“Whatever gave you that delusion?” he said and shoved me off.
“Well, this is the first time we’ve interacted that he hasn’t put his ax against my throat. I’m gonna call it a win.”
Kato shook his head. “That is the dark prince, the guy entirely responsible for Camelot’s first downfall. And you are baiting him. What is wrong with you?”
“Too many things to list them all.” Chief among them was exhaustion, which made me light-headed. Like I’d drunk dwarf-spiked punch. “Besides, aside from being all thee and thou, Mordred’s not as bad as all the legends say.” I picked up my crossbow and put it in the corner. “And need I remind you that all the stories and wanted posters say we’re the bad guys who ruined all of Story? So it’s like that crazy lady was saying. You can’t believe what you hear cuz the winner is the only one that gets to tell their side.” I took off my jacket and laid it over a chair.
Kato’s jaw dropped.
“No, no, no.” He picked up my crossbow and my jacket and shoved them at me. “Do not get comfy. You are not staying here. I forbid it. Go, before you fall for any more of their pixie-dusted fairy-tale cult.”
He pointed at the door.
I plopped on the bed and made myself comfy. “Sorry, I don’t follow commands. You are the one who’s part dog, not me.”
Kato looked like I’d slapped him. “A chimera is not part dog, and I just saved your life. You owe me.”
“What, by calling me your cousin?” My eyelids lowered. “Yeah, hate to break it to you, but I don’t think that helped any.”
Roughly, Kato yanked me up and twirled me around, so I was sitting on the bed with my back against his chest.
“Look,” he said.
My pulse picked up, and I squirmed to be free. “What are you—” I stopped breathing when he wrapped both arms around me.
“Look,” he repeated and squeezed me still. Though he had his arms crossed, both hands were rigid, fingers fanned out. That’s when I saw it. All the nails on his one hand were gone, as well as two on the other. “I realize you aren’t the poster child for purity, but whatever you believe, you are still good. And a maiden. Those unicorns should have gored you before the third question.”
“You stopped them with your ice and beast powers.” It wasn’t a question. “I thought you weren’t going to help me,” I said.
“You really are dense sometimes.” He huffed and let go of me. “Get some sleep. You can leave tomorrow while the rest of us go to morning group. You might want to take those boots off. They’ve got some black gunk on them.”
I laid on the bed, my thoughts weighing me down every bit as much as my body. “No can do. Your precious princess’s handiwork. They’re sort of rooted on.”
His face instantly lightened. “You’ve seen her. Is she okay?”
A fragile piece somewhere in me cracked, and familiar green flecks clouded the edges of my vision. “Of course she is. Considering how tired I am, I’m guessing she’s hard at work creating something useless yet high fashion. Plus, she’s got Verte and a pixing Storymaker. Dorthea will be fine.”
Kato smiled. “I know she will.” Then he sighed. “With her practicing magic, it’s the rest of Story I’m worried about.”
I couldn’t remember the last time I laughed hard enough for tears to brim over. Laughter is contagious as well, so Kato bowled over too, recounting all the things that had gone so wrong when Dorothea “means well.”
After our guffaws died down, he tossed me a blanket. “I mean it though, Rexi. One night. Mordred is the heir to Camelot. So Excalibur is bound to come to him, one way or another.”
All my mirth rotted like a worm-eaten apple as I put the pieces together. “You came here for the sword?”
“As long as Blanc has the power blockers on her wrists and neck, she can’t be at full strength. She needs that sword to break their binds, so I have to find and break the sword.”
And that broke my heart. It was the same story over and over. To live, I’d have to betray the people I cared about. Again.
“It really didn’t matter if I’d had a thousand and one wishes. I kept trying to fill the big void I felt inside.”
—Aladdin, Rug Pulled Out from under You
24
Djinn and Tonic
Luckily, I was too tired to stay awake; otherwise, I’m not sure my mind would have let me sleep. I woke up briefly when Mordred slunk back in the room and dropped his ax on the floor. When morning came, he was gone again.
“Ack. A morning person. Maybe Kato was right and he is evil.”
While I slept in the bed with the blanket, Kato had slept on the stone floor. He jerked and whimpered in his sleep, like one of the stable master’s hounds having a puppy dream. You know what they say about letting sleeping dogs lie though.
I took the blanket off the bed and placed it over him. He settled and stilled. I felt myself smiling. No, stop that, I told myself silently. Kato wanted me to leave so he could find the sword and destroy it. I couldn’t let him do that.
Tiptoeing, I quietly grabbed my bow and slipped out of the room, then headed down the hall to explore. The corridor ended in a T. “Left or right.” I closed my eyes. Dad had said I would be drawn to Excalibur because of the—I forgot what, but it didn’t matter. If Dad thought I could find the sword like a dowsing rod, I was sure I could. Because the one thing Robin Hood never joked about was treasure.
Except I didn’t feel a thing. Other than a light tapping on my leg.
“Ah,” I gasped, startled to see the little emerald dragon. “Um. Good morning.”
“Don’t see what’s particularly good about it.”
“Okay, well, I’ll let you work on that while I go this way.” I started heading to the right.
“You’re going the wrong way.”
“I am?”
“Yes, group session is this way.”
“Yeah.” I stretched and cracked my back. “I’m not feeling that great, so I think I’ll sit this one out.”
Mortimer huffed. “Do you think I have nothing better to do than roam the halls fetching you? The headmistress said to make sure you were in Wish 101.”
“Wish?” I put my hands up and suppressed a shudder. “Nope, no way, no how. The w-word is strictly off-limits. There’s got to be another session I can go to.”
“Merlin is doing a mustache-twirling intervention. I don’t think you qualify.”
I shook my head and crouched so I was nose to nose with him. “Look, Sparkles. I’m not going, and you can’t make me.”
“She told me you might say that.” He put his little gem claws in his mouth and whistled. A whinny sounded from around the corner.
“You didn’t,” I said. A sneeze followed. Then a waft of glitter. I didn’t wait around to find out who it came from.
Less than five minutes later, I was firmly planted in Lab Two and not a bit closer to finding Excalibur.