Page 55 of The Lost Art of Finding Where You Belong

Perian waspretty sureBrannal knew who he was. Brannal was the one who’d told him to spend time with Molun and Arvus, so he was pretty confident about that. Brannal had never seemed to mind Perian’s appreciation of other people, either.

“Good,” Renny said emphatically. “You’re good together, and I like that.” She looked at the blank space where Kee was apparently sitting, then rolled her eyes. “Of course, my opinion of the two of you doesn’t actually matter much. It’s all about howyoufeel together.”

Perian grinned. “Thank you, Kee. Honestly, though, I appreciate knowing you think we’re a good match.”

Renny nodded earnestly. “I haven’t ever seen him so happy, Perian—really, I haven’t.”

He beamed at her. “I haven’t ever been so happy before, either. I can’t wait until he’s back.”

“Did he say when he was going to get back on Monday?” Renny asked.

Perian shook his head.

“If he gets back in the morning, we can skip our picnic. I don’t mind.”

He wastouched, but—

“I’ll have all the other hours of the day to reunite with Brannal. These ones are ours. I mean, unless you’rebored with me.”

She beamed at him as she cheerfully told him, “So bored. You arethe most boring.”

“Oh, no,” he exclaimed. “What can I possibly do to redeem myself? I mean, knife fights don’t do it?”

She shook her head.

“Taming an untamable horse?”

Another negation.

“Discovering a secret hideaway?”

She scoffed. “That was Prince Horsey!”

Actually, those last two were probably both the horse.

He made a face. “You are one tough critic. What can I do?”

So they spent their lunch coming up with more and more absurd stunts Perian could pull to impress her. Kee interjected periodically with his own offerings, one of which included a very unwise plan to “borrow” the actual physical throne of the Queen, relocate it to the top of the tallest tree they could find, dive off of said throne, and either land perfectly on a waiting Prince Horsey or into an unspecified body of water in a perfectly executed dive.

“There are only one or two flaws I can spot in this plan,” Perian managed to say between bouts of laughter.

“Only one or two?” Renny gasped out.

And they were laughing uproariously again.

Perian couldn’twaitto be reunited with Brannal, but he wouldn’t give this up, either. Renny said he’d made her life better—well, she’d definitely returned the favor and then some. He was so glad he’d happened upon her here in the garden when he’d first explored the quadrangle weeks ago.

He considered her for a long moment, thinking about everything that had changed since then.

“Do you want me to try to talk to anyone else about Kee?” he asked.

Renny shook her head. “Perian, they won’t listen. They’ve known since I was six that I think I can see him and talk to him. They don’t believe me.”

“But maybe—” Perian started.

Renny got a mutinous look on her face. “They aren’t like you! They won’t believe! They make things worse!”

Cormal had yelled at her that her brother was dead, Perian remembered suddenly, when he’d thought she was alluding to being with Kee. Now, Perian would never hold Cormal up as the rational example of how people would behave, but Brannal had explained to Perian how they all thought it was simply an outlet after her brother’s death, and they weren’t quite sure what to do now that she was so much older and still claiming the same thing. They knew about it, but Renny was right, they just didn’t believe.

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