“Wait.” It dawned on Jo, but seemed too horrible to bear. “To grant her the wish of curing the disease, you made it so that she can never become adoctor?”
“That is where the magic required to alter reality and grant the wish comes from,” Snow affirmed. It was an emotionless statement, calculated, and so far detached from any guilt or regret that Jo was surprised it didn’t echo in the space that his heart and human empathy must have once occupied. This was as much business for him as crashing an ambassador’s self-driving car was for her. Or, had been for her, in the life she’d had before she was a magical wish-granting soldier-puppet.
Very well, she knew how to steel herself. She could play thisgame.
“But the magic isn’t always enough.” There was a knowing tone to Eslar’saddition.
“This one will fall to you,” Snow affirmed with a nod in the elf’sdirection.
Jo remembered the A to C premise Snow had previously explained. “So, Eslar will help move the world to B so you can get it toC?”
“B. . . what?” Eslar’s brow furrowed inconfusion.
“Just so.” Snow understood her perfectly. And Jo didn’t miss the way his lips quirked up just barely into a smirk. It was like a secret they both shared, even if it wasn’t secret atall.
“I can help,” she offered, newfound confidencebuilding.
“Not this time. We have no need of you for thistask.”
The words seemed harmless enough, but they grated against something raw, a space in her chest that looked like home. “If you have no need of me” —she threw his words right back at him— “then why bring me here in the firstplace?”
“As wediscussed—”
“I really think I could help,” she interrupted. She needed purpose, reason. She couldn’t have her entire world taken from her, only to be shoved aside. “I’m sure there’s some research somewhere that I couldhack—”
“I have made myself clear.” Snow pushed away from the table, his face expressionless. Any emotion he’d spared for her was now so far buried that there was no hope of dredging it up. “Eslar will see to the preliminaries of the wish and I will ensure the world knows of the cure. You are alldismissed.”
Jo watched him begin to leave, completely stunned until a different emotion tookover.
“But!” Jo shot up from her chair so quickly, it nearly toppled backwards. Everyone in the room, even those only halfway out of their own chairs, startled into stillness. She swallowed, trying to collect the nervous energy into something that could be explained to everyone else. “Please, I. . .” How she hated begging. “It will help me get used to things. . . if I can be a part of this too. I promise I won’t be a burden.” Her eyes were on Snow’s motionless back as she made her plea. Surely, he had to take pity on the situation she’d been thrust into. They all knew how hard it was,right?
A long moment passed where Snow didn’t even bother to face her. He stood in the doorway, his posture set tall and stern, intimidating (despite how much Jo loathed to admit it at that moment). Then, very slowly, he turned around, and looked her in theeye.
There it was, that look again that seemed reserved for her alone. At least, it felt that way. Jo swallowed hard, but couldn’t dislodge the breath caught in her throat. Hope swelled in that air, ready to carry a thank-you to him for agreeing to keep her hands busy and let herhelp.
“I realize it is not your intent to be a burden,” Snow assured, taking a step towards her. “But you are a novice. You need to learn your own limitations—your restrictions. You need to enhance your strengths and get a hold over your magic. Until then, you have no place on the field.” Snow continued to walk towards her, eventually standing directly in her personalspace.
Jo’s hands remained at her sides. No matter how much she willed them, they didn’t move. It was as if her body admitted he was right before her mind would. Snow’s eyes scanned her face, waiting for an objection she couldn’t seem to muster no matter how hard shetried.
“Learn your magic, and your place, before trying to jump into awish.”
With that hanging in the air between them, Snow left the conference room, Jo standing in his wake with nothing but her own shell-shocked, silence to cling to. It was neither kind, nor cruel; he’d left her in a space void of emotion that Jo suddenly had a hard timenavigating.
It took a moment for her to remember that she wasn’t alone. The sound of Pan’s chair sliding backward filled the silence as shestood.
“Well, that was certainly exciting!” The woman-child clapped her hands. “Good luck, Eslar. I can’t wait to see what you come upwith.”
And with that, she wasgone.
Everyone else stood in relative silence and began to filter out. Jo, however, sunk back into her seat. The feeling of uselessness was more bitter than waking up and finding that she had been pulled outside ofreality.
Chapter 8
Git of Time
SHE HAD ONLY just begun schemingways to prove her worth to Snow when Wayne cleared his throat and Jo’s head jerked up. Jo hadn’t even realized he’d lingered while the rest of them had left. He offered her a shrug, a half smile, and the tension seemed to instantlybreak.
“Is he always such a dick to the newrecruits?”
