Paranormalcy: Endlessly Part 20

"Look, kid, I'm with you. I think this is all a mistake, maybe even a clerical error. We'll figure it out at the station."

Arianna swore, stamping her foot. "That's it!" She put her fingers to her lips and let out a shrill, earsplitting whistle. A rush of wind engulfed us as the dragon in all its serpentine glory snaked out of the trees, settling onto the ground and rearing up to stare down at all of us.

I thought I'd learn a few new words, but the men were too shocked to even swear this time. The tall, skinny officer raised both hands, the gun in them trembling so badly he could barely hold it up. Arianna set her hand on his arm, making him look her in the eyes.

"Put it down," she said, her voice soft. He did as she said.

"Well, what are we going to do with them now?" I looked to Arianna for help.

"Allow me to handle this, Evie," Raquel said, hurrying out of the trees with David.

"Sorry," Arianna said. "Thought I could take care of it on my own."

"Don't worry about it." David smiled kindly at her.

"If I can have all your attention." Raquel's voice was all business. "You will please come with me, and I will answer your questions and issue new instructions." I didn't think the officers would listen to her, but I guess when you're staring at a dragon, anyone who sounds like they're calm and collected is the person to follow. "Arianna, care to a.s.sist?"

She nodded, slouching off the steps and following Raquel to the group of cars. Not taking their eyes off the dragon, who merely stood regarding them with half-lidded eyes, they all followed, tripping down the stairs and b.u.mping into one another in their eagerness to leave.

I sat on the porch floor, pulling Lend's head into my lap and hoping he wouldn't be bruised from that fall. "Reth!" I shouted. "Reth!" Where was that blasted faerie?

After a few minutes Jack walked over, rubbing at his wrists with a sour look on his face as he casually dodged around the sentinel dragon. "I always forget how little sense of humor police officers have. Shame, really, considering how much fun they could have with their jobs."

"I'd kill for a siren and lights. Or, you know, a car and a license."

Jack sat on the steps, leaning back on his elbows. "That was a little more excitement than I usually like at dawn." He shifted a few times, all awkward, pent-up nervousness. "Evie?"

"Jack?"

"What are you going to do? I mean, with all this."

I looked out at the winterscape, absently playing with Lend's clear hair. "I'm going to try to fix it, if I can. I'm going to open a gate and send all the faeries and paranormals back where they came from."

He was quiet for a long time. I didn't ask what he was thinking; I knew how much pain he harbored, how much hate seethed inside for the faeries that stole his life away. He'd wanted me to send them to h.e.l.l, and instead I was giving them-well, most of them, anyway-exactly what they wanted.

"I guess," he said, finally, "that's okay, then. Gone is gone, right?"

"Right." I smiled sadly at him. "No more faeries."

"But it makes me wonder-without faeries, what happens to those of us who depend on the Faerie Realms for our food? And what about all those new people the Unseelies have taken? Will they even be able to take care of themselves without the faeries there?"

I bit my lip, thinking. There were a lot of logistical problems. I was more worried about actually being able to make the dang gate in the first place, but other things needed considering. I shrugged. "I know this guy. He's a total idiot, but he's also kind of smart sometimes, and he figured out how to make faerie doors and use the Paths. Which means that he can go back and forth whenever he wants, and take anyone else back and forth. I used to think he was worthless, but, I dunno, he's kind of grown on me. I think he's up for being responsible to a whole lot of innocent people who'll need his help."

Jack looked up at me with the most open and sincere look I'd ever seen on his face. "I will, Evie. I promise. You get the faeries out, and I'll take care of everyone they hurt."

I smiled at him, the cold soul seething in me pushed out of the way by my own warmth. "I know you will."

The dragon yawned with a tremendous clacking of its tusks and teeth. "I should have eaten one of them," it said, settling down to the ground and glaring in the direction of the police cars that were now executing three-point turns to get out of the driveway, all lights turned off.

"Sooner the better on that gate," Jack said.

For once, we were in complete and total agreement.

SWEATY MESS.

Hey, can you get Reth?" I asked the dragon. It gave me a look filled with such venomous disdain I half expected fire to come from its eyeb.a.l.l.s instead of its mouth. "Just kidding! Yeah. Totally kidding."

With a flick of its tail snapping the s.p.a.ce right in front of my face, it ran, hopped a couple of times, and then snaked through the air back into the trees.

"Grouchy, that one. I asked it to roast some marshmallows earlier; it nearly ate me." Jack scratched his head, then stood. "Right, then, I'm going inside where it's warm."

"Stick around, though. I'm going to need all the help I can get to figure all this out."

"That's me! Mister Helpful. Captain Dependable."

"That sounds like a brand of adult diapers."

"The nickname needs some work. Lord Wonderful? The Incredible Hunk?"

"Please, for the love, go inside."

He laughed, then clomped up the steps and into the house.

"Reth," I shouted. "Reeeeeeeeth! Reth! Reth, Reth, Reth! If you don't come in the next thirty seconds, I'm going to go find David's golf clubs!"

"That tone and level of voice does nothing attractive for you, my love."

I jumped, startled, but of course Reth would be behind me, leaning heavily on the porch railing.

"You," I said, glaring. "Fix it. Now."

A look of disdain on his face, he leaned over and trailed his fingers across Lend's forehead. A single whispered word, and then...

Nothing.

"You liar!" I shouted, standing so abruptly that Lend rolled off my lap and down a step. As he hit the first one, color bloomed through him into his usual glamour and his eyes flew open in panic.

"He was asleep, Evelyn." Reth's lips were pursed, but I knew he was smiling gleefully on the inside.

"Lend!" I lunged forward, knocking into him, and we both rolled down the next two steps, landing in a heap on the gravel at the bottom. "You're awake!"

"Evie! I'm...wow, why am I so bruised?"

"Shut up," I said, grabbing his head and pulling him in for a kiss. It was freezing and we were on the ground but I didn't care, couldn't care, not when I could touch my Lend and he was awake to touch me, too. I knew I'd missed it, but it wasn't until now that it hit me just how empty and desperate it had felt to be separated from him like that.

"Maybe," he said, between tracing my neck with kisses, "we could go inside?"

"Maybe," I agreed, not getting up.

"Or maybe," Reth said, his voice dripping with disgust, "Evelyn could come with me to determine how best to fulfill her end of the deal."

Lend lifted a hand off me and held it in the air. I couldn't see what he was doing with it, but I had a good idea, and I heartily approved.

"See what I meant about the ability to focus?" Reth snapped. "You two are ridiculous." He was out of breath he was so angry. He stalked past us toward the trees, and then he collapsed in a heap on the ground.

"Reth?" I sat up, watching him, waiting for him to get up. It was a trick. Right? He was manipulating me again, or...

I stood up and ran to him, turning him over so I could see his face. His eyes were closed, his mouth drawn tight, and sweat was beading on his forehead.

Sweat. Faeries did not sweat.

"Something's really wrong with him!" My voice was high with panic. All the things I'd noticed-the change in his soul, his heartbeat, even the way he walked and his voice being different-I thought he was kidding when he said he wasn't dying yet.

I put my hand over his heart, letting out a relieved breath as I felt it beating, too fast by far but still steady. "Reth?"

His huge golden eyes fluttered open. "Perhaps I should have taken the couch."

A laugh choked in my throat. "You're not okay."

"No, as I told you, I am not."

"What's wrong with you?"

His eyes didn't leave mine, but they, too, were different. Before, they'd always felt like depthless pools. Now they seemed shallow, dim.

"I'm dying, Evelyn."

KIND OF A BIG DEAL.

You're dying?" I shrieked.

Reth sat up and brushed off his clothes. "It's not an issue." Lend offered a hand to help him stand, which Reth ignored.

"Actually," Lend said, "dying is kind of a big deal. Especially for an immortal faerie."

"I already told you," Reth said, only looking at me. "This will be fixed when you open the gate and we go through together. My connection to eternity will be restored and this will all be a horrible memory. Now come on." He tried to project calm, but the same quivering, fraying-around-the-edges look his soul had was reflected in his face.

I stared incredulously as he stalked into the forest, pausing once to lean against a tree and catch his breath before continuing without looking back.

"Well, no pressure now. Not only does every paranormal in the world need me to open the gate so they can go home, but Reth will die soon if I don't."

Lend squeezed my hand rea.s.suringly as we started walking after my fastly failing faerie. "You'll figure it out. I know you will. What was he saying about going through together?"

I willed my eyes to roll, but everything felt so serious and heavy that I couldn't muster the sarcastic energy. "He thinks I'm going to decide to go through with him." Which reminded me that Lend and I hadn't had a conversation we needed to. One I really, really didn't want to. I stopped, pulling his hand so he'd face me. "Lend, I-Your mom, she said they were going to take all the paranormals. And I know she includes you in that group. What are you...I mean, they're going to be gone. All of them. Forever. Every immortal creature on the earth." He'd told me he wouldn't go through, but he had to have been thinking about it. He needed to think about it. For a few brief seconds I was tempted to take Reth up on his offer of eternity, if only to spare Lend the agony of choosing between his two worlds.

But no. This was my home. This was who I was, and what I loved most about loving Lend was that I didn't have to lose myself to be with him. Being with him meant I found myself. I wasn't going to try and become something entirely new.

"Not every immortal creature. I don't think they're taking vampires," Lend answered, avoiding my eyes and digging into the frozen dirt with his shoe.

"Yeah, but, Lend, you're going to live forever-you know that, right? And once they're gone, that means forever by..." My throat caught, trying to keep the word inside. "By yourself. Alone."

"I know," he whispered.

I squeezed his hands, bending my head until he looked me in the eyes. "Do you? I mean, do you really know? Have you thought this through? Because you're going to have to-" I squeezed my eyes shut, hating what I was saying, hating this conversation just when I got him back. "You're going to have to choose. And whatever you choose is going to be forever. I want to make sure you're thinking about it. You need to make the right choice."

"What do you think that is?" His voice was soft and vulnerable and already filled with pain.

I opened my eyes and let go of his hands, putting mine on his cheeks to frame his face. I'd missed looking into his water eyes so, so much. "I can't make it for you."

"I didn't think I'd be making this choice for years. Decades, even." He stepped back and shoved his hands in his pockets, kicking angrily at a rock on the trail. "This is all happening so fast."

"I know," I said, miserable. "But you know whatever you choose, I love you. Always. And it's important to me that you choose what is best for you. Okay?" I blinked furiously, trying to keep the tears back. I knew-I knew-if I asked him to stay, he would. But that wasn't something I could ask him. I had to make decisions for the rest of my life. He had to make a decision that would last for all eternity.

Dude, it sucked.

"But, Lend?" He looked up and I pulled one of his hands out of his pocket and wrapped it up in mine. "No matter what? Whatever happens? You still owe me a Christmas present."

He laughed, hugging me, and we stood there with our arms around each other for way too long and way too short. Finally I sighed. "We should get to the pond."

We reached the end of the trail that I spent so much time on I saw it every time I closed my eyes. Arianna wasn't kidding when she described the scene at the pond. A different creature inhabited every square foot. The pond was totally melted now and teeming with heads and bodies and fins and flippers. An impossibly huge, sucker-covered tentacle curled up out of the water, s.n.a.t.c.hing a bird out of the air and pulling it back under.

"Holy c.r.a.p, was that a kraken? How deep is the water, anyway?"

"As deep as my mom needs it to be, I think."

We walked closer to a pit glowing such a brilliant orange it hurt my eyes; when I glanced to the side, I could see it was crawling with flaming salamanders. Reth stood next to it, his perfectly square, narrow shoulders slumped. Across the pond, at the edge of the trees, the sole sylph floated miserably.

I remembered what I'd seen in the faerie dream and wondered if this sylph was all that was left of the mighty wind that betrayed the rest of the paranormals and brought them all here. No wonder it had been so desperate to find me that Jack had been able to convince it to get involved. It probably wanted to atone for what it had done.

Or it just hated being stuck in this form. Now that I knew what most of them had been before, I couldn't imagine how strange it would be to go from being limitless to being confined in a new, strange body, subjected to different rules.

I jumped back, startled, as a group of rabid pixies scrambled past, wrestling and biting and pulling each other's hair.