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“I know,” I said, crossing my arms. “He is.”
Archer was a grown man now, and Danny was growing taller by the day. Archer had never manifested any magical abilities, but Danny had begun moving things with his mind just last year, and in that time, he’d come a long way in his focus and control of his magic. He still preferred to stay home with Mother, Archer, and me, so when he’d told me yesterday that he wanted to attend a meeting of our secret society, I was shocked—and thrilled.
Mother would be reluctant to let him. Her fear of the king discovering us hadn’t waned in the two years we’d lived here, and she lived every day with jittery nerves and an increasingly distant demeanor. But I remembered the way she’d clapped a hand to her mouth and wrapped me in a crushing hug when I’d returned home. She wasn’t the cruel woman I remembered. She had her faults, and her way of dealing with things was to avoid them—a trait I’d acquired—but my short stay in the Labyrinth had changed my perspective on things, and once I decided to be at peace with her, we’d gotten along just fine.
“I’ve got to get back to work. Just stepped out when I saw you,” Archer said, heading back into the carpenter’s shop.
The air smelled of the first sweet hint of fall and the abundance of the earth. I smiled at the colorful produce and ruddy faces as I strolled slowly through the market. The man hovering behind Edith stood with his hands clasped at his waist.
I grinned at the pair of them. Edith must have felt my stare because she glanced over her shoulder and flashed me a warm smile.
Then her face drooped—she read my thoughts almost too well sometimes. Every time I looked at Edith and her new husband, a pang of jealousy shot through me. I’d finally found my place in the world, training with the underground group of mind mages and working at the local bakery to supplement my family’s income, but I still felt alone.
My family was all I’d ever thought I needed, and I’d choose to save my brothers again every time, but ever since leaving Ash behind, I’d realized I wanted more. I wanted to feel the way I had with his arms around me, fleeting as that had been.
“Is that the one you’d like?” The deep voice of the vendor behind the nearest market stall broke me out of my daydream. My hand had been resting on a bumpy squash. I jerked my fingers off the vegetable.
“You’re welcome to look,” he said, his eyes sparking at me.
I looked away quickly, pretending to be interested in the pumpkins on the ground.
“Are you still waiting for him?” the man asked.
I sucked in a sharp breath and glanced back at Edith, who now carried a bolt of fabric in her basket. She moved her arm around her husband’s waist, and they walked down the road together. My eyes snapped back to the vendor.
“Whoever he is, he’s a lucky man. I just hope he doesn’t leave you waiting much longer.”
Everyone in this small town knew I was waiting for someone. It had come up often enough. Word had gotten around that Vera Rivers was not available. I had turned down an offer of marriage to one of the local farmers I’d come to know in passing in this little town, which seemed sensible at the time. I swallowed and picked up the squash along with two others and dug a few coins from my purse.
I tried to form a response, but no words came. I couldn’t swallow the lump in my throat.
I nodded at him and turned back toward the bustling market, which suddenly felt very much like a maze. For a moment, my heart stuttered. This was a labyrinth all its own—the real world. I hadn’t yet been able to manipulate reality the way I could in the prison Ash had built, as if what I’d done in that awful place had also been a lie. Or maybe his magic had made mine stronger.
I glanced down at the produce in my basket. No monsters fought to steal my life or my sanity in this town. And yet my sanity drained a little more every day that Ash didn’t arrive. What if he wasn’t even alive anymore and I was waiting for someone who was never coming? What if madness had finally taken him, and he was now a Nameless wandering in the Labyrinth of his own making?
My basket grew heavy, and I shifted it to my other arm. Just as I swung it around, I bumped into someone.
“Oh, my apologies,” I said, as I stepped away.
An older gentleman I didn’t recognize, a traveler by the look of his fancy suit, glanced over his shoulder. “No worries, my dear.” He clasped his wife’s hand against his arm, bowed politely to me, and moved along. As they walked away, I heard the man mutter, “The door doesn’t work anymore. It’s locked. The king will have to find a new prison.”
My heart thunked against my ribs.
As my gaze lingered on them, I sensed someone watching me from across the market. I scanned the far row of vendor stalls with narrow eyes. Walking between two stalls on the other side of the road came a face that stole my breath.
I dropped my basket as I stared back at him.
When those deep brown eyes met mine, my entire world burst into vibrant color as sparkling mist erupted from my body and curled into the air. A gasp that was part laugh burst from my lips, and I broke into a run. His hands slipped from his pockets, and he too walked toward me.
Part of me feared he was an illusion, but when my arms wrapped around him and my chest crashed into his, he felt solid and real.
For a long moment, we stood in each other’s embrace. My breaths alternated between crying and laughing, the pain of waiting for so long, rising and disappearing in a single moment.
By the time I pulled away, I felt many eyes in the market staring at us. I didn’t care.
“There you are, Vera Rivers. I’ve been looking for you for weeks.” He smiled down at me. “You did an excellent job hiding.” His neatly trimmed chin tipped against the side of my head and I felt his heartbeat against my own. He felt stronger than when I’d left him in the Labyrinth two years ago.
And before I could say a single word, he cupped my face in his hands and brought his lips down to meet mine.
