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Kavina turned to me. “I need to get cleaned up, but then we can head into town. I can pick you up at your house once I’m done. Sound good?”

“Works for me.”

Ash wrapped his arm around my waist. “It’ll give us a little time together before you have to go. I won’t be home tonight. I’m on wall patrol again.”

Jax groaned. “Don’t remind me. I wasn’t supposed to patrol until this weekend, but Van roped me into it tonight.” He unwrapped a piece of yellow candy and popped it into his mouth.

“I’ve got patrol for the next three days, so don’t complain. Give me one.”

He dropped a blue piece into her hand and held out two baggies full of multicolored wrapped candies. “Want some? I got both kinds.”

Ash shook his head.

I didn’t want to be rude, so I took one with a red wrapper from a baggie and tucked it into my pocket while Kavina explained her plans for me to Ash.

“Let’s go. The shop won’t stay open all day.” Kavina grabbed Jax’s arm and started heading down the path away from the palace.

Did they live together?

The car Kavina drove downtown had a strange control system I’d never seen before. When we got in, she shifted one finger into a claw and slid it into a small notch in the dashboard to start the engine. To change gears, she rested her hand on a luminous orb in the center console. The colors shifted beneath her palm with each movement, and I guessed the changing hues represented different gears.

“You look disappointed.”

I turned from the window to meet her probing gaze. “Huh?”

“I dunno. Maybe that’s your normal look,” Kavina said, turning her attention back to the road. “But you’re looking at everything like you wanna be anywhere else but here.”

“No, no. It’s not that.” I didn’t want her thinking I didn’t appreciate her company—or her offer to take me to get a dress instead of Cyn’s mother.

“I mean, I get it,” she continued, dismissing what I said. “I hate shopping for clothes, but I need a dress, and I’m sure you do too.”

“No, really. It’s nice to meet someone who isn’t part of the royal family. It’s just… Alonia isn’t what I expected.”

The guys told me Elyrdin wasn’t all that different from Earth and that Shyrlivi took inspiration from human advancements over the last century, but part of me still expected something more fantastical when we headed into Alonia.

“What did you expect?”

“I dunno. Maybe glowing orbs, floating buildings, or something that separates it from back home.”

It disappointed me a little to discover that the city looked a lot like a capital city from North America. Well, aside from the occasional Shyrlivi walking around in their alternate forms and store names I’d never heard of.

Kavina laughed. “I’d like to see a floating building. But nah, nothing crazy like that.” She paused for a moment. “Not everything is human-influenced.”

“Like?”

She nodded at the traffic lights as we turned onto a side street.

I hadn’t noticed before because I’d been staring at the buildings, but instead of traffic lights, they had hanging orbs not unlike the ones from the throne room. In fact, I noticed several light fixtures containing orbs filled with swirling energy.

Soul energy from Kalthea flickered inside the orbs instead of electricity.

After parking, Kavina led me into a boutique not unlike a bridal shop back on Earth. Instead of wedding dresses, though, the entire main floor housed over-the-top ball gowns, evening dresses, and cocktail attire.

A middle-aged woman with a silver pixie cut and tiny black horns protruding from her forehead approached, clapping her hands together. “Kavina! You’ve brought the future queen!”

Queen? I looked at Kavina with wide eyes.

“You’re Ezra’s Nyrith. Makes you the future queen even if you’re bound to the rest of the princes as well.”