If the dragon comes back and starts causing destruction, we’re going to have to blame the Evil One for its release, otherwise the people will never forgive us.”
“We can’t just let it eat people, Bryce.”
“Of course not. When it returns, we’ll recapture it before it can hurt anyone, and no one will ever find out we’re to blame.” My tone was soothing, even though the thought of facing the beast again made me wish for an asteroid.
But if we wanted to get home, to get the portal open, we hadto make the world a better place than when we came to get the portal open. Which meant, if the dragon started hurting people, we had to put a stop to it. Yet another thing to pencil in to the Chosen One to-do list betweenfind Winstonanddefeat the Evil One.
Courtney thought about my suggestion for a moment. “Okay. It can be our secret.”
Normally, phrases likeit can be our secretwere used for fun, harmless things. Like grandmothers sneaking you cookie dough. Not—oopsie daisy—accidentally releasing a fire-breathing spider.
“If you don’t tell, I won’t,” she said.
We were accomplices, whether we liked it or not, and if one went down, we both did.
CHAPTER 14INWHICHI WORKTHE(MAGIC) SYSTEM
COURTNEY
The two-mile walk back to the castle was a tense one. I’d almost been roasted and slurped like a cappuccino by a giant spider, and yet all I could think about was Bryce. I accused him of having feelings, and somehow, he said exactly what I needed him to.You’re like a damp sock.
Nothing had ever been more comforting.
It was also disconcerting because no matter what he said, he still came to make sure I was okay. I didn’t understand why he keptbothering.
I needed to focus. I could only pretend to be a hero for so long before I actually had to do something heroic. Ihadto stop failing, and this time, I couldn’t do that by quitting. I was going to need magic to fix this, which meant I was going to have to play the part of the perfect savior. I would suffocate under the layers of capes I’d have to wear.
A stray, hot tear rolled over my nose. Rage crying was inconvenient. It was hard to be convincing with tears streaming down my face. I stood in the middle of the darkening woods, sniffing miserably.
Up ahead, Bryce looked over his shoulder, noticing me several yards back. The next thing I knew, he stood before me. His eyes were still frantic and darting, movements jerky. “What’s wrong?” he asked sharply. “You hurt?”
I shook my head.
He reached for me, hesitated, then placed his fingers under my jaw as he scanned my face. He tilted my chin and brushed the tear from my nose with his thumb.
My chest lurched. My head filled with dangerouswhat ifs. I wanted to hold on to this Bryce forever, this strange in-between Bryce who was my friend enough to not be my enemy, but still my enemy enough that he was safe.
“You saved me,” I whispered.
“I guess I’d die for you now.” Bryce sighed heavily. “Hate that for me.” His usual bite was absent from his voice, like he truly did hate that for himself. “We really need to work on your fight-or-flight response.”
He looked like a fairy-tale prince standing here, surrounded by golden twilight, fog swirling around his body, red hair curling in the humidity and falling over his bright eyes.
“Why are you crying?” He released my jaw, tucking his hands under his armpits. “And don’t say it’s the dragon, because I already know it’s not. I don’t think you’ve ever known what fear is. I bet you were one of those horrible, adventurous children who thought everything was better in the dark. Hide-and-seek in the dark. Tag in the dark. Blanket forts in the dark.”
I blinked through my tears. “Gamesarebetter in the dark. Where’s the fun in the expected?”
“You need the light so you can see what’s coming. So you know when to run.” Shaking his head, he took a few steps away. “Fuck, Courtney. A dragon? A spider dragon? How was that a good idea? We could have died. Actually died. Fuck!”
I realized then how hard he’d been fighting to keep his cool, to soften his words. He’d shown me considerable kindness,considering my massive screwup, but finally his fear had broken through. The fear that was my fault. He was right. We could have died. At once, the world felt very large, and I felt very small.
I closed the distance between us, wrapping my arms around Bryce’s waist and resting my cheek against his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
He went rigid in my arms, his heart thumping against my ear. I squeezed him tighter, willing his pulse to calm. I was suddenly aware of every inch of his body pressed against mine, the firm contour of his chest, the slope of his stomach, the dip of his spine under my palm.
As nice as it felt, he and I could never work. I was a quitter. The only reason I hadn’t quit being a hero by now was because I couldn’t. Once Bryce saw my true colors again, he’d stop hisbothering. This in-between moment was all we could ever have.
