VILLAIN

Chapter 24

I couldn't tell you how much longer we walked after that – only that it took us several days...or was it weeks? It all ran together in a mind-numbing blur. Forest, forest, and more forest. It was beginning to seem to me that a great deal of the world was simply forest, waiting for some unfortunate soul to traipse through it and get stuck there eternally. We didn't talk much, and when we did it always ended with some sort of snarky comment on Max's part, followed by an equally snarky rebuttal by me, and then Marcelline piping up with a completely unrelated comment. By the time Max finally announced we were in Lakeland, I was reasonably certain I'd never walked so far in my entire life, and I was equally certain that if I had to listen to one more comment about my being jealous of Peter's various love interests, I might just rip Max's hair out.

I was in desperate need of a proper bath, and the rest of our group was too. The lavender dress the fairy queen had so kindly given me was now a sad sort of brown color, and there were ugly rips and stains all over it. If flower-petal dresses could wilt, mine certainly had.

The rest of our group was doing little better, with the notable exception of Tinkerbell, whose simple leafy dress looked absolutely no different than it had the day we'd left her Much-in-a-Room. I marveled idly over how very long ago that felt, even though it had only been a week and...how many days was it, again? I wasn't sure, and I frankly couldn't even bring myself to care. Somehow, I had managed to live for years in the woods with Peter and not minded it a bit, but mere days spent there with our misfit crew and I was quite willing to stay away from it altogether for a very, very long time. But of course that wasn't going to happen, as Max frequently reminded me.

"So what exactly is the plan?" I inquired as the forest finally – finally – began to thin, night beginning to set in.

"Just do what I say," Max answered unhelpfully.

I rolled my eyes, my patience running especially thin. "And what if I don't?"

He considered it. "I suppose you had better prepare yourself for another last-minute escape in that case. And rest assured – I'm not going to be coming to your rescue again."

I narrowed my eyes to glare at him, my frustrations from the past three days dangerously close to exploding. "You didn't come to my rescue!"

Max's eyebrow arched haughtily. "I didn't, did I? Then, do tell, what was your plan if I conveniently decided not to play along? What was your plan when you ran out of tricks if I hadn't thought to bring Tinkerbell? What was your plan if I told my father the truth, gathered my things, and left you there all by your lonesome to rot in that cell?"

I put my hands on my hips, fuming. "Let's be clear about one thing, Maximus Quarterly: It was my plan that got us out of there alive, not yours. You did nothing except follow along, and if you think for one second I couldn't have done it without you, you'd better think again."

Max laughed, the sound like nails on a chalkboard to my ears. "I see," was all he said, but it was clear in his voice he didn't believe it one bit.

"And just so you know, I fully expected you to leave me there all by my lonesome," I snapped, which was a lie.

He snorted. "No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did."

"No, you didn't."

"Yes, I did."

"No, you didn't."

"No, I didn't," I begrudgingly admitted, almost taking it back when he smirked triumphantly.

He said nothing else, just continued smirking like the arrogant fool he was. When I could stand it no more, I spoke again.

"So what is actually the plan? And if you tell me to just do what you say, I'm going to kick you a lot harder than I did in the dungeons."