Henrik stood in the doorway with a confused expression until Cate beckoned him in. “Bad news,” he grumbled as though he didn’t want me to hear. “They’re going to stay around for the Cashel filming. They’ve decided to make the move with us tomorrow.”
“They’re spooking my actors!” She glanced at me before adding, “The studio execs.”
Henrik scowled. “The boycott was the last straw. What if they shelve the sequels?”
“They already have.”
“What?”
That was me and Henrik. Jinx.
Cate sat down, straightening the pages around her. “They’ve shelved them. I’m sure the news will leak tomorrow or the next day. I’m not letting that shake us. I’m not.” The trailer filled with the sound of Cate’s shuffled papers. “They want us to lose steam. Then they can pull the plug and say it happened naturally. I’m not giving that to them.”
I hated the way Cate’s expression fought itself, determination wrestling back despair. “If the movie is good, they’ll revive the sequels, so we just need to make the movie really good,” I said.
Cate snapped her fingers and pointed at me without taking her eyes of Henrik. “She gets it, Henrik. Tell me you’re with me.”
He touched her shoulder, and she grabbed his hand firmly. I couldn’t tell if they were more than film partners in a wink, wink, nudge, nudge kind of way or if they were truly, deeply friends. The latter seemed more likely, and for whatever reason, also much more powerful.
“I’m with you, Cay,” Henrik said. “But how do we recover from all this bad press?”
“You put M. E. Thorne’s grandkids in the movie.”
Their heads turned toward me in unison.
“There’s no way your dad will give us permission,” Henrik said.
I shrugged. “I’ll email my mom. I can have it for you by morning.”
“You’re serious?” Henrik asked.
“My dad won’t stop us. He’s in the dog house—particularly with Ryder. He hates being hated.”
Cate’s blue eyes were alight, and I wanted to memorize her fearlessness. “Call our friends at the Wrap, Henrik. Tell them to meet us in Cashel. We’re going to need coverage of M. E. Thorne’s grandchildren filming their big-screen debut.”
• • •
“This is like a sleepover!” Ryder whisper-yelled through the dark trailer.
“Sure, buddy. A sleepover. So go to sleep!” I said. Eamon giggled from beside me in the bed. He rolled on his side, and I snuggled into his chest as casually as possible. All the while my brain screamed, We’re in a bed together! Oh my god, we’re in a bed!
“Is he ever going to fall asleep?” Eamon whispered.
“Since we want him to, not likely.” A nearby light slipped through the blinds, revealing Eamon’s open eyes only a few inches from mine. “He’s too excited.”
“What’s my costume going to look like?” Ryder asked. “Will I get elf ears?”
“Definitely,” Eamon said at the same time that I yelled, “No!”
“I don’t want to be a human, Iris!”
“I don’t know any more than I told you. Go to sleep!” Ryder moaned and flopped around. “I’m actually excited,” I whispered to Eamon. “What roles are even available for the scene at Cashel?”
“I think you’ll be ghosts,” Eamon said. “When Sevyn enters the ruins of the castle and encounters the elves and men who died there centuries earlier.”
I pictured the scene I’d read earlier. After meeting Nolan, Sevyn wanders south to where she believes the Knye are holding Evyn. She passes a dead, falling-down castle town full of memories and pain. She gets caught up in it and doesn’t come to her senses until Nolan reappears and leads her away. Then she goes to the caves beneath the Blackened Wastes of Thornbred…
“They’ll be shooting all the Thornbred, kidnapping, blood-drinking stuff in LA, right?”
“Yeah. That’ll be the majority of Julian’s scenes,” he said.
“Good. I don’t want to see that, although I do miss Julian. He’s too funny.”
“He makes me mad jealous.” Eamon pulled me closer. “You do go faintish around him sometimes. And you have his face on your pants.”
“Those were a gag gift from friends who, in hindsight, aren’t good friends.” Eamon scowled, and I added, “I had a minor crush on him, but that was before I knew him. Now he makes me laugh. Besides, only one of us has kissed Julian Young, and it wasn’t me, Charles.”
Eamon turned his head into the pillow and groaned. “I’m never going to live that down.”
“Guys! You better go to sleep!” Ryder called out.
“Iris,” Eamon whispered. “You sure your da is going to go for this?”
“Doesn’t matter. Mom already signed the permission form and sent it back. I always have her sign stuff for school because she doesn’t care.”
“You don’t talk about your mam much.”
“When we’ve been dating three months, I’ll tell you about her.”
“I accept that challenge,” he said, leaning over to kiss my neck.
I curled closer to Eamon, my nerves lighting up every place we touched. “I’ve never slept in a bed with a boy before.”
“First for me too,” he said. “So what do we do?”
“Think you can sleep?”
“No.”
“Me neither. So let’s stare at each other all night.” I was joking, but we did stare. I held my hand up in the muted light, and we tangled fingers over and over. It was part examination, part exploration, and it left me wanting to memorize him freckle by freckle.
“We have to make it a success,” I whispered long after Ryder’s breath proved he’d fallen asleep. “If my family is attached, it has to be great. The story has to have a chance to reach people. I won’t be embarrassed if that happens. I’ll be—oh.”
Earlier that day, I couldn’t figure out what Elementia was supposed to mean to me. Now I knew what had changed irrevocably when I read it.
“Wow,” I murmured.
“Have you had an epiphany? Do you know how we can boost support?”
“I’m proud that my grandma wrote it. It’s honest and sad, yet hopeful. I’m proud. And it’s like my grandma feels like a real person all of the sudden.”
Eamon pulled me
