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"Yeah, but, Lend, you're going to live forever-you know that, right? And once they're gone, that means forever by. . . " My throat caught, trying to keep the word inside. "By yourself. Alone. "
"I know," he whispered.
I squeezed his hands, bending my head until he looked me in the eyes. "Do you? I mean, do you really know? Have you thought this through? Because you're going to have to-" I squeezed my eyes shut, hating what I was saying, hating this conversation just when I got him back. "You're going to have to choose. And whatever you choose is going to be forever. I want to make sure you're thinking about it. You need to make the right choice. "
"What do you think that is?" His voice was soft and vulnerable and already filled with pain.
I opened my eyes and let go of his hands, putting mine on his cheeks to frame his face. I'd missed looking into his water eyes so, so much. "I can't make it for you. "
"I didn't think I'd be making this choice for years. Decades, even. " He stepped back and shoved his hands in his pockets, kicking angrily at a rock on the trail. "This is all happening so fast. "
"I know," I said, miserable. "But you know whatever you choose, I love you. Always. And it's important to me that you choose what is best for you. Okay?" I blinked furiously, trying to keep the tears back. I knew-I knew-if I asked him to stay, he would. But that wasn't something I could ask him. I had to make decisions for the rest of my life. He had to make a decision that would last for all eternity.
Dude, it sucked.
"But, Lend?" He looked up and I pulled one of his hands out of his pocket and wrapped it up in mine. "No matter what? Whatever happens? You still owe me a Christmas present. "
He laughed, hugging me, and we stood there with our arms around each other for way too long and way too short. Finally I sighed. "We should get to the pond. "
We reached the end of the trail that I spent so much time on I saw it every time I closed my eyes. Arianna wasn't kidding when she described the scene at the pond. A different creature inhabited every square foot. The pond was totally melted now and teeming with heads and bodies and fins and flippers. An impossibly huge, sucker-covered tentacle curled up out of the water, snatching a bird out of the air and pulling it back under.
"Holy crap, was that a kraken? How deep is the water, anyway?"
"As deep as my mom needs it to be, I think. "
We walked closer to a pit glowing such a brilliant orange it hurt my eyes; when I glanced to the side, I could see it was crawling with flaming salamanders. Reth stood next to it, his perfectly square, narrow shoulders slumped. Across the pond, at the edge of the trees, the sole sylph floated miserably.
I remembered what I'd seen in the faerie dream and wondered if this sylph was all that was left of the mighty wind that betrayed the rest of the paranormals and brought them all here. No wonder it had been so desperate to find me that Jack had been able to convince it to get involved. It probably wanted to atone for what it had done.
Or it just hated being stuck in this form. Now that I knew what most of them had been before, I couldn't imagine how strange it would be to go from being limitless to being confined in a new, strange body, subjected to different rules.
I jumped back, startled, as a group of rabid pixies scrambled past, wrestling and biting and pulling each other's hair.
"They can't all be here. " I squinted at the far borders. I wanted to figure this out and do it as fast as possible. As much as Reth had been terrible to me and had made me crazy, I was shocked at how deeply the idea of his being hurt affected me. He'd taken that faerie magic in my place-he'd sacrificed his buffer from this world to be with me in the first place. It wasn't that I didn't want his death on my hands. I didn't want his death at all. And to avoid that I needed to open the gate, and to open the gate I needed all the paranormals here.
Raquel walked over from where she'd been standing, talking with David, Arianna, and Cresseda. She beamed at the sight of Lend and me holding hands. "You did it, Evie! I am so happy. "
I grinned, leaning my head on Lend's shoulder. "Of course. If anyone needs more beauty sleep in this relationship, it's me. Where are the rest of the paranormals?"
"Not all of them want to go, apparently. Some are so far removed that they don't remember or don't want what they had before. Most of the troll colonies are staying. A few other types are mixed. About half the selkies are choosing to stay behind. A handful of nymphs. Mostly those that can become more human when they love a human. "
"What is that supposed to mean?" Lend snapped.
Raquel looked taken aback. "Simply that some are choosing to stay and others are not. "
"Just because they're leaving doesn't mean they don't love people here. "
I looked at him sharply, wondering if that statement applied to more than his mom. Was he talking about himself, too? Thankfully David spared Raquel having to answer Lend by joining us and making me tell them how I broke the curse. They weren't very amused by Reth's clever prank, either, but we didn't have time to dwell on it.
"When do we get this show on the road?" I tried to sound more confident than I felt. If they asked me to open the gate right now, I had no idea what I'd do, but at least I'd know one way or the other whether it'd work.
"There's a problem," he said.
People needed to stop saying that.
Chapter Thirty-Four
DUDE, FOR SERIOUS
