“What do you mean Fionna’s not there?” I asked, sinking down onto the porch in disbelief. I couldn’t understand how what Mage Jaye was telling me could possibly be right. The thought of Fionna on her own, wandering around the streets of Paris, causing all sorts of chaos and mischief, made my stomach tighten into a knot. I visualized the evening news reports with videos or her lighting people on fire or picking people up with her electrical storms. This was not good, not at all.Mage Jaye replied, “We couldn’t keep her here, Harlow. She was too dangerous to herself and others, so we sent her to a place where she’d be safe and where she might be able to get some of the training that she needs, once she starts to settle down.”I began to breathe a little easier now that I knew that Mage Jaye hadn’t lost Fionna.

It didn’t take long for Mr. Flamingo to turn around and see me. His face melted into a scowl. Obviously, he knew who I was. Not that there were probably too many people in town who would’ve rode into his yard on the back of a unicorn. I was down and walking toward him when he asked, “What the hell do you want now? Unless you’re here to fix our house….”Before he finished, I raised my hand and turned the house back into the bright pink color it had been before. Easy enough. He continued to glower at me, as if he hadn’t been expecting that at all. “Mr. Flamingo, I’ve been sent by Mage Jaye.” His expression didn’t change. I had to take that to mean he had no idea who Mage Jaye was. I cleared my throat. “Head of the Council of Mages.” He nodded, still glaring at me. “She wanted me to deliver a message to you and Mrs. Flamingo.

We did our best to concentrate on Christmas. It was hard when I had no idea what was going on with the Flamingos or with Mage Jaye and the School for Mages, but I was able to put all of that behind me and enjoy the holiday with my friends and my family.Sharing Christmas Eve with my parents, my sister, and both of our boyfriends was different. As we sat around the Christmas tree in their new, small apartment, I thought back to the year before, how I’d had no idea that that would be the last Christmas I spent in the home we’d lived in for so many years. If I had known that I wouldn’t be back there this year, maybe I would’ve savored the moments a little bit more. Maybe I would have paid a little bit more attention to the subtleties of our family, the way we interact with one another. The way Max brushes my mom’s hair over her shoulder and smiles at her. The way Gray’s eye

“What is that?” I asked, staring at the piece of jewelry in the box Ben had open in front of my face. I couldn’t really process what was happening, at least, not the way my mind wanted to process it. From here, it looked like he was asking me to marry him. He had a ring box, he had a ring, he had an expectant look on his face…. I loved Ben--but I wasn’t sure I was ready for this yet.“It’s a ring,” he said, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.“Yeah, I know that,” I said, finally blinking after about a minute of not doing so. “I mean… what is it for?”“Oh, you put it on your finger,” he said, teasing me. “It’s jewelry, Harlow.”I cocked my head to t

“What’s the matter, Sam?” I asked, once I realized he really was standing in front of me, and it wasn’t just a part of the meditation I had been experiencing for the last few hours.Sam let out a loud sigh and sat down beneath a tree near where I was sitting on the stump I usually occupied whenever I was communicating with the forest. He shook his head slowly from side to side but didn’t say anything. I continued to stare at him, waiting. It took a long time before he finally opened his mouth. When he did, he was waxing philosophical, and I didn’t know what to make of any of it. “You ever think maybe this damn universe don’t know what it’s talking about? Like maybe all of this is just in our heads, and we aren’t really being controlled by anything?”