Rikky was already on her feet, while I was still registering what Pan had said.
“Why? What’s wrong?” She rushed to his side, but he stepped away from her.
“Nothing’s wrong.” That was what Pan said, but he had a dazed look on his face and he toyed with his phone. “It might be…” The furrow on his brow deepened, but a faint smile played on the corners of his lips. “I think it might be good news.”
“What do you mean?” Rikky asked.
“The Kanin monarchy is reopening my case.” His jaw tensed, and his eyes were moist. “You know how my mother told me that my father was the former Kanin King Elliot. He died when I was still a baby, but the kingdom has always refused to acknowledge my existence.”
He paused, swallowing hard. “But now they’re reopening my paternity case. I’m going to get confirmation one way or another.” He looked down at his feet, but he couldn’t hide the relieved smile. “I’ll know who my dad is, and so will everyone else.”
Rikky squealed and clapped her hands together, shattering the gravity of the moment, and Pan only grinned at her excitement.
“We must celebrate!” she insisted.
“Nothing’s set in stone yet,” he said, but his words fell on deaf ears.
Rikky was a woman on a mission. She was already pulling on a pair of muck boots and talking about how she had to go out to her “aboveground cellar” to get her really good strawberry wine.
Pan managed to stop her before she made it out the front door, but he had to actually step in front of her to do it. “I do have to leave in the morning. I have to get back to make my case. And with two long days of driving ahead of me, I don’t want to start it with a hangover.”
She waited a beat before asking. “So tonight is your last night here?”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Okay, well, your farewell celebration definitely calls for the good wine.” Rikky went on undeterred. “You can drink as much as you feel comfortable with, and not a drop more.”
“That’s a fair deal,” he relented with a laugh.
“I’m a fair woman,” she said as she slipped around him, and then she was out the door, presumably venturing into some sort of aboveground cellar.
Once she was gone, taking her high-strung energy with her, Pan looked at me with an embarrassed smile. “Sorry about all this.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m sure that Rikky will let you stay with her longer and help you figure out things here.”
“I’m sure she would,” I agreed as I walked over to him. “But I don’t want to take advantage of her kindness. She’s already extended herself so much. And, if I’m being honest, I don’t know how much more there is for me to find here.”
He frowned. “Are you sure?”
“Probably they know more than they’re telling, but the Queen isn’t talking, and I don’t want to hang around here imposing on Rikky for some undetermined amount of time,” I said.
And that was true. We’d already been at Rikky’s place for four days, and that seemed like long enough to be taking up her space and time. Pan and I had pooled together before we got here—both of us had dug into our savings for this trip—but we both agreed that Rikky’s hospitality deserved compensation.
He’d given her the money when he arrived, without either of us setting up an exact time frame, but it felt like enough to cover maybe a week. We were close enough to that expiration date.
“Besides,” I said, smiling up at him, “we started this journey together; we finish it together.”
“Good.” His voice was low.
And then gently, deliberately—his eyes on mine—he took my hand and pulled me toward him. He wrapped his arms around me and held me to him. As I closed my eyes, I realized that nobody had ever hugged me like this before. I don’t know that I’d ever felt quite so … held before. The hug completely enveloped me somehow, so all I could feel was the warm strength of him, his heart beating quick and loud in my ear.
“We’ll find your family,” he promised, and in his arms, with my head to his chest, I felt his voice rumbling through me, and I felt an intense heat in my lower belly.
“I know.” I stepped away from him—acutely aware that Rikky would burst through the door at any moment—and walked away, pretending to focus on the caged squirrel while I slowed the racing of my heart and hoped the fan would cool the flush on my cheeks.
As if she had been summoned by my thoughts, Rikky returned a moment later carrying a cask of wine. She was in surprisingly good spirits about the whole thing—or at least it came as a surprise to me. I assumed she’d be upset about Pan’s departure, but maybe I had misread things and she was just happy to have her space back.
Back at the inn in Iskyla, Mrs. Tulin often muttered, “Fish and guests start to smell after three days.” That was probably true everywhere.
Since it was a celebration for Pan, she let him choose the music. He spent quite a bit of time flipping through the milk crate of records before deciding on Harry Nilsson. Pan made us supper and Rikky poured us wine. We talked and laughed as we ate, until I decided to take a break.
I went back to my room to pack up my things. Since we were leaving early in the morning, I wanted to have it all together to be sure I didn’t forget anything.
Once that was done, I messaged Dagny to let her know I’d be back home soon, and then I messaged Sylvi to let her know that I’d be coming back. I’d paid up my rent until the end of July—well, Finn had, as a sort of going-away present/college fund—so I knew my living situation in Merellä was covered until then.
My boss Sylvi hadn’t exactly been my biggest fan before I left, but she let me go without too much complaint, so I hoped she understood. I didn’t want to seem ungrateful or careless, but it was more important to try to find Eliana.
Although, in our days of researching, we had barely inched closer to Áibmoráigi or how to find Eliana. I vacillated between convincing myself that she was safe with family or that she was in terrible peril.
Before we left Merellä, I’d explained to the authorities everything that had happened with Eliana being kidnapped by her twin sister, Illaria. I had told Dagny and Elof, and I’d filed a report with Mimirin security—not that that had really done much good. There was very little proof of Eliana’s existence before she went missing—there was even less now that she had gone on the wind with Illaria, Sumi, and Jem-Kruk.
Not that I really knew who they were.
Then again, I didn’t really know who Eliana was either.
With my messages to Sylvi and Dagny taken care of, I decided to send one to Hanna. I didn’t have much to update her on, but I knew she would worry if she didn’t hear from me soon. I wrote a few lines assuring her that everything was okay, and I attached a couple pics I’d taken of Drake the snapping turtle for good measure.
By the time I had finished, it was still early. The fireflies hadn’t even come out yet, but maybe it was the light mist holding them at bay. The music was still playing—it had recently changed tracks from the cheery “Gotta Get Up” to the very melancholy “Without You,” so I guessed that Pan and Rikky were still up.
It was empty out in the main part of the house, but the front door was slightly ajar, and I heard the splashing of Drake. Sometimes Rikky liked to feed the turtle after dusk. She said it more closely mimicked snapping turtles’ natural hunting instincts.
I went to join them, but I stopped at the door. They were standing on the dock with their backs to me. An outside light was on, creating a halo of yellow above them, and the mist sparkled like glitter. It was heavy enough that their clothes were damp, clinging to their bodies. Rikky had her arm hooked through his, and both of them watched the animals swimming around.
Then she said something—it was too quiet to hear over Nilsson’s mournful singing, and anyway they were too far away for me to hear. Pan looked over at her, then she leaned over and she kissed him, fully, deeply, on the mouth. She kissed him.
And at least for a moment—a few beats of my heart—Pan kissed her back.