“Is that your human way of asking me what I’m thinking about?”
She laughed. “Yes.”
“I was thinking about you.”
“Oh? What about specifically?”
He released a long breath. “Honestly, I was thinking about what happened when Jareth attacked you. And how I’m not pleased to have him with us.”
“Oh.” She placed her hand on his knee and squeezed. “I’m not either, but he’s here now. There’s nothing we can do about it so we might as well at least try to get along.”
“What’s a penny, Ava?” Raine interrupted.
Ava turned her attention to Raine, sitting on the ground across from them beside Maeryn, who was sipping her water.
“It’s a form of currency in the human world.”
“Ah. And that’s a common expression?”
“Fairly common,” she replied.
“You have a lot of strange sayings, little frog.”
“You all don’t even know the half of it. I have to stop myself from blurting out things all the time. Otherwise, I’d confuse you. You wouldn’t even understand the technology from my old world.”
“Technology?” Maeryn asked. “I do not know this word.”
“I don’t even know how to explain it. But our lights and vehicles and the ways we communicate are all powered by different things.”
“Vehicles?” Imsel said.
“Uhhh…like wagons. But bigger. And they can move on their own. Someone sits inside and drives them around.”
“That sounds strange,” one of the soldiers, Beric, said, his brown eyes curious.
“That sounds amazing,” Raine said. “When can we visit?”
Casimir couldn’t even fathom visiting the human realm. What wouldthatbe like?
“I don’t know how that would be possible,” Ava said. “Besides, I can’t even imagine the kind of trouble you would get into. You’d be arrested on the first day, I bet.”
Raine scoffed. “I would not be arrested!”
Nudging Casimir, she said, “You would be terrified and think everything is a threat.” She pointed at Raine. “You would love it. But would most definitely accidentally do something illegal or cause a commotion.”
“So why can’t we visit some day?” Raine asked.
Was he serious? Did he actually want to go to the human realm?
“You could show us your farm and how you grew up,” Raine added.
Ava’s amusement turned solemn as she shook her head. “As much as I’d love to show all of you, I’m not sure if we can. Maybe? But…I’ve been missing for months. I doubt I have access to my money or transportation anymore. And what if someone found Eleanor’s body on my property? They probably think I killed her and ran off.”
Casimir put his hand on the back of her neck in comfort.
“Oh,” Raine said. “I suppose you’re right. It doesn’t sound safe for you to go back there.”
A rumbling in the distance reached Casimir’s ears, growing louder as the ground began to shake. Small rocks fell from the sides of the canyon, raining down upon them.
