“How do you all know each other?” Lottie asked around the pins she gripped in her mouth.
“Wei goes to our partner school in China. He came to the summer school last year and we became good friends with him, so he applied to come again,” explained Rio. “I started at Takeshin last year when I moved to Japan from the Philippines with my father. He’s Japanese but my mother’s Filipino. She’s a doctor in Manila. She’s going to come over to join us in the New Year.”
“Rio and I decided to stay on with Sayuri for the summer school this year,” added Miko in a distracted tone, still engrossed in the costume, “to keep her company while her parents divorce.”
Divorce! Lottie had wondered what her parents must be like, and now felt a pang of empathy for the seemingly impenetrable queen of the school.
“Do you know the tale of Nabeshima Bakeneko?” Rio said, changing the subject, and Lottie noticed that even his voice had become sweeter, like it had been dipped in honey.
“I know it’s about a vampire cat who turns into a beautiful maiden, but Miko has yet to tell me the rest.”
A giggle escaped the blue pixie’s mouth, and she gave a half-nod to Rio, gesturing for him to continue.
“It was supposedly the favorite story of our school’s founder, and it is quite a gruesome tale . . .” As he talked, Lottie was transported back to her childhood, lying in bed, wearing her then-oversize tiara, as her mother lay beside her and shared the most fantastic stories. “In Nabeshima there lived the prince of Hizen, most beloved and beautiful was he, and in his court was a woman who matched that beauty like a lily to a rose.”
Lottie was struck by the coincidental choice of flowers, the thought of them resonating deep within her.
Rio continued. “Her name was Aoi Tōyō, and she was the prince’s favorite. But one night, when she was alone in her quarters, the shadow on her wall began to move, creeping toward her until it was no longer a shadow but a monstrous black cat, who pounced upon her and choked her to death as though she was no more than a measly mouse. Upon tasting Aoi Tōyō’s blood, that monster cat morphed into her skin.
“Over the following weeks, the most beloved prince weakened until he could no longer walk or speak, bedridden, clinging to life as if it were being drained from him.”
It took Lottie a moment to realize Rio had stopped talking.
She blinked. “What? Surely that’s not the end?”
“Oh no, it’s not. The prince was saved by one of his soldiers, who stabbed himself in the leg every night to stop the vampire cat’s spell from sending him to sleep. They killed the vampire cat, and the prince lived happily ever after. The end. Boring really.”
But Lottie didn’t care about the prince. “What about Aoi Tōyō?” she asked, perplexed.
Both Miko and Rio looked at her with an expression that Lottie didn’t understand.
Miko turned back to her sewing, answering in a flat voice, “She doesn’t get a happy ending.”
9
“JAPAN IS THE SAFEST PLACE in the whole world.”
Haru’s words were followed with a reassuring pat on Jamie’s back, and Lottie watched curiously as Jamie tensed. It seemed something had happened; whatever charms Haru had placed over their Partizan were apparently broken.
“Can they not order what they need to be sent to the school?” Jamie asked, scowling at Lottie like this was somehow entirely her fault.
“It will take too long,” said Lottie, “and we can’t afford to waste any time finishing our vampire-feline-maiden-monster costumes.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t quite true either.
“Yes, and also . . .” Ellie bustled past Jamie, making for the car. “I need to get out of this school for a while or I will literally explode.”
Jamie turned his sour look on Ellie. “You never have this problem at Rosewood.”
“That’s because Rosewood doesn’t have any queens of the school that I’m stuck in a room with.”
Lottie was still trying to figure out Sayuri, and the little crumb of information about her parents that Miko had given her only made her more curious. All she knew for sure was that Ellie’s aversion to her was not going to help anyone.
Lottie had to admit it didn’t feel entirely safe to leave the school grounds, but Jamie didn’t understand how important this was for Ellie. Just thinking about how scared Ellie had been to leave the palace made her realize that. To see Ellie now, almost back to her old self, wanting to get out into the world . . . it could only be a step in the right direction.
It had been Rio’s suggestion, when Miko and Lottie had realized they didn’t have any black platform shoes in his size, that she should use this as a chance to see Tokyo.
“Jamie would never let me,” Lottie had told them solemnly.
“Jamie? Surely he has to do whatever his master wants.” Rio had raised one of his fluffy caterpillar eyebrows.
“Haru can take them, but then Jamie has to go,” Miko had advised, and something passed invisibly between the blue pixie and her red-haired muse, something that left Lottie both achingly nosy and inexplicably nervous. Yet here she was heading off to Tokyo’s fashion district with Jamie, Ellie, and Haru.
The moment they set foot in Harajuku the world spun into a rainbow blur. Tightly packed with girls and boys in colorful outfits, the streets had a sticky-sweet feeling, like they were walking through a world made of cake decorations.
“Is that guy wearing a real Vivienne Westwood shirt?” Ellie’s eyes were practically bulging as she stared at a bleach-haired boy in ripped clothes held together with safety pins.
“Since when do you care about designer fashion?” Lottie teased.
Ellie’s hands
