There was no way I could handle having snobby Royals as my passengers. Since Carlo could be a Royal and might be offended by this sentiment, I didn’t say this out loud.

Perhaps my true feelings showed on my face, because after a short while, Carlo said, “Probably not a good idea.” It was almost as if he had read my mind. He leaned forward and whispered in a conspiratorial tone, “There are a lot of vexing people around here—some might even call them assholes.” I couldn’t help laughing, and his eyes lit up, knowing he was the source of my amusement. “Anyway, it’s your dream, Avery—you can be and do whatever you want. You just have to have enough courage and willpower to pursue it.”

“What about you? What do you want to be?”

“I want to be a teacher.”

“What kind of teacher? Math? Biology? High school or college?”

“High school teacher, and yes, you guessed right, I want to teach math. I love math, and I want to break the perception that it’s a boring or tough subject.”

“Good luck with that. With the math mark on my report card, I won’t be changing my mind about that subject any time soon.”

“I’ll take that as a challenge,” he said. “Are you nervous about this whole thing? You’re preparing for your first Gathering, right?”

“Yeah.” It took a while for me to find my voice again, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. If Bryan were still here, I wouldn’t be going through any of this. My heart ached as the memories of Bryan came flooding back to me. I looked up, trying to keep my tears from spilling. A soft, warm hand cupped mine.

“You lost someone you love.”

It was more of a statement than a question, but I answered it nonetheless as I shook my head. “I lost someone who loved me. I didn’t have time to figure out my own feelings. But I think I lost my chance at happiness.”

“Do you think this person was the one?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged helplessly. “We aren’t supposed to know until we have a click, are we not?”

“Yes. We have to have a click to know for sure.” A look of disappointment flashed across his face. “This year will be my fourth Gathering, but I still haven’t met my other half. We just have to trust the Fates, I guess.”

The Fates. The mention of them got me frustrated in an instant.

“Don’t you get tired of waiting? You’ve wasted four years waiting for your soul mate.” He looked like he was about to interject in protest, but decided to simply clamp his mouth shut and listen. “What if you don’t meet your soul mate again this year? What if next year you don’t either? And the year after that?”