Lullaby (The Fable Series, Book 2)

Chapter Forty

The bright golden moon hangs low and heavy in the black sky.

Jamie, Grace, Zee and I make our way from the Huntson High car park towards the lawns, where a large, colorful crowd is milling about on the moonlit grass.

In the distance, I see turrets, and I recognize the plywood castle backdrop from last year's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's been reworked into some sort of makeshift stage, complete with amps and overhead lights.

I'll be on that stage in an hour. In front of all those people. Somehow I'm not even nervous. Just extremely, utterly excited.

"Walk faster ladies!" Jamie shrieks, tugging Zee behind her. "We're gonna miss the chance to see Alix getting kissed by all the moms and grandmas! Maybe even grandpas! C'mon! Hurry!"

"Eww!" Zee says, her face wrinkling in disgust. "That's my brother you're talking about."

As we were finishing up our band practice in Zee and Alix's garage a few hours ago, it was announced (via social media, obviously) that the hottest graduating senior boy (Alix, obviously) would be selling kisses for $10 a pop at the start of the July Jubilee to raise funds for the new school gym.

Apparently this wasn't news to Alix – he mumbled something incoherent about a lost bet and Yale and cougars – and he left us to make our own way to the Jubilee, while he and Micah went ahead to get the "kissing booth" set up.

That gave us plenty of time to get ready for the concert, and it really shows.

The four of us look amazing, mostly thanks to Jamie's incredible makeover skills.

Zee is dressed as her idol – Xena, Warrior Princess. Her dark hair is pinned up, and a faux-leather rental costume with gladiator sandals and a foam sword completes the look.

Grace's petite frame and five foot one height perfectly suits her Alice in Wonderland costume – a powder blue dress with one of Zee's mom's white cooking aprons over the top, and a cute black bow in her tousled dark blonde hair. She's even carrying an old, leather-bound edition of the book, which I've often seen on her bedside table.

Jamie, as I expected her to, used the fairytale theme as an excuse to wear the most provocative, most revealing, most inappropriate outfit she could get away with at an official school event.

She's basically meant to be Sleeping Beauty, wearing what she usually wears when she sleeps – which is apparently a tiny pink cheetah print chemise, fluffy pink slippers, and a black silk eye mask worn on top of her head like a headband.

But even with Jamie's bright pink hair and ample assets on show, I feel all eyes on me.

As we make our way into the crowd, head turn, eyes widen. There are even some muffled gasps.

It's exactly the same reaction I had when Jamie finally let me look in the mirror at Zee's house, after working on my makeup for more than an hour.

I'd been feeling down all through the band practice, partly because of learning that my parents both think I'm a basket case and they want me to go back on the meds, and partly because with every hour, Fable's departure date looms ever closer. Tomorrow will probably be the last time I ever go back to the cabin. The last time I'll ever see them. In person, anyway.

But the moment Jamie told me to open my eyes, and revealed the results of her hard work with a shriek of delight, a great flood of calm washed over me.

Calm, wonder and enchantment.

A sense of rightness. Of past and present, dreams and memories meeting and merging, things falling into place.