Chapter 48
My eyes blinked slowly.
The sun fell on my face, warming my skin.
I was standing, though I could have sworn I was sitting on the bench in our front yard just a moment ago. I could have sworn I was looking at a large fancy carriage traveling down the hill across from our house, coming toward us.
Coming for me.
Yet now I was standing in a completely different place, surrounded by trees on one side and people on the other.
So many people.
They were far away, seated in rows. They were cheering and clapping and screaming, and a few of them even called my name.
How strange.
“Uh—hi!”
I turned, looked around, closer to me. Looked at the people who were standing on the grass with me, eight of them, barely a few feet between each of us.
We were standing in a perfect circle, and they, too, were looking around.
The girl who’d spoken was a little taller than me, skinnier, with wide green eyes and smiling lips, the rich brown of her skin shimmering under the sunlight.
“Hello,” I said and offered her a smile in return.
“I’m Mimi.”
Mimi. I liked that name.
“I’m Ora.”
She nodded. “Do I know you, by any chance?”
“No, I’m afraid not,” I said because I would have remembered that face. I would have definitely remembered those eyes.
“Thought so,” she said, then turned to the other side—to the boy standing three feet away, and she told him, “Hi!”
The boy looked at her, too. He had wide shoulders, a mess of curls atop his head the color of chocolate. His eyes were a reddish brown, and his lips were pink, and he might be the most beautiful boy I had ever seen.
Heat rushed to my cheeks and my eyes refused to blink for a bit. Wow.
“Are they…screaming for us?!” said someone from my other side—a boy with light hair and a wicked grin on his face. I noticed he wore white, too.
We all did.
Looking down at myself, I realized, we were all wearing the exact same suit—made of suede, and mine had black and purple here and there, around the pockets, on the thicker threads. Others had red and green and silver—they must have been from the other courts.
How exciting, but…
Wait—when had I put this thing on?
I tried to think, but I didn’t remember.
“I think they are,” the same boy said. “Are we famous or something?!”
“Ladies and gentlemen, the Hands of the 31st Turning Trials have unwon! I repeat—the Hands have unwon!”
More cheers. More screams.
“Did he say unwon?” asked the girl on my right again—Mimi—and she was still smiling. We were all smiling because people were throwing flowers at us. Roses, red and white.
And the boy with curly hair looked at me like he was in awe, his smile mesmerizing.
I wondered if my cheeks had melted off my face yet.
“Guys, what is happening? How are we here?!” a girl with blonde hair cut close to her chin said, her voice pitched high with excitement.
Nobody had an answer, but the people kept on cheering, jumping, waving at us, like we really were famous.
Holy Hour, Jinx would have loved this.
Nobody was coming toward us yet, and neither of us had any idea what had happened or how we’d gotten here, or what unwon meant—but one thing was for certain: we already couldn’t wait to find out.
—THE END
Thank you for reading BACKWARD!