“No, I hadn’t even heard of Bremloc before then. My wish was to find the place I belonged, somewhere I’d be happy. I guess a lot like you did with the lantern. After making the wish, I woke up here.”
He wrapped his arms around his knees. “And does Evan feel like he belongs here in Bremloc?”
Faces appeared in my mind. Maddox and his deep blue eyes. Briar and his soft smiles. Callum, Duke, and Baden. Kuya. I may not understand everything, but I really did feel like I belonged there with them.
“More and more each day,” I answered. “This kingdom is somewhere I can really call home. It’s… special.”
“Then the stone worked.” He smiled. “Kuya is happy Evan made the wish.”
“Me too.”
We sat in a comfortable silence after that. My friendship with him felt stronger now. Lupin and Saint had come into both of our lives when we were at our lowest and helped lift us back up. Helped us find happiness.
People strolled through the square, some dressed in fancy attire. Nobles, probably. Some of the women carried decorative parasols to block the sun, the bottom of their big gowns rustling as they walked arm in arm with their husbands. Mischievous boys with holes in the knees of their trousers poked fun at each other and ran through the square, dodging other people. A little girl rode on a man’s shoulders and excitedly pointed to the park beyond the fountain.
“Magnolia blossoms,” Kuya said, looking where she pointed. “Pretty pink and white flowers. Kuya likes them too.”
“Do you wanna go sit beneath them?”
He perked up, ears doing that cute little twitching thing. “Can we?”
“Let’s go.” I hopped off the stone fountain and grabbed his hand.
He beamed as we made our way over to the park. Once there, Kuya cupped one of the low-hanging star-shaped blossoms in his palm and asked it for permission to sit beneath its shade. He rubbed it against his cheek before leading me to the trunk of the tree and sitting down.
“Does Evan feel less sad now?” Kuya laid his head on my shoulder. His reddish-brown ears tickled my cheek, but I didn’t mind it.
“Yeah. Spending the day with you cheered me up.”
“It cheered up Kuya too.”
As we enjoyed the shade and the gentle late-spring breeze, I closed my eyes. I thought of Lupin and his traveling Emporium. I was sure he was out there right now, helping someone at the edge of their rope, someone desperate for another life.
Just like he’d helped me.
***
My rumbling belly woke me from the nap I hadn’t meant to take beneath the shade of the magnolia blossoms.
“Evan sounds like a monster,” Kuya mumbled as the grumble woke him too. He stretched out his arms and yawned, exposing his sharper teeth. “Evan needs food.”
As we left the park and veered toward the marketplace—specifically, toward the amazing smells comingfromthe market—I figured we had probably slept for a good hour or more. The sun’s position in the sky had changed, though it was difficult to see it through the clouds that had rolled in. Was it supposed to storm?
God, I hoped not.
Beyond the town square, we stopped at a food stand. The old man smiled at Kuya and offered him a sample of meat. That right there was enough to make me want to buy from him—him being nice to Kuya.
“We’ll take two servings,” I said before paying for our food. The man handed each of us a skewer of herb-crusted chicken. I bit into it and hummed in appreciation as the juices hit my tongue.
As we ate, we journeyed deeper into town. I didn’t have much money left but wanted to find a gift for Maddox. I had bought the journal for Briar, which he’d get a lot of use out of, considering all of his research.
What would Maddox like? A dagger? Not sure I had enough to afford one of those.
After eating the last chunk of chicken from the skewer, I pulled the bag from my pocket and dumped the coins into my palm. One silver and two copper. I was still learning the value of the currency, but after doing a bit of calculating and estimating based on my previous purchases, I wagered I probably had the modern-day equivalent of sixteen bucks left, give or take a few dollars. Definitely not enough for a dagger, unless it was super tiny.
“Oh!” Kuya rushed over to one of the booths. He grinned back at me before admiring whatever had snagged his attention. “It’s so shiny.”
I walked over to see a selection of necklaces, rings, and decorative hair pins. One ring in particular caught my eye. It was the least extravagant of the lot, with a silver flat band and a dark green stone in the center.
