Carlee, as with everything else, had taken to Lend's rather unusual ability with remarkable grace.
"Are you okay?" I'd asked her when he first shifted into someone else.
She'd shrugged, eyes wide with wonder. "Not any weirder than the rest of this, right? I always knew there was, like, something a little strange about you two. "
"More than a little. "
She'd laughed and picked up a small girl who was hiccupping with tears, whispering in her ear until the girl stopped, a smile spreading over her face.
I made my way past the group of IPCA employees, who were all glowering and talking in low tones about what they would do when they got back to Earth. Most of the people were recent acquisitions of the Dark Court, but all of them were forever tied to the Faerie Realms because of the food. That sucked. I went over to where Jack was with some guy who, had he been in a suit instead of a soft, flowing peasant shirt and trousers, would have been the archetypal uptight businessman.
"This is unacceptable! Do you have any idea how many people depend on me? How much money I'm losing every minute I'm here?"
Jack's eyes had glazed over, vague and unfocused as he nodded slowly. "Mmm hmmm," he kept repeating, almost like he was humming.
"Hey," I said. "Everything okay?" Jack gave me a desperate look.
"No, everything is not okay!" Uptight Businessman shouted at me.
"Great! I need to borrow Jack, then. " I grabbed Jack's arm and pulled him away.
"Thanks. Have I mentioned lately how glad I am you didn't die?"
"Yes. But feel free to keep it up. I need to get out of here, see if David and Raquel are back. " It had only been what felt like a few hours here, but time slipped funny when you were in the Faerie Realms for a while, and it could have been anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of days back home. Lend and I'd agreed that I'd go check up on what was going on there while he held down the fort here.
I needed to open that gate. This had to end. Soon.
"Sounds great to me. " Jack glanced warily over his shoulder to where Uptight Businessman had started yelling at one of the pregnant girls. They'd been getting increasingly edgy, some mad and some crying uncontrollably, each desperate for their faerie love to come back. Unfortunately he picked the tiny blonde to yell at, and she turned on him, screaming obscenities before reaching up and pulling her own hair out by the roots.
"Reth!" He gave me a weary look from where he was leaning against a tree on the edge of the meadow, talking to the green Seelie faerie who had shown up a while ago as a representative of the Light Queen. A few people milled around several feet away from them, their faces shifting from anger to longing and back again. "Do something about"-I waved my hand in the general direction of, well, everyone-"that, okay? And try to get some rest. You look terrible. "
His lips pursed in annoyance but before he could respond, I grabbed Jack's hand and walked with him through the door he'd just made. The empty, silent darkness of the Faerie Paths had never been so welcome.
"All those people, are they going to be okay?"
Jack shrugged. "I think so. I've got some ideas. It's not going to be easy for any of them, but we'll work something out. And anything is better than what would have happened to them. "
I squeezed his hand. "You're right. And thank you. " We were quiet for a bit. "Jack?"
"You know, they say when someone keeps making excuses to say your name it means they like you. "
"They say that, huh?"
"They do indeed. But I want to make it very clear that, while you're acceptably pretty and moderately entertaining, it's not me. It's you. "
"Color me relieved. But seriously, Jack-"
"Again with the name-dropping. "
"Shut up. I'm trying to say that I'm proud of you. These people will owe you for what you've done for them, but they'll also depend on you for the rest of their lives. You've really stepped up. I just. . . yeah. I'm proud of you. "
He raised his shoulders a couple of times, like he was physically trying to shrug off what I'd said. Then he shook his head and sighed. "This is more awkward than that time you threw yourself at me and made me kiss you. "
"I seem to recall you kissing me, followed by me hitting you. Repeatedly. "
He reached over with his free hand to pat mine. "Whatever you need to tell yourself to be happy with frying pan boy. And here we are!"
We walked out of the wall into Lend's family room. It looked like we'd hit some sort of bizarre house party, with bodies packing the room and sitting on every imaginable surface. An abundance of yellow wolf eyes and shriveled corpse faces greeted me, with a few others-some trolls and a couple of dryads-mixed in.