“Good, because this team is everything to me. I would not want to mess things up for a bit offun.”
“You didn’t mess things up,” Jo assured him. She leveled her eyes with his. They were going to be stuck together in confined quarters for eternity; the man was right, best to air everything out now. “It was just casual, you know. I don’t feel anything for you, other than friendship. It’d just been a really long time for meand—”
Wayne saved Jo from another awkward rambling session with a hand and a small smile. “Same for me too,doll.”
“Friends?” Jo asked, relieved that she could be certain she already knew theanswer.
“Friends.”
“Good, now that that’s squared away. . .” She zipped up her hoodie. “I’m ready to goback.”
“Brace yourself.” Wayne’s hand hovered over the handle of what was the bathroom—until it morphed into the Society’s Door. “I’ve never been gone for this long without warning or wish duty. Don’t know how people willreact.”
“I’m sure it’ll befine.”
The moment Wayne opened the door, Jo knew she’d been very, very wrong in thatassessment.
Chapter 21
Severity of Exchange
JO DIDN’T HAVEthe notion of being able to sneak back into the Society. With only eight people total, any absence would no doubt be noticed. But she thought she could ease herself back, see people individually, perhaps even skim off a day or two from her nearly four-day-long adventure by letting her teammates’ minds play tricks by leaving them to wonder if someone else had merely seen herfirst.
No suchluck.
If the door could be closed after being opened, Jo would’ve insisted to Wayne that he just do that instead. But he was already halfway through and Jo was being pulled alongsidehim.
They stepped into a full briefing room and all eyes were on them. Wayne cleared his throat, easing the Door closed behind him. Jo folded her arms over her chestdefensively.
“Kind of you to finally join us.” Snow’s chilling voice cut through the tensionfirst.
“Lens Louise,” Wayne muttered under his breath with a glance to Snow, before forcing some cheer into his voice. “What did wemiss?”
She didn’t know what a “Lens Louise” was, but Wayne’s side-eye and tense tone was descriptive enough that she could infer it wasn’t the most polite thing to say aboutsomeone.
Snow tapped his fingers on the table, one of his eyes veiled by silver hair while the other stared them down with a steely gaze. Despite being seated, he managed to domineer over them like a judge on aparapet.
“Where were you?” Snow ignored Wayne’squestion.
“Look. . .” Jo took a deep breath and braced herself. “It’s not his fault. I begged him to come with meand—”
“He still made the choice to do so of his own volition,” Snowinterrupted.
“Listen, he was helping me,” she tried toexplain.
“Helping you make changes in the world unrelated to the wish.” Snow’s hand curled into a fist, and for a brief second Jo thought he may slam it on the table. He didn’t, but onlyjust.
“We kept the changes as minimal as possible,” Jo assured them all. No one would seem to meet her gaze. “I had to. Ihadto,” she repeated for emphasis. The dodgy glances, the side eyes, the unexpected sadness, the entirely expected disappointment. . . it wore her down quickly. “My wish was to save my friend. If I didn’t act, he was going to die.” So much for not really telling people what they were upto.
“Then you should have let it come topass.”
Her eyes snapped back to Snow. “How can you say that?” she breathed, not knowing or caring if the statement was audible to anyone but herself. “You saw us that day in Texas. You saw him dead. If I hadn’t saved him, what did I even wish for to beginwith?”
“You wished for a revised world. If the foolish decisions of your friend still get him killed, then perhaps he is meant todie.”
“Take that back!” Jo didn’t mean to shout, it just sort of happened. “You take thatback!”
“Jo—” Wayne’s hands closed around her shoulders, holding her inplace.
