Her voice echoed in my head.I’m the Evil One.A little stab of betrayal slipped between my ribs, but I tried to shake off the sensation. We had to trust each other if we had any hope of getting out alive. Courtney was not evil incarnate, despite her twisted love for pineapple pizza.
There was no way she’d been able to command the skeletons back to their graves. I needed to find her and figure out what really happened.
When I changed into fresh clothes and made my way downstairs, the ball was in full swing. Apparently, everyone had decided to go ahead with the day’s festivities, confident we’d taken care of the skeletons. Bell-shaped skirts swept across floors of glistening cream marble. Candlelight gleamed off white, gold-gilded walls. A string quartet performed on a balcony overhead. Clinking champagne glasses mingled with flirty giggles and buzzing conversation. A feeling of victory and celebration hummed through the entire room.
People patted me on the back or bowed, expressing their thanks. Although their admiration was misplaced, it felt so nice tonot be suckingat something that I swiped two glasses of champagne off a passing tray—one for me, the other also for me. Idowned them both and set the empty glasses aside, just as everyone hushed and turned as one toward the curved grand staircase. I followed their gazes, lifting my eyes as Courtney appeared at the top. The room tilted a bit, the champagne announcing its presence as a soft buzzing in the back of my skull.
Courtney wore an indigo-blue dress that matched her hair, which was piled on top of her head. Tendrils hung down to brush her bare shoulders in a vexing way that made my fingers itch to push them back. The slow speed at which she descended the stairs was also irksome. Lately, everything she did touched a deeper nerve than normal, like she was somehow antagonizing me on a subconscious level.
Courtney looked down at everyone, wearing her signature mask of boredom. I didn’t understand why she pretended not to care when she cared so much.
My head swam, thoughts growing fuzzy and pleasant, the alcohol loosening my control. My mind wandered, free to imagine all sorts of dangerous things, like: Who was to say she wasn’t pretending to not care about me like she pretended to not care about everything else?
Maybe it was the alcohol that made her so intoxicating. Maybe it was how intoxicating she was that made me feel drunk. I didn’t understand her. She wanted nothing and fought for it like it was everything.
Her presence pulled me in. Almost unconsciously, I drifted across the ballroom. We met at the base of the staircase. Courtney extended her black-gloved hand for me to take. A large purple bruise spread across her face, next to her eye. My arms ached to pull her to me, to hold on and never let go. I wanted to find somewhere I could stow her away, safe from harm, the same way I’d been stowing away my heart for years.
I didn’t think she’d take kindly to any of that, though. I shouldn’t fool myself into thinking Courtney’s and my relationship extended past a brief union over a mutual goal, even if thestory of my past briefly inspired her sympathy enough to awaken my magic.
I choked down everything I wanted to say and focused on the matter at hand. “What happened with the skeletons?”
Her big brown eyes swept up to meet my gaze. “When I woke up, they were gone, so I lied and told everyone we used our hero powers to order them to go back to the sacred field and return to their graves. Which Iwilldo with myEvil Onepowers just as soon as I figure out how to command the undead.”
“You’re not the Evil One,” I said, even though, a few days ago, I would have heartily agreed that she was The Worst.
“I am,” she said, a bit too breezily, shrugging like she didn’t care one way or another. “It’s good news, actually. All we have to do is stop the kidnappings, then I’ll go find the army and tell them to go away, and then do the same for the dragon. We’ll do a few good deeds around the city so the world is in a better state than when we came, then leave before my presence can inspire anyone else to do evil.”
A tray passed by, and I snagged two more flutes of champagne. While I drank one, Courtney plucked the other from my hand and downed it in one swallow.
“If you’re the Evil One,” I asked, “why did the skeleton whack you over the head with a battle-ax?”
“Maybe she didn’t recognize me as her overlord until after she knocked me out, but then she realized her mistake and didn’t murder me.”
“But I was there, and everyone’s decided I’m the Chosen One,” I pointed out. The champagne began to hit me hard, and between that and whatever witchcraft Courtney’s dress was working on her cleavage, it was becoming hard to focus. “So why didn’t she kill me?”
“Maybe she didn’t want to step on my toes and ruin a big villain monologue I might have planned for you later by killing you before I got a chance to really drag out the ordeal? I don’t know.”Courtney squinted over her empty glass. “People are looking at us weird. We should dance so we don’t look suspicious. We’re supposed to be celebrating our victory.”
“It wasn’t a victory,” I pointed out.
“You did have magic for two seconds,” she said.
A laugh burst from my chest, surprising me as much as her. “I had magic for two seconds!”
“Come on.” She tilted her head toward the dance floor. “Or would you rather keep standing there looking like a loser?”
“You’re right. I shouldn’t be seen with you. I should go.”
Rolling her eyes, Courtney took my hand and dragged me to the middle of the room.
I liked that she didn’t treat me differently after learning of my past. She didn’t let me wallow, didn’t coddle me, didn’t pity me with fake niceties like so many others.
She’d been battered and bruised. Put down and discouraged. And yet she still found time to mercilessly tease me out of being scared. She’d been doing anything she could think of to get us out of this, even if her methods had landed us in more trouble than where we’d started. All I’d done was give her headaches and half an orgasm. I didn’t think she’d go for the other half, but maybe I could give her something else.
She’d told me she’d wanted to be a Chosen One when she was a little girl. I could give her back a small part of her dream. That herald had said something about a special sword…
I’d find it later and give it to her. Even if she was the Evil One in everyone else’s eyes, she deserved to know at least one person would choose her.
CHAPTER 30INWHICHAWIZARDTRIESTOCANCELUS
