Dad’s pretend shout of‘Bandits!’came back to me. Did he know that was happening to Delilah? In the same way I knew we were coming to Misfortune?
“He saved me and offered to travel with me.”
Jealousy, hot and crooked, spiked my heart, twisting to lodge firmly under my ribs. I glared at my cousin for a moment until I remembered I had no reason to be mad at her. This didn’t feel like the empty-room memories, it felt new in an old way, not that that made any more sense.
“I thought he could help us with our quest,” Delilah finished.
“I’m not sure he’s fit to go anywhere at the moment,” Dad said.
“No! He has to come!” As soon as the words escaped Delilah’s mouth, she pressed her lips firmly together and refused to elaborate.
“Ah, I see,” Dad murmured with a soft, knowing smile.
No, stop looking at her like that! Like you’re approving a good match!I turned to Kit, eyes wide, silently begging them to stop whatever this was.
“So he saved you?” Kit repeated.
Delilah nodded again.
Kit sighed. “Then we better look after him.” They nudged Delilah out of the way and scooped Wilde into their arms.
“How should we explain our unexpected guest to the Unfortunates?” Father asked as he followed Kit to the carriage.
“Well,” Dad said, smirking. “Easiest answer is young love—”
“No.” The word snapped out of me, sharp and fast as an arrow.
Dad blinked, surprised and perhaps a little wounded by the blow.
“I mean …” I didn’t know how to explain the twisted feelings stabbing through me.
Dad watched me for a second, then said, “Fog?”
I nodded, shook my head, then shrugged, because I didn’t know what else to do.
He patted me sympathetically on the shoulder and didn’t ask anything else. He climbed into the carriage after Father and Kit, leaving Delilah and I to squeeze ourselves into the remaining space.
The carriagecouldfit six people, but not comfortably, especially when one was unconscious. Kit tried to prop up Wilde, but he kept slipping to the side. Eventually, they simply put him between themself and Father, holding him upright between their shoulders.
Father knocked on the carriage roof and instructed the coachman to continue to the castle.
The second the horses moved, Wilde slipped forward. I lunged to catch him, but Kit’s arm lashed out first, stretching across his chest. They grimaced and muttered, “This is going to be annoying.”
They’d barely finished complaining when Wilde’s eyes blinked open. He lifted his head, and his unfocused gaze fell on me. His eyes were as black as his hair was white, and they reflected my own stunned face back at me.
After a few seconds, his eyes finally focused, then widened in shock.
“Wilde, wait!” Delilah lunged across the short gap, grabbing his hands and holding them tightly between hers. “You’re fine,” she said through gritted teeth. “No one was hurt. There’sno reason to panic.”
Wilde, Delilah, Father, and Kit disappeared.
“What thefuck?” Dad shouted. He leapt toward the seat where they’d just been, feeling around on the empty cushions. He slammed his fist on the roof to stop the coachman and threw the door open, looking around frantically. “They’re outside!”
We scrambled out of the door, bumping our shoulders as we squeezed through a space that was only meant to accommodate one person at a time.
Delilah still held on to Wilde’s hands even as he thrashed, trying to yank them out of her grip. “No one was hurt!” she insisted. “You’re fine, I’m fine, Trey’s fine,everyone is fine!”
“No, it wasn’t … I can’t do this. That was a bad start—”
