Page 34 of With a Little Luck

“Oh, please. We took art together in sixth grade, remember? You were great even then.”

“You remember my drawings from sixth grade?” I ask, stunned.

“Of course. You were the best artist in class. I was terrible. To this day I rely on stick figures.”

I’m tempted to push back on this description, to say that she’s probably better than she gives herself credit for, but … I don’t rememberherartwork from sixth grade. I barely remember her being in that class. Which is weird, because that was definitely after the fateful field trip that made me fall in love with her. Wouldn’t I have noticed her? Memorized everything she did?

“I’m sure you’re a better artist than you think,” I say.

“I’m sure I’mnot,” she counters. “But you definitely are.” She kicks me with the toe of her shoe, and I realize I’m keeping a mental tally of every time she touches me, even if it’s seemingly meaningless. Is this flirting?

No.

Maya wouldn’t.

Withme?

“Impossible,” I breathe.

She tilts her head to one side. “What?”

“Oh! Um. Getting into art school, it’s … borderline impossible. It’s really competitive.”

“That might be true,” she says thoughtfully. “But someone has to get in. So why not you?”

I grin at the argument—logical and simple.

And maybe she’s right. Especially now that I have the magic of Lundyn Toune on my side …

Why not me?

91

Chapter Twelve

Traffic gets heavy as we approach the concert hall. Police arepositioned around the intersections, guiding cars and pedestrians. But rather than pulling into the parking garage with the rest of the vehicles, the limo turns toward the stadium and pulls up to a security checkpoint. Maya and I can’t hear what passes between the driver and the security guard, but a second later we’re pulling through.

The limo stops outside a set of nondescript metal doors, unremarkable except for the sandwich board that reads VIPentranceand the man with the clipboard and headset standing in front of them.

The driver opens the door for us. As we emerge from the limo, Maya takes my arm and I can feel her energy like static electricity. The sun is setting behind the stadium, casting us in shadow, but the sky overhead is glowing pink. Even though the guy with the clipboard looks like he could snap my whole body like a pencil, he smiles when I give him my name.

His pen slashes through a line on the clipboard. “Have a good time,” he says, pulling open the door.

We enter a dull corridor lit by retina-burning fluorescents. “I’ve never been somewhere with an actual bouncer before,” I say.

“Right?” says Maya, keeping her voice low even though no one else is around. “This is so cool.”

We head down the hallway, following the sound of chatter and music. Not Sadashiv’s music, but quiet instrumental jazz. The hall curves to the left, and we come upon a set of open doors, where a crowd of a hundred92people or so has gathered. A buffet table against one wall boasts platters of cheese and grapes, and a bartender in the corner is pouring white wine into plastic cups.

We stand in the doorway for a moment. We are by far the youngest people in the room, and I’m hit with a strong sense of …notbelonging.

I swallow hard. “Are you thirsty?”

“I’m okay,” says Maya. “I’d be too scared of spilling on myself, right before meeting Sadashiv. Oh my god, Jude, are we really about to meet Sadashiv? I’m so nervous!” She turns to me with a look that is supposed to be anxious, maybe, but is beyond adorable. My heart twinges.

“You know, my little sister Penny plays the violin. Has for years,” I say. “And she always gets really nervous before a recital, so a couple years ago, I told her that when she goes onstage, she just needs to pretend that she’s a Level 12 wizard walking into a room full of goblins. You know that you’re powerful enough to vanquish them all with, like, one spell if you want to. But you don’t have to, and it would be a waste of a perfectly good Meteor Swarm spell, so instead you can just … charm them. And they’ll fall in love with you, because they can’t help it.”

Maya stares at me, her face unreadable.

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