.

      “Eyes like streams of melting snow,” she said, and it was all I could do not to roll my melting snow eyes. “Cold with—”

      “I know the prophecy,” I said, holding up a hand to stop her. “I already did that. I let all those souls Vivian trapped go. Just like you told me to.”

      Cresseda shook her head, droplets of water flying everywhere and turning to ice before they hit the ground with musical plinks. “That was not the end of your journey. You have more to do.”

      I sighed, clenching my jaw. “What’s that?”

      Nona stepped forward. “You will send us all home.” She smiled gratefully at me, reaching out to take my hand in hers. I folded my arms tightly in front of my chest again and stepped back.

      “So you guys want me to open a gate now, too? Is that why you’re working with Reth? Did he make you do this?” I scanned the tree line but didn’t see him anywhere. Didn’t mean he wasn’t around, though.

      “It is because of the faeries we are all here.” Nona’s voice was sad.

      The three floating banshees drifted closer. They opened their mouths and spoke as one, their voices full of grief and the promise of death, mournful and tired and beautiful. They made me want to cry myself to sleep as they harmonized in chant.

      “Greed and desire

      Not peace, but fire

      Coveting creation

      Created damnation

      Pulled alongside

      A gate thrown too wide

      Now our home calls

      And darkness falls.”

      I rubbed my temples, feeling a headache coming on. “A for effort, ladies, but F for clarity. You do realize that your weird poem things never explain anything.”

      Donna bounced forward. “I can explain! I can explain!”

      “Be my guest.”

      “The faeries didn’t like where we were. They wanted more, so they opened a gate! Using all our energy! But it was too big and they couldn’t control it, and we all got sucked through, straight here! It was scary, and cold. The faeries wanted to be able to create, because they couldn’t before, but here they could. But being here is wrong, and it’s killing all of us, slowly, changing us from what we should be. And pretty soon we won’t be able to leave, ever! So now you can open up the gate and let everyone go back to where they should be!” She paused, then leaned forward conspiratorially and whispered, “But I like it here. It’s more fun.”

      “So, wait. You’re all here because of the faeries?”

      Kari and Donna nodded enthusiastically; everyone else nodded somberly.

      “All the paranormals in the world, all the elementals, everything supernatural—you were never here to begin with?” That meant Lend wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for the faeries. Then again, I wouldn’t either. Dangit, maybe I did owe them, after all.

      “No, child,” Nona said. “We were victims of the faeries’ pride and greed.”

      “Victims? Sorry, but most of you don’t seem very victimish to me. What about hags, and fossegrims, and redcaps, and all the other sharp-toothed nasties”—I looked pointedly at the dragon—“in your group? I don’t feel very bad for anything that’s spent all those centuries preying on innocent people.”

      “It makes sense,” Arianna said, her voice soft but thoughtful.

      “What?”

      “When you introduce an alien species into a new environment, it has to adapt or die out. And usually the way it adapts is by preying on the native species. Look at the dodo birds. They were fine until people came to their island with cats and dogs and pigs, then they became prey.”

      “You do realize you just compared our entire race to dodo birds.”

      She shrugged. “If they were never meant to be here in the first place, it’s not their fault they had to become predators.”

      “Thank you, Animal Planet.” I turned back to Nona. “But what about vampires? And werewolves? Even zombies. They started out normal; they didn’t come here with you.”

      “Vampires were created by the Dark Queen in an effort to make an Empty One. You know this. The others I cannot explain, but even without our kind your world has mysteries of its own.” She smiled.

      “Okay. Fine. So, you were all brought here against your will and now you want to go back. You want me to just throw open a gate and let your little group skip on through?”

      Cresseda shook her head. “No. All will have a choice this time. We have already started the Gathering.” Paranormals had a way of talking with capitalized letters I still didn’t understand. “It is nearly complete. And when we are together, we shall all leave this world.”

      Arianna drew in a sharp breath next to me.

      “All all?” I asked. “Like, every paranormal in the world? Including the faeries? And just how big a gate do you think I can make? Because I don’t think I can make another one, period. Last time it was mostly an accident, and it almost killed me.” The night felt even colder against my skin as I remembered what it felt like to channel all those souls through a gate in the stars. The burning, the agony: I really thought I wouldn’t survive.

      It wasn’t that I didn’t get what they were saying or what they wanted, or even that I thought it was wrong. It wasn’t their fault they were here, and I knew they deserved a way home, wherever that might be. But the idea of making another gate terrified me, and I wasn’t willing to risk dying to try. They shouldn’t expect that of me. They couldn’t.

      “I tire of this,” the dragon said, and when it opened its mouth I could see embers glowing from within. “The wee thing talks too much.”

      “Evelyn,” Cresseda said, drawing my attention back to her. “Come with us now. We will help you do what you were made for, and make you whole.”

      I looked from glowing paranormal to glowing paranormal, finally settling on Cresseda. They’d been here for thousands of years already; surely they could tough it out a few more. “I wasn’t made for anything. The faeries created this problem; they can solve it on their own. And I don’t need anyone to fix me.”

      I turned my back on them and walked away.

      

      I was halfway to Lend’s house when a huge spurt of fire shot up into the sky from the pond. I yelped and ran, the afghan trailing behind me like a dark shadow. It slipped and I looked back to grab for it, slamming right into Lend.

      We both fell on the ground. “Are you okay?” he asked, searching my face. “What was that?”

      “Probably the dragon. I think I pissed it off.”

      “The dragon’s here? Why? What were you doing?”

      “I got lured down to the pond by a bunch of paranormals. Including your mom.”

      “She’s there?” He sat up and looked in that direction; the fire was gone now, thank goodness, but I thought I heard voices arguing.

      “Yeah. Listen, Lend. They want me to open the gate for them and all the other paranormals. Your mom asked me to.” And suddenly it hit me—when she said all the paranormals on earth, she was including Lend in that. Ah, bleep. “They want to leave. All of them. Go back to wherever they came from. Probably with you,” I whispered.

      “What did you say?” I couldn’t tell from the tone of his voice how he felt about it.

      “I said no. I just—I’m done.