of her weight into it.
“Gwen!” Kurt shouts.
My face must be blue from holding my breath. “Why are you hitting me?”
“You left us!” She sees Dad carrying sleeping Kai into the living room and takes a second to process the information. “Then we couldn’t find you and saw the wreckage.”
I cradle the aching side of my body until I nearly double over. “I was making a love connection after Violet said she wanted to have Kurt’s babies. With his eyes and her hair they’ll be the biggest purple—oh my god, this hurts—”
Kurt tries to grab me but I recoil from him. My reflexes are slow and his thumb is digging into my shoulder. “It’s dislocated.”
“No. It’s not.” I walk backward around the kitchen table and he follows me. “It’s just a bruise.”
“Let me see you roll it, then.”
I bite on my lip, and my eyes water when I try.
“Come here.”
“No.”
“Trust me.”
“No, no. It’ll just heal on its own. I mean it—” And then he grabs hold of me, and I swear the pop can be heard all over my building.
“Better?”
I squeak out a “Thank you” and lie spread out on the cool tile of the floor. Dad walks over me to get something out of the fridge for my mom. On his way back, he holds out his hand and pulls me up. “What’s with Sleeping Beauty?”
I grab the stool beside Kurt.
“Kai tried to stop me from stabbing the dragon. She was all Oh don’t kill it—it’s going extinct.”
“Hippies,” Dad jokes.
“She’s right.” Mom takes the bag of popcorn Dad is still holding. “I had one once. It wasn’t meant to be mine. Pretty little thing. She had this funny tail, like a rainbow fish—”
“Uh—and lots of venomous spit? If I want an evil pet, I’ll get a cat.”
Mom shoots me her “You be quiet” glare and points to the living room. “Get me an aloe leaf, will you?”
“Fine.” The leaf crunches when I rip it off and leaves a sticky trail.
Mom cuts it down the center. She likes to drink the liquid, which is disgustingly bitter. Growing up, I had so many cuts, rashes, and scrapes that an aloe plant in the house came in handy. I still make an ick sound when she scoops up the jelly and eats it. The second scoop she takes to Kai and rubs on her wound. Dad throws away the bloody paper towels.
“Remind me again, why were you out with this girl today? I just thought—”
“Dad.” I don’t want my love life to be a topic of discussion, ever. But especially not right now. “The princesses are like a resource. My cousin Brendan has a boatload, literally. We picked out the ones who might lead us closer to the next oracle.”
My parents exchange skeptical looks.
“It’s true,” Kurt says.
“It doesn’t matter, because all three of my dates have Bombed. Capital B. One tried to chew my arm off. The next one was using me to get to Kurt. Yeah, I’m talking to you. And Kai got pissed off because I was trying to slay the dragon that was going to eat her. What does it take?” I take the bag of frozen peas my mom hands me and let the cold numb my shoulder. “I used to be good at this.”
“Wow,” Dad says. “You really are a bad date.”
“Thanks. That’s comforting.”
“How did you manage to escape its grasp?” Kurt asks.
“This guy from the freak show. He’s got this cool staff thing and he’s a beast master.” I tell them all about Charlie Comit and his welcome save.
“I don’t like this,” Mom says. For the first time, I smell her fear. It’s real fear, like sand coating my tongue.
“I’m fine, Mom. Look.” I raise my hands in the air but hold my breath at the angry stiffness in my muscles. She’s all pregnant with her shiny new baby, and I have to show her that I can be fine, that I can take care of myself. I go to her because I’ve been the worst son ever and hug her. I whisper, “I’m sorry,” and she rubs my back. She has that face Kurt’s so good at—focused and all business.
“Focus on your next target,” Mom says.
Gwen points at the living room. “Kai is the answer. Her father has the most archives. There has to be something about the location or existence of Eternity in his records.”
“She’s really passed out, Gwen,” I say. “In the meantime, we should figure out a way to disaster-proof this apartment. That