"I think he's warming up to me," I said to Kato, who glared icicles underneath me.

"Whatever gave you that delusion?" he said and shoved me off.

"Well, this is the first time we've interacted that he hasn't put his ax against my throat. I'm gonna call it a win."

Kato shook his head. "That is the dark prince, the guy entirely responsible for Camelot's first downfall. And you are baiting him. What is wrong with you?"

"Too many things to list them all." Chief among them was exhaustion, which made me light-headed. Like I'd drunk dwarf-spiked punch. "Besides, aside from being all thee and thou, Mordred's not as bad as all the legends say." I picked up my crossbow and put it in the corner. "And need I remind you that all the stories and wanted posters say we're the bad guys who ruined all of Story? So it's like that crazy lady was saying. You can't believe what you hear cuz the winner is the only one that gets to tell their side." I took off my jacket and laid it over a chair.

Kato's jaw dropped.

"No, no, no." He picked up my crossbow and my jacket and shoved them at me. "Do not get comfy. You are not staying here. I forbid it. Go, before you fall for any more of their pixie-dusted fairy-tale cult."

He pointed at the door.

I plopped on the bed and made myself comfy. "Sorry, I don't follow commands. You are the one who's part dog, not me."

Kato looked like I'd slapped him. "A chimera is not part dog, and I just saved your life. You owe me."

"What, by calling me your cousin?" My eyelids lowered. "Yeah, hate to break it to you, but I don't think that helped any."

Roughly, Kato yanked me up and twirled me around, so I was sitting on the bed with my back against his chest.

"Look," he said.

My pulse picked up, and I squirmed to be free. "What are you-" I stopped breathing when he wrapped both arms around me.

"Look," he repeated and squeezed me still. Though he had his arms crossed, both hands were rigid, fingers fanned out. That's when I saw it. All the nails on his one hand were gone, as well as two on the other. "I realize you aren't the poster child for purity, but whatever you believe, you are still good. And a maiden. Those unicorns should have gored you before the third question."

"You stopped them with your ice and beast powers." It wasn't a question. "I thought you weren't going to help me," I said.

"You really are dense sometimes." He huffed and let go of me. "Get some sleep. You can leave tomorrow while the rest of us go to morning group. You might want to take those boots off. They've got some black gunk on them."

I laid on the bed, my thoughts weighing me down every bit as much as my body. "No can do. Your precious princess's handiwork. They're sort of rooted on."

His face instantly lightened. "You've seen her. Is she okay?"

A fragile piece somewhere in me cracked, and familiar green flecks clouded the edges of my vision. "Of course she is. Considering how tired I am, I'm guessing she's hard at work creating something useless yet high fashion. Plus, she's got Verte and a pixing Storymaker. Dorthea will be fine."

Kato smiled. "I know she will." Then he sighed. "With her practicing magic, it's the rest of Story I'm worried about."

I couldn't remember the last time I laughed hard enough for tears to brim over. Laughter is contagious as well, so Kato bowled over too, recounting all the things that had gone so wrong when Dorothea "means well."

After our guffaws died down, he tossed me a blanket. "I mean it though, Rexi. One night. Mordred is the heir to Camelot. So Excalibur is bound to come to him, one way or another."

All my mirth rotted like a worm-eaten apple as I put the pieces together. "You came here for the sword?"

"As long as Blanc has the power blockers on her wrists and neck, she can't be at full strength. She needs that sword to break their binds, so I have to find and break the sword."

And that broke my heart. It was the same story over and over. To live, I'd have to betray the people I cared about. Again.

"It really didn't matter if I'd had a thousand and one wishes. I kept trying to fill the big void I felt inside."

-Aladdin, Rug Pulled Out from under You.

24.

Djinn and Tonic.

Luckily, I was too tired to stay awake; otherwise, I'm not sure my mind would have let me sleep. I woke up briefly when Mordred slunk back in the room and dropped his ax on the floor. When morning came, he was gone again.

"Ack. A morning person. Maybe Kato was right and he is evil."

While I slept in the bed with the blanket, Kato had slept on the stone floor. He jerked and whimpered in his sleep, like one of the stable master's hounds having a puppy dream. You know what they say about letting sleeping dogs lie though.

I took the blanket off the bed and placed it over him. He settled and stilled. I felt myself smiling. No, stop that, I told myself silently. Kato wanted me to leave so he could find the sword and destroy it. I couldn't let him do that.

Tiptoeing, I quietly grabbed my bow and slipped out of the room, then headed down the hall to explore. The corridor ended in a T. "Left or right." I closed my eyes. Dad had said I would be drawn to Excalibur because of the-I forgot what, but it didn't matter. If Dad thought I could find the sword like a dowsing rod, I was sure I could. Because the one thing Robin Hood never joked about was treasure.

Except I didn't feel a thing. Other than a light tapping on my leg.

"Ah," I gasped, startled to see the little emerald dragon. "Um. Good morning."

"Don't see what's particularly good about it."

"Okay, well, I'll let you work on that while I go this way." I started heading to the right.

"You're going the wrong way."

"I am?"

"Yes, group session is this way."

"Yeah." I stretched and cracked my back. "I'm not feeling that great, so I think I'll sit this one out."

Mortimer huffed. "Do you think I have nothing better to do than roam the halls fetching you? The headmistress said to make sure you were in Wish 101."

"Wish?" I put my hands up and suppressed a shudder. "Nope, no way, no how. The w-word is strictly off-limits. There's got to be another session I can go to."

"Merlin is doing a mustache-twirling intervention. I don't think you qualify."

I shook my head and crouched so I was nose to nose with him. "Look, Sparkles. I'm not going, and you can't make me."

"She told me you might say that." He put his little gem claws in his mouth and whistled. A whinny sounded from around the corner.

"You didn't," I said. A sneeze followed. Then a waft of glitter. I didn't wait around to find out who it came from.

Less than five minutes later, I was firmly planted in Lab Two and not a bit closer to finding Excalibur.

Gwennie stood at the front of the room, once again a vision in purple...the kind of vision that you can't stare at too long.

"Welcome, my dear ones. Let's have a pop quiz. I think everyone in here can relate to falling just shy of their goals. Do you lose to the heroes because, (A) good is stronger than evil; (B) heroes cheat; (C) they just don't make curses like they used to; or, (D) deep down, we don't think we deserve to win."

A man with a crown and dressed all in red raised his hand. It had a sock puppet on it wearing a red heart dress.

"Yes, Red King."

"What was the third one again?" he asked in a high-pitched voice, using the sock puppet to talk.

"Anyone else? No?" Gwen sighed.

"The answer is D," a voice said from the front.

Gwen smiled. "Yes. Good, Mordred. And tell us all why it's D."

I leaned over so I could see him.

He put his legs up on the chair next to him and said, "'Tis the answer that sounds the most like a load of bull-"

"Self-sabotage." Gwen cut him off. "Everyone here is guilty of spoiling plots and years' worth of machinations just as they are going right, just as opportunity is at your feet. The devil is in the details, and today I'm going to give you each an opportunity to practice getting those details right." She pulled on a curtain next to her, ripping it from the ceiling. It fell and revealed a bare-chested, chubby, bald man. Who was blue.

The other villains oohed and aahed over the genie. I really hoped it wasn't Aladdin's genie, since I had sort of recently melted his lamp in the puce cauldron acid.

Mordred stood up. "I'll go first."

"Very brave, but I believe we will start at the back." Gwen signaled the orderlies to bring up the first of the three troll bridge brothers. "One wish only, and everyone will get a turn. Wishing rules apply. No true love, no killing someone off, and no wishing for more wishes. Think very carefully about what you really want. Be careful what you wish for. And begin."

"Go, Cletus!" the elder trolls shouted.

"Aw shucks, I don't need to think. This is easy. I wish for a goat to eat." Cletus winked his one good eye at the crowd.

The genie folded his arms and bowed. "As you wish."

With a puff of smoke, Cletus was gone. In his place was a goat, not coincidentally, missing an eye, the same as the troll.

Gwen raked her nails down the chalkboard, getting everyone's attention but scaring the goat. "You see what happened there? You must be clear and precise in your goals. Focus and believe." She pointed at the goat. "Give Cletus the tonic to undo the wish."

A straw-stuffed doll in a pink lab coat clinked beakers and tubes in the corner. "Give me a minute," an off-key voice sang. "This is precise work."

The second troll brother caught the goat...then ate him.

The trapped genie smiled a toothy, "the better to eat you" sort of grin. "He asked for a goat, and it was eaten. Wish fulfilled. Anyone else?"

After that demonstration, no one was running down the aisle for their turn. But I had an idea. I opened my mouth and raised my hand. Before I could get out words, a hand clamped across my face and dragged me backward.

"Stop this now!" Kato growled in my ear.

"Mrmrmrmr." I clawed at his wrist since I couldn't breathe.

He moved his hand.

"No," I replied and stomped on his foot.

He grabbed me again, holding me tighter this time but keeping his fingers free of my nose so I could breathe. He dragged me out into the hall.

"You can't be here," he said.

"Can we just agree to disagree? You aren't going to get rid of me."

"I realize that. What I meant is you can't be here." He pointed toward the cla.s.sroom. "See anyone you know?"

I peeked inside. "Gwen is an obvious one. I didn't know the genie personally, though he'll probably be hexed at me for wrecking his home. And I don't know the pink-lab-coat straw-voodoo doll or the blue-bearded pirate she's giving the potion to." I winced because whatever the pirate had wished for caused painful-looking gold locks to erupt all over his skin.

Kato yanked me back again. "That's not a voodoo doll. That's a scarecrow."

I didn't understand. "And?"

The cursed chorus of twisted voices answered instead, "We remember."

A memory floated to the surface of my brain, one that wasn't mine. Instead of watching it, I relived it as if I were Dorthea.

Black Crow stood before me. Her skin turned a sallow yellow and bubbled, dripping like hot wax. One eye drooped down her cheek; the other pleaded with me. Her mouth tilted into a sickening mockery of a grin. Her limbs flattened and went boneless.

A small voice inside me rejoiced. The rest of my conscience recoiled from the monster I had become.

Black Crow's hand stretched out to me, and I rushed to it. I could fix this. Before I had a chance to help her, she slashed across my palm with a razored feather. Blood flowed freely from the almost surgical slice. I sat motionless as she applied my blood to her melting skin.

The puddling stopped, and her skin reformed into a solid state. She got a little taller and stiffer, the surface of her skin taking a clothlike appearance. Her face looked flat, like someone had painted all her features on. Her limbs got bulbous and lumpy, as though they were stuffed with straw. When the magic finished with her, what was left was not Black Crow.

What remained was a scarecrow.

Once again, I felt satisfied and horrified at what I'd done. Not to mention pity for that poor creature.

No. I refused to feel sorry for that woman. I hit my head on the doorjamb to loosen the bond and get out of Dorthea's head. Didn't need her memories. I had my own. My blood still boiled for what Black Crow has done, what she had started.

I vividly remembered being tied to a laundry line, helpless, as Black Crow made a black opal and handed it to Griz. I could never forget Griz piercing my heart and pulling out every last bit of my essence. She captured it in the opal and put the blasted necklace over her head. "If you want to live, you are going to do everything I say. You belong to me now."

"Rex," Gwen called. "It's your turn."

I hadn't worried about being recognized at Camelot, since I didn't look like my wanted posters. Neither did Kato, since the posters showed him in chimera form. And that was how Black Crow had met Kato, as the fur ball prince. But me? I knew she would remember me. Our eyes met.

Crow grabbed for a potion, and I didn't have much time. Just enough for revenge.

I rubbed my hands together. "With my wish, you're gonna see what it feels like to have someone wearing your soul."