Still, it was an overwhelming relief that Winston was okay. I only hoped General Thimblepop would find a way out soon too. And hopefully she’d remember something more useful.
Courtney touched my hand and tilted her chin in the direction of the door. No one noticed us slip out, too occupied by Winston’s storytelling.
“Do you think he actually escaped, or did the Evil One let him go?” she asked, once we were out.
“I can’t imagine they would have just released him.”
“Unless they were tired of his tall tales,” Courtney pointed out.
“None of it makes any sense.” I scuffed my boot along the cobblestones, sending a few tiny rocks skittering along the road.
In a way, I was grateful we had this distraction, so we didn’t have to talk about what had nearly happened in the inn. With space away from the evening’s earlier activities, my stomach filled with that shrively, cowardlyrun awayfeeling so familiar to me anytime I felt a connection forming.
“It’s weird no one notices anything suspicious before people go missing,” Courtney said. “That’s why I thought it was an inside job, maybe the princess or the king, but both of those were dead ends.”
“The people being stolen have nothing in common either,” I said. “There’s no pattern. Capturing a general makes sense strategically, but whyWinston?”
Courtney shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and was an easy target,” I said. “He didn’t look like he’d been tortured or mistreated, though, so I wonder what the Evil One took him for.”
“We’ll get to the bottom of it,” Courtney said with confidence I didn’t feel. “Working together will double our chance of solving this…” She seemed to realize what she’d said, because she paused, then added, “If you want to work together, that is.”
I wasn’t sure when we’d started becoming awe, but we had. Instead of fighting against each other, we’d already started working toward the same goal, and we’d have to continue doing so if we hoped to solve this.
“Of course we can work together,” I said, even while I suppressed a shudder.
Teamwork meant communicating, helping each other,spending time with each other. All of my plans to remain distanced were crumbling. It was getting harder and harder to believe my heart would escape this adventure unscathed, even if my body did.
It wasn’t supposed to be us against the world. It was supposed to be us against each other.
CHAPTER 24INWHICHAMY’SSTORIESDRAG-ON
COURTNEY
By the time we returned to the inn, whatever mood the night had started with was officially killed, and things were weird. We didn’t touch, and Bryce seemed preoccupied. His guard was back up and stronger than ever. What we’d had before coming to this world was uncomplicated, wild, and weirdly perfect. I worried what we’d done had ruined it, and nothing would ever be the same.
A mile of empty sheets separated us as we lay in bed, completely silent—the kind of absolute silence that made it clear neither of us was sleeping.
Maybe it was all too much too soon, between our heated moment earlier, finding Winston, and my suggestion to work together.
Teamwork was a strange notion, but I figured having the Chosen One around might be like a good-luck charm that encouraged the pieces of the mystery to fall effortlessly into place.
Besides, we’d worked well together once before, even if neither of us talked about it. It was a few months ago, and I’d noticed Bryce doing some yard work for Doris, the sweet old lady across the street. He’d mowed her grass and trimmed her hedges, andnaturally, that evening, I’d changed the name of my Wi-Fi network to mercilessly tease him about it: Bryce<3sBushes.
I’d gone to close my laptop, but my breath caught when I saw his own Wi-Fi name switch before my eyes. We frequently changed our Wi-Fi names as a way to get the last word in, but the switches happened days apart, where they didn’t feel like an actual conversation. Not like this.
Pulse pounding, I watched as IknowU8myDoorDash disappeared to be replaced with: DorisBrokeHerHip.
I hadn’t known Doris was down with a hip injury. Hell, I barely knew my neighbors at all. But Bryce did.
At once, I’d wanted to try. Just a little bit. Not because anyone expected me to, but because a small part of me admired the way that, for all his doom and gloom, Bryce quietly did his best to make the world a little less shitty.
I’d changed my Wi-Fi name again: IllDoHerTrashOnTue. A pause, then his name changed again: IveGotHerMail. And I changed mine once more: IllMakeSureSheHasFood.
And that was that. All the chores were silently taken care of until Doris recovered.
Saving the world was a larger task than helping out a neighbor, but it gave me hope we could work well together.
