Greer rubbed his eyebrows. “If you… you’ll never pass the Galvantry trial. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with you now.”
“Now? What do you mean by now?”
“Waverly, this all matters from here on out. Be honest with me,” he said, and I knew I wasn’t the only one with deep trust issues. “How much training did the Merrics have you do?” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “The dream you had… the Merrics have nightmares all the time. It’s a side effect of the training and what they do.” He looked me in the eyes and Greer’s body was tense. He needed to know this answer and by the way he looked, this answer would change everything. “This is very important. Did the Merrics train you?”
“The Merrics didn’t train me.”
He raised his eyebrows, incredulous and I knew he needed a lot more.
“Okay, fine, I’ll tell you what I know. The dream was bad. It was the worst dream I’ve ever had. I saw things, but it didn’t even make sense. And that dream had nothing to do with anything they taught me in L’Autre Bête.” Only what I saw, I thought. “Greer, I didn’t use my powers though. They never trained me. They planned to ease me into it, but then Boston happened and things went so quickly after that. Yesterday was as big of a surprise to me as it was to you. You can give me the Exodrodinal if you don’t believe me.”
He needed honesty, and even though I knew I couldn’t trust him—or anyone — Greer had saved me more times than anyone, and he needed some truth. I turned away because my cheeks were about to go crimson. “This is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this and it was on accident. I thought—no, I knew—that hunter would hurt you and it just sort of happened. I couldn’t watch you die. It came out of me from nowhere.”
Greer let out a giant sigh, and when I turned back to him, the worry and stress had dissolved from his face. “Your powers came through, so you could save me?”
“Yes.”
He grinned. “And there was no other time?”
“Well, in that way, but there is something else.”
Greer’s whole body tensed again. He closed his eyes and his voice was icy. “Yes?”
“I don’t even know for sure this is a thing but Claudette, she, um… I think she was trying to...I don’t know the word for it.”
“Can you describe it?”
“See, the first time I met Claudette, I disliked her. So, I hated the idea of having a meal with her. Well, anyway, at dinner she had me take off my sunglasses and like magic, I suddenly thought she was the greatest, sweetest, most amazing person ever, like I had been a fool for not liking her. We were best friends in my mind. And then… I don’t know, she said something I didn’t agree with and suddenly, I snapped out of it.”
“You broke through a fully trained Merric’s enamor?” Greer leaned in a little closer.
Our feet faced each other, an inch apart. “If that’s what it’s called, yes. She was so mad, she wanted to lose me in the Boston attack. I think she hoped someone would kill me, but one of my guards saved me first.”
“That can’t be right. You’re both Merric. Merric won’t hurt Merric. It’s one of the few rules the Merrics follow.”
“I think she wanted to get me hurt.” Then, I explained to Greer how she had pulled me away from the guards and dropped my hand on purpose. “No one in L’Autre Bête believed me either.”
“An untrained Merric shouldn’t be able to do that.”
“It’s a good thing I’m a Wilson.”
“Is there anything else?”
“No. Bollard planned to train me the next day, but I left with you,” I explained. I noticed then how close we were sitting together, and I sat back a little.
Relieved, Greer smiled like the weight of the world was off his back. “You never even learned the trances.”
“No. Bollard wanted me used to the whole princess thing first since, you know, I didn’t even know the royal thing existed.”
Greer smiled and pointed to his side of the tent. I realized he wanted to get in and we switched sides.
“This is the best thing I’ve heard in weeks,” he said, and he crawled under his blanket.
“Can I ask you something, Greer?” When he didn’t respond, I asked. “Since, you know, I was honest with you about things, could you please tell me why you took me? What do the Galvantry want from me?”
I definitely didn’t expect him to answer, so it surprised me when he said, “Some influential people wanted you away from the Merrics. They understand how dangerous you’d be if you stay with the Merrics.”
“What do they want from me? Because you never told me why you rescued me and at this point, it is important for me to know who I’m working with.”
Greer put his hands behind his head. “They want you to not be the worst thing to happen to America since the Merrics first came into power.”
“Is that all they want from me?”
He weighed his thoughts for a moment before finally answering. “No.”
There was the truth. More truth than he had given before.
“I refuse to use my powers, whatever they are, against people. I won’t—”
“That’s not what I meant. I want to spell it out for you. I want to tell you, but I can’t. You need to trust me a little.”
“So, you want me to go blindly into something again? Can’t you understand why I can’t do that?”
Greer turned towards me and went onto his elbow. “Yes, but we don’t have a choice. Can I ask you a question now? The night I came for you, why did you run with me? As soon as you saw me, why? You couldn’t even see my face.”
“Look, if this is to tell me off for trusting you too easily—”
Greer shook his head. “It’s not. I’m curious.”
Seeing what had happened
