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"You don't understand. I was going to take her soul. But I don't want any part of her in me, Jack. A faerie soul would be worse than nothing at all. "
He looked as though he was about to burst, then let out a deep breath. "Fine, then. " Sitting on the floor next to me, he took my good hand in his. "It doesn't matter, anyway. Not after what we're going to do. "
"What are we going to do?"
A beatific smile spread across his face, transforming his impish face into an angelic one. "We're going to save the world, Evie. We're going to make sure that faeries don't hurt anyone, ever again. "
Chapter Forty
Dimpled Terror
I shook my head at Jack, confused. "What do you mean? How are we going to stop the faeries? I won't drain them. Any of them. Besides which, even if I wanted to, I'd never be able to get them all. "
"It's simpler than that. Simple, and obvious. They don't belong here; we're going to send them somewhere else. "
"Wouldn't they come right back? They can make doors. "
"We won't use a door. You're going to make a gate. They can only access the Faerie Realms and Earth with their doors. If you were to open a gate to somewhere else, they wouldn't be able to get back. "
How did he know about the gates? I couldn't remember whether or not I'd told him. Maybe Raquel had. Whatever the case, he obviously didn't understand how they worked.
Well, of course he didn't. I had no idea how they worked, and I'd made one.
"I can't really do that, I don't think. Besides, isn't that what they wanted? Reth was always talking about me sending them back where they came from. I'm guessing that meant making a gate. I don't especially want to work with any faeries right now, or ever. And I'm not in the mood to make them happy by giving them a shiny new gate to wherever it is they want to go. "
"There are other places to send them. " Jack's smile was still firmly in place, but his tone was cold, menacing.
I shook my head. He wasn't getting it. "But how would we even get them to go through the gate? And where would I open it to? And how would I open it in the first place? I've only ever done one, and that just sort of happened. " The night I'd released all the souls Vivian had taken, the gate in the stars called out to me. The souls of all the paranormals that Viv stole changed me, helped me see things I couldn't before and hadn't since. I doubted I could find that gate-or any others, if there were others-again.
"Relax, Ev. I've got everything figured out. There's only one door into the Faerie Realms from the Paths. Remember?"
I nodded, recalling how it had felt when Jack showed me.
"Very good. That door opens up to any area, but it's still the same door. So if you were to open a gate in that same spot . . . "
"The faeries would go through without meaning to. " I stared, finally understanding. It would be like a trapdoor. Trap gate.
"Exactly! No need for confrontation. They'd slip through before they knew what was happening. "
"I guess that could work. " I frowned. "But even if I could figure out how to do it again, I don't have enough energy to open a gate. I had all those souls from Vivian before. "
He raised his eyebrows. "And you're telling me you don't have any extra floating around in you?"
The vampire, the sylph, and the fossegrim: fragments of their souls coursed through me. Shrugging nervously, I shook my head. "Maybe a little, but not on purpose. Well, I mean, I had to. And it's not enough. "
"How do you know if you haven't tried?"
"I guess I could give it a shot. "
"There's a good girl! And if it isn't enough, we can get some more. Too bad about sending Fehl away, though. We could have used her. "
"It's not like that. " I narrowed my eyes, uncomfortable with how casually he treated stealing souls.
"Come on!" He grabbed my good hand and pulled me through the wall and into the Paths, practically skipping. I stumbled along, too tired, too overwhelmed to protest. "Here we are. " He smiled at the blackness in front of us; I recognized the feeling of the door.
"So I'm gonna send them home?" I was torn. On the one hand, it was what they wanted. But on the other hand, they'd be gone. That couldn't be a bad thing. "How will I know what gate to use? I don't think I can find one. "
Jack turned toward me, his eyes feverish. Something in his face reminded me of Fehl, and my stomach turned nervously.
