How Zoe Made Her Dreams (Mostly) Come Tr - By Sarah Strohmeyer Page 0,55
were out here.”
“Then what are you doing in the Forbidden Zone past curfew?”
“It’s past curfew?” He shrugged. “I never pay attention to that kind of thing.”
“You’re avoiding the question.”
“No, I’m avoiding the answer. But, since you were the one who jumped me, I think it’s only fair that you tell me why and what you were doing hanging in a tree.”
Might as well. He was only going to blab to the Queen that he caught me in the FZ anyway. “If you wanna know the truth, I was trying to catch the traitor.”
Ian flicked his finger at me. “Called it!”
“But not for the reasons you assume. Marcus got sent back to California, thanks to you, and now there are only ten people left who are eligible for the Dream and Do. Dash wants to reduce it to two—him and Valerie. Tonight he almost got me to confess to the Queen that I’d met the traitor twice in the FZ—”
“You can’t do that,” Ian said. “You promised.”
I was about to tell him not to interrupt when I got confused. “Pardon?”
“The first night, when I pulled you from the quicksand, you said something about your being in my debt—though it seems to me since then you kind of forgot about all the nice stuff I’d done for you, such as saving your life. When we ran into each other next, you were all about being loyal to Fairyland.”
I was speechless, unable to move my lips, which hung open in shock. I braced myself for the Ian-esque punch on the shoulder, for him to admit that he’d overheard this in the gym or that he’d listened in on my conversations with Jess. Because he hadn’t even been a prince that first night. He’d been Puss ’n Boots. So he couldn’t have had access to the cologne.
“Seriously, you can’t go to the Queen. Just leave things as they are.”
We sat in silence for a while as I tried to piece this together. “In other words, what you’re saying is, as the witness instead of the perpetrator, I’m not wholly responsible.”
“Nah. You don’t want a stupid mistake like this to hole-d you down.”
I winced. And smiled. “So you’re the guy I’ve been running into?”
“Like I told you before, guilty as charged.”
Then I remembered Marcus, and things didn’t seem so rosy. “But that means you lied, Ian. You blamed Marcus for being the traitor slipping in and out of the FZ, when all along it had been you.”
He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “No, I didn’t. Wow, you really do think I’m scum, don’t you?”
“If the shoe fits . . .”
“As it always does in Fairyland. Then you should know I did tell the Queen. The day after the party at the Frog Prince’s, after you said I was the prime suspect, I went to her office bright and early and came clean about why I’d been hiking at night and where I’d been going. I even told you that.”
“I thought—”
“You thought I told her lies about Marcus. I know, I know. You’ve only said it a million times. But I never mentioned Marcus once.”
“And yet you got his role as Prince Charming.”
“Crazy, isn’t it? She said I deserved it after working overtime teaching Marcus how to ride, for all that was worth, and for beefing up Puss ’n Boots so he wasn’t just a secondary character. Guess I must have showed a lot of Wow! spirit or whatever.”
Like Jess, I thought. But I was still confused. You could have all the Wow!™ spirit in the world and still be kicked out of the program for going into the Forbidden Zone. “I can’t believe she didn’t at least read you the riot act.”
He shrugged. “Nope. The only condition was I not tell anyone, so do me a favor and keep this to yourself.”
I slapped a mosquito that had been going to town on my ankle. “The bugs here are murder. I’m getting eaten alive.”
Ian fished into his pack and pulled out a small plastic bottle. Flicking it open, he squirted some of its contents on the palms of his hands, rubbed them together, and then ran them over my legs. The fumes of the princely cologne instantly fogged my brain. Or maybe it was the effect of Ian’s hands.
“The cologne?” I murmured.
“I got hold of a bottle the first day when I heard it was the best insect repellent ever. Guess that’s to be expected with something from the Amazon.” He stood and picked up