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Back The Wild Ones Save as PDF
Chapters (61)
  1. Cover
  2. PRAISE FOR The Wild Ones
  3. Title Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. The Beginning, or How Paheli Became the First Wild One; With a Cameo by Taraana, the Boy Made of Stars.
  7. An Introduction; Hold On to Your Hats.
  8. The Sweetness in the Sugarcane, or The Impractical Nature of Immortality
  9. Paheli: The Vagrant Experiences of a Mango Addict
  10. Cotton Candy Sugar Screams
  11. From the Book of MEMORIES
  12. “Will You Walk into My Parlor?” Said the Spider to the Fly.
  13. The Best Ice Cream in the World, Teddy Bears, and a Tree Creature.
  14. From the Book of MEMORIES
  15. I.
  16. The Reappearance of the Boy Made of Stars and the Plight of the Girl by the Oleander Lane.
  17. Paheli: An Interlude in Blue
  18. Besieged in the Between
  19. Tea, the City of Stairs, and the Story of a Boy
  20. From the Book of MEMORIES
  21. Heartbreak, Stone Buildings, and Tandoori
  22. Observations, Conversations, and Hot Parantha
  23. Paheli: The Spies Who Came In from the Between
  24. From the Book of MEMORIES
  25. The French Quarter, the Spanish Half, and Eulalie
  26. Paheli: The Eggplant Overture
  27. Sunny Jelly Beans, Po’Boys, and “Alouette”
  28. From the Book of MEMORIES
  29. The Keeper of the Green and the Mysteries of Magic
  30. Blood and the Between
  31. The Library of the Lost and the Stories of the Silenced
  32. Walking in Wicked Ways or The Importance of Balık Ekmek
  33. From the Book of MEMORIES
  34. Looking for the Needle in the Haystack
  35. Paheli: The Peculiar Crackle in the Electricity
  36. Ten Degrees Past Despair
  37. The Fault in the Stars
  38. The Blue City in the Mountains
  39. Paheli: Disharmony in the Attics
  40. From the Book of MEMORIES
  41. Paheli: Continued
  42. The Politics of a Body, the Politics of Pleasure
  43. The Medina, the Riad, and the Red City
  44. Paheli: The Atlas Mountains, the Cozy Rooftop, and the Confession, Possibly of Love
  45. From the Book of MEMORIES
  46. Souks, Spices, and Survival: A Guide into Chaos
  47. Jemaa el-Fna: The Mosque at the End of the World
  48. Paheli: A Moment in Chartreuse
  49. From the Book of MEMORIES
  50. Paheli: On the Frailties of the Heart
  51. Sonagi, or A Sudden Rain
  52. Paheli: The Cheese in the Trap
  53. Paheli: The Maze and the Minotaur
  54. A New Era, a New Dar; the River Sings
  55. The Burning Door, the Fallen City, and Taraana 2.0
  56. Paheli: The Beginning of Forever
  57. From the Book of MEMORIES
  58. Moving One Rock at a Time Will Eventually Move a Mountain, aka Goodbye
  59. Acknowledgments
  60. More from the Author
  61. About the Author

He shakes his head immediately. “Not Assi. It was Jam, someone she rescued. He told me… told me…” Taraana shakes his head and stops talking. “I ran into the Between to lead them away from her. She can fight better when I’m not around her, and plus, I thought they’d all follow me.”

“Did they?” Paheli asks.

He shakes his head. He licks his lips, then gasps when it stings. “No. She… She…” His eyes are shiny and he is breathing in short, shallow gasps. “I don’t even know if she’s still alive. She’s the closest thing to a family I have, and I can’t even go back to her.” He shakes.

Paheli slips her arms around him, and he stands rigidly in her embrace before his control wavers and he crumples. We support his weight as he cries racking sobs that shake his slight frame. He might have cried for a minute or many, but finally his sobs taper off and he lifts his head, his cheeks stained by a blush and his eyes lowered.

We do not say anything more. Nothing that will break his eggshell composure. Instead we resume walking until we reach the door to the next city. Valentina reaches out to open it, but for some reason the doorknob won’t turn, and when it does, the door won’t open. She pulls at it, exerting all her force without being able to open it. Finally, Taraana reaches out and tries, and, confounding all of us, the door opens up easily, revealing our destination on the other side.

II.

New Orleans, Louisiana. Also known as NOLA, the Big Easy, and Nawlins. You may have heard of it. The books say it was founded in 1718 and named after Philippe II, the Duke of Orléans. Like all good cities, it has a complicated history replete with revolutions, war, and hurricanes.

The city’s magical history is just as complex, and we have barely scratched the surface of it. Here is what we know:

The magic pours off the pavements here. It is strong, sticky, and lasting. You breathe the magic in and you breathe it out. It keeps you warm on winter nights and cool during summer days. New Orleans is not the only city in the world that has an influx of magic, but it is one of the more accessible ones, and so creatures who live in the middle world crowd it, hoping to get as much of the magic as possible.