Endlessly (Paranormalcy 3)

Instantly.

"Wait a second," I said, everything clicking into place. "You-you could have found him immediately. You knew exactly where he was the second she gave you his name. So our little detour through the horrors of faerie land-" I closed my eyes and shook my head. Of course. Of course Reth wasn't being selfless by helping me. He just wanted me to see what the Dark Court was doing, how they were hurting people so I'd be more sympathetic to what the Light Court and the paranormals wanted me to do. The entire thing-always, like always-was just another way to manipulate me.

Chapter Nineteen

EAU DE FAERIE

Evelyn," Cresseda said, but I stopped her.

"Were you all in on it?" I glanced around the shore at the gathered paranormals: selkies and banshees and a gnome and a sylph and a few other things that were new that I didn't care enough to study. "Did you really risk Lend's life just so I'd see what the Unseelies were like? I already know what they're like! I already know they're terrible! I can't believe you"-I pointed right at Cresseda's watery chest where the light of her soul shimmered-"his own mother would do that. Every minute he was with the Dark Queen was dangerous. Who knows what she did to him!"

Cresseda shook her head, droplets spinning off like liquid light. "I simply gave Reth Lend's name and asked him to help you in whatever way he could. "

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, because Reth's opinion on how to help me has always been spot-on. " I raised my scarred wrist from where he had tried to force more soul energy into me. "Brilliant move. For someone who's been around for eternity, you don't learn very fast. You. Don't. Trust. Faeries! Ever! Especially not him!"

Okay, forget that I had been guilty of trusting him. I couldn't believe how grateful I was, how willing to forgive him for past offences.

"I took the path that was necessary. " Reth's voice was firm and unapologetic.

"By whose standards? No, whatever, don't answer that. David, can we take Lend back to the house now? It's freezing and I don't like the company here. "

Arianna put a hand gently on my shoulder; I hadn't realized she was behind me. "Lend's home. That's all that matters. "

I shook her hand off, tired and devastated and needing Lend to wake up, just wake up.

"Please stay and hear us out, Empty One," a beautiful dryad asked, her skin a soft mossy green beneath her glamour, large brown eyes pleading.

"My name is Evelyn. " My voice caught. I couldn't handle the mixture of hope and sadness in her eyes, couldn't shoulder the burden of the entire paranormal world. I'd worked so hard for my life. They'd find another way. I wasn't an Empty One, not anymore. I was an Evie.

David sighed. "Will you go put his pillow and blankets on the couch? We can watch him easier down there. I'll bring Lend back to the house in a minute. "

"Yeah. "

I turned on my heel and hobbled toward the house. My feet were still tender, sore, and freezing but I didn't care.

"Hey," Arianna said behind me; I walked faster. She ran to catch up, keeping pace with me. "Seriously, why won't you listen to them? You saw how bad things are in the Faerie Realms. You could stop it. "

"Yeah, I saw it. My feet? That was because of the field trip Reth took me on-a field trip specifically designed to make me sympathetic toward his group of faeries. To convince me to do what they want me to. That's all any of them are trying to do: force me to be what they want me to be. I don't belong to them!"

"Just because he tricked you into seeing it all, does that change how bad the things you saw were?"

I shook my head angrily, trying not to think of the girls blissfully unaware that they were carrying around Empty Ones inside them, nothing more than tools for the Dark Queen. Then there were those locked forever in the dance. And the village. All those lives, stolen, destroyed on a whim by creatures that shouldn't be here at all.

Creatures I could send back forever.

This shouldn't be my responsibility!

Arianna put her hand out on my arm and forced me to stop. "Listen," she said, her voice soft and intent. "Just because someone else-even someone you don't like-wants you to do something, doesn't mean it's not your choice. Doing the right thing is still doing the right thing. And if you make the right choice, whatever that is, it's still your choice, no matter who wants you to do it. They can never force you to. But you can choose to. "

I put my hands up over my eyes and breathed into them. "I need some time. I'm. . . I'm scared. Of all of it. I need Lend to wake up and be okay before I can think about any of this. "

"Okay. " She put her arms around me and leaned her forehead against mine. "But promise me you'll think about it. Really think about it. I spent way too many years doing things just because my parents didn't want me to, and I ended up dead. I know what I'm talking about. Promise me. "

"Yeah," I said, my voice exhausted.

She hugged me close, then shoved me away. "Let's go fix up the couch for Lend, then you need to take a shower. You stink like a faerie, all flowers and sunshine and evil manipulation. "

"I thought he was going to wake up again on the way here; he was stirring and starting to put on glamours. It shouldn't be long. " David smiled tiredly at me after tucking Lend in, and I nodded.