“You lot can stay until nightfall,” Legs continues in a biting tone, “but no later. Rest, we’ll give you some food and supplies, but then you’d best be on your way. We can’t risk the Queen’s ire.”
With that dismissal, Legs waves her hand and calls the viny horse Phillippe forth with her magic. The beast rises up, bows his head, and Legs climb on his back.
“You can walk through the garden if you must, but mind the borders. Where the flowers give way to dense forest again is where the garden ends. The other butterflies and beasts know not to step back here uninvited, but I can’t be sure if anyone’s lingering nearby. I need to check on my flowers. Margo?”
With that, she leaves the room, Margo falling into step behind her. I shoot Zarev a look; he’s glaring, his arms crossed over his chest. He doesn’t wait until they are all the way out of the room before hissing, “What the fuck was that?”
~~~
I try to rest, as Legs advised, but sleep is out of the question. After the strange things the Sandman showed me, I can’t imagine falling asleep again. Instead, Neve sits beside me, literally tearing the sleeves off her dress because she’s too hot, and tucks the extra fabric away into a bag. It’s a little like Odette’s. Margo dropped off the travel bags for us without a word and left, likely hoping we will take our things and quietly be on our way. She grumbled as she disappeared, and I’m pretty sure Legs guilted her into it so we wouldn’t leave without supplies.
The atmosphere is hostile, and I don’t know where things went wrong. Legs has always been a little evasive, that’s her nature. But Margo was silent for once, biting back her opinions of me with the extra company present. Now, it feels like they are counting down the minutes until we leave.
After failing to reach Ray, Rapunzel, or Dahliaagain, I sit against the side of the house and fill the silence with Neve, telling her tidbits about whatever she asks me.
How did I meet the other Reapers, and who are they? I keep the explanation bland, and she fidgets uncomfortably when I mention being tortured by Davina before she killed us. Mysummary of the Shadow Man doesn’t seem to help, and she gives me curious looks once the tale is over.
“If you have so much going on,” Neve asks in a low voice, hugging her knees, “why bother coming back for me? None of the tragedies in the Frostlands occurred until I awoke. Perhaps I was supposed to stay in that frozen sleep.”
“You weren’t meant to stay in the frozen sleep,” I say with a scoff. “I spoke with Legs about your curse. She agreed it was unnatural. She helped me figure out how to look for the spinning needle, and Barty, the ghost, helped me find it. I just had to put up with Dima in the process.”
She’s still troubled by that. I’ve repeated this story a few times now, and each time I explain my process of waking her up, she looks more and more troubled. I get that her parents weren’t big on going out of their way for her when they were alive, but I’ll move all the shadows in her path if it clears her way to greatness.
Until she can see herself how I do, Neve won’t believe she’s worth the trouble.
“He went out of his way for a long time to ensure you woke, my dear.”
Neve spins around, and I raise a brow as Phillippe brings Legs into view. It’s been a few hours now, and the sun is creeping across the sky. I might not need sleep, but Neve probably should or else we’ll only get out of the gardens and probably across the Barrens before we need to set up camp.
And then how many days to the new tavern? Two, three?
“You don’t seem that pleased that I am awake,” Neve points out, none of her bite disappearing in Legs’s presence. My old friend gives her a tight smile before directing her attention to me.
“Did you tell her what I gave you?”
Stiffening, I slowly shake my head. “Nothing came up.”
“You didusethe package you came to me for, didn’t you?” Legs asks, her brows drawing together. “The salve, themedicine?”
Neve stiffens beside me as I sigh. “I used a bit of snow to douse her before she woke. I’m pretty sure I accidentally dropped the vial off the side of the mountain when she shot me through the side of the cabin. But the salve was nice.”
“I didn’t know there was a salve,” Neve grumbles.
“You took me out before I had a chance to explain,” I reply, peering between the two of them. “And then you passed out after not moving for a century.”
Neve scoffs, but she doesn’t argue. That first half hour after she awoke was turbulent, and until now, I hadn’t even remembered the vial that Legs gave me. I mostly wanted things to help Neve adjust since she hadn’t moved for a hundred years. That was the whole point of detouring to Wonderland.
Legs watches us with guarded eyes, and it’s many moments before she speaks again. “You seem…remarkablywell after being immobile for a century. No ailments to your mind, or physical difficulties?”
Neve’s shaking her head before Legs finishes. “No, nothing. I was disoriented when I awoke, but then like Ban said, I blasted him out of the side of the cabin.” She holds her hands up for emphasis, icing her fingertips down to her wrists. “My body was a little achy, and there was exhaustion, but nothing else. I didn’t notice anything.”
“Other than the nightmares,” I grumble, and Neve jabs me in the side with her elbow.
The nightmares aren’t something that Legs can remedy, and she purses her lips before moving on. At least, since she woke up from having her spine ripped out, she’s a little less against sleeping at night. She was less against it last night until I disturbed her sleep to fuck her.
“How peculiar,” Legs says with a frown. “I expected there to be setbacks in your future if Ban succeeded in waking you, yet you stand before us in near-perfect health.”
Neve hesitates, and I watch her through the corner of her eye to see what she says next. Without Margo lingering in the background, both of them seem to be a little more open to talking. “I… There was an incident. Ban healed my back after my mother…”
