"I'm so sorry I lost you," Lucy says for the fifteenth time grasping her hands close to her chest.

"Lu-cy," I say drawing out the two syllables. "I already told you, it's fine. It was an accident."

"I just worry," she says squeezing her hands even tighter to the point her knuckles turn white. "Not all who come to the festival are good."

The way she says good gets the gears in my head turning. "That man. The one we saw in the tent. Was he good?"

She shakes her head. "I don't know," she says under her breath.

"What's going on?" I ask, seriously. "You know me. I know how to hold my own. I've done it my whole life, and now you're scared that some bad guy is going to come and get me like I'm some kitten in a box?"

Her eyes widen. "Um, yes, that's exactly what I'm afraid of. Zaria, your power is more prominent than it should be and there are some people here who..."

"Who?" I ask egging her on. She doesn't look down at me; instead, she looks at anything and everything around her. "Who?" I ask again. "You have to tell me these things—"

"The Fae," she lets slip.

"The Fae," I say unenthusiastically. "You mean the ones who were swinging off of the trapeze. I think they're all booked for tonight. No kidnapping."

"You know about them?" she says, her voice now guarded. "That man," she pieces together. "He talked to you about the Fae?" she inquires.

"Yes, and apparently it's something I should have known about, but nobody decided to tell me about the whole pointy ear thing."

"Yeah... about that. We don't really talk about the Fae," she says, her voice quivering a bit.

"Why not?"

"Well, there are some —not all," she says quickly. "But some that have turned... how should I say... savage."

"Savage? Like... cannibal?"

"Zaria! You can't just say those things out loud!" she whisper-yells, covering my mouth. "And no, not cannibals," she adds rolling her eyes and returning her hands to her side. "But they'll enslave and feed off of magic, especially powerful magic, and especially human magic. You are basically a walking all-you-can-eat-buffet for those Fae."

The memory of what the man in the circus tent said to me plays in my mind. Not man, I have to remind myself, Fae.

"The guy in the tent told me I reeked."

"You do, that's why we must be careful," she says.

"You can smell it too?" I whine. "How strong is it?"

Lucy's face turns a scary pale white. "Strong enough that anyone in this festival will be able to sniff out your presence here."

I don't know what to say. I'm left completely speechless.

"We must lay low until nightfall. Only then does the Crow's Point tent open."

"Why?"

Without skipping a beat, she replies, "The night brings out the ones who live in silence and can only be heard once the world has gone to sleep. Crow's Point is a haven for the people who are lost."

"Hmm," I laugh dryly under my breath. I look up at her and see that her face is tilted up towards the sky. "I thought you said it was just a trade shop?"

"Not everything is as it seems," she answers.

I nod my head and sigh. A pink and white tent catches my eye and I look back over to Lucy with a smug grin. "But... we can still get those milkshakes, right?"

***

"Will you stop that," Lucy scoffs as I loudly slurp the last remaining bits of milkshake at the bottom of my cup.

"I can't get to it," I say moving my straw to another angle, but before I can try again, she rips the cup from my grasp and throws it into a trash can. "Hey, you paid good money for that. You shouldn't just throw it away."

"Exactly, I paid for it. And we need to get started. Crow's Point set up ten minutes ago."

Filling the day had been truly magical. I've never seen people more joyful or laugh as loud or frequent in quite some time. Dancers, singers, fire and throwing dagger shows. The Spring Equinox Festival has everything.

"So, what exactly are we looking for at Crow's Point?"

She sucks in a breath through her teeth. "To be honest, I'm not quite sure, but it's a start."

I look away wondering if all of this is just a waste of time. Was all of this happiness just a distraction for a few short moments?

"Hey, I'm just as worried as you are," she says softly so no one else can hear her. "But we will figure this out. I know we will."

I try to believe her, and I really want to. Props to my way too fragile heart, but I cannot allow myself to have such hope.

"I just feel like if I can't figure this out. It's... or everything that's going to happen is all my fault. Eden is obviously toying some game at me and I can't even figure out what she truly wants."

"That's why we're here." She pauses for a moment. "We all are," she says and I think of Crista. "Did you two make up?" she asks and the question throws me off guard.

"Crista and I were never in an argument in the first place," I say plainly. Being upset with Crista, even for a short while, was practically a chore.

"Well maybe not argument, but you guys are on good terms?"

I chuckle. "How could we not be?" My mind starts to wander. For Lucy, this seems like something she would have just observed, something she would have confirmed herself by seeing us together. "Why do you ask?" I inquire.

"No reason." She gracefully shakes her head, knowing she is two steps ahead of me... and the only way she would be two steps ahead of me is if...

"You've seen something, haven't you?"

She shrugs, and her arm bumps into mine. Her skin is so cool to the touch it's remarkable she's not sweltering in the heat, especially in her dress. It's not her royal dress, but definitely not a commoner's dress either.

"What did you see?"

"This and that," she responds, vaguely. "You didn't tell her you were leaving."

"You basically told me not to. The plan was for me to escape through a hole in my closet, and now I was supposed to tell Crista that I was leaving without her."

Lucy stays very calm listening to me ramble as we weave and wander through the crowd. "I'm not saying you should have told her, I'm just pointing out the fact that you didn't."

"And she's not happy," I finish for her. I sigh adding another weight to my already heavy chest. "I left Axil a note. I couldn't just disappear into the night without letting him know that I was alright."

"You did what?!" Lucy suddenly stops in her tracks, her hands wide open at her sides. "You know how wound-up Axil has been these past few weeks and you tell him you left?"

I stand back, shocked. "It was either that or he found out this morning with nothing to go off of. What would he do if he thought someone had tried to kidnap you again?"

"What would he do if you told him that you were leaving? He'd go after you. And do you know where he's probably going?"

I don't say her name and Lucy doesn't either because we both know how much this one person has consumed our lives. Everything draws back to her; back to Eden.

She cups her face in her hands for a second, rubbing her forehead.

"I'm sorry," I say, and I honestly mean it. "I just... you know... I care for him and I know he's already stressed enough and I didn't want to shock him with our leave and I just want this all to be over with as soon as possible and I know there's a possibility that I can't fix this and I know he knows that and—"

"Hey," Lucy says, coming back to her senses. She places her hands around mine and the coolness of her touch calms me. "It's alright," she says honestly. "I would have done the same." She takes a deep breath, her shoulders rising and falling. "Shall we?" she asks placing a smile on her face.

I hadn't even noticed it like it had almost appeared out of thin air. The tent itself looks too mystical to be real. I swear it could just be a figment of my imagination.

A classic circus tent with red and white strips stands before us. At the top of the tent, a sign says 'Crow's Point' in bold black lettering with the C and P in bright red. Right under that, there is a set of crow wings that look almost identical to the tattoos that lace both Lucy and Crista's arms.

"Well, that's not a sign," I say sarcastically.

"Come on," Lucy says parting the tent entrance and disappearing inside.

This is it, I tell myself. There has to be something here. There has to be, and I whisper it to myself again and again until it sticks in my head for just a fraction of a second that we might be able to find an answer here. Not even an answer, just a clue.

"Please," I whisper out loud. "Please have us find something."

"Please," I whisper again. Letting the aroma coming from the tent fill me, I brace myself to part the flaps of the tent. A mix of cherry blossom and something exotic and tangy.

I part the tent and enter, committing myself to whatever answer lies on the other side.