“I smell candy.”Abbi had woken with the sun, and seemed more her normal self. Enough so, Hado had shifted into his little black house cat shape, and was currently riding on her shoulder as we walked across the street, heading to the Route 66 Junk Hunt, which was held in the Bristow Train Depot and Museum.
“I don’t think they’ll let a cat into the building,” I said.
“Hado’s not a cat,” she said. “It’s bubble gum, isn’t it? Do you smell bubble gum?”
“They won’t know he’s not a cat,” I continued. “You could put him in your backpack. They won’t notice him there.”
I didn’t ask why he wasn’t in human shape. I’d heard Abbi talking to him this morning before she knew I was awake. I hadn’t caught every word, but she’d told him he needed to rest, needed to let her look after them now.
The relationship between her and her shadow was one I didn’t fully understand. They weren’t the same person, but they were connected so that one really could not, or would not, exist without the other.
In that way, it made sense that each would be the protector over the other.
I understood that. Lu and I were equals, and neither of us dictated our relationship. There was always give and take.
“It will be cute,” Abbi said. “People will think a cat riding on my shoulders is cute.” She tugged on my hand to make me look at her. “So cute!” She pulled a face, smile wide and wild, eyes like saucers. “Cuuute.”
“I think the backpack is a better idea too,” Lu said.
I bumped her shoulder with mine for taking my side on this. “Two against one, Abbi. Looks like we win. Let Hado nap in the backpack.”
“What? You win? That’s no fair.” She tipped her face up, and I was caught by how happy she looked.
I was also caught by how that made me feel. I knew she wasn’t what she appeared to be. I knew she wasn’t a child. I knew she wasn’tmychild. But seeing her happy, a little bounce in her step, her cheeks rosy, her words breathless and bright, made my heart catch.
She might not be my child, but she was mine, just as much as Lu was mine, as Lorde was mine.
Family. She was family. When had that happened?
“You could have left him back in the SUV with Lorde,” Lula said. “They would have been fine curled up and snoring together.”
Hado made a tiny kitten chirp, and Abbi grinned widely. “Hado doesn’t want to miss out on the fun. Or the candy. You smell it? Bubble gum.”
We slowed our pace as we merged with the crowd funneling in toward the event.
The low, warm breeze brought the scent of hot dogs, sweet-salty corn, and fudge. “I can smell a lot of things,” I said.
“Candy,” Abbi insisted.
“I don’t know,” I hedged. “Not sure there’s candy here. You might be imagining things.”
She made a small outraged sound and scowled. “I’m gonna find it and show you.”
We’d reached the front of the station and were slowly shuffling forward with everyone else. Lu paid for our entry, and we plunged into the bright light of the building.
It smelled like candy—bubble gum—just like Abbi said, and there was also the rich scents of apple cider, brats, and beer. Just like she said, no one even batted an eye at her walking around with a cat draped over her shoulders.
The space was large, much larger than I’d expected, the ceilings high. Even though the entirety of it was filled with tables and shelves, which were in turn filled with piles of goods, it still echoed enough that voices caught and batted back from odd angles.
A small stage had been set up to the right, where a slender stick of a woman was singing while a burly man played a sweet fiddle.
We had gotten here when the doors opened, but from the number of people already browsing, there had to have been a crowd waiting outside. Probably for hours.
All of that came to me in a glance, the place as familiar as any bazaar, fair, or flea market.
What hit me hard enough to punch air out of my lungs was the overwhelming rush of magic in the place.
It was thick, a song so complex, it was impossible to pick out the individual threads of which it was made. I inhaled, filling my lungs with magic-rich air, magic that coated my mouth, my teeth, my tongue in the flavors of summer—green and crisp and sweet—and autumn—smoky and spiced. I shuddered, my whole body shaking with the experience.
