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*ungrateful little turd*

Y EAH —I CRIED when I got back there.

Kind of a lot , actually.

Part of it was because Nana Marie was there, with her arms wrapped around my shoulders and her fresh laundry smell wrapped around my nose, but in addition to that, everything felt wrong .

“Emmer,” Nana said, patting my shoulder and dropping a kiss on the top of my head like I was still little. We were huddled together on the floor in front of the stools. “Why with the tears?”

“I’m not a grantee,” I said, swallowing hard and wiping my cheeks, not wanting to be a baby when Jackson could come back here at any moment. “I failed you, Nana.”

“Oh, you did not,” she said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. “Things happen the way they’re supposed to happen. The magic isn’t the be-all and end-all, kid.”

“But you always acted like it was.”

“Bah,” she said, pursing her lips. “What grandmother doesn’t want her babies to get a little magic? I wanted it for you , though, not for me.”

“Really?”

“Really,” she said, shrugging it off. “And I think your friend Jackson needs it more.”

“No, he doesn’t,” I said, sighing in disappointment.

Jackson wasn’t even my friend, not really. He only befriended me because he thought he was supposed to, and he’d kept the fact that he’d made his own wishes a secret the entire time.

So what I’d thought was something special was SO nothing.

“I think he was a sad, lonely boy before those wishes,” Nana Marie said, running her hand over the top of my head, stroking my hair like she always had. I remember falling asleep on her when she did that.

“Why do you think that?” I asked, letting my eyes close.

“It’s in the gaze,” she said definitively, as if there wasn’t a question. “A lot of blue in those blues.”

Was she right? I knew his parents’ situation made him sad, and I knew he’d said something about going back to being invisible.

Had he been a sad boy before?

“And you’re wrong about the wishes, by the way.”

“I know,” I said, assuming she meant the way I thought Jackson had stolen mine.

“Not that,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re wrong about the power of the wishes. You can wish for love or for a best friend, and the power of the wish might put a perfect person in front of you, but the magic can’t make that happen. Love doesn’t work that way.”

“It doesn’t?”

“Of course not! I mean, that could be catastrophic, if someone could just wish for another person.”

I’d barely had time to think about that shocking revelation when Nana smacked my arm and said, “Hey—turn that on.”

She pointed to the radio dial over by the counter.

“I doubt it works… wherever we are.” I sighed again.

“Somewhere between Hyorithipithidian and Omaha,” she said. “But flip it on and see. Music would be nice.”

Nana Marie loved singing along to the radio. My entire childhood, her car had been like a karaoke party with her as the talent.

Man, she used to slay Taylor Swift.

I turned the power dial then gasped, because I could hear them.

I could hear Jackson talking to Hamburger Man.

“Why not?” Jackson asked.

“It doesn’t work that way, kid.”

It felt wrong, listening in when they didn’t know I could hear, but I also didn’t care. I felt mad at both of them, and also, what could they possibly have to say to each other that would be remotely private? Was Hamburger Man going to tell a seventh grader his deepest, darkest secrets? Was Jackson going to confide in the grouchy, bald restaurateur who had a side gig as Lord of the Fairies?

No and no.

“You’re a Flord, and your father-in-law is, like, a super Flord, right?” Jackson said, sounding very serious.

“He’s considered Ultimate Fae, for the record,” Hamburger Man said. “And yes.”

“So your Flamily—”

“Don’t call it that.”

“My bad, your family is like royalty. You can’t use that power to grant this one tiny request?”

I narrowed my eyes and moved my ear closer to the speaker. What request? What was Jackson trying to do?

“It’s not a tiny request,” Hamburger Man said. “And it’s impossible. What’s done is done.”

“But I still have one wish coming, right?”

“Yeah, so?”

“So why not let me transfer it?”

“Wishes are nontransferable and do not have separate accounting. It’s four wishes as a chunk, period; you get them all or you get none. That’s law. Even the power of the entire council couldn’t change that.”

“What about you and Archie?” Jackson asked.

“That was different because she was fae,” he said.

“Well,” Jackson said, and I could tell by the way he paused that he was thinking. Formulating. I could picture the expression on his face, because it was the one he got when he was working on science homework or trying to figure out how to convince the butcher to chop up the catfish. “What if I give them all back?”

“Jackson for the win,” Nana muttered.

What? What was he saying? What did that mean? Was Jackson asking if he could give back his pecs and his height and his hair… and me ?

I took a deep breath and waited for the answer.

“I told you. It doesn’t work like that.”

“But it’s a bargain for the Flords, right? I’m returning four wishes and only asking you to grant one. So that’s a three-wish credit.”

“First of all,” Hamburger Man said, “why are you acting like wishes are money here? There’s not some wish bank account that’s gonna get fat by your return, bro.”

“I just thought—”

“And second of all,” Hamburger Man interrupted, “you’re seriously saying you want to give back all your wishes so she can have her number four?”

“I don’t know why it would be a big deal.”

“Because that’s not how things work. You’re stuck with the terrible burden of having your wishes come true, you ungrateful little turd. Now hold on to your pants.”

Suddenly, the truck jerked and we were back to human speeds. I wrapped my arms around the base of the stool, holding on tight like I was on a roller coaster without a seat belt. The truck barreled along, careening and bumping as if it might break into a million pieces, and I missed Jackson beside me.

Everything always felt like it was going to be okay when he was there.

Kind of like the way I felt with Nana Marie.

I looked to my right and she wasn’t even holding on. She was casually leaning back like this was no big deal, seemingly unaffected by the wild ride as she threw me a wink and said, “No worries, sunshine.”

She might have been unfazed, but I was not . My mind cleared of everything but survival, and I prayed for the brakes to work. When we finally screeched to a stop, I let out a huge sigh of relief.

Nana held out a hand and I climbed to my feet on shaky legs.

“This is where you get off, kiddo,” Nana said, pointing toward the door. “So hug me like you mean it.”

I fell into her hug, more content than I’d felt in a long time as she scratched my back with one hand and patted it with the other. When we finally pulled apart, she gave me a grin. “I’ve gotta get up by Sal before he messes up my drop-off. See you later.”

“See you later,” I said, and as she climbed up to the front, I very nearly skipped to the back door, feeling light as a feather.

I pushed open the door.

At the same time Jackson was pulling it open.

Which sent me falling.