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He raised his eyebrows and loosened his grip on my wrist. "Really? Okay, if you insist. "
If he let me go, I would be lost in this darkness. Alone. Forever. The only thing you could see on the Paths was the person you were with-there was nothing else there. I hadn't wanted to use the Faerie Paths ever again, and now that I was here the familiar dread filled my entire body. I clutched his arm with my free hand. "Stop it! Why did you grab me like that? Terrorizing me at school wasn't enough?"
He shrugged. "Raquel told me to get you at eight. "
"It's called knocking, dimwit!"
"I know I make it look effortless, but creating doors between realms isn't exactly simple. Pulling you through was easier than coming in for some polite conversation and perhaps a bit of tea, at which point I would have had to make another door. I didn't know you'd scream like a little girl. "
"I did not scream like a little girl. "
Flashing his dimples, he took a huge lungful of air and burst into an earsplitting-and decidedly little girlish-scream. "Like that. Only with crazier eyes and more flailing. "
"Shut up. "
"Gladly. We're going to be late. " He slipped his hand down from my wrist to my hand and started walking. "Heaven and hell, your hands are cold. "
I never thought I'd prefer the dead silence of the Paths over anything, but it had to be better than listening to this idiot. And I didn't need any reminders that my hands were cold. Cold, mortal, dying hands. "Can we not talk?"
"But you're such a charming conversationalist. Still, if you'd prefer to simply bask in the glory of my company, I understand. You're probably overwhelmed by holding my hand and want to enjoy the moment. "
I rolled my eyes. "It's all I can do not to swoon, but I'll try to contain myself. "
"I think swooning is highly underrated. You could bring it back into vogue. "
I turned my head to look at him rather than focus on the inky black around us. It was like people on the Paths existed outside anything else. Jack and I were the only two creatures alive, for all you could tell. What a horrible thought.
"Where on earth did you come from?" I asked.
He grinned, but there was a strange tightness to his face. "Telling that story would require talking, which I seem to recall you requested not happen. And here we are!" With a flourish he waved a hand-at nothing.
I watched him expectantly. Nothing happened.
"Can't you feel it?" he asked, his eyes narrowing.
"Feel what?"
"Come on. You've been through here as much as I have. You never tried to figure it out?"
I made the mistake of looking at my feet standing in the emptiness, and now I kind of wanted to puke. "Can we please get out of here?"
"Honestly, Evie, you don't know how to have fun, do you?" He put a hand flat out, and his eyes narrowed in concentration. The darkness rippled, light tearing through it but illuminating nothing as a door formed, opening into a painfully familiar white hallway.
"Home sweet home," Jack chirped, pulling me forward with him. The door shut behind us.
I felt like I had walked into a dream. When I left this behind, I let part of myself believe it ceased to exist. The fluorescent lights buzzing overhead drilled in the fact that the only different thing was me.
We both turned and looked down the length of the hall. A woman I didn't know, dressed in a pin-striped suit, ran past us, screaming bloody murder and swatting at the air around her head.
I sighed. "Yup, home sweet home about covers it. "
I looked back down the hall, my attention drawn by the soft tapping of sensible pumps. This time the woman in a suit wasn't insane-or at least, not the running-around-screaming type. "Evie," Raquel said, pursing her lips to avoid smiling.
Another scream echoed; I caught a glimpse of someone running through one of the cross halls. He looked suspiciously like Bud, my tough and gruff former self-defense teacher.
"I leave for a few months and this whole place goes to pieces. "
Raquel shook her head, shooting an annoyed look in the direction of the continued screams. "Well, since you're on the clock, why don't I show you to the problem area?"
