Page 110 of Never a Hero

Joan hadn’t actually intended to talk about Nick’s role in it. Nick wasn’t supposed to know that monsters preyed on humans. He wasn’t supposed to know that he’d once slayed monsters. ‘I wasn’t going to—’ Joan started to say to Tom.

But Tom was suddenly searching her face, and Nick’s. His eyes widened. He’d clocked the truth in Nick’s expression. ‘You told him?’ Tom said to Joan. It wasn’t a question. There was an undertone of danger in his voice, and then Joan’s heart was really pounding.

Nick’s weight shifted beside Joan. His shoulders tensed.

‘You did. You told him,’ Tom said to Joan. This time it was flat and sure, and the danger was right out in the open.

Joan’s stomach dropped at the way Tom was holding himself, his hands in hard fists. She hadn’t expected him to grasp Nick’s new knowledge just like that. Just by looking at his expression. She should have, though. Tom was smart.

Whose side are you on? Tom didn’t ask the question, but it stood between them, as clearly as when Liam Liu had said it.

Was this tentative alliance about to end before it had even started? Had Joan already put a rift between herself and the others? ‘Tom—’

But Nick spoke first. ‘Joan didn’t tell me how the timeline was changed,’ he told Tom. ‘Eleanor did.’

Joan hesitated. She supposed, technically, that was the truth. Joan had told Nick most of it, but Eleanor had given him the final piece.

‘Eleanor told me that I used to be a monster slayer,’ Nick added.

Aaron drew a sharp breath. Joan had the impression the information wasn’t completely new to him. He must have heard something about it at the guard house. Or maybe he’d put some of it together from what he’d seen during Eleanor’s show. This was a confirmation for him, though, and he stared at Nick now with fear and fascination.

Nick added to Tom, ‘Does it matter that I know about monsters?’ His brown eyes were guileless. ‘You leashed me, remember? You put the Argent power on me.’ And that still wasn’t a lie, exactly. But it was another misdirection. Nick wasn’t under that power anymore.

Tom’s eyes narrowed as if he sensed something wrong in Nick’s manner but couldn’t quite put a finger on it. ‘Maybe we should re-up that compulsion just to make sure.’

‘If you like,’ Nick said, and Tom relaxed slightly.

Joan tried to steady her breaths. Everyone was watching Nick warily now. But Nick had chosen his words carefully. Maybe it was as important to him as it was to Joan that they protect their fragile alliance for now.

Nick didn’t look at Joan, but Joan could almost see the wheels turning in his head—would she tell the others that he was free?

Joan’s stomach was still churning. She didn’t want to break this truce either. They needed each other to stop Eleanor.

‘Someone needs to explain,’ Ruth said.

Nick leaned against the wall. He’d chosen a shirt with a high collar, Joan saw for the first time. One that protected his neck. Had anyone else noticed that?

Joan wet her dry lips. Tom’s reaction had brought home the reality of what she’d done by telling Nick the truth. Eleanor told me, he’d said to Tom. But the truth was that Joan had told him about what monsters really were. Joan had told him that he’d once been a figure of legend, a hero.

At the time, it had seemed the right thing to do. She’d been thinking about the pain monsters had caused Nick. The consequences of her unmaking him—the humans she’d doomed.

And what Astrid had said: He would have stopped it.

But now—standing here among people who’d protected her, who’d risked themselves for her, who cared about her, who she cared about—it all seemed far more complicated. Where does your allegiance lie?

‘Joan?’ Ruth said, bringing her back into the moment.

Joan took another deep breath. ‘I changed the timeline,’ she said to Ruth.

Ruth looked blank. ‘You changed it?’ she echoed.

Joan glanced at Tom. He’d relaxed only slightly. Nick was still watchful.

‘I manifested a power,’ Joan said. Ruth’s forehead creased. Joan understood her confusion; Ruth had grown up thinking that Joan couldn’t even time travel.

‘What power?’ Ruth said.

Even now, every instinct screamed at Joan not to talk about it. You can trust no one, Gran had said. You’re in very grave danger, graver than you know. ‘It’s like I can revert things back to their previous state. Unmake them.’

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