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“What is this?” the man with the Russian accent demanded. He snapped the cigar case shut and crossed the room in three large strides. “This is little girl? Little girl is not to be in cigar store. You know these things, Scarlett.”

The girl sitting next to Lyssa stood and started gathering up the spilled pipes. She wasn’t dressed like the two boys. She was very tall, with broad shoulders and long, curly blond hair held back in places by tiny butterfly clips. She wore high-waisted shorts, a T-shirt with a picture of an old-fashioned bicycle on it, and a heavy fur coat that looked way too warm for late summer in New Mexico. She looked familiar, although Lyssa couldn’t immediately place her face, which was bare of makeup

Then it came to her: If the girl had had a beehive hairdo and sparkly, rhinestone-covered sunglasses, she’d look
exactly
like the mermaid from the burlesque show.

Like Athena

Had she found Athena at last?

Lyssa pushed away the thought and her excitement She’d thought she’d seen Athena at the grocery store and the market, the burlesque club and in the whirlpool, and
she’d been wrong every time. And why on earth would Athena be here, in some cruddy cigar shop?

“Alek, this is my sister, little Ladybug,” Scarlett said, giving Lyssa a wink. “Haven’t you ever heard me talk about my little sister? Come on, Alek. You’ve known my family for years!”

Alek harrumphed, but he seemed to soften a bit. Shrugging, he turned back to the boys, opening the box of cigars again. “You clean up mess, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Scarlett promised

Lyssa knelt down on the ground to help Scarlett gather the pipes

“Thanks,” she whispered once Alek had his back turned

“No sweat, Ladybug,” Scarlett said with a wink

Lyssa swallowed. She couldn’t stop looking at Scarlett and visualizing her onstage, in a bright beam of spotlight. “This might sound kinda weird…but do I know you from somewhere?” she asked finally

Scarlett froze with one hand poised over a pipe. She raised an eyebrow. “You think you’ve seen me somewhere?”

“I—I don’t know,” Lyssa stuttered, and tugged on one of her braids. “You look like…” She lost her nerve. “Like this mermaid I saw at a burlesque show once.”

Now Scarlett’s lips curved into a smile. “What were
you
doing at a burlesque show?”

“Oh, you know,” Lyssa said, trying to keep her voice casual. “I was just there for the music.”

Scarlett laughed, but there was a glimmer of curiosity in her green eyes, and she didn’t look away from Lyssa

“So what are you doing here?” she asked. “Hiding out? On the lam from the police?”

Lyssa swallowed and shifted her eyes to the ground. Scarlett had no idea how close she was to the truth. And Lyssa couldn’t admit to the truth, could she? The last time she’d trusted someone was Circe. And that hadn’t turned out well at all

Then again, Scarlett had helped her by lying to Alek. Lenny and the policeman couldn’t be far away, and if Lyssa were thrown out of the shop, they’d catch her for sure

The thought made Lyssa’s arms and legs feel heavy, like someone had filled them with sand. She was tired of running, she was tired of lying. She was so tired

“Come on, Ladybug,” Scarlett said gently, sliding the very last pipe into place. “I won’t rat you out.”

“Well,” Lyssa started. “I’m heading to Austin, Texas. There was this protest…”

And she found herself telling the whole story, from the Texas Talent Show, to her mom’s will, to Michael and
how he called the police when she went missing. She even admitted that her father and a policeman were roaming the streets of New Mexico right this minute, searching for her

“And it doesn’t even matter anymore,” Lyssa said once she got to the end of her story. “The house has already been destroyed. I missed everything.”

For a second there was complete silence. Then someone sniffled

“This is beautiful tale of adventure,” came a voice from behind Lyssa

She turned around and saw that Alek and the two boys with the strange hair had come closer to listen to her story. Alek wiped a tear from his cheek, and the skinny little mustache twitched above his mouth. The boy wearing purple sunglasses and a motorcycle jacket shook his head

“You aren’t talking about that singer’s house, are you?” he asked. “Ana…something? They were going to do a big show to protest and everything?”

“That’s it,” Lyssa said, nodding, excited. “Ana Lee’s my mom.”

“Whoa,” the other boy said. His curly red hair had so much gel in it that the curls stuck out like coiled copper wire. “I mean, wicked. It was on the news and everything. They were expecting a huge turnout—like, hundreds of
people or something? But there was this storm moving in—like crazy lightning and wind and everything. They delayed the demolition and the show till tomorrow.”

“What?”

Lyssa felt her entire body start to hum. It wasn’t gone? Her house, the garden, everything—
it was still there?

Suddenly, it felt like everything was moving in fast motion. Lyssa had to move—she had to get to Austin! She hadn’t missed anything at all! Her home was still there. She just hoped and prayed she was right about her mother’s magic; she knew she wasn’t strong enough to stop the demolition on her own

“Is there a bus station nearby?” she asked, tucking the scooter-base skateboard under one arm. “I have to go!”

Scarlett glanced at the two boys and smiled

“I don’t know about a bus station,” she said, looking back at Lyssa. “But I know where to find a bus.”

S
carlett and the two boys from the cigar shop led Lyssa down a narrow alley to the parking lot out back. There was a bright yellow school bus parked next to the Dumpsters, its chipped paint gleaming in the New Mexico sun. Lyssa didn’t think she could be happier to see that bus if it was made entirely out of gold.

“It’s amazing,” Lyssa breathed

“Wait until you see the inside,” Scarlett said

Inside the bus were more odd-looking people. There were girls with shaved heads and boys with hair so long they could sit on it. The bus driver—a girl who looked like she was still in college—had more tattoos than the illustrated
man at the fair. Not only were her arms and back covered in colorful pictures, there was a tiny trail of stars curving along the side of her face.

“Scarlett, you’re late,” a girl with a mohawk yelled. “We were just about to go and find you.”

“Sorry! Got distracted at the smoke shop,” Scarlett shouted back. Then, to Lyssa, she said, “Welcome to the family! Are you ready to go?”

“Where are you all going?” Lyssa asked as Scarlett led her down the aisle

“We travel here and there,” Scarlett said with a shrug. “Today, we’re headed to Austin.”

Lyssa grinned. She could hardly believe it

As she took a seat, she couldn’t help but gaze in admiration at everything around her. The bus seats had been reupholstered in striped, polka-dotted, and flowery fabric and someone had painted the ceiling a swirly purple and blue, speckled with sparkly stars like the night sky

And there were photographs
everywhere
. Polaroids and strips from old photo booths were stuck to every inch of the walls and windows, held in place by band stickers and Scotch tape. Lyssa leaned in to take a look. There were pictures of people climbing trees and having picnics and making silly faces at the camera. There was even a picture of Scarlett standing on top of a mountain in the middle
of the night, a black-and-purple sky of stars spread out behind her.

Who
were
these people?

“Are you hungry?” Scarlett asked, sliding into a seat next to her and pulling a plastic cooler onto her lap

“Do you have any peanut butter and jelly?”

Scarlett wrinkled her nose. “Peanut butter is an allergen, so we don’t keep it on the bus, but I do have this.”

She flipped open the cooler and pulled out a sandwich wrapped in brown paper

“It’s sunflower spread and raspberry preserves,” Scarlett said, handing the sandwich to Lyssa

Lyssa wasn’t so sure about sunflower spread—she preferred to look at sunflowers, not eat them—but she was so hungry that she unwrapped the sandwich and took a bite anyway. The sunflower spread was too salty, but the raspberry preserves were gooey and sweet

Still, Lyssa thought, the sandwich wasn’t nearly as good as the strawberry and peanut butter sandwiches Michael used to make for her. He knew how to apply the peanut butter and jelly in exactly the right ratio. Lyssa stopped chewing

Even though she had been struggling not to admit it, she realized she was actually starting to
miss
Michael. She missed their afternoon rides by the Puget Sound and how
the house always smelled like Downy fabric softener and microwave popcorn. She even missed the way he laughed whenever Lyssa told a joke—he always snorted a little, and if he was drinking something, it’d come out his nose.

There was a low, roaring noise as the engine started and the bus rocked forward

“So Ladybug, are you nervous about singing in the show?” Scarlett asked

Lyssa took another bite of her sandwich so that she wouldn’t have to answer right away. Back at the smoke shop, she’d made it sound like she was going to sing for the show. But now she couldn’t help imagining all those people who’d be in the audience—and the way her throat would close right up when she saw them

Scarlett and her friends had said there were
hundreds
of people at the protest. How was Lyssa going to sing for all of them when she couldn’t even sing for a pig at a farmers’ market?

She frowned, swallowing her sticky sandwich. She was better off with her original plan. She couldn’t risk ruining the protest by getting stage fright in front of all of those people

“I don’t know if I’ll actually perform,” Lyssa said, stuffing the last of her sandwich in her mouth. When Scarlett raised an eyebrow, Lyssa reluctantly explained about her stage fright

“I always thought I’d be like my mom,” Lyssa said. “She could sing in front of anyone. But I just get choked up and worry that they won’t think I’m good enough. My stepdad even got me this voice recorder software stuff so that I could make demo CDs, to practice. But I still can’t sing in public.”

For a long moment Scarlett was quiet. Then she gave Lyssa a sad smile

“I know
exactly
how that feels,” Scarlett said.

“Do you get stage fright too?” Lyssa asked

“I never used to,” Scarlett said. Scarlett looked down at her fingernails, studying them carefully. “But now…well, I don’t know. The thought of facing all those people—it’s just like you said. It’s like my voice just dries up.”

“So you
are
a singer?” Lyssa asked. Her mind flashed again to the mermaid at the burlesque show, to Athena dancing across the stage at her last concert. She tried to shake the thought away. Their resemblance was a coincidence. Wasn’t it?

“I was,” Scarlett answered. “I mean, I used to be.”

“What changed?” Lyssa asked cautiously

“Life,” Scarlett said. She clenched her hands together and placed them in her lap, like she was forcing herself not to look at them. “It’s hard to sing, sometimes, when the most important people aren’t there to hear you.”

Lyssa felt a flood of understanding

“My mom died,” she blurted out. “She died before she could hear me sing onstage. You’re right—it is hard to sing when the important people aren’t there.”

Scarlett looked down at her, a strange mix of emotions flickering across her face. “My mom died, too,” she said, her voice quiet

“Really?” Lyssa knew it was a long shot, but she couldn’t help thinking about those rumors she heard about Athena…

“I have an idea,” Scarlett said, and her face became cheerful again. “Let’s make a pact, okay? Instead of worrying about what other people will think of our music, we only worry about what
we
think? After all, we don’t sing for other people. We sing for the muse, and the muse comes from within.”

“The muse comes from within…” Lyssa repeated. “Hey! That’s a line from an Athena song.”

Scarlett turned to look out the window. “Ooh! Look.”

She pointed to the blue-ribbon-colored sky just outside the bus window. Floating in the air between cotton candy clouds were red, yellow, green, and blue balloons. It looked like someone had spilled a bag of M&M’s across the sky

“It’s beautiful,” Lyssa breathed. She leaned over Scarlett’s
lap to get a better look out the window. Her breath fogged up the glass.

“It’s a balloon fiesta,” Scarlett explained. “This year, there’s a big race across the sky. People came from all over the world to compete. When I was little, my mom used to tell me I got one wish for every balloon. Want to try?”

Scarlett pointed to a bright green balloon floating through the air above them. “There’s your balloon,” she said. “Maybe you could wish for courage? So that you can perform during your show.”

Lyssa watched the green balloon bouncing among the clouds. “Do you believe in that?” she asked. “Wishes, and…and magic?”

“Of course I do!” Scarlett said. “What about you?”

Lyssa frowned. “I used to,” she said slowly. “Now I’m not so sure. My mom—my mom could always make special things happen. Magic things.” She swallowed, knowing it sounded crazy, hoping Scarlett wouldn’t make fun of her.

Scarlett put a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve got to understand, Ladybug, that magic is like love. You can’t force it. It’s unpredictable. It can be fierce and dangerous, or calm and wonderful. Magic doesn’t do what you tell it to do. It just is.”

That made sense to Lyssa. She realized her mom had never used magic to change the way things were—she just
let it float through her life like a breeze. She turned back to the balloon and made her wish. She wished that she’d actually be able to perform at the show, that she wouldn’t be scared onstage, and that somehow, her song would help save her home

“Good job, Ladybug,” Scarlett said. “You know why I’m calling you Ladybug, right?”

Lyssa shook her head