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Reth's golden eyes brought me back to reality. A reality in which I was more alone than I had ever been. As bad as it was finding out I was the same thing as Vivian when she went on her killing spree, that was nothing compared to what I felt now. At least then I'd only been forced to admit I wasn't completely normal. I'd assumed that meantmore than human. Not less.
"Come with me. There is nothing for you here, my lovely Neamh. "
The last word reached out to me, raced through my body like electricity. I knew that word. I was that word. He really had known my name all along. But I was no faerie, and my name had no claim on my will. No one had claim to me.
"I'm not yours," I hissed.
The door burst open. Jack stood there, breathing heavily, holding a golden goblet in one hand. "Your drink. "
"Jack. " I walked toward him, reeling, needing to be anywhere else. Needing to be anyone else. "Please take me home. "
"You aren't safe from the Dark Queen here, and you will never be whole. Let me take you home," Reth said, his voice slicing through the chill in me. He didn't mean my apartment.
I turned to him. He knew me. He knew what I was, who I was. This was his fault-his and every other faerie's. They destroyed everything they touched. Two could play at that game, though.
"Melinthros," I said, the image of the car wreck fresh in my mind, "you will return to the Faerie Realms and you will never come back. " His bloodshot eyes bugged out of his head and he clutched at a can of Coke. Shaking, he walked mechanically to the wall and created a door, disappearing out of this world forever. Good riddance. I hoped his withdrawal
lasted an eternity. He deserved far, far worse. Maybe someday when I thought of a punishment bad enough, I'd find him again.
I took Jack's hand and stepped out the booth door before pausing. "If I ever see you again, Reth," I said, "I will kill you. "
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The Truth Will Set You Free-or Break Your Heart
I pulled Jack behind me, tripping down the stairs and barely able to see through my tears. I needed to get away from here, now.
"What happened?" he asked, frowning as he tried to open a door in the wall. "Did he hurt you?"
I shook my head, unable and unwilling to talk about it. People passed us on their way to the bathroom, but I didn't care about hiding the door to protect their precious little worldviews. Why should they get to lead happy, innocent, clueless lives? The world was a monstrous place. A monstrous place I had no place in.
Finally light traced a door into the wall. "Home?" he asked.
I squeezed his hand, closing my eyes against the claustrophobic dark of the Paths and not opening them until we walked through to my tiny room.
"Evie!" Lend jumped up from my bed, his face creased with worry. "Where have you been? Arianna called about the letter, said you didn't come home last night, and when I came, I found this"-he held up my iron necklace that I had left lying in the middle of the floor-"and I thought, I was so scared that Reth had-"
He stopped, looking from me to Jack, who was still holding my hand.
"You were with him?" Lend's face shifted and he swore softly. "I thought you were hurt or kidnapped. I've been calling everyone my dad knows, sick with worry. And you've been with him the whole time. Why? What were you doing that was so important you couldn't even call? And why didn't you come to me first when you found out about Georgetown?"
I shook my head, tears streaming down my face. "I couldn't, I-"
"You could tell him but not me? You promised me, you swore you were done hiding things. You lied. " He looked so hurt. I hadn't thought my heart could break any more, but seeing his eyes killed me.
"I couldn't face you! Lend, that was our life-that was everything! And I failed. I didn't get in. I'm not good enough. "
He took me by the shoulders, steering me away from Jack. "Evie, there are other options. This sucks, but it's not the end of the world. This doesn't change anything about us. I don't know why you think it would! We've still got the same future. "
"No, we don't! We've never had the same future. I've tried my hardest to fix it, but we never will. I'm not-I'm not even human. And you aren't either, so we should quit pretending like this will ever work out. "
His face fell. "We've always known we weren't normal. Why does it suddenly matter? So we're paranormal, big deal. "
"You don't get it!"
"And he does?" Lend pointed angrily at Jack.
"No! I'm not paranormal, I'm nothing! Just another faerie experiment gone horribly wrong. And we don't have a future together because mine is going to dead-end into oblivion and yours is going to go on forever!"
