Courtney rammed into me, sending me rolling. I hit the ground hard, tumbling until I smacked into a tree. Pain shot through my body from the impact. Desperately, I fought to free myself from the spider’s web, but the more I thrashed, the tighter it clung. Head swimming from lack of oxygen, I wrestled myself up enough so I could see Courtney facing off against the dragon.
She was running, not away from the dragon, but toward it. She bobbed and weaved, the dragon zipping jets of web at her like the world’s deadliest silly string. “Grab Bryce!” she yelled, spurring the misfits into action.
Before I knew it, all four of them were trying to carry me at once, their hands matting the thick, sticky web more with everytouch. With two of them at my head and two at my feet, they finally managed to hoist me off the ground, smacking me into every tree we passed and dropping me several times.
Meanwhile Courtney reached the dragon. It whipped around, stopping with its pinchers inches from her chest. The tiny armlike appendages near its face stroked over its fangs as it huffed pillars of smoke like an industrial ozone-destroying factory.
Without hesitation, Courtney punched the spider squarely in its fleshy face. It recoiled, rearing up, hissing and screeching all at the same time, fangs clicking. Courtney somehow stared down the dragon towering above her. “Tell your boss he’s not getting us back. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? If Greg wanted us dead, you would’ve burned us all up by now.”
“Courtney,” I rasped around a mouthful of web as the misfits smashed my head against a tree branch. I began to lose sight of her as I was jostled farther away. I needed to tell her—needed to tell her—
“Tell your boss we’re coming for him,” Courtney said, which wasn’t wise, seeing as it ruined any chance we might’ve had for a surprise ambush. “We will find him, and we will kill him.”
The misfits shuffled me farther away.
“Wait,” I said, but everyone ignored me. “Courtney. I have to tell her…” The words wouldn’t come out.
“There, there,” the blacksmith said, aggressively patting my likely concussed head. “It’ll all be all right.”
“I need to tell her…” I needed to tell her about my revelation, that I finally understood her. “I realized how amazing she is.” But we were too far away for her to hear anyway.
CHAPTER 40INWHICHANEASILYAVOIDABLEMISUNDERSTANDINGLEADSTOATHIRD-ACTBREAKUP
COURTNEY
We sat together in the dining hall of Winston’s cousin’s inn. I straddled the bench, facing Bryce and picking cobwebs out of his hair. My ass was falling asleep from sitting with good posture for so long (apparently, heroes didn’t slouch).
Bryce was telling me, “I was worried sick about you, darling,” which I knew equaledYou idiot, what were you thinking?
Our crew exchanged glances like worried children whose parents were fighting. Winston and Cuthbert sat so close they might as well have been the same person—actually, why did we need both of them? Pants had her legs on the table because she wore pants and could do so. The blacksmith picked at his nails with a knife, looking deceivingly threatening.
“I wasn’t in danger,” I said. “Think about it. The skeletons didn’t kill us. The dragon didn’t kill us. It flew off when it realized capturing us was futile. Greg doesn’t want us dead.”
It didn’t make sense; most people wanted us dead.
“Perhaps the beast is simply in a foul mood because it’s hungry,” Winston said. “When I haven’t had a strudel in a couple hours, blah blah blah.”
Later that evening, Bryce and I found ourselves alone in our room. We’d spent the majority of our time in this world alone, just the two of us. Now, the aloneness felt lonely where before it had felt anything but.
Bryce pulled his shirt off over his head and walked to the washbasin, where he went to work removing the last bits of spiderweb. He splashed water up his arms and face.
“I tried to use magic,” I said, perching myself on the edge of the bed. “When the dragon tried to take you.”
My unspoken meaning sat between us like an accusation.
Bryce scrubbed a towel over his face, wiping water from his eyes. “I tried to use magic too.”
My stomach churned painfully. He searched for my affection and found the same thing I did when I searched for his. Nothing. After everything, I’d still abandoned him. Of course I still cared for him, but the easily accessible feelings that fueled magic… those were hard to find when I could hardly even find the real Bryce anymore.
Bryce tossed the towel over the basin, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was throwing in the towel in a metaphorical sense as well. When he looked at me, behind the unreadable mask of perfection there was… nothing.
Even if we were perfect, we couldn’t be a perfect fairy-tale couple.
“We’re going to be this way forever!” My mouth said it with celebratory cheer, the same way one might announce,Happy birthday!
I hugged my knees to my chest. Bryce closed the distance between us and climbed onto the bed, pulling me close, pressing his nose to my hair, and holding me tightly. I clung to him like, if I squeezed hard enough, I could pull out the real Bryce,myBryce.
Maybe we could get through it. Maybe we’d learn to be contentbecause it was the only way to be together. Maybe it would be enough to know that, under it all, we were still the same people.
