Chapter 16

“I wasn’t quite brought from home,” Anton says with a little shrug, smirking at Laila and clearly enjoying himself. “But I wasn’t called up, either.”

“Then where did you come from?” Laila asks, looking at him with her wide eyes. Her dark brown irises, I note with curiosity, are larger than mine or any human’s, giving her face an innocent and wonderous charm.

“I’m straight from your dreams, baby,” Anton says, his smirk deepening as he gives her a wink.

I burst into a guffawing laugh as Laila blushes and lets out a tinkling one, anxious, glancing between us.

“Anton, that was horrible,” I snap, crossing to him to give him a smack even though my hand passes through his shoulder as usual. “I’m not going to let you coach me anymore if that’s your idea of a good line.”

Anton just laughs, grinning up at me. “I’m just kidding. Come on, we’re in this weird love Game, I can’t joke about it?”

I sigh, turning back to Laila and shaking my head at her. “I apologize for my pet ghost,” I say, casting an embarrassed hand out in Anton’s direction. “Clearly, he’s not house broken yet.”

“No, it’s great!” she says, pressing her hands together in front of her. “I – I haven’t laughed since I left home. It’s so nice to be a little more light-hearted. Um,” her face is still split with a wide grin as she turns and casts out a hand towards a little table by the door. “I called up some food – but I don’t know what you like – we can get more, obviously – but please eat!”

My stomach growls and I grin at my new friend as I cross to the tray. “Anton doesn’t eat because he’s dead,” I say. “But I’m starving – I’ll eat for both of us.”

Laila’s eyes go wide as she turns back to Anton in shock. “Oh, poor Wolfie!”

I burst out laughing at Anton’s new nickname, but when I arrive at the table full of food I hesitate because it’s all…fish. I mean, it all looks really nicely made – some fried, some grilled, with lemons and beautiful vegetable garnishes. But…perhaps not as tempting to me as a nice cup of coffee and a Danish.

“Oh no,” Laila says, coming to my side and peering at my face as Wolfie likewise comes over. “You don’t like it –“

“It looks great!” I say, nodding to her eagerly as Anton grins at my lie. “I just…um…I was thinking like, some cereal?”

Laila just turns her head to the side, staring at me with those luminous eyes. “Cereal?”

“It’s just squid, like this,” Anton says, pointing to a dish of tiny fried squids, “but with milk poured over them.”

“Oh, I can get milk!” Laila says, nodding seriously.

My stomach turns. “Laila, please, he’s kidding,” I say, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder.

Laila looks up at Anton, biting her lip a bit, anxious and not getting it.

“I’m sorry,” he says, looking down at her, I think quite charmed. “My sense of humor takes a minute to register with a lot of people – you’re not alone in that.”

“Well, we’ve got nothing but time,” Laila says, her face breaking into a smile as she beams at him. “I’m sure I’ll…get it eventually. But please, Juniper, let’s get you something you’d like.”

I look around for a bell or something to call down to the kitchen. “Do you need to like, call your Herald for that?”

“No!” she says, laughing. “No, I just…call it up.”

I turn my head back to her, frowning, and then watch in awe as she holds up a hand. She concentrates for a moment and my mouth falls open in shock as a dish materializes there, steaming hot and covered with fresh mussels in butter sauce. “This is my favorite for breakfast,” she says, wrinkling her nose and looking at me. “But I waited to call it up since you have to eat it hot. It’s no good when it cools.”

“How – how did you do that!?” I gasp, utterly awed.

“It’s not hard!” she says, waving Anton and I out onto her little terrace, which is likewise beautifully decked out in yellow colors with a little table with big cushy chairs. She also has about a thousand lights hung up, simulating day as much as possible. “You just…imagine what you want and ask for it, either out loud or in your mind.”

“Seriously?” I ask, wide-eyed. I sink into the chair across the small round table from Laila and Anton takes a third between us. “It’s that easy?”

“Sure,” she says, conjuring a fork out of thin air as a napkin appears across her lap. “It’s fun – this part of the Palace life I could get used to.”

“Try it,” Anton urges, nodding to me eagerly.

“Okay,” I say, flicking my eyes up at the sky for a second like it’s going to come from there. “I would like…a chocolate croissant!” I shout. “And a cup of coffee!”

Nothing happens.

“You have to tell the Palace where you want it,” Laila murmurs, lifting a forkful of seafood to her mouth. “Or else it will just appear somewhere in the room and you have to go find it. Also, you don’t have to raise your voice.”

“Fun,” Anton murmurs, looking back to me, his eyebrows raised.

“I would like a chocolate croissant and a cup of coffee here on the table in front of me!” I say, tapping the table and speaking almost in a whisper, making Laila laugh and shake her head, because clearly none of that is necessary.

And to my shock and delight, the food materializes there, the pastry all crispy and the coffee nice and steamy and hot. I squeak in delight, immediately ordering up some cream and sugar as I take a big bite of my breakfast.

“That’s amazing,” Anton whispers, his eyes flaring wide. Then he sits up straight, likewise looking up at the sky, putting his hands on his waist. “I would like a body! Please! Right here …um, wrapped around my ghost or whatever!”

My eyes flare wide but…nothing happens.

“I don’t think you can conjure anything if you’re not a Contestant, Anton.” Laila screws her mouth to the side, apologetic. I immediately try it too, ordering the same thing, but again. Nothing.

“There are limits.” Laila says, apologetic, shifting her gaze back to me. “If you ask for anything that the Palace deems unnecessary…it won’t come.”

“All these limits,” I sigh, slouching back on my chair and taking a sip of my coffee as Anton scowls and likewise leans back against his. “Limits on the wish, limits on the conjuring. Well, what is out of bounds? You seem to have a lot of stuff that doesn’t seem necessary to your health or happiness.”

“Oh, just general stuff – trinkets and accessories - it doesn’t mind,” Layla says, passively conjuring up what looks like a glass of seawater – a bit grey and bubbly with bits of kelp floating in it.

“Clothes? Jewelry?” I ask.

“All of that is perfectly fine – even expensive stuff, like diamonds and pearls,” she says, nodding eagerly and gesturing at her own gorgeous silken dress and the ropes of pearls around her neck. “If it’s to wear, the magic doesn’t care. But if I tried to call up like…an elephant. Or a carriage. Or a boy,” her eyes sparkle a bit as she looks in Anton’s direction, “then I wouldn’t get it.”

“Fascinating,” Anton says, smiling at Laila, holding her gaze for long enough that she blushes. “Well, luckily you don’t need a boy when you’ve got me here. I’m more than enough.”

My wolf lifts her head at Anton’s flirtatious tone, intrigued, and narrows her eyes.

I clear my throat, rolling my eyes at him. “Ignore my pet, who forgets his manners,” I murmur, focusing on Laila. “But thank you so much for inviting me for breakfast. And for teaching me about this stuff. I am…kind of lost when it comes to all of this Games stuff.”

“Oh, I’m very glad for the company,” Laila says, nodding eagerly to me. “It’s been very lonely here. None of the other girls seemed…” she grimaces, “…very nice.”

“But this one did?” Anton asks, gesturing towards me skeptically with his thumb. “Does nice mean a different thing in Sea World?”

“Oh, shut up, I’m a peach,” I growl, tearing off a corner of my croissant and throwing it at him. Anton laughs, grinning at me.

“I know nice!” Laila says, joining in on the laughter. “Juniper has a deep kind of nice – not on the surface but…dwelling below. I saw you pet him when he was a wolf,” she says, smiling at me, “the way you stroked his face and made sure he was okay even when you were yourself shaken. You reminded me of my favorite sister who is also…secret nice.”

I turn my head as I consider this incredibly sweet girl – and I have to admit, I’m very touched.

“Yes, well, I didn’t consent to that petting,” Anton says, dry, looking out over the dark wasteland below us. “I’m going to sue you for it, if we ever get back to Earth.”

“You ruin everything,” I sigh, turning my head to glare at him. But Laila laughs, clearly liking our banter, and I smile too, comfortable and at ease for one of the first times in this competition.

“So,” Anton says, readjusting in his chair so he can look more fully at Laila and give her his full attention. My wolf stiffens slightly at this, too, but I ignore her. “If you miss your family so much, and your home and the sun, why did you come here? I mean, whoever wins is going to be Queen of this place which…kind of implies that you’d live here.”

“Oh,” Laila says, sitting up a little straighter. “I didn’t come here by choice. No, I was fated to – a thousand-year prophecy finally fulfilled!”

I just stare at my new friend, baffled, wondering what the hell that could mean.