Chapter Thirteen
Vera
Ithought I was being smooth. Everything is more romantic in lantern light.
That was my reasoning.
In retrospect, I kind of hate my reasoning. For one, I was correct.
It was still dusk when I left the castle to find James, but now as we make our way back up into town, I notice that the sun has long disappeared. The night is not dark, however. No, of course it isn’t.
Because it is the merchant’s festival.
Lights hang over our heads, strung between balconies of the upper stories. The lanterns are shaped like little fish, they bob up and down in the cool sea breeze, their light flickering to the street below. I wish the fish would makeme think about a nasty smell, like it usually would. But they actually look pretty cute.
Merchants line the streets, hawking their wares and making the space extremely narrow.
To make matters worse, it seems as though everyone in town has gathered to see the wares and admire the lanterns. This leaves very little room for us to make our way through.
I grit my teeth, cursing the romantic mood I had been in when I wrote this scene. I turn around to see James has already fallen behind and now there are several people between us. His eyes are locked on the fish lanterns. I shove past a young lady who appears to be ogling James and grab him by the end of the cloak. She sulks when she sees that he is already claimed.
Not that he is claimed per say but… uh, I don’t need to justify myself to my own thoughts.
“It’s busy,” he says mildly as he turns back at me. As if we aren’t in a setting that is a time bomb for falling in love.
“You need to keep up,” I say, tugging him toward me. In this crowd it will be easy to lose each other in the press. I bite on my tongue, already regretting what I’m about to do. I reach for his hand but pause just short of grabbing it. Instead, I reach across it and snag his hook. It seems the safer bet, but I can still keep ahold of him. I tighten myfingers around the metal and begin walking forward again, dragging James along behind me.
The merchant’s festival can try its best, but we aren’t here to sightsee.
As soon as I have that thought, I am yanked to a stop and almost lose my hold of James’s hook. I turn to see that he has stopped and is half turned to a table.
He picks up a miniature glass figure, turning it over. It’s a lady in a dress with flowing hair that is stained red. He turns to me grinning as he holds it up. “Look, it’s you.”
“More like this is me,” I grumble, pointing to the figure next to it. On it is a siren sitting on a rock with waves rolling up around her. Her hair is blowing in the wind. She is entirely transparent. A bit like how I feel right now picking out glass miniatures of myself with James.
I clear my throat, scooting back.
“We should get them,” he says holding it up and turning it over in his hand. “They can be souvenirs to remind us of the crazy time we had.”
“James, we don’t even know if we can get ourselves back home let alone glass miniatures.” Even if we could transport something back with us, I doubt the glass figures would survive the journey. And even if they did survive the journey, they wouldn’t survive my cat.
James sulks. “Killjoy.”
“I will be as cheery as ever once we’re home,” I say, tugging on his hook. “Come on. Stop lollygagging.”
He holds back, still sulking a bit. “Why do we have to rush so much?”
“We have somewhere to be.”
James grimaces and runs a hand down his coat. “But the plot isn’t going anywhere, is it? We can sightsee and then return to our quest to beat the plot.”
I arch my brow. “Sightsee? Are you really interested in anything in this world?”
“I’m a bit curious, yes.” He raises his arm to gesture. “I mean it’s very different from Idaho, and it certainly isn’t California. Why not explore a bit first? Aren’t you the least bit fascinated.”
I nibble on my lip. I didn’t even think to be fascinated. Before me is a large problem, the fact that I’m far from home and I want to get back. Everything I’ve done is to get back. I haven’t even stopped to give myself time to process what has happened. I just have my focus doggedly on the task at hand and everything else doesn’t exist.
It’s like when I’m in deadline mode, except I’ll be dead at the end of this.
