Under the Roses

34 - Upon That Flood Serene

VANESSA

"Everyone's staring," Vanessa whispered, looking around self-consciously.

"Really?" Alice looked around the bus, so conspicuously that Vanessa slid down in her seat, nearly kicking Wolf, who was curled up on the floor of the bus.

"Don't look back at them!" she said. She stared straight ahead, but out of the corner of her eye, she could see the other passengers glancing at them, then leaning in to whisper at each other. It was worse because she couldn't understand what they were saying.

Alice looked at Vanessa. "Are they really?"

"It's because of Wolf." Whit didn't turn away from the window. "It's fine."

Vanessa glanced down at Wolf. He seemed to be sleeping. "What's so strange about him? What are they whispering about?"

"What's not to be whispering about?" Whit looked at her. "He's a wolf riding a bus."

Vanessa huffed. "Well, that's a little rude."

"I guess you could get up and say something about it, but who knows how much they'd understand of you," he said.

She sighed. "How long is it to the capital again?"

"Almost there." Whit turned to the window again.

Alice leaned forward. She was sitting next to Whit, across from Vanessa. The heels of the new shoes Red had given her that morning, bright red like cherries, tapped against the floor of the bus. "How are we going to get the artifact anyway?"

Vanessa had gotten a little more information on the artifacts from Alice. The artifacts were kept safe by the royal families of their respective kingdoms, and their powers hadn't been used in centuries. Perhaps even millennia. So now, the three of them (and Wolf) were in Virane. Home of the Cloak of Honor.

She lowered her voice to match Alice's. "I don't know. I mean...I don't want to have to steal, but do you think the Queen of Virane is just going to give us a very important and powerful artifact? So I can break my curse or whatever? Something tells me probably not."

It kind of bothered her that the only reason she was doing this was that she wanted to break this horrible curse. It was selfish.

But she was going to do it anyway. She couldn't live if she was constantly afraid she was going to turn into a wolf at any second.

When the bus stopped at Kerr, Virane's capital, Vanessa woke Wolf and they left the bus. Alice seemed to be in a strangely cheerful mood; she hopped off the bus after giving the bus driver the brightest smile and "thank you," and was now skipping off in some random direction.

"Don't go too far ahead, Alice!" Vanessa called, trying to get Wolf to follow her. He looked anxiously around the crowded streets of Virane, and he stood frozen on the sidewalk.

"Oh!" Vanessa could barely hear Alice's faint voice above the crowd. Why was it so crowded here? Was there something going on? It was never this crowded in Phire.

"Wait—" Whit disappeared behind a tall man's black coat.

"Guys, where—Ow!" Vanessa yanked her arm away and looked down at Wolf. "What was that for? That hurt!"

He looked silently up at her.

"We need to find Alice and Whit," she said, rubbing her wrist. At least his teeth hadn't broken her skin. "Alice is tiny, but at least her shoes are bright. And Whit's got white hair. Come on." She turned, going on the tips of her toes to look into the crowd. She caught glimpses of white hair, but she had no idea how many of those heads belonged to elderly people.