The next tart smacks him satisfyingly in the face.
“Please don’t do that,” says one of the fairies. “It makes our wall look ineffectual.”
“Youareall ineffectual!” I burst out. “This is bullshit!”
“Sabby, I still need your help,” Hanry pleads. “I don’t want to marry May! She only wants me for my beard. And she’s terrifying. She could literally take me apart.”
“I could take you apart.”
“But you wouldn’t!”
I laugh maniacally, squeezing the filling out from the middle of a pastry. “You don’t know what I would and wouldn’t do right now.”
“You like me!”
“Idid!” I retort. “Before you proved you’re totally spineless.”
“You don’t understand. My mom’s terrifying!”
“Oh, whatever! I’ve said no to her twice today! And can you make your fairy manservants knock off with the French clown act already? I know they’re not actually trapping or protecting you.”
The fairies break apart from their circle, heads down as if ashamed.
“It’s true,” says the nose-scratcher. “He told us to do this when he heard you coming.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Hanry. You’re not worried about getting married, not really, or else we’d be leaving right now! You’re just a coward.”
“I am not!” he counters, finally starting to look as angry as I feel. “You’re making this about you! But I have to stay here, to protect Seb!”
“Seb?!” I sputter. “He isn’t even here—”
“Yes, Sabby,exactly!” Hanry says with heat. “If I don’t marry May, Mom is going to make Seb do it!”
I only need a half second to process this. “Okay. So ifneitherof you can say no, then you’rebothspineless! Seriously, Hanry. I get that you want to play the noble hero, but why can’t you back out and save both of your skins? What is wrong with you? I mean it. What iswrongwith you?”
At this—at last—Hanry doesn’t have an answer. He becomes fascinated with the opposite wall. He runs a hand through his hair.
“I—I don’t know,” he says.
Damn it. They’re such strong, nicely shaped hands. They should be holding on to mine as we escape the castle together, or raised in triumph after he stands up to his parents likean actual adult. A freaking waste is what it is. It’s… it’s…
“Excuse me,” pipes up a fairy-mime. “Are you finished yet?”
I stiffen. “What?”
“We really need to…” Two fairies break away from the rest, simulating the action of booting me out on my butt. And damn, that’s annoying. Annoying enough that I can push my heartbreak to the side, and say, “Fine. I’m out. Have a good life, Hanry.”
I have no idea what expression Hanry makes, because I’ve already turned away. Not just turned away, either: I’m moving, like I’m drawn by a magnet, against my control, out of the room. Out of his suite and into the pitch-black hallway. All I know is, I’ve got to get away. To be anywhere else but standing before my ex-boyfriend, who isn’t who I thought he was. Who can’t be the person I need him to be.
The door thudding behind me, I shuck off my glow-stick bracelet and toss it. In the darkness, I hear it clatter into a hole. Fine. Bye. It’s not like I’ll be relying on its light anymore.
I don’t know what I’m going to do.
I’ve spent the last twelve hours risking my safety—and the Spüktacular wedding brand—to sabotage Hanry’s wedding. To save a guy who has the noble-mindedness to help his brother but doesn’t have the guts to try and save himself. I could probably still drag Hanry from the castle, but what good would that do? We’d get back together, and then what? Be on the run from fairy minions forever? Rochester would find him, or a pooka would, or even King Tits himself. As far as I can tell, Bulan has been on the run from his nemesis—Princess May—for centuries, and lately it’s become his full-time job. At the end of the day, we’d get caught. And Hanry couldn’t protect me from anything. He doesn’t have the balls.
And that’s the real issue. If Hanry isn’t willing to fight for me, then there’s no future for us.
None.
