One True Wish by Lauren Kate

Author:Lauren Kate
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Published: 2023-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

Van

How long should we let her sleep?” Gem asked.

“What if she doesn’t wake up?” Marley asked.

“What if she’s already dead?” Birdie asked.

“Don’t say that!” Gem said.

“Do you think she dropped the bracelet on purpose?” Van asked. “For us?”

For a moment, they were quiet. Then Gem shook her head. “She said she’d start granting wishes once she woke up.”

“If she were well enough to do that,” Birdie said, “don’t you think she would have already?”

“I think we should help her,” Van said. “Her friend’s in danger, and we don’t know how much time we have, how often these Centennial Solstices take place in her star system.”

“But we also have no idea how the bracelet works,” Gem said.

“We have no idea how it works yet…” Van picked up the bracelet. They couldn’t believe how heavy it was, how many charms it held. There must have been thousands of them, tiny intricate golden baubles, each representing a wish. Each belonging to a kid.

Fine details were etched into the gold. There was a snake with a diamond pattern on its scales. A key that looked like it could open a very tiny door. A pine tree with detailed needles, a cloud with a fluffy texture, a rose with a dense whorl of petals. There was a pair of dice, a near-perfect miniature of the one that came with Van’s Monopoly board.

Van thought about the student body at Wonder Middle School, all the people they hadn’t made friends with this year. Kids they’d written off for various offenses. Too mean, too straight, too self-absorbed. They’d done it without realizing, because it was easier than carrying all that rejection on their back. But something about this bracelet, these charms, made Van feel for all those kids they’d never liked. It made them seem more human.

They sat down and fished through the charms. The others joined them in a circle around Phoebe. And then, in the midst of that jumble of gold, Van saw the dart.

They held it between their fingers to study it. The three-pronged flight, the narrow shaft and crosshatched barrel, the point so sharp Van pricked themself, sucking in their breath. So much like Caro’s dart, the one inside Van’s jumpsuit pocket. A funny feeling came over them. It was a good feeling. A sureness. Like they were doing something right.

“Van?” Gem said.

“I think…” They felt a tremor in their hand as they tugged lightly at the dart.

It slipped off the chain.

The others gasped. At first, Van thought they’d broken the bracelet. But then, they discovered two things:

First, the bracelet was still intact, the other charms all still bound by their golden band.

Second, when Van had plucked the dart free, a second chain had appeared, grown out of the dart’s flight.

There were now two golden bracelets. The original with thousands of charms—and a second, larger chain with one. Van sensed that the dart chain was theirs. Their wish? Could it be?

They glanced at the fairy, so gray, so still. Should they be doing this?

They were trying to help, Van told themself.

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