Fallen in Love Read Free Page A

found some simple garments, which looked faded and worn, probably outgrown by the driver’s family back home. She tossed little gems out at Miles, who scrambled to catch everything.
    Soon, he held a long, pale-green linen gown with bell sleeves and an embroidered golden strip running down its center, a pair of lemon-yellow stockings, and a bonnet that looked sort of like a nun’s wimple, made of taupe linen.
    “But what are
you
going to wear?” Miles joked.
    Shelby had to rummage through a half dozen more boxes full of rags, bent nails, and smooth stones before she found anything that would work for Miles. Finally, she pulled out a simple blue robe made of stiff, coarse wool. It would keep him warm against this buffeting wind; it was long enough to cover his Nikes; and for some reason it occurred to Shelby that the color was perfect for his eyes.
    Shelby unzipped her green hoodie and slung it over the back of the cart. Goose bumps rose on her bare arms as she tugged the billowing dress over her jeans and tank top.
    Miles still looked reluctant. “I feel weird stealing stuff that guy was probably taking into town to sell,” he whispered.
    “Karma, Miles. He stole your hat.”
    “No, he
found
my hat. What if he’s got a family to support?”
    Shelby whistled under her breath. “You’d never make it a day on Skid Row, kid”—she shrugged—“unless you had me there to look after you. Look, compromise, we’ll repay something else to the cosmos. My sweater …” She chucked the green hoodie into the box. “Who knows? Maybe hoodies will be all the rage next season in the anatomy theaters, or whatever they do for fun around here.”
    Miles held the taupe bonnet above Shelby’s head.But it wouldn’t fit over her ponytail, so he tugged on the elastic band. Her blond hair tumbled down her shoulders. Now
she
felt self-conscious. Her hair was a complete beast. She
never
wore it down. But Miles’s eyes lit up as he placed the bonnet on her head.
    “M’lady.” He gallantly held out his hand. “Might I have the pleasure of accompanying you into this fair city?”
    If Luce had been here, back when all three of them were still just good friends and things were a little less complicated, Shelby would have known just how to joke back. Luce would have put on her sweet, demure damsel-in-distress voice and called Miles her knight in shining armor or some crap like that, to which Shelby could have added something sarcastic, and then everyone would have burst out laughing, and the weird tension Shelby felt across her shoulders, the tightness in her chest—it would have gone away. Everything would have felt
normal
, whole.
    But it was just Shelby and Miles.
    Together. Alone.
    They turned to face the black stone walls around the city, which surrounded a high central keep. Marigold-colored flags hung from iron poles in the tall stone tower. The air smelled like coal and moldy hay. Music came from inside the walls—a lyre maybe, some soft-skinned drums. And somewhere in there, Shelby hoped,was an angel whose Announcer could take the two of them back to the present, where they belonged.
    Miles was still holding out his hand, gazing at her like he had no idea how deep blue his eyes were. She took a deep breath and slipped her palm inside his. He gave her hand a little squeeze and the two of them strolled into town.

TWO

BIZARRE BAZAAR
    G one was the peaceful countryside. Instead, just outside the city gates, there was a great bustling, with makeshift tents set up along the green—which was more a grayish brown now, in winter—on both sides of the road leading to the tall black city walls. The tents were clearly part of a temporary setup, like a weekend-long festival or something. The happy chaos of the people milling around reminded Shelby a little of Bonnaroo, which she had seen pictures of on the Internet. She studiedwhat people were wearing—apparently the wimple look was in. She didn’t think she and Miles stuck