“And there it is,” Kevin said. “If we’re lucky, maybe he’ll recite his own poetry, even though he’ll deny he’s written any. Trust me when I say it’s amazing.”
“My soul is black just like a cat. And here I am, and that is that. My feelings consume my mind, but outwardly, I tell everyone I’m fine.”
Kevin frowned. “Did I say amazing?
I meant dreadful. My bad.”
“This is your hero?” Brant whispered to his sister.
She squinted at me. “I… think so?”
“You should just leave me here,” I moaned. “I’ll lay down here and die and then become one with the forest. Decades from now, my bones will have fused with the roots of a weeping willow, and legend will say that if the wind is blowing through my branches just right, you can hear me crying out for my beloved. Babe! Baaaaaaaaaaaabe!”
“Oh boy,” Kevin said. “Don’t you worry, people I just met who should be more in awe of me than you actually are. I know just how to handle this.” He cleared his throat before peering down at me. “Hey, champ. Hey. Hey, there. What’s going on in that noggin of yours? Huh?” He tapped a single claw against my forehead. “What’s up in the noodle, my little doodle? Do you need to toss the sports ball around with your old man? Huh? Is that what you need? Or do you just need to be fucked? Yeah, you just need to be fucked, don’t you. Okay. Well, if you insist, Baladush and Kaliope can just wait here—”
“Brant and Katya,” Katya said.
“—and you and I can find a nice clearing next to a brook where you can punch my junk for a little while.”
“We’re not normally like this,” I told Katya. “But honestly? You’ve just basically told me the love of my life hates me. If anything, this is your fault. Well, actually, I take that back. Not the part about this being your fault, because it is. But the part about how we’re not normally. This is how Kevin is all the time, and no, Kevin, I do not want to find a clearing next to a brook to punch your junk.”
“Your body is saying no, and your heart is also saying no,” Kevin purred. “You know how I like a fight—you know what? That crossed a line. I apologize. I would never do anything to take away your autonomy. Forgive me, pretty?”
“You’re forgiven,” I said, patting him on the nose. “Just don’t say anything like that again.”
“You know I can’t promise you that.”
“I know.”
“We good?”
“We’re good.”
We looked back at Katya and Brant expectantly.
They gaped at us.
“Why are we just standing around?” I asked them. “We have places to go, people to yell at us and hate us and break our hearts, in case you forgot.”
“It’s so hard to find good help in the middle of a forest,” Kevin said, frowning at our new companions. “So far I’m not impressed. And to think I was going to offer to fly them the rest of the way. I think not.”
“Oooh,” I said. “You guys are on the Suck List now. That was capitalized, so you know it’s true.”
“I also have a Suck List.”
“Kevin, not the time.”
“Right.”
“I mean, he looks like Sam, right?” Katya asked her brother.
“I think so?”
I rolled my eyes. “You guys are hysterical. Really. Chop-chop!”
WE BROKE the tree line near the Port, after making sure there was no one else on the road. I looked east, and at the horizon, I could make out a faint outline of the City of Lockes and Castle Lockes itself. Seen from a great distance, it was hazy and seemed as far away as it’d been when I’d been with GW and the others in the woods. It was just a glimpse, but it caused my heart to climb into my throat.
There, behind those walls, was my home.