Dear Risa,

  We’ve been here a few days now, and things are calmer. Better. Cali fixed things with her parents, and I’m not upset about the wall any more, and Echo is staying in Maki’s room tonight. All good things.

  Our wagon is halfway done. We have most of the little things ready, just not the main wagon part. Then we get to nail it all together, and we’ll be ready to go! Emmy, Luke’s mom, saw our designs and suggested a few changes. Which we accepted. And then we decided to not use horses to pull the wagon, so we had to make a few more changes.

  Since you’re reading this at a point when you’ll have seen me, I know you already know, but I must write it here or else I’ll die: Cali got liondrakes to pull our wagon.

  I don’t know where they came from, but there’s three liondrakes causing problems in the area. Cali very generously volunteered to take them out of the area for the safety of the town. How kind of her. Liondrakes want to be worshiped, so we’ll take them through the country, to city after city, letting them be seen and admired by thousands if not millions of people. By the time they all die of old age, everyone in the world will have seen them and know how magnificent they are. Aaaand all they have to do in return is pull our wagon.

  Luke would rather not spend all day in close proximity to giant flying murder kitties, which I understand. Maki was a bit more concerned with what they’ll eat and how much it’ll cost, but Echo said she has an idea for handling that. She didn’t say what the idea was, but she has it, and dragged Maki off to test it.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Risa dear, believe me when I say I tried to think about this logically. I spent like three seconds trying to be objective. All I managed to think of was that no one would ever dare steal anything from our wagon if we had liondrakes protecting it. And then I broke and begged the guys to let this be a thing that happens because no one else in the history of ever will be able to get liondrakes to pull a wagon and it would be absolutely amazing if we could do it.

  I can’t wait to finish the wagon and get on the road again.

  Or, no, I can. Mer still needs me here. She’s working towards something, but hasn’t managed to say it yet. I have to stay until she gets the courage to talk about whatever it is she’s worried about.

  If it’s something about leaving for school, as I said before, I’m taking her straight to you. You be good to my baby sister.

  Of course, it might just be relationship things. She might have a crush on someone or something, and not want to tell Mom about it. Which I get. I mean, the first time Mom heard your name was when I told her I was leaving the dorms to stay with my best friend. If I have anything to do with it, she will never learn we figured out us dating was a bad idea while we sat in jail. Actually, don’t let Meriel know that, either.

  We met in class, immediately became friends, stayed friends, and I met your father… somewhere that wasn’t a police station. Yeah, let’s stick with that. And I have never seen an alligator before in my life.

  Neither have you.

  Regards,

  Maeve Zee