There were handwritten additions, too—Elowina’s direct descendants. It didn’t take long to find a familiar name.
We all realized it at the same time. Lady Elowina was Fortunada’s grandmother.
31
Lucas stood up.“Does anyone know where we can find Fortunada?”
“All I know is she lives in the Court of Lambana,” I said, thinking of her school uniform.
“Her family was exiled from the palace, so somewhere in the village is my guess,” Lucas said.
That was news. “They were exiled?”
“Supposedly. I don’t know for sure, since it’s not my court, but that’s what I heard.”
“Explains the ratty clothes and the fancy jewels,” said Nix. “Lost grandeur and all that. Wonder what her family did to piss off the Lambana Court.”
“Could be anything, could be nothing,” said Lucas. “You know how it is. Politics.”
“Have you ever seen her around?” I asked Nix. “After school or anything?”
She shifted uncomfortably. “Um, no, don’t think so.” She picked at the grass beside her.
I stood up, too, and brushed the dirt off my dress. “Well, why don’t we go to your place and figure it out from there? Maybe we’llget lucky and find her.” I was curious to see where Nix lived, anyway.
She didn’t get up to join us.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her.
“Nothing,” she said slowly. “It’s just... I don’t feel like going home right now.”
“This is about finding the witch, not a social call,” Lucas said. I could tell he was getting irritated. Frankly, I was, too. We were on the verge of catching the mambabarang, and suddenly Nix was getting cagey?
“We don’t even have to go to your place,” I told her. “Let’s just go to the Lambana Village.”
Nix rubbed her face with her hands. “Argh! Fine. You want to know why I don’t want to go there?”
Lucas and I looked at each other. “Yes, we do,” he said.
Nix took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, raising her eyebrows. “Okay, but it’s a lot.” Neither of us took the out, so she said quickly, “All right. Here’s the thing. I ran away, and I came here. So I don’t really have a home. At least not one I want you to see. The end. Anyway—moving on!”
“Wait, what?” I shouted, genuinely shocked. So many questions. Lucas and I stared at her, waiting for answers. “Where have you been staying?”
She looked down. “An abandoned cottage on what used to be the emperor’s estate, between the Lambana Village and the Sirena Palace. Near the Old Bumara Wall.”
“With who?” I demanded, shocked, sad, and feeling awful that Nix had been basically living in a dirt hut while I lived in literally palatial apartments.
“Just me.” Nix shrugged.
“Oh my god, Nix. All this time I assumed you were staying at the Lambana Palace.” My heart went out to her. Here I was, constantly feeling sorry for myself, and Nix was a runaway, living alone on the edge of the village. “Wait, hold on. I heard about you! On the radio.” I’d mentioned it around the time we first met, but didn’t want to push. The headline from that fateful morning came back to me.Phoenix Xing was last seen... “You went missing!”
“Yeah. I’d had enough. I had nothing there. Here, I actually have something. Friends. An identity. A future, maybe.”
“But how did you even know how to get here?” I stared at Nix, and remembered how nervous she was about running into encantos from Jade Mountain. “Nix, where are you from—really?”
She sighed. “You got me. I ran away from Jade Mountain. My father’s the Jade Emperor. But I’m only one of, like, thirty, forty kids, who knows. My mother isn’t a favorite concubine, even. I was sick of living there. I hated all their rules, so I ran away. First I went to the human world, where I was a foster kid. But then my father’s guard found me, so I had to run away again. Avalon was too far, but I made it here. You won’t tell, will you?”
“Why would I do that?”
