RAINBOWS AND b.u.t.tERFLIES.
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 a.s.sured 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.
Scowling, Jack sat down in a chair, put both feet on the table, tipped the chair onto two legs, and leaned his head back with his eyes closed. "I hate you again, Evie."
"Likewise. But, Ar, how did you know where I was?" I stepped forward to sit down and hissed from the pain. Arianna looked at my ankle and frowned, then led me over to sit at the table opposite Jack.
"Reth could tell you were back at the Center, but he couldn"t feel where exactly you were or make a door there, so I figured we needed someone who knew the Center backward and forward. Once Reth found Jack"-she casually kicked out with her foot and knocked one of the chair legs, sending Jack clattering to the ground with a volley of swear words-"I knew they"d be able to get you out."
"Thanks." I smiled gratefully at her. "But I"ve got to get to the Faerie Realms, now." I looked at the clock and choked, panic rising even further. He"d been gone for twenty hours. I"d lost twenty freaking hours to IPCA.
"Not before we take care of your ankle."
I rolled my eyes, and she glared at me. "I"m serious, Evie. You"re not going up against the Dark Queen already at a disadvantage. You can barely walk."
"And how do you propose to fix my ankle immediately? I"m not going to sit around and wait for it to heal."
She shrugged. "There"s a unicorn out back."
Bleep. Of course there was. Arianna grabbed some kitchen shears and cut off the ruined ankle bracelet. I put my arm around her shoulders and hopped out the back door, where we hobbled past Reth and Grnlllll and, avoiding the path, went straight into the thick of the winter-barren trees.
I smelled it before I saw it, and the same unicorn I"d met on a field trip with Jack pranced up, pleased as anything to see me again. It wasn"t mutual.
"It"s so cute, isn"t it?" Arianna said dreamily.
"Are we seeing the same creature? It"s like a demented goat with a bone growth."
"You"re going to hurt its feelings! Now shut up and sit on the ground."
I did as I was told, sticking my ankle out. "How is it going to heal me?" I asked, suddenly nervous. I pictured it licking my ankle and gagged. I could only imagine the diseases unicorn saliva had or what it carried around in its filthy, matted beard and hair.
Bleating reproachfully, it stared at me with its doleful, square-pupiled brown eyes.
"Oh, fine. Great, glorious unicorn, beloved of oblivious girls everywhere, please heal me. Now, if you don"t mind."
With one last bat of its gunk-crusted eyelashes, it lowered its head and put its stubby horn against my ankle. I cringed, waiting for pain, but felt instead tingling warmth spread out, almost like having b.u.t.terflies in my stomach. Only in my ankle. b.u.t.terflies...with rainbows.
The feeling of wholeness and well-being spread up my leg and into my entire body, and I couldn"t stop grinning. The forest was beautiful! The tree branches, naked against the brightening sky, held unimaginable wonders. The hard-packed dirt beneath me was a treasure trove of unrealized potential, lovely for what it could eventually give life to. I could sit out here forever and just enjoy nature. I was so happy! And rainbows! Why did I keep thinking of rainbows? Who cared! Rainbows were totally awesome!
And the unicorn! I beamed at it, reaching out my hand to stroke it. There was never a creature more beautiful, more majestic. I"d spend the rest of my life out here, and we"d prance around the forest, worship the sunlight, bathe in the moonlight, and...
I shook my head, scattering the idiotic warm fuzzies that had invaded. "Whoa," I said, shoving the unicorn"s head away. "That"s enough of that." I looked down at my ankle, which was now completely healed, not even a scar left. I fixed a stern look on the unicorn. "I am not going to frolic in an eternal meadow of sunshine and moonlight with you, you rotten little fink. But thanks." I smiled, just enough to be nice without being too encouraging, and patted it quickly on the head.
I was going to soak that hand in bleach.
"Okay, let"s get out of here." I stood, testing my ankle and relieved with the utter lack of pain. I still had an irrational desire to do an interpretive dance about rainbows, but it was a small price to pay for being healed.
"Don"t you think you should-I don"t know-wait? Have a plan? Get help?"
"I don"t have time! Arianna, she"s had him for almost a day! You don"t understand what she is, what she does."
"I think you should talk to Cresseda."
"What-Why?" I narrowed my eyes. "And how did you know this unicorn was here?"
She shrugged, her normally perfect kohl eyeliner smudged. The sunlight was already getting strong enough to pierce her glamour; she probably needed to get inside soon. "I"ve been talking to them."
"You have." My voice was as flat as my stare and my chest.
"I think you should give them a chance. What they"re talking about, what they"ve been through, it"s not fair of you to shut them down. You don"t know what it"s like to want to kill things around you just because they"re there. You don"t know what it"s like to live somewhere you genuinely don"t belong." I opened my mouth but she held up a hand, cutting me off. "No, Evie, you don"t. Trust me. Because as much as you think you"re torn between two worlds, as much as you think you"ve always missed out on this ridiculous idea of normal" that you have, the fact of the matter is you really can live normally. Because you"re alive, and you"re more or less human, and you belong here. You can make your life anything you want to. They aren"t supposed to be here; they never were. I think you should let them help you with this, and then you should help them. They need you."
"No, Lend needs me. And I don"t care about anyone or anything else." I fought the surge of guilt that threatened to overwhelm me as her face fell. "I"m sorry," I whispered, then turned and left her standing with the unicorn. There were no rainbows here.
HOLDING HANDS WITH BOYS.
Jack was balancing a spoon on his nose when I walked in.
"You," I said, knocking it off his face.
"Me!" he answered cheerfully.
"Take me to the Faerie Realms. Now."
"You always did have a great sense of humor, Evie."
I pulled the package Bud gave me out of my pocket, unwrapping a pure silver switchblade, the handle opalescent white. Cla.s.sy, and it goes with everything. Who knew Bud had it in him. I flicked the blade in and out a few times, getting a feel for it.
"You know, I"d be a lot more comfortable if you"d put that away," Jack said, eyeing it warily.
"Tell you what." I closed the blade with a satisfying snick. "Remember that time you tried to kill me because I wouldn"t open a gate to h.e.l.l?"
"The memory"s a bit fuzzy..."
I opened the knife again.
"Yes, now that you mention it, I do recall something like that happening, although my motivation was certainly never to kill you. Can"t you view it as me inspiring you to figure out how to use the Paths? I didn"t actually want you to die."
"No, I really can"t view it that way. And I still don"t know how to use the Paths, which means that if you want all to be forgiven-and, trust me, you want all to be forgiven-you do me one final favor and then we agree to never see each other again."
He looked hurt, then his smile mask popped back into place. "But this has all made me realize how much I miss your sparkling personality and warmth."
I pulled Tasey from my jeans and flicked the setting to its highest level. "Do you mean sparking"? Because we can do sparking if you want."
Jack rolled his eyes and stood up. "Look. I know you still suspect I hate you, and, yeah, I did quite a bit, but I"m very mercurial. It"s part of my charm." He gave me his broadest, most dimpled smile. "So while I hated you in that moment, I don"t hate you anymore. No promises that I won"t hate you again in the future, but what"s life without a few surprises? And since I don"t currently hate you, I"d feel awfully bad escorting you to a most certain and probably gruesome death."
"I"m not asking your opinion on my odds. All I"m asking you to do is get me to the Dark Queen. Then you are off the hook, completely and totally, forever."
"What about your mad faerie fellow?"
I grabbed a roll of duct tape out of one of the kitchen drawers. "Just give me your hand, you little monster. I"ll deal with Reth."
"Fair enough." Jack held out his hand and I took it, steeling myself against the pit of terror in my stomach. Then I wrapped about twelve layers of duct tape around our joined wrists.
"Oy, I value those fingers. You"ve cut off my circulation!"
"I"ll cut off more than that if you try to leave me in the Paths. This is insurance that you can"t make a quick getaway."
He scowled at the floor and muttered, "I wouldn"t do that again."
I walked him over to the nearest wall and he put his free hand against it, frowning in concentration as the light of a faerie door beamed and opened into the black.
"Are you sure about this?" he asked, giving me a surprisingly earnest look.
I pulled his hand, the edges of the tape digging into my skin, and tugged him forward into the darkness as an answer. We walked together and I focused on the footsteps, on the feel of Tasey in my free hand, and on the rea.s.suring bulk of the knife in my pocket.
"Do you have any sort of plan?" Jack asked.
"Not really."
"Eh, just as well. It"ll be less of a disappointment when you fail."
"Thank you for your confidence."
We meandered, Jack struggling a little, as always, to find the door to the Faerie Realms. "In case you die, which I"m thinking is pretty likely, there"s something I need to say. You don"t even have to believe me, as long as you hear it. What I did...it was wrong. I know it was wrong. You are"-he paused, swallowing hard-"you were the closest I"ve ever had to a friend, and I used you, and I"m sorry. Trust me when I say it"s not an emotion I"m very familiar with."
I shook my head, avoiding the sincerity pooling in his bright blue eyes. His manipulation of me had been both thorough and admirably well plotted. I wasn"t going to let it happen again. I had no doubt he"d cut his losses and bail the second he thought he could do it without Reth hurting him.
"Ah," he said finally, breaking the silence that had stretched between us after his apology. "Here we are. Any particular place you want to come out?"
"Don"t suppose you know where the Dark Queen holds court or keeps her captives?"
"I am a very smart boy, Evie, and extremely good at self-preservation. So, no."
I sighed. "I dunno. Anywhere in Unseelie territory, I guess."
He shrugged and opened the door; we walked out together into a forest of mirrors. Every tree was perfectly sculpted out of a brilliantly reflective material, each line of the bark a new facet, each leaf perfect, razor thin, and shining. A thousand fractured replications of the two of us stared back at me, distorted and strange and really, really bad for hiding. Even the ground was mirrored. Anyone anywhere near us would be able to tell immediately that we were somewhere we weren"t supposed to be.
"This place gives me the creeps," Jack muttered.
"Not exactly ideal for sneaking around." I took a step forward and was rewarded with a crack that echoed through the entire forest, growing and doubling back on itself until the sound was overwhelming. Bits of mirror shattered and started falling off the trees, raining down all around us. A piece bounced off my hand, leaving a tiny line of blood in its wake.
I put both hands over my ears, accidentally tugging Jack"s with mine, screaming, "Somewhere else! Anywhere else!" He yanked his hand back, and with a stomach-churning twist we were on the outskirts of a city. I squinted, totally disoriented. We were in New York. But no-those skysc.r.a.pers weren"t made of metal and concrete. Metal and concrete didn"t move in subtle, writhing, slithering motions. Oh gosh. It was New York made out of millions of living snakes woven together, as far as I could tell from this distance. And the degree to which I did not want to get a closer look was pretty much infinite.
"Not very creative, are they?" Jack commented. "They couldn"t make a new city out of snakes?"
"Seriously. I mean, New York is awesome and all, and who"d have thought snakes would be such a durable construction material, but couldn"t they do better?"
"No, we really can"t," Reth said, standing next to me and observing the city with a thoughtful expression.
I didn"t even bother to be shocked that he"d found us so quickly. I looked at him from the corner of my eye, not wanting to turn my back on the snake city lest they decided to stop being buildings and start coming for me. "I"m doing this, and you can"t stop me."
"I see. I cannot tell you how many times I"ve wished that, in place of a soul, I could fill you with an adequate amount of fear. You never seem to realize how hard it is to keep you alive, especially with you so constantly trying to achieve the opposite goal."
I certainly wasn"t lacking in fear. If I thought about facing the Dark Queen too much, it was all I could do to breathe. I just didn"t care anymore. The fear wasn"t worth noticing because it didn"t change anything about what I had to do. "It"s not my life I"m worried about right now."
"You aren"t going to find him here. And the longer you wander directionless around these cursed places, the sooner you will be found and incapable of helping the boy."