Page 71 of Save a Wish

“The graphics on this game are insane!” Melvin hollered when all four of our avatars were plunged into a sea and ended up in an underwater city full of merfolk.

“It’s a Carter Bennett game.” I swam my way over to a cave. “That dude always has the sickest designs.”

My three gaming buddies all voiced their agreement. If a game had Carter Bennett’s name on it, we were playing it. No exceptions. The dude was talented and local. He lived over in Maplehaven and one of these days I’d get up the nerve to go there, find him, and fanboy like crazy.

We continued exploring and playing and figuring out the logistics of the new game until Zia paused the play and all of our screens switched to our faces.

“Sorry, boys,” she said. “It’s three o’clock and I’ve got a shift at the hospital tonight. Gotta get a few hours of sleep before I become Super Nurse. I have the next two days off after that though so let’s get another gaming session on the schedule, okay?”

We all agreed and one by one left the game. I still had an hour before heading over to Sadie’s to pick her up for our costume supply shopping today, but maybe she’d be open to beginning that fun now. Why wait to see her if I could enjoy her company sooner?

I picked up my phone and saw a text from Darius to all of us Hartley siblings and subsequent replies. I must have missed them while lost in the video game realm with my pals.

Darius: Jimmy sent me a text asking to meet with us.

Logan: About?

Darius: No idea. I told him I’d check with you all to find a time.

The texts that followed were my remaining siblings discussing their availability for and apprehension about this meeting.

Me: I can make any time work.

And I had a feeling I knew why Jimmy wanted to meet and why he’d contacted the oldest Hartley male to organize it, but I kept that to myself for now. Then I opened my photos, preparing to send Sadie a picture I’d taken of this massive sunflower in one of our gardens on the property, but my gaze landed on the photo of that cloak I’d seen in Sadie’s closet a few nights ago.

I’d forgotten about the cloak and its crest. Probably because Sadie had done a damn fine job of distracting me with that body of hers that night. We’d enjoyed our Bear Belly Tavern takeout and the gingerbread cookies Sadie had baked for me. Then we’d enjoyed a movie together all snuggled up in her bed where we’d eventually fallen asleep in each other’s arms.

Best way to fall asleep, by the way. I was hoping that was how tonight would end as well.

I tapped on the photo of the cloak and enlarged the crest so I could see its details again. I sent the image to my computer then conducted a search on the crest. Within moments, an AI summary about a country called Verdalach came up on the screen.

“A tiny island country to the north of Ireland that has remained largely unexplored. Monarch government, currently ruled by King Conall Síomóin and Queen Eithne Síomóin,” I read aloud. I clicked a link at the end of the summary and was taken to a news article that had a picture of the king and queen.

And their daughter.

I jolted out of my gaming chair, sending it rolling a few feet behind me into the middle of the room.

“Holy shit!”

On the screen was a red-haired, green-eyed beauty. Sadie. My Sadie. Sadie Rodgers.

Only she wasn’t Sadie Rodgers.

She was apparently . . . I squinted at the screen, scanning the text under her picture. “Princess Aislinn Síomóin of Verdalach.”

I stared at her photo with my fists curling at my sides while my brain fought against the possibility that Sadie and this princess were the same person. It couldn’t be.

And yet . . . the two of them were identical. In their red hair. In their green eyes. In their freckles. In the way they stood.

In their goddamn auras.

I clamped my eyes shut, but the word liar flashed repeatedly behind my lids like a strobe light.

All this fucking time, Sadie had been lying. She’d been pretending to be Sadie. She’d heard me lament over the dating app chicks who filled their profiles with lies and had gone ahead and lied. Right to my face.

For weeks now!

Liar, liar, liar.