My mother, hair pulled into a low ponytail, rushes out from the back, beaming. “Feylin fixed it!”
“But why?” I wonder. “Why would he change his mind?”
“I don’t know, but I suspect that you have something to do with it.”
It feels like an arrow’s hit my chest and burst into flames. I don’t know how to react to this. I’m grateful, yes. But it also seems like the great King Feylin decided to show us grace, and so that’s what we got. It feels unearned, almost like he’s proving that he can show kindness when he wants to.
“Why didn’t he come and tell us himself?” I whisper.
“Oh, look at the time,” Mama says. “I’ve got…somewhere to be. Blair, I need you with me.”
“Right.” My sister squeezes my shoulder as she walks past. “I wouldn’t think about it too much. Just be grateful. And you don’t mind watching the store for a few minutes, do you?”
“Well, I guess?—”
“Great. Thanks!”
They each shoulder their purses, and before I can say another word, they’re out the door, letting it slam shut behind them.
Just as I take a breath and let Feylin’s gesture seep into me, a voice calls my name.
“Addison!”
My face breaks into a smile. “Elmore!”
I whip around to see him looking very serious, brows pinched, in the brass mirror that rests on a side wall.
I sprint to him. “Elmore, I’m so sorry. I must’ve left you in the castle. I completely forgot.”
He quirks a brow. “Until just now?”
“Um. Well. A lot’s happened.” It’s a terrible excuse, but the only one I’ve got. “I’m really sorry.”
“It’s fine.” He waves his hand with a flourish. “Listen, while your sister and mother were here, a boy went into a book. He’s been gone awhile, and I’m worried about him.”
“What are you talking about? They didn’t say anything about that.”
“They must’ve forgotten to tell you. But he’s inside, and his time should’ve been up a minute ago. He’s not out yet. You’ve got to go in and get him.”
“What?”
Elmore shoots me a stern look. “You’ve got to enter the book and pull him out. We need to know if he’s okay. Look, it’s someone you’re friends with.”
“Who?”
He swallows. “Ryals.”
My heart skids to a stop. A literal, huge stop. “Ryals? What’s he even doing here to begin with?”
“He snuck out. You’d talked so much about going into books that he wanted to try it for himself.” He shoots me a stern look. “That’s what he said, and of course Feylin would never agree to it, even if he has dropped his charges with the council against the store and all that. So the boy came, and your mother let him in. You’ve got to get him out and make sure he’s okay.”
My rational mind is blaring huge alarm sirens at me. Why did my mother leave? Why’d she let Ryals go into a book by himself? Where is she? How could she have forgotten such an important thing?
While that’s going on, my mind’s also telling me that there’s no way that my mother would’ve ever placed Ryals into anything dangerous. She probably stuck him inWinnie the Pooh.But even if that’s the case, if anything happens to Ryals—Tigger gets rabies and bites him, Pooh Bear loses his mind and goes feral—if anything were to happen to Ryals, I’d never forgive myself.
“Where’s the book?”
Elmore points to one open atop an onyx lectern. “There.”
