Page 64 of The Prince and His Stolen Throne

“Now that the spatial loop is broken, let’s get moving,” I said. “I don’t want to be here when the patrols come around.”

“Are you joining us, Will?” Fitz asked as he repacked his bag.

“Please do!” Delilah exclaimed, hopping up to her feet and grabbing his hand again. “I have all sorts of questions for you. Like: how did you meet Trey? Who made the first move? Is he mean to you? Because I think the meaner he is to you, the more he actually likes you.”

“Ew,” Angelica said, taking a few steps back from me. “Is that why you—”

“Fuck no.” I slammed that door shut immediately. The idea of flirting withAngelicamade me want to scrub my brain clean. “She’s talking out of her ass.”

“See?” Delilah said, swinging Wilde’s hand back and forth. “He’s mean to me all the time because I’m his favorite cousin.”

I inserted myself between them, stealing Wilde’s hand back from Delilah. “This isn’t an interrogation. He’s not joining us—”

“I should at least see you to Traumstead,” he interrupted, twining his fingers with mine. The gesture was too intimate, too real, I almost forgot this was a performance. I tried to discreetly pull away and he tightened his grip, refusing to let me go. “To ensure you don’t run into any more traps.”

“Fantastic,” Fitz said with a sigh of relief. “We’ve already wasted enough time.” Without another word, he set off at a clipped pace, following the stream.

As we walked, Wilde refused to release my hand. I tried to pull away a few times before giving up. Once I stopped fighting, his grip softened from restraint to comfort. He held onto me like that for the rest of the day.

Concerned Parents Consult an Expert

Always the more impulsive one, Rick would have chased the children all the way into the Grimnight Forest if his husband hadn’t proposed a more rational plan: “Fight evil with evil.”

They would consult one evil mage to help them confront another.

Before they left, Rick wrote a letter to his sister to keep her up to date on this new development. On the outside of the envelope, he wrote in giant letters:

URGENT. DO NOT IGNORE. I MEAN IT, FRANNY.

The attendant gave him an odd look but accepted the letter without comment.

That done, they left Misfortune and headed straight for the one evil mage they called friend.

The Lord of Darkness, Prince of Shadows, Bringer of Terrible Evil, the Great and Powerful Cyril, did not have any servants to answer his door when the bell rang in the late afternoon. He had no appointments scheduled and was not expecting company, so he ignored it. Living in agated community did not save him from solicitors—he suspected one of the other residents purposefully sicced them on everyone.

The doorbell rang again.

“Honey, are you going to get that?” his wife called from her office.

Cyril sighed and closed the ancient tome of dark magic he’d been studying. Of the two of them, she had the soonest deadline, so it made the most sense for him to deal with their visitor. He took the long way around, stopping by her office. He tried to peek at the latest novel, but her hands quickly covered the papers, refusing him even a quick glance.

With a soft chuckle, he kissed the top of her head, then moseyed down to the front room. If he took long enough, perhaps the unwanted visitor would get the hint and leave.

The doorbell rang a third time.

Irritation coursed through him at their insistence, and by the time he reached the door, it simmered into anger. The shadows gathered around him, blotting out the light and obscuring Cyril’s face. “Who dares disturb me in my lair?” he demanded as he flung the door open. Then he blinked in surprise at the familiar faces. “Rick? Brendon? What are you doing here?”

“Sorry we couldn’t write ahead,” Rick said, fidgeting nervously. “It’s an emergency. May we come in?”

Cyril dropped his shadows and stepped back, gesturing for the princes to enter. “Of course, of course. Sorry about the theatrics—thought you were a salesman.”

Lucinda poked her head out of her office and smiled brightly when she saw their guests. “Brendon! Rick! How long has it been?” she asked, bustling over to pull both men into a tight hug. Then answered her own question: “Too long. Did Franny and Kit join you?”

“No, they’re still in Woe,” Rick replied. “We’ve come today because our son and niece are on a quest to defeat a great and terrible evil.”

She gasped, pressing her hand to her chest. “They aren’t coming aftermy Cyril, are they? He’s just about to retire!”

“I am?”