Page 24 of Once a Villain (Only a Monster #3)

Joan tried to absorb what Marguerite had said. Someone had been rescuing humans in this world—a man calling himself the Wolf.

Gran had told Joan to find him and his followers.

It seemed they’d been searching for Aaron’s counterpart all along.

Marguerite smiled at Aaron now, love and pride brightening her face, and a sudden chill ran through Joan. Marguerite’s actual

son was gone. He’d been overwritten when they’d arrived in this timeline. This Aaron was a cuckoo in the nest. They all were.

“ You organized our rescue?” Alfie said to Aaron . “We knew someone was helping us, but not you. We’d never have guessed.”

“That woman selling confessions whispered to us that we should play dead on the block,” his sister said. “But...” Tears

welled in her eyes as she looked at Aaron. “I was so sure you were going to kill us. Everyone says you order humans to the

Oliver house, and they never leave. Everyone says you killed Nick Ward—the gladiator who escaped. They say—”

She cut herself off, but Joan could guess what else people said about Aaron’s counterpart. She’d heard some of the words already.

Sadistic. Cruel. She’d thought them herself.

Aaron opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Joan knew he’d been thinking of his own counterpart in the same way.

“Aaron has had to cultivate an image,” Marguerite said gently. “He and Nick have been working together against the Court for

some time now. Nick’s death was staged.”

Joan heard herself make a soft sound. Beside her, Nick looked as startled as she felt. Aaron shook his head slightly, as if

he couldn’t take in what Marguerite was saying. An evil twin , a serial killer , Ruth had called him. And Lucien had spoken of him murdering humans, sending their bodies away in vans.

The truth was clear now. Aaron’s counterpart had been faking human deaths. He’d been using those vans to transport people

to safety.

Joan hadn’t been able to face the thought of overwriting their counterparts when she’d believed that Aaron’s was a torturer

and a murderer. Now, though, it seemed they’d erased people who’d been doing good in the world.

“Do you need safe passage too?” Marguerite asked Joan and Nick.

It took Joan a second to gather herself. She realized that this was the first time she’d been addressed as an equal in this

timeline by a monster. “Thank you, but no. We’ve been helping Aaron. I’m Joan.” She gestured to the others, going down the

line. Ruth. Jamie. “And—and Nick.”

Marguerite nodded at Joan in acknowledgment before turning to Nick.

“An auspicious name. You remind me of him.” She sighed.

“I know you all missed lunch.” She opened her clutch and offered small paper bags to Joan and the other humans.

“It’s just almonds and dried apricots, I’m afraid, but it should hold you over until you can eat a proper meal. ”

“Thank you.” Joan took the offered bag, and caught a hint of sadness, of wistfulness, in Aaron’s expression. Joan had seen

glimpses of Aaron’s everyday life; of his family’s cruelty after his mother had died. How different would his life have been

if Marguerite had survived?

Marguerite turned back to Alfie and Enid. “I’m very sorry you two were caught up in this. I know you aren’t wolves yourselves.”

Not wolves? Joan looked at Marguerite, surprised.

Alfie confirmed it. “We didn’t know anything. The guards forced us to sign false confessions. They made us swear that we’d

been working against the Queen. But...”

“It’s the Court’s latest tactic,” Marguerite said, disgust pinking her face. “They can’t stop the wolf attacks, and they can’t

find the culprits, so they scapegoat innocent humans.” She shook her head. “The truth is, there are far fewer wolves than

the Court believes.”

The way she said it made Joan wonder if the entire wolf movement had just been Aaron and Nick—aided by trusted confidantes

like Marguerite.

She was nearly sure of it when Marguerite shot a curious look at her, and then at Nick, Ruth, and Jamie. Joan had the impression

that Aaron’s counterpart hadn’t trusted many people.

A knock at the door made them all jump. Marguerite gestured for Alfie and Enid to hide. When they were safe, she raised her

voice. “Come!”

The door cracked open, revealing a young girl in the pub’s uniform. “Your driver is here, Lady Nightingale. He’s in the alley.” She nodded at another door—at the side of the room. Joan guessed that it led directly to the road outside.

As soon as the girl was gone, Marguerite bundled Alfie and Enid up in cloaks, hoods up to hide Alfie’s distinctive hair. “I’ll

just be a couple of minutes,” she said to Aaron. “I need to speak to the driver.” She opened the side door, and Joan glimpsed

a dark-windowed car waiting outside. And then the door closed again, and Joan and the others were temporarily alone.

Joan released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Beside her, Aaron’s shoulders dropped in a shudder.

“Are you all right?” she whispered to him.

Aaron shook his head slightly. “I didn’t expect to see her. It’s been years since she was...” He trailed off. Since she was executed.

“She’s nice,” Nick said. It was gentle, and his eyes on Aaron were softer than before.

Aaron was silent for a long moment. “She’s older than she ever got in my memory, but she’s exactly like herself in every other way.” Then he added, so quietly that Joan had to strain to hear him, “I’m not her son, though.

I killed her son when I arrived here.”

Joan’s chest hurt. “That’s not your fault.”

“It’s not,” Jamie agreed softly.

“I can’t tell my mother—it would kill her to find out.”

“You want us to keep lying to her?” Ruth’s voice was more sympathetic than her words. Maybe she’d guessed, like Joan had,

that Aaron would find it unbearable to lie to his mother.

“We have to keep pretending we belong here,” Aaron said roughly.

“Listen... my counterpart was clearly working against the Court to help humans. But the five of us”—he indicated Joan, Nick, Ruth, and Jamie—“want more than that. We want to restore the timeline, to make a better world. But to do that, we’ll have to overwrite this world.

We’ll have to overwrite the people in this timeline.

We need to be very careful about what we say, and who we say

it to.”

Joan took a deep breath. They’d been talking about stopping Eleanor, about fixing this timeline, but she hadn’t thought further

than that. Aaron was right, though, she realized now. Restoring the world—fixing it—would mean overwriting everyone in this

timeline.

It was an overwhelming thought. Joan wanted to push it out of her head. Because at the same time, this timeline was just wrong.

Nick said it before Joan could. “We do have to correct this timeline, though. This world can’t stand.”

“It can’t,” Joan agreed. Her throat felt tight.

Aaron sighed. His head was still down, but he glanced up at Nick, something odd in his eyes. “I can’t imagine our counterparts

working together here,” he said to him. “I really can’t fathom it. How did they even meet?”

“We’re working together right now, and I can hardly believe it,” Nick said wryly.

Joan bit her lip. Aaron and Nick were working together, but they’d all made it clear this was a temporary truce. Had it been the same for their counterparts? Had

they agreed to help each other only until Eleanor was defeated? What would have happened after that?

They fell silent again as the side door opened and Marguerite returned from the alley. The room seemed to brighten with her presence. She and Aaron had the same glamorous aura; the same beauty that made sense on-screen but was startling in the real world.

“They got away safely,” she said.

“Wonderful,” Aaron managed.

Marguerite’s brow creased. “Are you all right?” she asked Aaron. “You seem out of sorts today.”

“I—” Aaron shook his head. “Sorry.”

Marguerite searched his face for so long that Joan was afraid she might recognize that Aaron wasn’t her son. She only said,

though, “All of this is so much harder without Nick, I know. But you had to get him out. Eleanor would have killed him if

he’d stayed here—she almost did. And you can still do good work without him.”

Aaron glanced at Nick, his expression difficult to read. Marguerite caught the look. “Who are your friends?” she asked Aaron curiously.

“Best that you don’t know. I trust them, though.”

To Joan’s relief, Marguerite seemed to accept that. “Well then... What is it you wanted to tell me?”

Aaron tilted his head in question.

“You and Nick have been searching for a way to get to the Queen,” Marguerite prompted. “You said that Nick had found it. My

love, this is why we arranged to talk here. You were going to tell me what Nick found....”

A way to get to the Queen .

The realization dawned on Joan in slow-motion horror. Gran had sent them to find Aaron’s and Nick’s counterparts, and now it seemed they’d been in possession of something important. Something that could be used to get to Eleanor. But the counterparts weren’t here anymore.

Aaron’s eyes were wide. He was clearly still shaken by the revelation that his counterpart had been helping rather than harming

humans, and now he’d realized what Joan had. The counterparts had had plans of their own to get to Eleanor. Plans that had

been derailed now....

“I—I—” For all that Aaron had told them to keep lying to his mother, Joan could see how much it was weighing on him.

“Aaron... are you all right?” Marguerite said.

“Just a headache,” Aaron managed. “From speaking to Cassius Argent, no doubt.”

“You said you received a message, authenticated by Nick’s ring,” Marguerite prompted.

“Yes, of course,” Aaron said. He flicked a look at Joan, muted panic in his eyes. He had no idea what the message was, or

how to find it.

It occurred to Joan that there’d been a ring tied to Nick’s execution notice. She’d put it in her pocket—hadn’t liked the