Lucky Caller(53)
I had no choice but to join in. I couldn’t tell Sidney and Rose what had happened between us. But Jamie must have not hated me entirely if he still agreed to play?
When I met them in the living room—Rose was buck ling Iliana’s belt—he didn’t meet my eyes. He looked right past me as Sidney explained what we were going to do.
The last time we had met for Kingdom, we were outside, wandering through the Wilds looking for a scroll that would lead us to a sacred pool where Hapless’s curse could be broken. We had secured the scroll (it was a rolled-up menu for a Chinese restaurant), and today Sidney commanded we follow it to the sacred pool (the indoor pool, which we had formerly dubbed a swamp, and which was located downstairs by the back entrance to the building).
It was quiet as we got in the elevator. I think Rose could sense it, that something intrinsic had changed—I hadn’t told her what happened at the museum, but she was Rose, she could intuit anything—and maybe Sidney could too, because she glanced back at me.
“Hapless doesn’t remember you anymore because you weren’t mean to him,” Sidney said. “Remember how you didn’t want to be mean to him?”
My stomach twisted.
“She’s our friend. She’s okay,” she told Jamie, who nodded, not looking my way. “We trust her, so you can trust her too.”
“Got it,” he replied.
The hall outside the service elevator was empty, and we made our way past the back door, past the vending machines, peered through the window in the hall that looked down onto the pool area. It was empty too.
“What do we do?” Jamie said when we were all assembled inside. The pool room was always warm, the air thick with humidity.
“According to lore—”
I snorted. “What lore?”
Sidney glared at me. “According to lore of old, the sacred pool will wash away your curse.”
“Just like that?” Jamie said.
“No,” Sidney said. “It demands a sacrifice first.”
“We’re not throwing stuff into the pool,” Rose said.
Sidney glared at her too. “We have to do a ritual, then.”
So we did a complicated ritual, which involved my scrying stones, a small desiccated piece of wood that Sidney had picked up from who knows where, and a sprinkling of water from the hot tub (aka the anointed spring).
“Now what?” Jamie asked when we were done.
“Now you have to let the sacred magic of the pool consume you,” Sidney replied.
Jamie considered this for a moment, and then took one step backward, and then another, until he was at the edge of the pool.
“Jamie—” I began, but all at once, Prince Hapless tipped over and broke the water with a large splash, disappearing into the depths, leaving only ripples behind.
Sidney let out a choked laugh, and next to me, Rose tensed.
We could all see Jamie at the bottom—the pool wasn’t that deep—but he wasn’t coming up.
“Jamie,” Rose called.
“Hapless!” Sidney tried.
But he stayed down there, a dark shape against the pale blue of the pool floor.
Maybe Iliana the bounty hunter would have looked skyward and let out a lengthy curse to the gods before diving gracefully to Hapless’s rescue. But Rose just let out a sound like sflkjfsfjk and then jumped into the pool.
She disappeared under and broke the surface again with Jamie in tow. They both thrashed around a bit and then made their way over to the side of the pool.
“What were you doing?” Rose said, climbing to her feet. Her clothes hung wet, water streaming in rivulets off of her. Jamie pulled himself out of the pool but stayed sitting in a puddle on the concrete. “Why didn’t you come up?”
“I was letting the water consume me,” he said simply. “Am I cured?”
Sidney considered him for a moment. “No. And you’re unconscious.”
Instantly Jamie fell back on the ground, a marionette with its strings cut.
I spoke before I could even think: “Sidney, no. He has to be cured. This can’t go on forever.”
“I’m in charge and—”
“You’re not. We’re all playing, not just you. I say he’s fine.”
Sidney turned to Rose, her expression clouding over.
Rose sighed too. “I mean, Nina’s kind of right. We can’t play forever.”
“But—” Sidney broke in.
“But,” Rose continued, “Sidney should get … the ending she wants.” She looked at Sidney. “So what happens now?”
Sidney was quiet for a moment, considering, and then she raised her chin defiantly. “Now Prince Hapless dies.”
“He can’t die,” I said.
“Sure he can. He’s not immortal. He’s not magic. He doesn’t have any charms or shields or anything.” A shrug. “It’s realistic.”
“Nothing about Kingdom is realistic,” I replied. “Rose’s hairbrush is a dart gun! You’re a literal troll!”
“I get to pick the ending and I say we did everything we could and it didn’t work.” She shook her head. “Sometimes things just don’t work.”
I thought of my mom’s words to Sidney—to all of us—during a discussion once about the divorce. We didn’t talk about it often, but Sidney was just a toddler when it happened, so she would have questions every now and then. Once she asked, Who made you get divorced?