Endlessly
Kiersten White
When your world is paranormal, be glad that you’re human… The breathtaking conclusion to the bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy, which left Hush, Hush author Becca Fitzpatrick exclaiming, “I’m in love!”After the shocking revelations about her parents and the faeries’ struggle for possession of her soul, all Evie wants is to spend a normal Christmas with her shapeshifter boyfriend Lend. But as usual things don’t turn out as planned for Evie, as suddenly the International Paranormal Containment Agency, the local paranormals and her faery ex-boyfriend Reth are all in need, and only Evie and her powers can save them. Once again… so much for normal.
Dedication
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Pink Goes with Everything
Barking Mad
The Shortest Day of the Year
Glamourous Parties
Winter Soulstice
Old Flames
Found and Lost
Shocking Encounters
New Jewelry
Sparks Fly
Havoc
Rainbows and Butterflies
Holding Hands with Boys
Dance, Dance Revolutions
Bundles of Joy
Happy Pills
What’s in a Name?
Power Nap
Eau De Faerie
I Need a Little Space
Deck the Sterile White Halls
In the Absence of Ruby Slippers
Plan T
Picture Imperfect
Eavesdropping and Reading Notes
Ice, Ice, Baby
Double Dating Disappointments
More Monsters in the Dark
Dream Date
You Can’t Change Me
You’d Think They’d Never Seen an Invisible Boy Before
Sweaty Mess
Kind of a Big Deal
Dude, for Serious
Jack is Clever, Jack is Good
Bread Basket Cases
Possibly Impossible
A Lot Strange
You Can’t Borrow My Clothes, Either
Light and Dark
Daddy Issues
We’re Not Dawn Yet
Miss You Faerie Much
Never Forever
Acknowledgments
Praise
Other Books by Kiersten White
Copyright
About the Publisher
Here’s the thing about dragons: I know absolutely nothing whatsoever about them.
Which made my task to scare raccoons out of the alley behind the diner much more complicated. Instead of the mini masked bandits, I was greeted by a pale, serpentine body with feathers raised like spikes along its spine and shoulders. Its face was almost wolfish, a long snout cut by two thick tusks jutting out and curling up over the lips. Oh, and claws. Sharp claws. “You are not a raccoon,” I whispered.
“Nae, child, I am no wee beast.” The air tasted like charcoal as its voice slid out, high and smooth and ageless, momentarily shocking me even more than the fact that there was a dragon hanging around behind the trash cans. It talked. Well, of course it talked, Evie. Because really, what kind of self-respecting, trash can–scrabbling mythical dragon wouldn’t talk? I was equal parts terrified and annoyed. But at least the dragon didn’t smell as bad as unicorns.
Then again, unicorns were herbivores.
It breathed in deeply, a golden glow growing in its chest. For once I didn’t think that light was related to its soul. Not soul; definitely fire. I didn’t have time to dash back through the door and close it before being roasted—nor did I like the door’s odds against a dragon. I could make a break for it down the alley, but I had no idea how fast this creature was. I decided on honesty. “Are you going to eat me?” I asked.
“Is that your desire?”
“Not really, no. The Winter Formal is coming up, and it’s not going to plan itself, so this is kind of a bad time for me. Can we reschedule?” I took a step back. People used to fight dragons, right? I could do this. All I needed was a full suit of armor. And a sword. Or a mace. Or some Mace.
The door opened behind me, flooding the alley with light from the kitchen, and I yelped in relief.
“There you are,” Nona said. She nodded to the dragon.
“You two know each other?” Why did this surprise me? Of course the resident tree spirit would know the talking dragon hanging out in the alley, just like she knew every other weird paranormal recently lurking about town. And I had no doubt that this meeting, too, would go entirely unexplained.
I so needed to get a new job.
“Evelyn, I have served your friends milk shakes. Please enjoy your evening.” Smiling placidly at me, Nona walked out past the dragon toward the end of the alley where the forest pushed up against the town. The dragon fixed one gleaming, dark pink eye on me, then winked.
Forget a new job. I needed to get a new town.
A breeze blew past me in a massive gust, flinging my hair into my mouth. The dragon took a few graceful hops, then slid like a snake through the air after Nona.
“Fabulous,” I muttered, going into the kitchen and shutting—then locking—the door. “Glad Nona has another new friend.” Taking a deep breath to clear my sinuses of the lingering smell of smoke, I squared my shoulders and walked into the main part of the diner. I just faced off against a dragon and came away char free. I was ready to fight.
“Now,” I said, sitting down at the corner booth and glaring at the five other teenagers there, “who says pink isn’t a good color scheme for this dance?”
I threw my binder of materials down on our apartment’s tired floral couch. “Seriously, pink is a neutral color! And what’s elegant about navy blue? No one ever says, ‘Hey, you know what’s elegant? The Navy!’”
Arianna rolled her dead eyes. “There is nothing neutral about pink. They need a color that looks good as a background to any shade of dress.”
“What color clashes with pink?”
“Orange?”
“Well, if anyone shows up in an orange dress, she deserves to clash. Yuck.”
“Chill out. You can do a lot with navy.”
I sank down into the couch next to her. “I guess. I could do navy with silver accents. Stars?”
“Yawn.”
“Snowflakes?”
“Gee, now you’re getting creative for a winter formal.”
I ignored her tone, as usual. I was just glad she was here. She’d been gone a lot lately. “Hmm … maybe something softer. Like a water and mist theme?” I asked.
“I … actually kind of like that.”
“Wanna help me with the sketches?”
She leaned forward and turned on Easton Heights. “Decorating a stupid dance is all yours. You’re the one who decided to be more involved in your ‘normal’ life. I’d prefer to be sleeping eternally six feet under.”
“This is probably a bad time to mention I also might have signed up to help with costumes for the spring play. And since I know nothing about sewing, I kind of maybe signed you up as a volunteer aide.”
She sighed, running one glamoured corpse hand through her spiky red and black hair. “I am going to kill you in your sleep.”
“As long as it doesn’t hurt.”
We hummed along to the opening theme, which ended when the door banged open and my boyfriend walked through, shrugging out of his coat and beaming as he dropped a duffel bag. “Free! What did I miss?” Lend asked, his cheeks rosy from the cold and his smile lighting up his water eyes beneath his dark glamour ones.
“I lost the vote on color schemes for the dance, the last episode of Easton Heights before they go into reruns is back on in three minutes, and Arianna is going to murder me in my sleep.”
“As long as it doesn’t hurt.”
“That’s what I said!”
Lend scooped me into his arms, turning around and sitting back down on the couch with me in his lap. This Christmas break of his couldn’t have come soon enough. After the crazy events of last month—including but not limited to finding out that my father was a faerie, being abandoned in the Faerie Paths by a vengeful Jack, and finally finding my way back to Lend—we needed some time together to relax. I’d figured out that this was the only answer I needed about my life. No more worrying about how much time I’d have, no more fretting over what I was or wasn’t. What I was was here, now. And happy.
“Anything else?” he asked, playing with my hair.
“Oh, yeah, there’s a dragon in the alley behind the diner, hanging out with Nona.”
Lend frowned at me, his warm fingers lingering on the back of my neck. “And this gets a mention after the color scheme for a dance and a new episode of a teen soap?”
“Priorities, Lend. Priorities.”
My IPCA communicator beeped from the coffee table during a commercial, earning me an icy glare from Arianna. “If it goes off during dialogue, I will smash it to pieces.”
“Sorry! I told Raquel to call on my actual cell. The one that is cute and pink and has a cool ringtone instead of an annoying beep. Not like I can do anything for IPCA now anyway.”
“That whole lack-of-faerie-transportation thing does kind of make it pointless.” Lend tried not to sound too happy about it, but I knew he was secretly thrilled.
I wasn’t sure how to feel. It had been nice to be involved with Raquel again, and I didn’t mind helping out in the ways that I wanted to with IPCA. But I wouldn’t travel anywhere with a faerie. A very small part of me was curious to see if I could use the Faerie Paths on my own now. But that part was very, very small, and all the other parts of me thought that part was crazy and wanted to beat it up. I was never going back into that inky, empty darkness.
My communicator beeped again, and Arianna gave it such a death look that I snatched it from the table and ran back to my room before she could put it into early retirement.
“Raquel, honestly! Just call on my cell!” I answered.
“Evelyn,” a strong voice that was definitely not Raquel said.
“I— Who is this?”
“Anne-Laurie LeFevre, Supervisor. Raquel’s no longer over you; you will report to me.”
“I’ll what?”
“From now on I will be your supervising authority with IPCA. We need to discuss your schedule and reform the current arrangement. There are several infractions that need to be addressed as well.”
“Whoa—first things first, I’m not with IPCA. So you are not my Supervisor or my authority or whatever. Second of all, I work with Raquel. Only Raquel. Does she know about this? I want to talk to her.”
“Raquel isn’t available; she’s been reassigned.”
“Well, so have I. To my life. So thanks but no thanks, and don’t call back.” I disconnected and glared at my communicator. Which beeped—again. I ignored the incoming line and dialed Raquel, but the call didn’t go through; maybe she was busy with her reassignment, whatever that meant. I’d have to get ahold of her to find out what the crap was up with IPCA. When I went back to work for them, we all agreed it was on a contract basis and I could leave whenever I wanted. Apparently someone hadn’t gotten the memo. Raquel would take care of it, though.
“Evie! Commercial is over!” Arianna yelled. Frowning, I shoved my communicator into my trusty sock drawer.
Lend stood up, shouldering his duffel bag, as I walked back into the living room. “Where do you think you’re going?” I snatched his coat away and held it. He just got here. There was no way I was letting him go anywhere else.
“I happen to have very important things to do.”
“What on earth is more important than watching Easton Heights?”
“Christmas shopping for you?”
I dropped the coat into his arms and opened the door. “Take your time.”
“Glad to know I’ll be missed.”
“Have fun!” I leaned up and kissed him hard, then shoved him out and sat back on the couch with a sloppy smile on my face. “Best boyfriend ever.”
“Shut. Up. Now.” Arianna didn’t move, eyes fixed on the television. A firm knock sounded on the door. “And tell Lend he can just walk in already!”
“Did you forget something?” I said as I opened the door, surprised to see a short black woman in a suit. And not Lend pretending to be one, either. Definitely just a woman, no glamour. “Umm, hi?” That was when I noticed the man standing to the side behind her. The man who, beneath the glamour, was a faerie.
“Evelyn,” the woman said, in a voice I instantly recognized from our phone conversation. Oh, bleep no. Not here, not now, not with my best vampire friend sitting right there on the couch. This was the last place I wanted anyone from IPCA other than Raquel.
I straightened my shoulders and fixed Anne-Whatever Whatever with an icy glare. “I’m sorry, did I say it was okay for you to come here? Because last time I checked, I don’t work for you anymore. In fact, wait.”
I stalked back to my room and grabbed my communicator. “Here,” I said, shoving it into her hands. “I won’t be needing this. When I said I will only talk to Raquel, I meant, I will only talk to Raquel. Feel free to pass that along. And if you ever use a faerie to come to my home again, I will tase you both.”
I slammed the door in her face, then put both hands over my mouth in panic. IPCA. Here. Pretty much the epicenter of free paranormals in the United States. Regardless of the reforms they’d undergone, I did not want them paying any attention whatsoever to my town. Or to my swarming-with-paranormals diner. How did they know where I was? Raquel wouldn’t have told them. Would she? No. Never. I needed to call David right now. I needed to talk to Raquel to figure out what the bleep was going on. And I needed to make sure that Arianna never got fitted with an ankle tag.
“What did she want?” Arianna’s tough voice betrayed a hint of fear.
“I don’t know,” I whispered, my heart still racing as I stared at the closed door and willed it to stay that way.
Pouting again?” Vivian and I sat on our usual dark hillside, but it seemed darker than normal, the stars winking out one by one as I watched.
“Hmm? Oh, no. Just worried about the usual. Weird stuff going on with paranormals. IPCA being obnoxious. Did you know dragons are real?”
She snorted. “You really should give the whole coma thing a shot. It makes life much less complicated. In fact, the only complicated thing here is you.”
“As tempting as a coma sounds, I’d miss out on all the snuggling parts of life. I like those.”
“Fine,” she said, sighing. “It’s lonely here between visits, though.”
I leaned my head on her shoulder. “I know. What’s up with the stars?”
“I haven’t the foggiest. Does it feel warmer to you?”
The last star winked out.
The Vivian dream faded to blackness.
The next morning, disappointed I hadn’t had a chance to recap the most recent episodes of Easton Heights for my comatose sister, I snuck out past Lend. He was asleep on the floral couch, having passed out sometime in the wee hours of the morning. He’d insisted on staying the night and keeping watch in case anyone from IPCA showed up again. Tasey, my hot pink and rhinestone-covered Taser, looked kind of ridiculous still clutched in his hands. We’d have to get him a matching one, maybe in electric blue.
I didn’t think that a midnight attack was IPCA’s style; it was weird for them to show up here, yeah, but they weren’t the sneak-around-in-the-night type. They were the slowly-suck-the-soul-from-you-with-the-bureaucracy type. Even if they were restructuring again (which wouldn’t be shocking, given that they’d lost most of the senior members during Reth’s postfreedom revenge spree), it’d be a while before anything actually happened policywise. I’ve been around long enough to understand how international government agencies work. It doesn’t matter if they’re regulating the transportation of goods like socks or the transportation of mythical creatures like pixies. Papers, more papers, forms, documents, signatures, lawyers—trust me, the whole thing is scarier than a vampire with a slicked-back widow’s peak.
Which wasn’t to say that I didn’t feel a little bit nervous, but Raquel would know what was going on. She’d fix it.
David had just forwarded me a text from her saying she would meet me at our café in thirty minutes. He didn’t have more specifics, and I figured she meant the Jitterbug Café we talked in after my troll encounter this October. How David had gotten ahold of her I didn’t know. Since when were they texting buddies?
It’d take me at least forty-five minutes to get to the café, assuming I made the next bus. Lend would give me a ride if I woke him up and asked, but he’d gotten so little sleep last night, and I didn’t think I could deal with his attitude toward Raquel on top of all the other worries. They never got along.
I resisted the urge to sit and stare at Lend while he slept; when he dreamed, instead of his eyes moving behind his eyelids, his whole glamour shifted appearances like a stop-motion film. It was fascinating and wildly entertaining sometimes—also a bit freaky considering I showed up constantly.
I nearly ran over Grnlllll as I burst through the door into the diner. “What are you still doing here?” I asked, before seeing Nona swishing around the red tables, which were populated by several paranormals, including Kari and Donna, the resident selkies. “You were supposed to evacuate!”
When I told David about my non-Raquel IPCA visitor last night, he had made a snap decision to get all the paranormals out of town. I supported this, although it was harder than I’d expected to motivate Arianna to pack and leave. Finally she said she’d go to David’s secluded house, wanting to be around in case we needed help. But these paranormals had no reason to be here.
“Nona, you all need to leave! IPCA knows I’m here, which means they might know you’re all here, too!”
Nona smiled at me, waving a hand like a branch disturbed by the wind. “IPCA poses no threat to us.”
I ran my fingers through my ponytail, torn. I needed to book it to meet Raquel in time, but I needed to convince them to leave, too. I had no idea what IPCA would do taggingwise with a huldra, a gnome, two selkies, and, well, whatever those three mournfully beautiful but kind of scary-looking women with long black hair sitting—floating?—in the corner were.
“No, really, they might be a problem. Just go somewhere else until we figure out what’s up with IPCA. It’s probably nothing. Hopefully it’s nothing. But until we know for sure, I need to know you’re all safe.”
“Dear child,” Nona said, smiling warmly and taking my face in both her hands. She leaned forward and brushed my forehead with her moss-green lips. “Soon.”
She backed away and I frowned, adding her affection to the ever-growing list of Suspicious Things Nona Does, then pulled out my phone and looked at the time. “Crap! I missed the bus.”
Kari fixed her impossibly big, round brown eyes on me. “Do you want a ride? We can give you a ride! Anywhere! Fast!”
“You have a car?”
She and Donna barked their matching laughs. Torn, I looked back at Nona, who was calmly wiping the long barstool-lined counter. “We’ll talk more when I get back.”
I followed the selkies outside to a classic VW Beetle parked along the street. It was a sparkly midnight-blue convertible with white leather seats. “Seriously?” I asked. How did two creatures who spent the better part of the last few centuries as seals have a car this cool? And how pathetic did that make me that I still didn’t have one?
I slid past the passenger seat into the back, and Kari sat behind the wheel.
“How did you get a driver’s license?” I asked, curious. I was going to take a driver’s ed course in the spring, but maybe they could hook me up with an easier class.
“What’s a driver’s license?” Kari answered, before peeling out into the middle of the street.
Oh, bleep.
My eyes were squeezed shut, my fingers in a death grip around my seat belt, when the chorus of my latest favorite song played, muffled by my purse. I pried my hand free and dug out my cell. Kari took another curve at blinding speed, centrifugal force smashing me against the window.
“Slow down!” I screamed, putting the phone up to my ear. “What! I mean, hi!”
“Where are you?” Lend asked. I could hear the panic in his voice. Ah, crud, should have left him a note.
“I’m on my way to meet Raquel at the Jitterbug Café. Kari, tree!” We swerved violently and the car lifted completely off the right-side wheels before bumping back down. “Trees do not move for cars! Cars avoid trees!”
Donna’s barking laughter rang through the tiny space as she clapped her hands, delighted.
“What are you doing? Are you safe?” Lend asked, shouting over the background noise coming through my end.
“Not right now, no. Red light! Red light!” We sailed through anyway, an SUV coming so close to clipping our bumper I could have counted the other driver’s teeth, all of which were showing in a grimace of terror. “Pull over! I’m getting out!”
“But we’re not there yet,” Kari said, turning all the way back to fix her round, watery eyes on me.
“Eyes on the road! The road! Stop stop stop stop stop stop STOP!”
Kari blinked, then turned around and slammed her foot all the way down on the brakes. I flew forward as the seat belt locked and dug into my collarbone so hard I was sure I’d be bruised. A screeching sound echoed through the Beetle, and the acrid smell of burning rubber filled my nose as we came to a complete stop in the middle of the road.
“I’m gonna call you back,” I said, my voice trembling, then I hung up.
Donna jumped out and flipped her seat forward, smiling helpfully as I fell out of the car and scooted on my hands and knees to the sidewalk, resting my forehead gratefully against the freezing cement.
Okay, maybe there were some forms of transportation worse than holding a faerie’s hand.
Donna patted me on the back, her hand coming down too hard. “That was fun!” she said. “Where should we go next?”
“Nowhere with you two, ever again.”
I turned and sat down. Kari had left the car where it stopped and walked over to us. She raised her eyebrows quizzically at me. “Are you okay, Evie?”
“No! You almost killed me!”
She shook her head vehemently. “No! We’re here to keep you safe. Always safe. We’re in charge of you.” She smiled proudly.
“You aren’t—” I paused and forced my face into a calm smile. The selkies lacked any artifice or pretense. Nona dodged my questions, but maybe they wouldn’t know they needed to. “Yeah. Of course! Remind me who put you in charge of keeping me safe?”
“Nona!”
Donna nodded in agreement. “And the shiny man.”
“The shiny man?” I asked. “You mean Lend?”
“No, the shiny man with hair and eyes like sunshine.”
I held my smile firmly in place. “Reth? The faerie?”
“Faerie, yes! That’s not his name though; he’ll never tell. He’s shiny. And pretty. I like it when he talks to me.” Donna reached up and smoothed her luxurious walnut-brown hair, smiling dreamily.
“I knew it! I knew Nona was working with Reth!” I stood, shaking with fury. Despite David’s insistence that we could trust that wicked tree spirit, I’d known something was up with her for months. And now she was assigning the selkies to keep tabs on me for Reth?
“Are you angry?” Kari asked, concern pooling in her eyes like tears. “Did we do something wrong?”
I took a deep breath, the bitingly cold air filling my lungs and stinging my throat. This wasn’t their fault. The selkies were as innocent and happy as seals playing in the waves, their immortal lives nothing but an eternal game. They were just doing what they were told—what they thought was best. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong. Thanks.”
“Okay! Let’s drive more, then!”
“NO! I mean, umm, I want to walk the rest of the way to the café, since we’re almost there. But you two can go. Lend is going to come and get me, and I’m always safe with him.”
Donna frowned dubiously. “Are you sure? We can stay. I’ll braid your hair!”
“And I have nail polish in the car!” Kari said, already bouncing in anticipation.
“No, you should go tell Nona that I’m safe. She might be worried.”
“Should we wait where you can’t see us, like we do when you’re in school?”
I froze my face into a mask of a smile, but the veins in my neck felt like they were going to explode they were pounding so hard with fury. I didn’t get out of IPCA’s controlling grasp to be spied on and monitored by a tree spirit and my crazy faerie ex. “You don’t need to. I talked to Nona today and she said it was okay for you two to leave me.”
Kari’s eyes narrowed, cutting their shape from near-perfect circles to almonds. “Are you sure she said that?”
“Absolutely.”
She held my gaze for another moment, then shrugged, smile bouncing back into place. “Okay then! See you later!”
Donna waved cheerily and they both got into the car, squealing away. I watched until they turned the corner, then ran as fast as I could toward the café. When I got there, I collapsed against the dark brick exterior, my breath fogging out in pants.
How long had they been tailing me? Which other paranormals were in on it? Nona and Grnlllll for sure, but them I already suspected. Those three weird women this morning—I’d seen them once before talking to Nona. The dragon? Did she have a dragon tailing me? I looked up at the sky, paranoid, but didn’t see any white monsters snaking through the sparse clouds.
What about … Arianna? I bit my lip. She lived with me, after all. Who better to watch me than my roommate? I put my head back against the rough, uneven bricks. I wanted Lish back. I’d never, ever had to doubt her or question her motives. I knew she was my friend no matter what. It had been the two of us against the world, and sometimes I didn’t know where my place was without her to talk to.
Arianna wasn’t the friend Lish had been. She was cranky and rude, and sometimes it seemed like she hated me more than she liked me. But then again, Arianna really wasn’t the same type of paranormal as Nona and her ilk. They came that way. Arianna was forced into the paranormal realm against her will.
Besides, surely anyone trying to spy on me and get in my good graces wouldn’t leave so many sopping wet towels on the carpet.
No, I trusted Arianna. Arianna, Lend, David, and Raquel. I sighed heavily, then pulled out my phone to check the time. I was still a couple minutes early. I’d missed three calls from Lend and had a new text from Carlee, my one normal friend. I’d kill to go get a pedicure with her today and debate the merits of the boys’ basketball team versus the soccer team. While I personally found shape-shifting artists superior in all ways, I did admire soccer player legs.
Alas. My fingers were too cold to type anyway. Ignoring the text, I hit dial and Lend picked up on the first ring.
“I need you to come pick me up after I talk to Raquel,” I said. “And I need to move out of the diner apartment.”
“Done and done. I was going to make you come to my dad’s place tonight anyway. And I assume you’re going to tell me what’s going on?”
“As much as I know.” My voice was as glum as I felt. Because, as usual, as much as I knew wasn’t nearly enough. At least Raquel would have some answers for me.
Thirty minutes later my knees were bouncing uncontrollably. Partly from nerves—where was she?—but mostly because I was on vanilla Coke number four. Caffeine and I had always been a bad combination, now made worse by the nervous energy I could feel constantly flowing through me from the part of Uber-vamp’s soul I’d taken when he attacked me on Halloween.
I checked my phone every thirty seconds, but I hadn’t missed any calls and there were no new texts from David. Did I get the café wrong? This was the one we met at last October. But maybe she was thinking of another place? I needed her to tell me everything was fine.
The door chimed, and I looked up into Raquel’s face. “Thank goodness!” I said, almost knocking my glass over as I stood up.
She rushed over to me. “Evie, I’m so sorry. This is the only chance I’ve had to get away, and—” The door chimed again, and Raquel watched as two men in itchy-looking wool coats walked in and stared at the menu. She turned back to me, her face smooth. “Sit down, please.”
“Yeah, sure.”
She sat across from me and put her hands up on the table, crossing and uncrossing her fingers like she couldn’t get them to fit together quite right.
“What’s going on? Who is this Anne-Whatever Whatever woman? Why is IPCA contacting me through someone other than you?”
Raquel took a deep breath. “I’m here to ask you to come back to IPCA in a formal capacity.”
“You’re what?”
“It’s been determined that this experiment”—she closed her eyes briefly at that word, then quickly opened them and moved on—“isn’t effective. You’re being asked to return to your position at the Center. With full employee rights and salary, of course. They will also grant you conditional clemency for rule violations.”
I sat back, stunned. “You’re the one who helped me get out in the first place. You know I can’t—I won’t—go back! Besides, there’s no point. I won’t travel with a faerie, which makes me pretty much worthless. And even if I was willing to work with faeries, there’s no way I’d go back to living in the Center! What are they thinking?”
She bit her lip. It was then that I realized she hadn’t uttered a single sigh. Weird, and very un-Raquel. “Evie, I really think you should consider this offer. Or at least be open to negotiating the terms of your employment.” She glanced over her shoulder, then leaned forward. “Please tell me you will consider it.”
“What the bleep are you smoking? I—”
Her eyes flashed, her brows knit together, and she leaned even farther forward, shaking her head in an almost imperceptible motion. “Evie! Please. Tell me you will consider this.”
Something was very wrong here. I trusted Raquel, I knew I could. “I—yeah, sure. I’ll consider it.”
She didn’t look relieved; if anything, she looked more agitated than ever. “Thank you. I will give you a couple of days to think things over.” She reached out and took one of my hands in hers, squeezing it way too tight.
“Maybe switch to decaf,” I muttered, scowling. “Now can you tell me what’s going on? And what about the town, are the para—”
“Thank you, yes, I must be going.” She stood up, smoothing out her charcoal-gray skirt. “I’ll speak with you at the end of the week when we’ve finished making the arrangements.”
“I didn’t say— Raquel!” I stood up as she turned on her heel and marched out.
Lend tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, frowning thoughtfully. “So, we know for sure Nona is keeping tabs on you. But she’s told us before she wants you to be safe.”
“Still, creepy. She’s having me followed by her little seal cronies. And what about Reth?”
“Are you sure it was Reth?”
I traced my finger through the condensation on the window, watching the leafless trees fly by. There wasn’t any snow out, which just made everything dead and flat and cold and brown.
I hate brown.
“Pretty sure. We know they’re in contact. But even if it isn’t him specifically, it’s a faerie.”
“Alright. No more Nona. You can stay with my dad more permanently than we had planned. Plus, it’s safer there if IPCA decides to come knocking with their pet faeries.”
“Too bad your dad is my legal guardian. Otherwise there wouldn’t be any way to find me through him.” My stomach dropped. “Oh my gosh, Lend. They can find him if they look, which means they’ll know that he’s not dead, either.” David had faked his own death almost twenty years before when he was an employee of the American Paranormal Containment Agency. Falling in love with a water elemental wasn’t exactly conducive to working for them anymore.
Lend shrugged dismissively, resting his right hand on my knee. “My dad’s been doing this a long time, Ev. He’ll be fine. Don’t worry about him. I’m just pissed Raquel is still IPCA’s lapdog and didn’t tell you what was really going on.”
I scowled, wiping away the hearts I’d traced along the window. “It wasn’t like that. Something was up—something weird. She’s definitely not acting like herself. I think she’s scared about something, or … I don’t know. It was like she couldn’t tell me anything. Maybe she’s trying to protect me by bringing me back in. Remember I told you I read all their documents about elemental paranormals going missing?”
He nodded grudgingly. “We still haven’t heard from my mom in months. But she usually doesn’t come out in winter anyway because of the ice.”
“It could be connected. Nona’s getting weirder by the day; now she’s having me followed. There could be something going on that Raquel knows about.”
“Why didn’t she tell you what it is, then?”
“I don’t know. But Raquel has my back. Always.”
“I have your back.”
I smiled and wove my hand through his elbow, leaning over to put my head on his shoulder. “I know.”
“Good. That settled, I hereby declare a moratorium on any and all talk of IPCA or paranormals stalking you.”
“Ooh, breaking out the fancy language. Why?”
“Because today is about fun.”
“I like fun days!”
“This is a special one.”
“It is?” Had I forgotten some sort of anniversary?
His face split into a sly grin. “It’s your birthday.”
“No, it’s not,” I answered, confused. “I mean, I guess it could be, but since we didn’t know when it was for sure we always said I was a year older on New Year’s.”
“Ah, but when was the last time you checked your birth certificate?”
I laughed. “You mean the fake document your dad had Arianna compel the county records office into making?”
“Yup. You never noticed the date we put on it?”
“No …”
“December twenty-first. Which is today.” He pulled into the mall and parked. “Happy birthday, Evie,” he said, leaning in and kissing me with his perfectly soft lips. I smiled under his mouth, letting everything else slip away. Best fake birthday ever.
“Okay, I never thought I’d say this, but I’m tired of the mall.” I sat on a bench, feet aching but heart happy. Lend had dragged me through the entire thing, even insisting I get a manicure and surprising me with a scheduled make-over appointment at one of the high-end salons. My hair twisted and curled just so, along with dramatic eyeliner, looked a little odd with normal clothes, but I felt special.
Lend finished texting someone and slipped his phone into his back pocket, then stood up. I’d never paid much attention to guys’ jeans before (not for lack of desire, but rather lack of opportunity in the Center), but in the past few months I’d come to realize that most guys’ jeans are really, truly horrendous. Too baggy, too tight, too low, etc. It’s like guys don’t realize that they can look great in a good pair of jeans. Shockingly enough girls, too, enjoy a well-framed butt.
Another area Lend was perfect in. His jeans choice, I mean. Well, his butt, too.
I smiled and stared at his face, watching his two profiles—the glamour one, which fit snugly over his real one. He looked down and caught me staring.
“Evie?”
“You, my dear boyfriend, are kind of beautiful, you know that?”
“That’s what all the old ladies tell me before pinching my cheek.”
“Which cheek?” I reached out and goosed him. He jumped and swatted my hand away, laughing.
“Okay, we’re going to meet Arianna and my dad at the house; they made a big dinner and cake. Then a movie?”
I shrugged, happy. “Sounds good to me.” It wasn’t huge or over-the-top, but that was never Lend’s style. I was glad that this wasn’t when I usually had my birthday. New Year’s would remind me how I used to celebrate. Every year I was in the Center, I figured out a way to sneak a ladder into Central Processing, climb the side of Lish’s tank, and cannonball in. It was my favorite tradition.
Maybe I could talk Arianna and Lend into a polar bear plunge as a memorial.
My phone buzzed with a text and I pulled it out. Carlee. I smiled as I read, “OMG BRATTT U DIDNT TELL ME ITS UR BDAY. Girls nite friday?”
I texted back a yes, touched she cared about my pretend birthday. “Did you tell Carlee it was my birthday?” I asked Lend as we wriggled into our coats, held hands, and braced ourselves against the bitter chill of twilight that slammed into us when we walked outside.
“Guilty.”
I smiled, then shivered. “It’s dark so early these days.”
“Today’s Winter Solstice—shortest day of the year.”
“Gee, thanks a lot. Way to pick the shortest day of the bleeping year for my birthday.”
He laughed and put his arms around me. “Ah, but the longest night …”
“Scandalous!”
He blinked innocently at me. “What? More time for movies, right?”
“Sure …”
We drove through the town and into the trees toward his house, finally turning onto the long, winding drive. Just before we passed the last curve of the driveway he stopped the car and turned it off. I smiled wickedly, remembering how many times we’d sneaked off into the forest for a little post-date making out. Alone was really the only time he could melt off his glamour and be himself with me. Even around his dad and Arianna it made him too self-conscious. I reached out to open my door, but he leaned over and pulled it shut.
“Too cold?” I asked.
“You have to wait here for a minute, okay?” His look was brimming with excitement and mischief and I wondered what he had for me. Maybe some sweet present, like my necklace. I fingered the iron heart pendent, warm from being against my chest.
I bounced impatiently in my seat, watching as he ran up the drive and around the curve. In the dark I pulled open the neck of my shirt and peered down at the skin over my heart, doing my nightly soul check. No visible difference, just that same faint glow with a spark or two. Not gonna die today. Another thing to add to the happy list.
A couple of minutes later I was surprised when the figure that came back was … not him. It was Arianna, holding something bulky draped over her arm.
She opened my door, and I got out. “Where’s Lend? I’m supposed to wait for him.”
“Nope.” She smiled bigger than I’d ever seen her smile before, and suddenly I was a touch nervous. What if she was working with Nona and the faeries? “You were waiting for me. Now, strip.”
“I— What?”
“You heard me. Strip. Take off your coat, shirt, and pants. You can leave your bra, for all the good it does you.”
I noticed then that the bulky thing over her arm was a garment bag. Aha! “Ar, listen, I don’t feel that way about you. You’re not my type.”
“Oh, shut up, take your clothes off, and close your eyes.”
“Again, not something I was hoping to hear from you tonight.”
Her smile was replaced by an annoyed scowl. “DO IT NOW.”
I laughed, confused but figuring this was her present to me. She had been in fashion school before she died and was an amazing seamstress. I closed my eyes and peeled my clothes off, goose bumpy and shivering in the frigid air. “Hurry, hurry.”
“Lift your arms up.”
I did and tried not to squirm as she pulled what felt like a hundred layers of fabric over my head. A zipper went up my back, then she tugged and twisted and smoothed. From what I could tell it was a dress—nothing on my arms, but material swishing against my legs. “Perfect. Of course.” She sounded smug. “Foot,” she said, taking one and pulling off my boot before putting a much higher heeled shoe on, then repeating the process.
“Can I open my eyes yet?”
“No. Take my arm.”
I did and let her walk me around the corner. Behind my closed eyes I could tell there was light—a lot of light, way more than there should have been.
“Hold still,” she said, slipping something carefully past my hair and putting it in place over my eyes and the top of my nose. “And keep your eyes closed!”
“Hmph.”
“Brat.” She let go of my arm, then put both of hers around me and gave me a quick hug. “Have fun.”
Another hand took my elbow, one I instantly recognized by its perfectly smooth skin. “Can I open my eyes yet?”
“Yes,” Lend said, and I opened them to see him, in a tux with a gorgeous midnight-blue and silver mask. Okay, maybe it was a good color scheme, after all. I looked down and my breath caught at what was quite possibly the most beautiful dress I’d ever seen in my life. Layers of sheer fabric cascaded from my waist with impossibly intricate pleating and ruffle accents. Flowers trailed from my shoulders down to the bodice, and it was a rich, perfect plum color. It felt like I was wearing a dream.
Beaming, I put a hand up to feel my own masquerade mask. I couldn’t believe Lend had done this for me. Then I turned to see the entire house lit up with twinkle lights, and what looked to be half the senior class on the wraparound porch, Carlee at the front, all wearing formals and masks.
“Surprise!” they shouted.
It definitely was.
Lend twirled me to the beat in the furniture-free living room and I laughed, my dress spinning around me. They’d draped the walls with swaths of shimmery material in purples and violets, and covered the overhead lights so that even the lighting was filtered and soft. I didn’t know what it was about putting on masks and fancy clothes, but the people I saw every day in the halls seemed prettier, more mysterious, older. Easton Heights totally had this one right after all.
I spun back into Lend’s arms and rested my head on his shoulder. “This is the most amazing thing anyone has ever done for me.” The amount of time and preparation he must have put into this—it boggled my mind.
He squeezed my hand in his. “Had to make up for prom, right?”
Reth kidnapping me, confronting Vivian and almost killing her, nearly sucking the soul out of Lend … yeah, prom hadn’t been quite what I’d hoped. “Let’s not mention that dance. Where did everyone get the masks?”
Each mask was individual, with different flourishes and details; everything from sequins to feathers to what looked like gold leaf. They were breathtaking. Definitely not something from a cheap party store.
“I designed most of them and Arianna made them. A little mystery that you can’t see through—and you don’t have to. Just a magical normal night.”
“It’s amazing.”
He dipped me down, then leaned forward and nuzzled into my arched neck. “So are you.”
When the dance music sped up, Carlee found me amid the crush of people. She looked hot in a deep green strapless mini, dark brown hair stick straight and loose, her mask blue and green with peacock feathers trailing down either side.
“Happy birthday!” she shouted, throwing her arms around me, and I hugged her back, giddy.
“Thank you!”
“Is this not the best freaking party ever?”
“Totally!”
She beamed. “Lend’s been working on it for like a month. I’ve been here all day setting up.”
“You were in on it?”
“Psh, of course I was, girl. Who do you think did invites and forced the idiot boys from school to actually dress nice?”
“Carlee, I’m so glad you’re my friend,” I said, blinking back any hint of tears because I was so not messing up my makeup.
“Me, too. And I’m glad Lend finally manned up and threw a decent party.”
“I’m right here, you know,” he said, leaning over my shoulder. “So let’s not go too heavy on the manning up talk.”
My stomach growled. “Food?” I asked.
“In the kitchen. Want me to make you a plate?”
“Perfect.” I watched him weave away through the crowd.
“So, are you two going to get married already or what?”
I laughed. “Excuse me?”
Carlee rolled her eyes. “Please. You don’t even look at other guys. And I have never seen a guy that crazy about a girl before. You’re, like, his entire world.”
I shrugged, smiling. “I can’t imagine ever finding someone better than Lend. He just—he knows me. Totally. Everything. And miraculously he still likes me.”
“Likes? Girl, he head-over-heels-freaking-loves you.”
“It’s mutual!”
“Find me one like that, okay?”
“He’s one of a kind.” Way, way, way more than Carlee would ever know. She just laughed and we danced for a few minutes before I left the middle to watch from the edges and wait for Lend. The Vicious Redhead, my old soccer nemesis, was awkwardly grinding with a tall, skinny kid who was one of the stars of the basketball team, and Carlee was now surrounded by no less than four guys. I was surprised at how many of the kids I recognized under their masks, and how many of them I considered my friends. Maybe I wasn’t on the fringes of normal society. Too bad I’d already volunteered for, like, ten clubs. Probably could have thrown an awesome party and called it good.
I scanned for Arianna but didn’t see her anywhere. Turning to look out the window, I noticed a small point of light like fire, going in and out.
It took a minute, but I made it through everyone, nodding and grinning to birthday wishes, before bursting out the open front door. A bunch of kids lingered there, talking and laughing on the wraparound porch, but I walked straight off and into the trees that hugged the borders of the yard.
“You know you aren’t supposed to be smoking those things,” I said.
Arianna swore, surprised, and dropped her cigarette on the ground. “Great, that was my last one.” She ground it out with her foot.
“Come in,” I said, taking one of her hands, but she pulled back.
“Nah, not my thing.”
“Arianna, seriously. This dress? The masks? It’s incredible, and you did it, and you should be in there with me.”
I could barely see her in the dark, but I think she smiled. “Vicariously living through you is enough for tonight. Tell me it’s the best party you’ve ever seen.”
“This party kicks the masquerade episode’s trash.”
“Got that right.”
I took her hand again. “You’re telling me you spent all that time on masks and didn’t make one for yourself?”
Her voice was soft. “You know I already wear one.”
I scrambled for words, but she squeezed my hand and let it go.
“Get back in there or I’m never doing anything nice for you again. And if you don’t have the best night of your life after I spent all that time on this stupid party, I’m gonna turn you and make you spend eternity playing MMORPGs with me.”
I hugged her tight, feeling her tiny body through my dress. “Thank you.”
“Go be a teenager.”
“That’s my specialty,” I said, grinning at her and going back to the house.
The rest of the night passed in a blur of color and noise and laughter. There were no fistfights, no furniture thrown through windows, nary an overdose or tragic revelation, so it wasn’t quite the same as the Easton Heights episode, which I was grateful for.
Around 1 a.m. people were mostly filtering out, stopping to wish me happy birthday and to congratulate Lend on a party well thrown. David had been around on the periphery all night and looked exhausted as he pushed furniture back in. Lend was beat, too, beneath his always flawless dark-haired dark-eyed hottie glamour, but I was still buzzing.
When the last guest left, Lend leaned his head on my shoulder heavily. “Meet me on the porch in five minutes,” he whispered.
“If you’re surprising me with another party, I don’t think it can top this one. Or that you’ll make it without passing out.”
He laughed softly. “No more parties. Pretty sure that’d kill me, immortal or not. Just a little present.” He kissed my neck then went upstairs. I grabbed an afghan off the back of the couch and walked out, wrapping it around myself. The house was too brightly lit to see many stars, but it was a gorgeous night.
I wondered what more Lend could possibly have in store when I saw the light, bobbing and twinkling on the trail that led to his mom’s pond. It winked on and off a few times, then slowly started moving away.
I bit my lip and smiled. He must have gone around the back way. I couldn’t imagine what surprise he had for me at the pond, but I couldn’t wait to find out. I stepped off the porch and followed the light as it stayed always the same distance ahead of me, barely visible.
I could just make out where the edge of the pond would be through the trees; dozens of pale lights shimmered around its edges. He must have set up out here, too. I shivered, anticipating spending time with him, alone, on such a magical night.
Then I came through the trees and saw that Lend wasn’t there and the lights weren’t lights at all.
They were people.
Well, no. People was definitely the wrong word.
My eyes flicked around the group gathered at the edge of the frozen pond. I saw the three black-haired and mournful beauties from the diner—now definitely floating above the ground, their filmy dresses fluttering in a nonexistent wind. Banshees? Then there were Nona and Grnlllll, who had that same glowy salamander thing on her arm I’d seen them talking to once. The dragon, because this situation couldn’t suck as much without a dragon. A little furry thing that looked sort of like Grnlllll but with massive, luminous orbs for eyes. It was holding up a small lantern—the source of the winking light. Of course. A will-o’-the-wisp, how fabulous that I’d meet one now. At least it hadn’t led me to my death in a bog. So far. Kari and Donna, the traitorous seals. And there, floating over the pond, bleep! It was the stupid sylph who had flown off with me. I still had a part of its soul crackling around in me, and neither of us was happy about that.
The lights I’d seen around the pond were obvious now—the glow they each had centered around their hearts, their bright, immortal souls like dim lanterns behind fabric.
No faeries, though. That was something, I suppose. I didn’t like my odds against most of these things, but at least I didn’t have to worry about being whisked into the Faerie Paths.
“Child,” Nona said.
“Stop right there. Enough with this ‘child’ nonsense. In case you hadn’t noticed, I had a birthday. Which makes me seventeen. You are welcome to use my name, but if you’re going to ambush me like this, the least you can do is treat me like an adult.”
“Happy birthday, Evie!” Donna said, grinning.
I couldn’t help but smile, exasperated by her enthusiasm. “Thank you. But somehow I doubt this is another party.”
Someone in all black melted out of the woods next to me and I tensed, shocked to see Arianna. I frowned. “You’re part of this? Did you set all this up?”
She rolled her eyes. “Please, so not my crowd. I saw you wander off into the woods alone and followed.”
A huge crack echoed through the air, and water and ice shot up in a fountain from the middle of the pond, slamming back down and breaking more of the frozen surface. The fissure pushed straight through to the bank in front of me, water spraying up as the ice creaked and groaned and moved to the sides. The pulsing cold in my veins left over from the fossegrim I’d partially drained swirled as if in recognition. It had better not be him in there.
I stepped back, waiting to see what would come out of the water. It bubbled up into the form of a woman, and I let out a surprised breath. Cresseda—Lend’s mom. Lend’s mom whom no one had seen in months.
“Evelyn,” she said in her rushing-water voice. As usual she glowed from the inside, far brighter in the night. Her features were perfect and strange and beautiful, and I could see points of starlight through her.
“Did you want to see Lend?” I asked. He’d be relieved to see her, even if I wasn’t.
“I am not here for my son. It is time to take your path.”
“You do mean the path back to the house, right? Because that’s the only path I’m considering right now.” I bit my lip. Maybe I shouldn’t mouth off to the elemental I kinda hoped was my future mother-in-law.
“Eyes like streams of melting snow,” she said, and it was all I could do not to roll my melting snow eyes. “Cold with—”
“I know the prophecy,” I said, holding up a hand to stop her. “I already did that. I let all those souls Vivian trapped go. Just like you told me to.”
Cresseda shook her head, droplets of water flying everywhere and turning to ice before they hit the ground with musical plinks. “That was not the end of your journey. You have more to do.”
I sighed, clenching my jaw. “What’s that?”
Nona stepped forward. “You will send us all home.” She smiled gratefully at me, reaching out to take my hand in hers. I folded my arms tightly in front of my chest again and stepped back.
“So you guys want me to open a gate now, too? Is that why you’re working with Reth? Did he make you do this?” I scanned the tree line but didn’t see him anywhere. Didn’t mean he wasn’t around, though.
“It is because of the faeries we are all here.” Nona’s voice was sad.
The three floating banshees drifted closer. They opened their mouths and spoke as one, their voices full of grief and the promise of death, mournful and tired and beautiful. They made me want to cry myself to sleep as they harmonized in chant.
“Greed and desire
Not peace, but fire
Coveting creation
Created damnation
Pulled alongside
A gate thrown too wide
Now our home calls
And darkness falls.”
I rubbed my temples, feeling a headache coming on. “A for effort, ladies, but F for clarity. You do realize that your weird poem things never explain anything.”
Donna bounced forward. “I can explain! I can explain!”
“Be my guest.”
“The faeries didn’t like where we were. They wanted more, so they opened a gate! Using all our energy! But it was too big and they couldn’t control it, and we all got sucked through, straight here! It was scary, and cold. The faeries wanted to be able to create, because they couldn’t before, but here they could. But being here is wrong, and it’s killing all of us, slowly, changing us from what we should be. And pretty soon we won’t be able to leave, ever! So now you can open up the gate and let everyone go back to where they should be!” She paused, then leaned forward conspiratorially and whispered, “But I like it here. It’s more fun.”
“So, wait. You’re all here because of the faeries?”
Kari and Donna nodded enthusiastically; everyone else nodded somberly.
“All the paranormals in the world, all the elementals, everything supernatural—you were never here to begin with?” That meant Lend wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for the faeries. Then again, I wouldn’t either. Dangit, maybe I did owe them, after all.
“No, child,” Nona said. “We were victims of the faeries’ pride and greed.”
“Victims? Sorry, but most of you don’t seem very victimish to me. What about hags, and fossegrims, and redcaps, and all the other sharp-toothed nasties”—I looked pointedly at the dragon—“in your group? I don’t feel very bad for anything that’s spent all those centuries preying on innocent people.”
“It makes sense,” Arianna said, her voice soft but thoughtful.
“What?”
“When you introduce an alien species into a new environment, it has to adapt or die out. And usually the way it adapts is by preying on the native species. Look at the dodo birds. They were fine until people came to their island with cats and dogs and pigs, then they became prey.”
“You do realize you just compared our entire race to dodo birds.”
She shrugged. “If they were never meant to be here in the first place, it’s not their fault they had to become predators.”
“Thank you, Animal Planet.” I turned back to Nona. “But what about vampires? And werewolves? Even zombies. They started out normal; they didn’t come here with you.”
“Vampires were created by the Dark Queen in an effort to make an Empty One. You know this. The others I cannot explain, but even without our kind your world has mysteries of its own.” She smiled.
“Okay. Fine. So, you were all brought here against your will and now you want to go back. You want me to just throw open a gate and let your little group skip on through?”
Cresseda shook her head. “No. All will have a choice this time. We have already started the Gathering.” Paranormals had a way of talking with capitalized letters I still didn’t understand. “It is nearly complete. And when we are together, we shall all leave this world.”
Arianna drew in a sharp breath next to me.
“All all?” I asked. “Like, every paranormal in the world? Including the faeries? And just how big a gate do you think I can make? Because I don’t think I can make another one, period. Last time it was mostly an accident, and it almost killed me.” The night felt even colder against my skin as I remembered what it felt like to channel all those souls through a gate in the stars. The burning, the agony: I really thought I wouldn’t survive.
It wasn’t that I didn’t get what they were saying or what they wanted, or even that I thought it was wrong. It wasn’t their fault they were here, and I knew they deserved a way home, wherever that might be. But the idea of making another gate terrified me, and I wasn’t willing to risk dying to try. They shouldn’t expect that of me. They couldn’t.
“I tire of this,” the dragon said, and when it opened its mouth I could see embers glowing from within. “The wee thing talks too much.”
“Evelyn,” Cresseda said, drawing my attention back to her. “Come with us now. We will help you do what you were made for, and make you whole.”
I looked from glowing paranormal to glowing paranormal, finally settling on Cresseda. They’d been here for thousands of years already; surely they could tough it out a few more. “I wasn’t made for anything. The faeries created this problem; they can solve it on their own. And I don’t need anyone to fix me.”
I turned my back on them and walked away.
I was halfway to Lend’s house when a huge spurt of fire shot up into the sky from the pond. I yelped and ran, the afghan trailing behind me like a dark shadow. It slipped and I looked back to grab for it, slamming right into Lend.
We both fell on the ground. “Are you okay?” he asked, searching my face. “What was that?”
“Probably the dragon. I think I pissed it off.”
“The dragon’s here? Why? What were you doing?”
“I got lured down to the pond by a bunch of paranormals. Including your mom.”
“She’s there?” He sat up and looked in that direction; the fire was gone now, thank goodness, but I thought I heard voices arguing.
“Yeah. Listen, Lend. They want me to open the gate for them and all the other paranormals. Your mom asked me to.” And suddenly it hit me—when she said all the paranormals on earth, she was including Lend in that. Ah, bleep. “They want to leave. All of them. Go back to wherever they came from. Probably with you,” I whispered.
“What did you say?” I couldn’t tell from the tone of his voice how he felt about it.
“I said no. I just—I’m done. I don’t know how to do what they want me to, and the idea of trying terrifies me. I’m done with the supernatural drama, tired of being caught up in the middle of it, tired of being a pawn in their stupid prophecies and petty fights. After everything that happened with Vivian and Reth, even Jack—I don’t want any of it. No gates, no other worlds, no being used. I just want here. With you.”
He was quiet for a while … too long. Oh no, what if he wanted to go with them? What if he thought his mom was right and that I should try to open a gate for them? Would I try if he asked me to? Would he take me with him? Did I even want to go with him if he chose that? If I survived opening the gate, that was.
He reached out a hand and stood, helping me up. With one last look in the direction of the pond, he put his arm around me and turned us so we faced the house. “It’s your choice, Evie. And for the record, I think you made the right one.”
“Yeah?”
He squeezed me. “Yeah. Let’s go home.”
“I don’t think we should go,” Lend said, frowning at his dad the next morning.
“Nona asked very nicely. They only want to talk,” David said.
“I’ve already heard what they had to say.” I sat next to Lend on the couch with my arms crossed. His thumb pressed circles into the tight muscles along my neck. “I’m not interested.”
“She implied there was more to it than you let them say last night. Something with what the Unseelie Court is doing.”
“Again, not my problem. I didn’t ask to be involved in any of this.” It was easier to be annoyed with them than to feel compassionate. If I was annoyed, I could dismiss what they wanted instead of feeling guilty for not helping.
“But you are,” Arianna said softly from the doorway. I hadn’t heard her come in. She looked beyond tired, her shoulders stooped, hands shoved in the pockets of her black jeans. “At least get all the details before you decide to turn your back on them.”
I threw my hands up in the air. “Fine. We’ll go to the diner, Nona can tell me everything, and then I can say no. Okay?”
David and Arianna nodded, and Lend stood. “Let’s get it over with, then.”
We piled into the car, Arianna in front with David. He looked at Lend in the rearview mirror. “Did you talk to your mother last night?”
“Nope. And I’m not going to if she’s trying to take advantage of Evie and force her to do something she doesn’t want to.”
I put my head down on his shoulder. We were in this together, and Lend was right. We made our own choices, regardless of where we came from or what we were. He’d taught me that. I wasn’t going to choose to be used. I put my hand over Tasey’s reassuring bulk in my purse. I didn’t belong to IPCA or to the paranormals.
The diner was empty when we got there except for Nona, Grnlllll, and the selkies. Scowling, I sat down next to Lend at a table. Arianna hesitated, then muttered something about picking up some of her stuff and walked straight back through the kitchen and upstairs. I guess she didn’t belong at this conversation anyway since she wasn’t one of the paranormals looking to go back home.
David pulled up a chair and Nona sat across from me. “Thank you for coming, Evelyn.”
Well, at least she wasn’t calling me child. “Yup. I’m here. So talk.”
“It is not only for our sake that we ask this of you. I know how you have struggled to build a place for yourself in this world. But even that place is threatened by the faeries’ continued presence here. We have indeed been working with the Seelie Court.”
“I knew it!”
“But only because their desires align with ours. We have let go of our ancient enmity in order to move forward. I would ask you to do the same.”
I sat back and shook my head. “It’s not your place to ask, Nona. I’ve got nothing against you, really, but I don’t like any of this. You’d make me sacrifice everything I have—quite possibly my life—for something I don’t think I can even do. And I don’t want to. If the faeries got you all here without an Empty One, they can figure out a way to get you back.” There was no reason for me to be in the middle of this. I was sixteen—wait, seventeen now—and this shouldn’t be my problem.
“It is not simply that. Being here has separated all of us from what we were and should be. We have dwelt here too long, and we can feel that the time is drawing quickly to a close where it will be possible for us to rejoin eternity. If we cannot get back soon, very soon, we will become permanent fixtures of your Earth. Some of us have been too far removed already. But it is more than concern for ourselves. The Dark Queen has been making—”
Light drew my eyes and I whipped my head to the far end of the diner. A faerie door traced itself onto the wall and, in all his golden glory, out stepped Reth.
“I can’t believe you brought him into this!” I said to Nona, standing in a rage.
“Time to go, time to go, time to go,” Reth said, striding straight toward me and grabbing my arm. He looked strange, though, his usually pristine clothes slightly rumpled and an expression on his face I’d never seen there before and couldn’t quite place.
“I’m not going anywhere with you!” I yanked my arm back, and then I realized what the look on his face was—panic. Reth didn’t do panic.
David and Lend both stood, and Lend put himself in front of me. “Get out,” he said.
Reth ignored him. “Nona, we’re discovered. Gather everyone; I will do my best to keep Evelyn alive long enough to meet you.”
“Excuse me?” I stretched my fingers out, eyes narrowing. I hadn’t forgotten Reth’s part in all this, what his court did to my mother—using her to make me and then discarding her, letting her die somewhere, broken and alone, while my alcoholic faerie father lost me. “The last time we were together I said I’d kill you if I ever saw you again. Do you really want to find out if I was serious?”
“I sincerely hope I have the chance to. But now we are leaving.” He shoved Lend aside and wrapped an impossibly strong arm around my waist, pulling me backward. I screamed as Lend and David jumped on him, but Reth flicked his free hand and tossed them both aside. “I am sorry about that.”
“Stop!” I shouted, bucking my legs to try and throw him off balance long enough to get my hand around to his chest. He grabbed both my wrists with one of his long-fingered hands to immobilize my soul-sucking powers, but then froze.
“Wretched fates. Too late,” he whispered, staring out the window. I matched his gaze and was nearly blinded as white light exploded in the middle of the street, followed by a window-shattering boom.
My mouth opened in a scream, but I couldn’t hear anything as I ducked my head against Reth’s chest. I blinked rapidly, trying to get my eyes to adjust, then looked back out. Where the street should have been was a wall of black nothingness. And stepping out of it was the most terrifying creature I had ever had the misfortune of seeing.
The Dark Queen.
She was just as I remembered: hair pooling down her back, iridescent like oil in the sun, skin pure white, lips violet and full and cruel. Perfection, terrifying and overwhelming. And in her whirlpool eyes I saw death.
Nona stood straight in front of the gaping window frame. My ears finally cleared and I caught the end as she said, “You have no claim.” Her voice took on a deep echo, a cracking and groaning of growing things unnaturally accelerated. She raised both hands in the air and roots shot up, slamming through the asphalt and wrapping themselves around the Dark Queen’s legs beneath her gossamer white dress.
The Dark Queen smiled, a knifing look, and her mouth moved in a whisper. Nona trembled, and the roots shook, faster and faster until they split into pieces. Nona shrieked and fell to the floor, her glamour falling away as small cracks spread along her oak-brown skin.
Grnlllll ran forward, jumping up onto a table and out the window. The roar that issued from her tiny gnome frame made the ground tremble and buck; I fell to my knees as the tiles beneath my feet rolled. The road, already broken up from the roots, crumbled into jagged pieces around the Dark Queen. She flicked a hand, sending Grnlllll flying into the side of the building.
The ground immediately stopped shaking, and her bottomless black eyes looked straight into the diner. “I want the Empty One.” Her voice rippled out like a shock wave; I felt it go through me, felt it pierce my heart, overwhelm it, leave nothing in its wake but a vacuum that only she could fill. Yes. I would go.
I started to stand, but Reth pushed me to the floor and put a hand over my heart. I gasped as the heat invaded, pushing out the vast emptiness the Dark Queen had put there.
“Give her to me, you golden fool, or I will unmake you.”
I felt Reth’s hand tremble on me; he’d turn me over. He had to. He wouldn’t die for me. I was shocked to realize I didn’t want him to die here, either.
Suddenly Arianna’s voice rang out from above us. “Hey, witch! That’s the fugliest dress I’ve ever seen!”
I looked up to see the Dark Queen pelted with the contents of our apartment fridge raining down from the second floor window. She raised a hand and I screamed. Not Arianna, I couldn’t lose her, too. Then a plate smashed against the Dark Queen’s perfect white arm from the side, distracting her.
Kari and Donna stood in the doorway of the diner, loaded with every dish they could hold, throwing them with remarkable aim. Cups and bowls crashed off the Dark Queen, not doing any real damage but sure as anything pissing her off.
“Dad! The pans, in the kitchen! Iron!” Lend said. David nodded and ran back.
“Behind the counter, now!” Lend hissed, grabbing Reth’s arm and pulling us both back to the flimsy shelter where we all crouched. “We’ll wait until my dad distracts her with the iron and then get away through a faerie door.”
Reth nodded, and I let myself hope for one second that we’d get out of this, that we’d escape her and somehow be okay. Then there was a horrible noise like an animal in pain that cut off far too sharply, and Donna screamed, sobbing Kari’s name.
“Enough,” the Dark Queen said, her voice pushing out and somehow making the very air feel different, thicker. Reth’s golden eyes widened in horror; he put a hand out on the wall.
Nothing happened.
Lend watched, and I saw his face as it sank in. We weren’t going to get out.
“It’s okay,” I said, my voice breaking. “It’s okay. You guys stay back here. Try to help the others. I can’t let her hurt anyone else. She won’t leave until she gets me.”
“You,” Lend whispered, then looked at Reth. Something unspoken passed between them. “Keep her safe,” Lend said fiercely.
Reth nodded. “Always.”
Lend leaned forward and smashed his lips into mine, kissing me desperately, then pulled away. “I love you,” he said, his glamour melting off so it was him, just him for a heartbeat, and I got ready to stand and be lost forever. Then he replaced his water self with: Me.
“No!” I screamed, but Reth wrapped his arms around me and traced one finger down my throat, freezing my voice.
I screamed and screamed, ripping my throat to shreds but no sound came out. Lend-as-me stood up, lifting both hands in the air.
“I’m coming,” my voice said. “Stop.”
He walked out from behind the counter and I couldn’t see him and she’d kill him and I’d lose him forever and I couldn’t live in a world where he wasn’t.
I kicked against the counter as hard as I could, trying to force Reth to let me go, but his arms weren’t flesh, they were permanent, there was no give. I slammed my head back into his chest again and again, but then I felt more than heard her faerie door closing as the air thinned again and I knew it was over and my world had been destroyed.
Lend was gone, and it was my fault.
I slammed my head against Reth again in rage; he pulled me closer and said, in a voice tender and sad, “Sleep.”
And then it was black.
Shh, shh,” Vivian said, cradling me and stroking my hair in our dark, star-filled dreamscape. “Where have you been? I’ve been feeling strange lately; I wanted to tell you. But what’s wrong? What happened?”
“Lend. She took Lend. The Dark Queen took him, and I’ll never get him back again. It’s over. Everything.”
Her hand stopped, even her breathing stopped. “She—she came out of the Faerie Realms?”
I nodded, sobbing so hard my stomach hurt.
“It’s … she’s never done that before, Evie. Ever. Something must be happening, something big. Things must be changing.”
“They want to leave. The elementals and everyone, they’re working with the Seelie faeries. They asked me to make a gate. It doesn’t matter now, nothing matters now. Maybe I should make them a gate so I can burn myself into oblivion.”
“Don’t say that! Don’t you ever say that. Your soul is worth more than any of them can ever understand.” She pushed back and took my face in her hands to glare into my eyes. “You hear me?”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Don’t be stupid, Evie. It always matters. Now, listen: Did she kill him?”
“I— No, I don’t think so. She just took him. He … he changed into me. She thought she was taking me.”
Vivian laughed, a short, mirthless sound. “Go, Lend. Bet she’s not happy when she figures out she dirtied herself with the mortal realms to bring back the wrong person.”
“You don’t think he’s dead?” I whispered, not daring to hope.
“No, he’s too interesting a prize. The faeries who raised me talked about the Dark Queen all the time. She loves collecting pretty things, and if she’s going up against the Seelies and all the elementals, she’s not going to throw away the son of a water spirit. She’s too smart for that, too cunning. She’ll cut her losses and figure out how to use him to gain an advantage.”
I let out another sob, thinking of Lend in her clutches, remembering what she had done to those poor people I saw when I was in the Faerie Realms with Jack. She’d done more than break their bodies—she’d stolen everything that made them human. The thought of what she could do to Lend …
“Deep breaths, Evie. This is good. I promise. She’s not going to hurt him. Yet.”
“Yet?” Gee, thanks, Viv. That was really reassuring.
“Exactly. Yet. Which means that you had better get your butt in gear and figure out a way to save him and take her down.”
“How am I supposed to do that? She’s the freaking Dark Queen. Have you ever seen her?”
“No.”
“Well, I have! And both times it was all I could do not to throw myself at her feet! Around her I’ve never … I’ve never felt so nothing. I’m nothing compared to her. Not even a grain of sand in eternity. She’s everything.”
Vivian rolled her eyes. “She’s totally overrated. And she has your Lend. You can do this. You have to.”
I wiped my tears away, clenching my jaw. I could do this. I had to. Lend was the only choice I’d ever wanted to make, and as long as he was alive, I wasn’t about to stop fighting.
“I love you, Viv,” I said, needing her to know that it was true, that someone could love her in spite of everything she’d done. I might never get a chance to see her again. Oh, who was I kidding—I was about to take on the Dark Queen. I was definitely never going to see Viv again.
Her face lit up in a smile that almost made her glow. “Ah, stupid, you know I love you, too.” Vivian held up one hand, palm out, and I put mine flat against hers. Her smile shifted, a vicious slant to her eyes. “Magic hands, remember?”
I nodded. “Magic hands.”
“Find the Dark Queen. Take it all.”
I woke up to the skeletons of trees framing the sky. Someone was crying softly and I turned my head to see Donna, cradling a seal in her arms, stroking its fur and whispering to it. Next to her Grnlllll lowered Nona halfway into a hole in the ground, then motioned with her pawlike hands; the dirt filled in around the tree spirit and Grnlllll sat heavily, staring at Nona’s body with half-lidded eyes.
I wanted to feel sad, wanted to find out if Kari would be okay and if Nona could somehow fix herself by being planted like that, but I couldn’t. There was nothing I could do to help them right now, and if I let myself mourn, it would take time and energy. I didn’t have room left to worry about anyone except Lend. I wouldn’t lose anyone else to the Dark Queen. It’s what Nona and Kari would want; they loved Lend, too.
“Where’s David?” I sat up in Reth’s arms, then pushed out of them and stood. We were on the banks of Cresseda’s pond; he must have brought me here while I was asleep.
“I believe he’s trying to secure help. Cresseda should be here shortly, along with most of the elementals. Including that rather distasteful dragon and those horrid, depressing banshees.”
“Doesn’t matter. Take me to the Dark Queen. Now.”
“I may be wrong, but I don’t believe your boy sacrificed himself so you could get killed.”
“I’m not going to get killed. I’m going to kill her.”
Reth laughed.
I punched him.
It hurt.
Me, not him, unfortunately. He just stared at me with those depthless golden eyes, and had the nerve to look sad. I waved my hand back and forth, trying to shake out the pain. “You think I can’t do it?”
“I’ve no doubt you think you can. But, Evelyn, my love, I’ve fought to protect you for years now. And, unlike you, I won’t so lightly disregard your Lend’s last wish that I keep you safe.”
“I’m not yours to keep safe! And if you had done something instead of just sitting there holding me back, Lend would be with us right now.”
“Yes, but you would be lost.”
“Are you going to help me or not?”
“Of course not.”
“Fine. I’ll get there myself, then.”
I turned and stomped up the path toward the house, mushy dead leaves muffling my steps. Lend’s car was still here; I could figure out this driving thing well enough to get myself back to the diner. I needed Tasey, and my cell phone, and Raquel.
I was out of faerie names now that Reth had a new one, Fehl would kill me at first sight, and my creepy alcoholic faerie father was banished to the Faerie Realms forever. Raquel, however, had a whole bunch of faerie names at her disposal. And if I had their names, I could control them. And if I could control them, I could get to the Faerie Realms. Too bad I’d given up my communicator. Raquel would help me—all I had to do was get in contact with her.
I broke out of the woods at the house and nearly ran into two tall, broad-shouldered men in suits. Frowning, I looked at their faces. Yellow wolf eyes beneath their blue and brown ones. Werewolves. Must be here to help Lend’s dad.
“I think everyone’s meeting at the pond with a bunch of elementals,” I said, hoping that maybe together the werewolves and elementals would come up with some miraculous plan, but not counting on it. I didn’t have time to wait for them to decide on a course of action; in fact, I seriously doubted anyone besides David would be willing to risk themselves to save Lend. It was up to me.
“Evelyn?” one asked.
“Yeah,” I said, waving a hand dismissively and moving to walk past them. Lend always hung his keys on a ring near the door. I’d get those, and—
“You’re under arrest for violating statute one point one of the International Paranormal Control Charter.”
I stopped. “Wait, seriously? Seriously? You guys are here to arrest me?” I started laughing. “Wow, you so picked the wrong day. Come back next week, okay?”
Before I could move one of them shoved a shiny silver Taser at me; the last thought that went through my head before I collapsed, shaking on the ground, was that, bleep, being tased really sucked.
Oh. My. Galloping. Gremlins. My head hurt so bad that when I opened my eyes, everything was the same shade of blinding white. My tongue felt thick and dry and too big for my mouth, and my entire body ached. I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them again, trying to blink away the whiteness.
Which was when it hit me. The white wasn’t in my eyes. It was outside—and all around me. I sat up from my small cot and stared in horror at the seven feet by seven feet cube of a room I was in. My hand went immediately to my neck. My necklace, with the iron heart that Lend gave me, was gone.
My heart raced, panic setting in. No, this was wrong. They just brought me in to chew me out, or demand I work for them again, or—
I reached a hand down to my ankle and was immediately sick to my stomach over the small bulk beneath my jeans hem. No, no, no, no, no.
I’d been bagged and tagged. The ankle bracelet I was wearing was as familiar to me as Tasey; I knew exactly how it worked, and even then it was all I could do to keep my fingers from trying to rip it off.
I’d only get electrocuted again.
I stared at the open doorway, tormenting me with a free pass to freedom—or at least, freedom for anyone who hadn’t been tagged. And if I had to guess, I’d say I wasn’t in Containment or the normal cellblock. If they had any brains, they’d have put me in the Iron Wing.
Which wasn’t to say I thought they had any brains at all, because the second one of them came in the room, he was going to get the surprise of a lifetime. I didn’t think they knew what I could do besides seeing beneath glamours. They never knew that Viv and I were the same. Raquel wouldn’t have told them; I had to believe that.
Which meant that I was armed, and they had absolutely no idea.
Normally I wouldn’t even consider using my abilities on a werewolf, much less a human. Their souls were already so fragile, everything about the idea felt wrong. Even Vivian never sucked a normal human dry. But there was no way I was going to sit around in lockup while my boyfriend was being held prisoner. I didn’t care what it would take to get out of here.
“HEY,” I shouted, walking barefoot right up to the doorway. “HEY. I wanna talk to Raquel.”
No response. I went back to my cot and tried to pry it up to throw out in the hall, but it was bolted to the floor. Figured. I grabbed the scratchy gray blanket and tossed it out into the hall, followed by the thin mattress.
“HELLO! You better get whoever’s in charge the bleep in here or you’re going to regret it! People know I’m missing! And by people I mean paranormals the likes of which you can only imagine in your worst nightmares!”
Well, that was probably a lie. I’d walked out on them. And why would they think to look for me here? Still, I was going to play every card I could. “You think last April was bad? Wait and see how many of you are left standing if you keep me in here, you bunch of—”
“Evie,” a gruff voice said and Bud, my old trainer, came into view. He looked older than the last time I’d seen him, and much sadder.
“Bud! Listen, you have to let me go. This is a huge mistake.”
He shook his head, the heavy creases in his grizzled face deepening. “Sorry, kid. Things have changed around here.” He looked both ways down the hall, then leaned in closer. “And not for the better.”
“Bud. I just—I have to get out of here.” Tears of desperation pooled in my eyes. “My boyfriend, he’s been kidnapped by faeries and I’m the only one who can help him. Please, Bud, they’re going to hurt him. Help me. Where’s Raquel?” I wasn’t trying to manipulate him by crying, really I wasn’t, but the second I wasn’t angry I was overwhelmed with fear and hopelessness.
He looked torn, then shook his head. “I’ll tell them you’re awake. I wish there was something more I could do for you, I really do.” Frowning, he walked out of my vision.
I cried harder. Then I straightened and wiped my eyes. I was not going to cry in front of anyone else here. Ever. They were screwing with the wrong girl.
I paced my room—one-two-three-four-five-six-seven, turn two-three-four-five-six-seven, turn two-three-four-five-six-seven, turn two-three-four-five-six-seven.
One. Get out of the bleeping Center.
Two. Get to the Faerie Realms.
Three. Kill the Dark Queen.
Four. Save Lend.
Five. Make IPCA pay.
Six. Help the paranormals figure out another way home.
Seven. Finish plans for the Winter Formal.
Simple enough.
One. Get out of the bleeping Center, assuming anyone ever came to talk to me.
Two. Get to the Faerie Realms, assuming I could somehow get a faerie name and then control that faerie even though half the faeries wanted me dead and the other half wanted to use me.
Three. Kill the Dark Queen, assuming I could get within twenty feet of her without falling under her thrall and also somehow drain her before she snuffed me out of existence.
Four. Save Lend, assuming he was still …
“Get me out of this freaking white cell! Come on!” I screamed. “Get. Me. Out. Now. If my boyfriend gets hurt because of this, I swear I will come back here and BURN THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND!”
“Now, now,” said Anne-Whatever Whatever, stepping in front of my doorway but just out of arm’s reach. “Calm down, Evelyn.”
“Let me go. You have no right to do this, and you have no idea what you’re messing with.”
“Actually, we have every right. You’ve violated enough sections of the charter to qualify for lifetime lockup.”
“I’m not a member of IPCA anymore!”
“No, but you’re not a person, either, not legally. You remain a Level Seven paranormal of unidentified origin. Which means that I have final say in any and all containment policy.”
My insides turned to ice, and I stood straighter, glaring at her. “What do you know about being a person?”
She sniffed primly. “We have a lot to discuss. This would all be much easier if you’d cooperate. Wouldn’t you rather be useful, make a difference to humanity, than be locked up in this cell for the rest of your life?”
I laughed. “Don’t talk to me about humanity. I know a pair of freaking seals that have more humanity in their flippers than you do in your whole organization. You want to talk about protecting humanity? If you don’t let me out, the best person I have ever known will get hurt. If you have any shred of human decency in you, you’ll let me go right now so I can save him.”
She raised an eyebrow, and I continued, desperate.
“Let me go right now, and I swear I’ll come back. I’ll work for you however you want me to, whatever you want me to do. You want me to come back full-time to the Center, I’ll do it. You have my word. But please, please, please, let me go. Please.”
She cocked her head. “What I think you fail to realize is that you’re not in any position to bargain here. You’ll do what I want you to because you have no other choice. Think about that, and we’ll talk again tomorrow.”
She started to walk off and I felt like I was going to explode. “Stop! Stop! I want to talk to Raquel! She’s a Supervisor—you have to let me talk to her.”
Anne-Whatever Whatever stopped and looked back at me with a small smile on her face. “Was a Supervisor. Have a good night, Evelyn.”
You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said, lying spread-eagled in the hall with only my ankle inside the room that kept me prisoner here. They really should have thought of that and tagged my neck or something. Judging by the looks the tall, annoyed werewolf guard was giving my ankle, he was thinking the same thing. And still staying out of reach, dang it all.
“Please confirm.” His voice was low and terse. “Werewolf or not?”
He had a woman by the elbow. Her shoulders were hunched inward, her face terrified, eyes darting every which way avoiding mine. Her corkscrew-curly brown hair was wild and unbrushed, but her clothes seemed nice.
See, with werewolves, unless it’s a full moon there’s really no way to tell. Silver only affects them when they’ve wolfed out, and no one else can see their true nature like I can. And since the full moon had just passed, they had no way to confirm what she was until the next one. Somehow they thought I would do it for them.
I looked up into her yellow wolf eyes and felt nothing but compassion and pity. “Actually, you’re way off.”
“Oh?” the guard asked.
“Yup. She’s not a werewolf, she’s a chupacabra. Have you noticed a lot of missing goats lately?”
He growled his frustration. I bared my teeth back at him in a smile. “Tell Anne to come see me.” It had been at least six hours. Or twelve. Or a hundred, for all I could tell, and I was ready to rip my hair out.
He turned, and the wolf woman finally made eye contact with me. “Hey,” I said, “it’s going to be okay. And if you see a faerie, any faerie, tell them IPCA has the Empty One.”
“Ignore her,” the guard said, pulling on the woman’s elbow roughly.
“What’s your deal? I mean, come on, why are you working with them?” I sat up, ankle still safely in the room. “Don’t you get it? I can help you! Get me out of here and I’ll take you with me.”
His face turned a peculiar shade of red as he turned and loomed over me. “Help me? You’ve already helped me plenty. You know who bit me, who turned me into a monster? One of the werewolves that you set loose on the world, doing your little good deeds and ‘rescuing’ them from IPCA. I’m here because of you. Now get back in your room and rot, or so help me I will come back here with more than a Taser.”
He stalked off down the hall and around the corner out of my sight, dragging the wolf woman in his wake.
“Well, that’s just great,” I muttered. “I make friends everywhere.” While I had to admit that his situation did totally stink, and I could see why he would want someone to blame, I wasn’t going to feel guilty about it. A) I didn’t have time, and B) freeing all the Center’s werewolves had freed Charlotte, my tutor, reuniting her with her family. I couldn’t hold myself responsible for the actions of every paranormal I’d ever come into contact with one way or another.
Okay, maybe I could have done more to make sure they were all accounted for and had plans in place to control themselves at full moons. I banged my head back against my doorframe. Not my fault. Not my fault. Not my fault.
A voice from one of the other cells I couldn’t see into drifted toward me. “Leibchen, are you still sad? I could help.”
Yeah, because being trapped with no way to get out and save Lend and all IPCA against me wasn’t bad enough, my block mate was the creeptastic uber-vamp stalker I partially drained on Halloween. He kept trying to start up a conversation, but even his voice set my teeth on edge. And then there was the matter of the part of his soul I was carting around inside myself.
But thinking about draining him made me wonder … if I could still feel nervous energy from him, and rushing chill from the fossegrim, and sparks from the sylph … I scooted back into my room, ignoring Uber-vamp. If I could concentrate the energy from souls enough to open gates between worlds, I should be able to do something else with it. Maybe.
It was worth a shot. I rolled up my pant leg, then closed my eyes, breathing deeply. Focusing inward, I tried to pick out the sense of the sylph’s soul, the sparking, dry heat, the rush of wind. There! And there! Willing it to come together, I mentally directed it to my hand, and then to my pointer finger. It took a while, but eventually I could feel it building up, gathering there like a miniature storm. I opened my eyes and saw sparks dancing along the length of my finger beneath my skin. I squealed with happiness, and they scattered.
Bleep. After repeating the process, I finally had all the sylph energy more or less concentrated. “Here goes nothing,” I muttered, then reached down, put my finger against the ankle tracker, and willed the sparks to leave.
And then screamed as currents of electricity shot back and forth between my finger and the ankle tracker. I shook all over but couldn’t control my muscles enough to move my finger. Finally it stopped and I collapsed on the ground, my nose assailed by the smell of burned plastic and skin.
I moaned softly, biting my tongue against the pain in my ankle and willing myself not to scream. After what felt like forever I was able to sit up and survey the damage. Angry red marks were already bubbling into blisters around the ankle tracker, which, as far as I could tell from the warped surface and faint smoke still drifting up, was out of commission.
I braced for an alarm, but none went off. Which meant I probably had a few minutes tops before the computer system registered that my ankle tracker was down. I stood up and gasped over the pain screaming through my ankle.
Okay, electricity burns? NOT. FUN.
But I could hurt later. Right now I had to get out and save Lend.
I limped over, then hesitated at the doorway. I didn’t think I could handle another shock, but there was no avoiding it. Taking a deep breath, I pushed my foot across the threshold into the hall.
Nothing.
“Thank you, you crazy sylph,” I whispered, then hobbled hurriedly down the hall away from Uber-vamp’s voice. I had never known this wing existed when I lived here, but Jack had brought me here to visit Vivian. Just after my entire life fell apart and just before he left me in the Faerie Paths to die. So I hadn’t been paying the best attention, but I was pretty sure the door was at the end of this hall.
I paused. Vivian was still here, on the other end of the hall. I had trusted Raquel with her care, but now that Raquel was somehow out of power, I didn’t want to leave Viv alone and asleep. But I didn’t have time to grab her, and even if I did, I didn’t think I could execute what was probably already an impossible escape while carrying her on my back.
I shook my head. I’d come back for her soon. She’d wanted me to get to Lend as fast as I could; she’d understand. I needed to get out of this hall. After that, my only hope was to run into a faerie. I hurried to the end of the Iron Wing and opened the door.
Where I found myself face-to-face with Anne-Whatever Whatever herself.
I pulled my hand back to punch her. “What are you—” she started, when her eyes went wide and she collapsed on the ground, revealing Tasey in the hands of a teen boy with blond curls, blue eyes, dimples, and the most impish smile I’d ever seen.
“Hey-oh, did you miss me?” Jack asked.
Since my hand was already pulled back, I went ahead and punched Jack.
“Bloody— What was that for?” he asked, hand over his nose.
I stepped past the unconscious body of Anne-Whatever Whatever lying on the white tile floor and snatched Tasey from the blond nightmare. “Are you kidding me? The last time I saw you, you left me for dead.”
“Well, yeah, there was that. But I thought rescuing you from IPCA might make up for it a bit.”
“I’m in the middle of rescuing myself,” I snapped.
“And how were you planning on getting past her?” He nudged the prone body with a none-too-gentle foot.
“Improvising.”
“And once you were past her, you were going to get out of here … how?”
“Shut up!” I turned and tried to stomp down the hall, then cringed in pain from my ankle. Okay, no dramatic stomping. I opted for emphatic limping instead, which unfortunately allowed Jack to catch up quite quickly.
“Come on, Ev, listen. I’m sorry, okay? I came back for you that day on the Paths!”
“If you leave someone on the Paths, you can’t ever find them again.”
He scratched his head and looked down at the floor. “Yeah, I kind of figured that out. I really am sorry, though. And I’m glad you’re not dead!”
“Go. Away.” I didn’t have time to deal with him the way I wanted to, which mostly revolved around tasing him into oblivion. Lend came first. If Jack showed up again later, fine, but for now I wasn’t taking any detours.
“I was wrong! I know I was wrong. I was just so mad at you. And, you know, sometimes when I get mad, I do stupid things.”
“You weren’t ‘just mad’ at me!” I snapped. “You manipulated me! You created this whole path of destruction in my life to try and force me into doing what you wanted me to! You’re as bad as IPCA and the paranormals and everyone else! I want nothing to do with you.” I stopped and looked him straight in the eyes. “I mean it, Jack. I never want to see you again.”
Hurt flitted across his cherubic features, then he grinned. “Well, it’s not really up to you.”
I rolled my eyes and kept walking. Transport was my best bet for finding a faerie. I’d have tried running, but I figured it was in my interest not to attract any attention. Plus I honestly didn’t think I could run with the level of pain in my ankle.
Jack continued. “’Cause, umm, there’s another reason I’m here.”
“Shocking. Not simply the goodness of your heart. I can’t believe it.”
“Yeah, well, I couldn’t have found you on my own. None of this was my idea.” He paused, eyeing Tasey warily. “I mean, I’m all for it. Yay rescuing Evie! But I was … well, I guess you could say I was drafted.”
“Drafted?”
“Forcibly.”
“Well, consider yourself undrafted and bug off.” I turned a corner and almost ran smack into … Bud. So not good.
I considered using Tasey, but couldn’t bring myself to do it. I remembered all the hours he’d dedicated to training me, even though I was the worst student ever. I still held the Taser ready in my hand, but I had to at least try to talk him out of turning me in. “Bud … please.”
He looked shocked to see me, then frowned. “Remember that knife I made for you? Stupid pink handle?”
“I— Yes. It got lost when I was escaping from here last time. Sorry.” I blushed guiltily, then wondered why I was worried about a silly knife, and why Bud hadn’t sounded an alarm yet.
He sighed in an annoyed way. “Well then, it’s probably best that you’ll never get the companion knife I made right before you left. Pity, too, because it was a particularly nice piece of work.” He held out a small package wrapped in black cloth and I took it, wordless with surprise. “It’s also a pity that I’ve got to get to bed right now and didn’t even notice you in the hall as I hurried by.”
A hint of a smile made his eyes light up and I beamed, tears filling my own. “Thank you.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about. In fact, I don’t even know who you are. Or that I’ve seen you. So I suggest you book it.”
He stomped past us and I tucked the wrapped knife into my jeans pocket, vowing to someday pay him back. Not everyone at IPCA was bad.
Where, oh where was Raquel? I needed her. And with this new and definitely not-improved IPCA, I was more than a little worried about her. What if she was in trouble? What if she needed me?
No time. Raquel could handle herself against IPCA. Lend couldn’t handle himself against the Dark Queen. He came first.
“Where are you going?” Jack asked.
“To Transport. I need a faerie.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
“I can take you out of here.”
I laughed. “Yeah, sure, I’m gonna take a stroll through the Faerie Paths with you again. Because the last one was so pleasant.” Then again, last time I felt myself straight to Lend … maybe I really could get to the Faerie Realms on my own. If I didn’t find a faerie to take me there soon, I’d try it. I’d try anything.
“I swear, I’ll never do anything like that again. I’m sorry. I don’t know how I can convince you, but I mean it.” He tried to take my hand, but I snatched it away.
He glared. “Okay, fine, you want a faerie?” He grabbed my elbow and tugged me down a side hall.
“Let go!” I said, pulling against him but trying to keep my voice down.
“Ta-da! Faerie!” Jack pointed at Reth, the very definition of beauty, leaning casually against the wall in a cream Victorian suit, the shirt open around his neck revealing perfectly sculpted collarbones, his golden hair just brushing along them.
“Evelyn, love, there you are.”
“I— You—and you?” I looked incredulously from Jack to Reth and back again. “This does not compute on so many levels.”
Jack shrugged, shoving his hands sullenly in his pockets. “Reth found me, told me you were in trouble, so I agreed to help.”
Reth cocked his head, giving Jack a curious look. “I seem to recall offering you the choice between having both your hands removed or pulling Evelyn out of that abominable iron-lined prison.”
Jack didn’t meet my eyes. “Like I said, I agreed to help.”
I snorted. “Noble, as always.”
Reth held out his elbow. “Are we quite ready to go? I, for one, would rather not spend much time here. Tasteless decor, and the lighting doesn’t do your complexion any favors, Evelyn.”
“Oh, for the love, you two are not in charge! And I don’t trust either one of you for a stroll down the hall, much less through the Faerie Paths!”
Reth fixed his eyes on mine. “You have my word that you will come to no harm while in my care.” He waved a hand at Jack. “And you have my word that if he does anything I find even so much as mildly annoying, he’ll never walk again.”
I bit my lip, torn. Reth was the easiest way to get out of here. But if I couldn’t find Raquel, I could at least leave a token of my gratitude for a lovely stay. Both to show IPCA what I thought of their attempt to force me to work for them again and to maybe, just maybe, give myself an advantage in the upcoming confrontation with the Dark Queen.
“I need the IPCA faerie names,” I said.
“Whatever for?”
“None of your business.”
“Impossible,” Jack said. “Trust me. If they were findable, I would have found them. They don’t have records anywhere—computers or paper—that we can get to.”
“Okay then, Reth. Can you get any of the IPCA-bound faeries here fast?”
He frowned. “I will do what I can.” He walked through a faerie door that appeared on the wall, leaving me alone with Jack.
“So,” Jack started.
“Talk again and I’ll tase you,” I answered.
He sighed, then slid down the wall to sit on the floor. He started whistling after a few minutes, but I tapped my finger against Tasey and he shut right up. As far as I could tell in the sealed, windowless, underground nightmare that was the Center, it was probably the middle of the night, since no one was bustling down the corridors. Not that I had issues with tasing anyone besides Bud, but I’d just as soon avoid any confrontations.
For now.
After what felt like an eternity but was probably only a couple more minutes, a faerie door traced its way back onto the wall and Reth walked out, followed by two faeries. Each was as beautiful as the other, perfect, ethereal, obnoxiously serene. They eyed me with cool detachment; either they didn’t know who I was or they didn’t care.
“This is it?” I asked.
“All the faeries that aren’t in use right now.” He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at them. “And both Unseelie.”
“Doesn’t matter, I’ll take what I can get.” I turned to face them, ignoring the slight brain fog that being around that much faerie glamour always induced. I wasn’t going to stare dazed and slack-jawed at them, tempting as it was. “I have a proposition for you. First, you tell me your true names.”
Faeries were far too beautiful and otherworldly to roll their eyes, but the slight shift in expression they exhibited was probably the equivalent. It made me feel like the lowest creature on the planet, not even worthy of breathing the same air they did. Stupid faeries.
“You waste our time, child,” the faerie on the left said. Her hair was the color and texture of snowy soft goose down and her long, white eyelashes popped against her nut-brown skin. Of course, her glamour dimmed all her real looks, but I could still see them.
“I don’t. You tell me your true names, and I’ll give you three commands. The last of which will be to choose a new name, which will free you from obeying any more commands. Ever.”
That got their attention.
“Do you speak the truth?” asked the other faerie, his eyes so ice blue they actually made me shiver.
“Ask him.” I jerked my thumb toward Reth.
He nodded, reluctant. “You remember my presence here. She freed me.”
Well, when Reth had Lend at knifepoint, yeah. But this was a very different case. And this time I wouldn’t precede the named command with a command to disregard everything IPCA had told them, which meant that they’d still have to abide by all those not-hurting-people rules. I hoped. I wasn’t sure, but I really, really hoped.
“I will do it,” said Goose Down Hair faerie. “Anything is preferable to walking these fools through the Paths for eternity. And to own my name again would be a wondrous thing.”
“Good.” I looked at the other faerie, and he nodded. “Reth,” I said, “take Jack down the hall so he can’t hear their names.” The last time Jack had had a faerie name, he used it to command Fehl to hurt me as much as she could without killing me, hoping I’d drain her. I wasn’t going to risk him overhearing one.
Goose Down Hair faerie stepped up to me and leaned down, her lips nearly brushing my ear as she whispered her name. “Theliantes.”
I smiled. “Theliantes, before going home, cause as much havoc for IPCA as you can without hurting anyone. Theliantes, help me one time when I ask it of you. And, Theliantes, choose a new name.”
She straightened, her white dress spinning around her as she smiled, sharp teeth eager. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, then her glamour melted away, revealing her in full faerie glory, positively glowing with power. Reaching out a single finger, she touched my cheek. “Until you need help, then.”
Her laugh sounded like birds on the wing as she threw open a faerie door and disappeared into the wall.
“Your turn,” I said to the Ice Eyed faerie. I had only just finished the three commands when the alarms blared.
Was that really necessary?” Reth frowned as the faerie disappeared. “You certainly don’t need more Unseelie unbound and after you.”
“Not like the odds aren’t already impossibly stacked against me. And if IPCA can’t function, well, that’s one less thing I have to worry about.”
Jack stood, hands over his ears, as he nodded up at the strobe lights. “That’d be our cue.”
“Fine.” Taking a deep breath, I tucked Tasey into my jeans and held out both my hands, Jack on one side and Reth on the other. “Take me to the Dark Queen.”
A faerie door opened in front of us and I walked through, my hands warmed by the two creatures I swore I’d never go here with again. My ankle throbbed and stung, and by now I was limping so heavily Jack finally put my arm around his shoulder for support and I leaned almost all my weight on him.
“You know,” he huffed, “for such a skinny girl you weigh a ton. It’s like a miracle of physics or something. Are you perhaps made of lead?”
“Again, this would be an excellent time to shut up, since I now have a Taser and a knife.” Not that I’d be able to reach either one with both hands occupied.
Fortunately, for once I wasn’t nervous about the infinite empty black of the Paths. I was in too much pain and too worried about Lend to care. Well, care much. But I was about to face something much worse than my worst nightmares. Odds were, if I survived and was able to look back, I’d remember the nightmares I had about the Paths fondly in comparison to whatever would happen with the Dark Queen.
After a few minutes Reth spoke. “I hate to disappoint you, but you forget that you cannot force me to do anything, my love.” Before I could protest we had stepped out of the Paths and … into the kitchen at Lend’s house.
“Evie!” Arianna shrieked, almost knocking me over as she threw her arms around me. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”
“What are you doing here? You should be with David, helping him!”
“I’ve been waiting for Reth and Jack to get back.”
“You knew about their plan?” I asked, looking at the two cretins on either side of me.
“It was all the vampire’s idea,” Reth answered, sounding bored again as he wandered out the back door. “And rest assured we’ve now sealed this area from intrusion by any Unseelie faeries. I will not allow you to be taken again by anyone, regardless of faerie aid.”
As the door closed behind Reth, Jack started to slink off in the direction of the front door. “I wouldn’t,” Reth said, his voice carrying forcefully even through the door.
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