Jaden picked up the one in front of me. "A bit."

"I tried to tell her that that wasn't a very nice one," said Amy, moving in to my left. "She seems to like it anyways."

Jaden fingered it carefully, then flipped it around a few times in his hand. "Well, Evelyn has a way of seeing things other people don't." He stopped it by the blade and held it in front of me. "You wanna get it?" His voice was soft.

I looked up, body melting. He smiled down knowingly.

In that moment I couldn't have been more in lo- Stop, Evelyn.

I took it weakly, strength lost, then looked down.

"We'll take it," said Jaden, glancing back up towards Amy.

She moved back. "Great. I'll just . . . go ring it up for you." She grabbed it from me, the sudden irritation in her tone quite obvious.

By the time she'd disappeared around the corner, my heart was beating uncontrollably. I can't believe what I'd just thought . . . and now I was alone with him. In this state I was likely to say something I shouldn't.

. . . Evelyn. He called me Evelyn and it sounded wrong. I didn't realize it till now . . . that he still calls me, "Eve . . ." I whispered.

He looked down. "What?"

I thought about all the times . . . then turned up. "Eve. You never stopped calling me Eve." My eyes were intense. His were too.

His jaw clenched for a moment, but then he forced a slight smirk. "Don't you like Eve better?"

My chest rose . . . and his smirk fell. I didn't really care in that moment what was smart or not.

I took a breath. "Jaden, I-"

"Evelyn, are you back here?"

My head cleared immediately at the voice. I looked down, shaking it.

Ikovos came around the corner shortly. "There you are. Oh. You're back too?" He looked to Jaden whose eyes were still on me. I caught them once, curious and hesitant, then his head turned.

"Yeah. . . . I came to tell you we have a problem."

Ikovos glanced at me oddly, then back. "What is it?"

"I went to get the parts for the socket, but most of them were special order. The earliest they can be here is tomorrow."

"Did you-"

"No one else had them."

Ikovos nodded.

I took a slight breath, trying to keep up, but still recovering somewhat from what had just happened.

"Well, what are you thinking?"

Jaden shrugged. "I ordered all the parts either way. But I know Master Boron needs them pretty bad. I think we should just stay here an extra day."

Ikovos considered, nodding once. "It's probably is the best idea." He looked at me. "Evelyn, would that bother you, if we stayed?"

I shook my head quickly. "Oh, no. That's fine. I'll just go with the flow."

Ikovos looked back to Jaden. "Okay, sounds good. Ah . . . I still have to check the mail at the tavern. We'll get the room there too."

Jaden pursed his lips. "Slight problem."

Ikovos narrowed. "Another one?"

Jaden eyed him. "It cost quite a bit extra to express order the parts."

"We don't have money for a room?" guessed Ikovos.

Jaden's head rocked. "We have some, just not enough to stay in the usual place. We'll have to go further downtown."

They both looked at me, though I couldn't think of any particular reason why. I was mostly trying to figure out why Jaden had bought that knife for me when they were already running so low on money.

Ikovos sighed lightly. "I suppose that's fine. We should look for a place now, I don't want to be wandering around when it gets dark."

Jaden nodded.

My eyes narrowed. The comment brought up a very upsetting rule I used to have to follow. "I don't understand. What difference does it make whether it's dark or not? I've never gotten that idea. You know, until I was fifteen I wasn't allowed to walk to town by myself at night. What's so unsafe about it?"

Both boys eyed me derisively.

"How are you still alive?" asked Jaden after a moment. Ikovos just shook his head.

My brow narrowed. "Hey, I-"

Jaden rolled his eyes and started off out of the room. "This is gonna be an interesting night."

"No kidding," added Ikovos, following behind.

I did the same. "Come on, you guys already said that earlier!"

After paying for the knife and repeatedly attempting to get the boys to explain what was so treacherous about night time, we started down the road in search for a cheap place to spend the night.

Now that I'd seen how swoony Amy had been over Ikovos and Jaden, I started to pay closer attention to the girls around us as we walked by. With the number of gawkers I could hardly believe I'd missed it before.

I studied Ikovos and Jaden covertly while they talked back and forth. They both looked quite different, but, well . . . Since meeting them, I'd considered them exceptionally handsome. Still, it was just a fact that I hadn't really seen that many boys in my lifetime, living in a small town and all. I half owned my opinion up to my own ignorance.

Now, looking around this city, passing probably a hundred guys already since this morning, it obviously wasn't just me. They were exceptional and all the girls we passed knew it.

My eyes scrunched a bit.

"How much for that one?" asked Jaden, nodding to Ikovos who had just walked out of another inn.

"Too much," he answered.

"Great," mumbled Jaden.

"Further down then?"

Jaden looked around distastefully.

The area was beginning to deteriorate at a rapid rate. Not so bad, just . . . somewhat trashier streets, older shops, crack here and there along the much more sporadic pavement. The buildings were also getting more cramped, almost like an alley.

"A little further," he finally said, and we started on.

"So,' started Ikovos, "now that we have some extra time, what should we do the rest of the night?"

I didn't answer.

After a while Jaden shrugged. "Find an inn."

Ikovos gave him a sideways look. "That's no fun. Evelyn's never been to a big city before, we should think of something."

It was quiet for a second, then Jaden nodded back to me. "Well, what do you want to do?"

I felt a little awkward, but thought about it dutifully. "Well . . . ah . . . I liked the ramen a lot. . . ."

They both smiled. Ikovos looked like he was about to say something, but a loud cry ahead interrupted him.

"Come one, come all! Step up for your chance at a one-hundred cash prize."

Huh?

"Well this sounds promising."

That was Jaden. Both boys had their eyes fixed forward to a large crowd stopped around something in the center square.

"Our current champion has reigned through the last six matches. Does no one have the courage to fight him for the win?"

Jaden started to walk forward, Ikovos too.

"We're going in there?" I asked incredulously.

Ikovos just grabbed my hand. "Stay close."

Great, that answers my question.

We pushed through the group as the announcer continued. "Fantastic! We have a contender. Now, sir, if you'll take a seat. . . . We'll begin in three, two, -" The one was drowned out by a loud cry from the crowd.

As we moved deeper, things were getting more cramped. Luckily we reached an opening from which Jaden was already looking on speculatively.

I followed his gaze.

From what I could see there was a table with two men on either side, hands gripped and elbows down.

"Arm wrestling?" I muttered.

"Oh, yeah. This'll do nicely," said Ikovos with a grin.

Jaden smirked.

I looked to the spectacle, then back at the boys. "What are you guys talking about?"

Ikovos released my hand to take off the pack hanging over his shoulder.

My head shook. I pointed off. "You aren't actually thinking of doing that, are you?"

He shrugged. "Why not?"

I looked at the table. One of the men had just slammed the other's into the wood top, the one the announcer had named the reigning champion. The guy was huge, like . . . huge.

I studied Ikovos who was wearing a ribbed, white, t-shirt. He was muscular, yeah, but not that big.

"Ikovos, I don't think that you could beat that guy."

He stepped forward, grinning back at me. "If you want we could have you do it." He was serious.

My head shook confusedly. He just walked towards the table.

"Ikovos!"

A hand grabbed my arm from behind me. It was Jaden. He looked at me calmly. "Just watch." Then turned his eyes turned forward.

I still didn't think this was a good idea, but . . . I don't think I stood much of a chance against both of them.

I turned back ahead in time to see the announcer climb back to his high post.

"And our champion still reigns! Will anyone challenge him? Or will he be the winner of the tournament?"

Ikovos reached the edge about this time, dropping under the railing smoothly.

The announcer eyed him, climbing down to converse. He made a couple dubious looks throughout, but eventually hopped back up to announce the new challenger.

An hour later, to the disbelief of me and the majority of the crowd -Ikovos had defeated twelve men in succession.

I'd realized after the first impossible victory that he was using magic to assist. Jaden confirmed this. As he went on the crowds grew, but the challengers lessened. The announcer was now trying to get more men to take on Ikovos.

"Isn't this sort of like cheating?" I whispered, leaning in towards Jaden.