Page 34 of Once Upon a Crown
But that didn’t mean he couldn’t be helpful on occasion. Which was exactly why I was there.
“We found the diary,” I said, crossing my arms.
“Good for you,” Lance responded, with his eyes still closed.
“At least I think it’s the diary. The problem is that it’s locked in a box.” After finding the wooden box, Rhen and I had searched the library from top to bottom for another key, including trying the one from the cupboard, but nothing could open the box. Out of desperation, I even tried to smash it, but it would not give. “And I can’t get it open. I even tried to break it.”
“That’s because it’s protected by magic.” Lance slowly rolled onto his side and used the bedpost to pull himself into a sitting position. “You need a special key,” he finished, and my eyes widened.
“I’m sorry, what did you just say?”
Lance opened his eyes after realising that he’d given himself away, but did not respond.
“Is there something you’d like to tell me?” I tried to push any growing anger down into the depths of myself. “Like how you know much more about the diary than you’ve let on?”
“And so, what if I do?” he said, with a nonchalance that only managed to spike my annoyance.
“Are you insane? You know how important this is!”
“Did you ever consider that maybe I was trying to save everyone from inevitable disappointment?” he said as I stomped over to him.
“Of course I didn’t consider it,” I responded harshly. “That would require you to think about someone other than yourself.”
He gave me a look to suggest he didn’t appreciate my sarcasm.
“That’s not a nice thing to say to someone whose help you currently require.”
I stared at him, not bothering to apologise. “Tell me what you know.”
“Ah but it doesn’t work that way.” Lance sloppily lifted a finger. “You and I bargain for things, remember?”
“Lance.” I scolded him like he was a child, especially because he was busy acting like one. “I know it might be hard for you to believe but this isn’t about you. This is about all of us, and once upon a time you were willing to do a hell of a lot of damage to protect Everness.”
“Yes, but that was before you lied to me.” He tilted his head while I imagined hitting it with a particularly blunt object.
“What are you talking about?”
“You had me believe that I was crazy for going after the Myrgonite stones and those objects. You had me thinking I was truly losing it, and yet here we are, and suddenly you seem to know an awful lot about them.”
“I did think you were insane back then,” I told him truthfully. “But that was before I knew about all this, before Cai even knew.”
“But you know about the three magical objects now, don’t you? You know all about it. I bet you even know what they are.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” I felt my face grow hot. “If we knew that, then I wouldn’t be looking for the diary, would I?”
Lance didn’t look like he entirely believed me. I guessed it took a liar to know one.
“What do you want to bargain, then?” I needed this conversation to be over as quickly as possible. There was little use in trying to talk with Lance when he was in this state, but I feared we were running out of time.
“I want one of them,” he said.
“You want what?”
“One of the Myrgonite objects. When this is over and you and Cai have collected your little jewels and saved the kingdom, I want what is rightfully mine.”
The only reason Cai and I were now actively looking for the objects was so that we could prevent them from getting into the wrong hands, or from getting into anyone’s hands ever again. And that list definitely included Lance. No one with that much attitude needed to have access to things containing ancient power that was beyond our comprehension.
“You’re funny,” I said sarcastically. “No.”
