Warped (Maurissa Guibord)

floor."
    "Right," Tessa said into her cell, to Opal. "Stop repeating it, okay? He's from England in the fifteen hundreds, and practically royalty. According to him , anyway." Tessa added this in a low voice. She watched as William de Chaucy paced her room, examining her books, her photos, the computer, smelling a felt-tip marker with a look of distaste. "He's really from the past," she went on. "He doesn't know anything about our time. Cars, planes, phones, nothing. This Gray Lily person, who sounds like a real piece of work, put some kind of a spell on him and took a thread with his soul or his life or something, and used it to make him into a unicorn. The unicorn from the tapestry."
    "Was he naked?" Opal asked.
    " What? "
    "Was he, like, all naked when he came out of the tapestry?"
    "No. He wasn't naked!" Tessa hissed in an undertone.
    "Opal, have you been listening to me?"
    "I dunno. I just thought--"
    "Look, I'm serious. I mean, I'm not crazy or anything. But maybe I am. And if I am, I need your help even more." Tessa stopped and took a deep breath. She tried to ignore William, who had turned and was now watching her, arms folded, leaning against the wall.
    "And you really buy all this?" Opal asked. "You believe him?"
    "Yes," Tessa said simply. She did believe him. She wished she had told Opal about the strange visions she'd had when she touched the tapestry. She didn't know how or why, but she had seen William de Chaucy's world. Somehow she'd been there. "I can explain more when you come and see for yourself."
    "It just sounds weird," Opal said.
    Tessa looked at the tall, muddy guy in her bedroom, who had just noticed the light switch. He flicked it off and on again. A look of shock came over his face, then a delighted smile.
    "We passed weird a few stops back," Tessa answered. "This is real."
    "Okay. I'll be right over."

    Tessa touched the wet facecloth to the dirty, torn flesh on William de Chaucy's cheek. He never moved, but she winced as the dried blood and grime came away, revealing a ragged cut that traveled from his cheekbone to his jaw.
    "This is a mess," she said, staring at it. Winced again. Not the best thing to say, Florence Nightingale .
    Opal hovered over Tessa's shoulder. "Did Gray Lily do that to you?" she asked.
    "No," William de Chaucy answered, staring straight ahead. His voice was as expressionless as his face, but both still relayed a clear message: It's none of your business .
    "You should probably have stitches," Tessa said. She waited to see if that broke his cool. A lot of tough-looking guys went surprisingly weak-kneed about stuff like that. But the comment didn't seem to faze de Chaucy.
    "Here, put some of this on it." Opal handed Tessa a tube of antibiotic ointment. Tessa began to daub it along the wound, but William shied away from her hands. He stood up.
    "Enough," he told her.
    "But it could get infected," Tessa said indignantly.
    "What is infected? " he asked, glaring down at her. His tone was suspicious.
    "You know, germs," said Tessa. "Pus, gangrene, flesh-eating bacteria?" Now he was looking at her like that again. As if he didn't trust her. "I don't suppose my lord has ever heard of a tetanus shot, " Tessa finished, sounding harder than she meant to.
    She didn't feel afraid anymore. Mostly, Tessa realized, she felt kind of helpless and, for some reason, angry. And the angry had nowhere to go but toward him .
    William stared at her. "Most of your words I cannot construe," he said. "But I take your meaning. The wound will heal. I don't require any further attentions. And I am not a lord," he added. The faint curl of his lip made Tessa wonder if he was making fun of her or himself. "Being the younger son of an earl, I am only an esquire."
    "That's cool," said Opal. She'd been ogling him with transparent awe ever since she walked in. "William de Chaucy, Esquire." She grinned.
    "Please. Call me Will," he said to her. He flashed an easy smile, grimacing slightly as it caught up to his cheek. He had a crooked front tooth, Tessa noticed.
    But Opal was charmed. She grinned even wider, showing gums that had probably never seen daylight before. Tessa scowled and wiped her hands.
    "I thank you for your help, Tessa, Opal," Will said, nodding to both of them. "But I must go now. Just get me some food and ale." He crossed to the chair where his cloak lay, covering the distance in two long strides. He grabbed the cloak and slung it over his broad shoulders. "I'll take one of your