Page 77 of Happily Ever Witch
He scowled.
“I thought so.” She nodded, feeling righteous. “And I will do the same for my honorary sibling.”
“My honorary sibling isn’t an asshole. I’m serious, Ez. Marrok is going to die when I kill him, anyway. It’s pointless to rescue him from the Queen of Clubs.”
She wasn’t going to waste time arguing about it. They’d never agree. “Also, Scarlett made some deal with Kingpin Midas. He’s sending Sir Galahad and Galahad’s gryphon husband to find us all a path out of here.” Maybe that would calm him down. “Trystan Airbourne is supposed to be the best tracker in the world.”
Trevelyan was briefly distracted. “Sir Galahad married a gryphon? Didn’t he kill them all? He’s the Butcher of Legion.”
“See,Ithink of him as the pretty blond man with the adorable puppet show.”
“I hate that show. It was far worse than the massacre he led.”
“You believe that because your soul is black and shriveled.”
He grunted, but didn’t deny it. Instead, he began stripping off his clothes. Esmeralda studiously avoided looking at him, because it would just tempt her to forget she was mad. “In any case, I don’t care who opens a door for us… even if itisa knight.” He decided with a derisive twist of his mouth. “This might be the realm I plan to own, but I don’t enjoy being confined here. I like to be in control.”
“No kidding.”
“I told you I won’t save Marrok and I mean it. Dragons never, ever compromise.”
“So you’ve said.”
“Because it’s true! Now, are you joining me and leaving Wonderland, with the murdering knight and his husband? Or are you staying here to die with the wolf?”
“Neither and both. I’ll go with you,afterI rescue Marrok.”
“I’m not waiting for Marrok.” Trevelyan’s voice was contemptuous. “I’m leaving this kingdom, until I’m sure no one can trap me in it again. Lesser species always try to imprison dragons. We don’t like it.”
That was a fair analysis, actually. It was why the Queen of Clubs had brought Trevelyan to Wonderland, in the first place. If you were a royal scumbag seeking magic, enslaving a dragon was a great idea. Dragons were hard to capture, sure. But even if you took devastating losses in the fight and large swaths of your lands were uninhabitable for generations, it was often worth the risk. If you succeeded you’d have a magical weapon like no other and chances were you’d be able to hold it forever. It wasn’t like people were lining up to help captured dragons. They had no friends or allies.
“Youshouldgo.” She told him and meant it. “The Queen of Clubs will target you again, as soon as she realizes you’re free of the Walrus and the White Rabbit. She needs your magic for something. She doesn’t care about me, at all.”
Very few people cared about Esmeralda. That wasn’t self-pity. That was reality. And she wasn’t about to lose one of them to the Queen of Clubs. Shewouldsave Marrok.
Trevelyan’s clothing hit the floor with more force than necessary. “There are a hundred other lands where I can fully recuperate my magic and plot my counterattack. I’m not aboutto stay on the Queen’s turf and playherfucking games. She can playmine.” He barely looked Esmeralda’s way. “You can do whatever the frozen-hells you want.”
He waved a hand at the creepy mirror and it went vanishing into the hallway. Even in the midst of his tantrum, he recalled she didn’t want it watching her while she slept. That softened her.
“I said I would come with you.” She reminded him. “But I need a little time.”
“It’s a very risky idea to wait.”
“What choice do I have? Marrok’s life is at stake. Literally. The Queen will keep him alive for a while, because why else take him, at all? She could’ve just killed him in the Enchanted Forest, if that’s all she wanted. But Marrok can piss offanybody.”
He grunted in sardonic agreement.
“Sooner or later, she’ll murder him just to shut him up.” Esmeralda estimated Marrok had about a week before he got himself dead. “You know that, Trev.”
Naked, Trevelyan flopped down on his side of the mattress. “Well, I wish you luck, darling. Let me know if you need advice on how to survive the dungeon of our super-powered nemesis. I can give you some tips on trapping rats to add extra protein to your gruel.”
She wasn’t going to ask him to help her. Not for anything. There was no point. Esmeralda wasn’t upset over it, just pragmatic about his nature. They’d settled on an “every witch and dragon for themselves” rule and she would stick to it. It was safer, anyway. Relying on Trevelyan would always be a deadend. She’d figure out how to rescue Marrok, the same way she figured out everything else: Alone.
There was some connection between her prideful self-reliance, Trevelyan’s refusal to compromise, and the downfall of dragons as a species, but she wasn’t in the mood to figure it out.
“Tell me something true, Trev.” She said, ready to change the subject.
A long pause. So long, she wasn’t sure he was going to play.
