"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 t
o. 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.
Chapter Thirteen
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. Classy, 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 hell?"
"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 reassuring bulk of the knife in my pocket.