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Endlessly
Kiersten White
When your world is paranormal, be glad that you’re human… The breathtaking conclusion to the bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy, which left Hush, Hush author Becca Fitzpatrick exclaiming, “I’m in love!”After the shocking revelations about her parents and the faeries’ struggle for possession of her soul, all Evie wants is to spend a normal Christmas with her shapeshifter boyfriend Lend. But as usual things don’t turn out as planned for Evie, as suddenly the International Paranormal Containment Agency, the local paranormals and her faery ex-boyfriend Reth are all in need, and only Evie and her powers can save them. Once again… so much for normal.
Dedication
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Pink Goes with Everything
Barking Mad
The Shortest Day of the Year
Glamourous Parties
Winter Soulstice
Old Flames
Found and Lost
Shocking Encounters
New Jewelry
Sparks Fly
Havoc
Rainbows and Butterflies
Holding Hands with Boys
Dance, Dance Revolutions
Bundles of Joy
Happy Pills
What’s in a Name?
Power Nap
Eau De Faerie
I Need a Little Space
Deck the Sterile White Halls
In the Absence of Ruby Slippers
Plan T
Picture Imperfect
Eavesdropping and Reading Notes
Ice, Ice, Baby
Double Dating Disappointments
More Monsters in the Dark
Dream Date
You Can’t Change Me
You’d Think They’d Never Seen an Invisible Boy Before
Sweaty Mess
Kind of a Big Deal
Dude, for Serious
Jack is Clever, Jack is Good
Bread Basket Cases
Possibly Impossible
A Lot Strange
You Can’t Borrow My Clothes, Either
Light and Dark
Daddy Issues
We’re Not Dawn Yet
Miss You Faerie Much
Never Forever
Acknowledgments
Praise
Other Books by Kiersten White
Copyright
About the Publisher
Here’s the thing about dragons: I know absolutely nothing whatsoever about them.
Which made my task to scare raccoons out of the alley behind the diner much more complicated. Instead of the mini masked bandits, I was greeted by a pale, serpentine body with feathers raised like spikes along its spine and shoulders. Its face was almost wolfish, a long snout cut by two thick tusks jutting out and curling up over the lips. Oh, and claws. Sharp claws. “You are not a raccoon,” I whispered.
“Nae, child, I am no wee beast.” The air tasted like charcoal as its voice slid out, high and smooth and ageless, momentarily shocking me even more than the fact that there was a dragon hanging around behind the trash cans. It talked. Well, of course it talked, Evie. Because really, what kind of self-respecting, trash can–scrabbling mythical dragon wouldn’t talk? I was equal parts terrified and annoyed. But at least the dragon didn’t smell as bad as unicorns.
Then again, unicorns were herbivores.
It breathed in deeply, a golden glow growing in its chest. For once I didn’t think that light was related to its soul. Not soul; definitely fire. I didn’t have time to dash back through the door and close it before being roasted—nor did I like the door’s odds against a dragon. I could make a break for it down the alley, but I had no idea how fast this creature was. I decided on honesty. “Are you going to eat me?” I asked.
“Is that your desire?”
“Not really, no. The Winter Formal is coming up, and it’s not going to plan itself, so this is kind of a bad time for me. Can we reschedule?” I took a step back. People used to fight dragons, right? I could do this. All I needed was a full suit of armor. And a sword. Or a mace. Or some Mace.
The door opened behind me, flooding the alley with light from the kitchen, and I yelped in relief.
“There you are,” Nona said. She nodded to the dragon.
“You two know each other?” Why did this surprise me? Of course the resident tree spirit would know the talking dragon hanging out in the alley, just like she knew every other weird paranormal recently lurking about town. And I had no doubt that this meeting, too, would go entirely unexplained.
I so needed to get a new job.
“Evelyn, I have served your friends milk shakes. Please enjoy your evening.” Smiling placidly at me, Nona walked out past the dragon toward the end of the alley where the forest pushed up against the town. The dragon fixed one gleaming, dark pink eye on me, then winked.
Forget a new job. I needed to get a new town.
A breeze blew past me in a massive gust, flinging my hair into my mouth. The dragon took a few graceful hops, then slid like a snake through the air after Nona.
“Fabulous,” I muttered, going into the kitchen and shutting—then locking—the door. “Glad Nona has another new friend.” Taking a deep breath to clear my sinuses of the lingering smell of smoke, I squared my shoulders and walked into the main part of the diner. I just faced off against a dragon and came away char free. I was ready to fight.
“Now,” I said, sitting down at the corner booth and glaring at the five other teenagers there, “who says pink isn’t a good color scheme for this dance?”
I threw my binder of materials down on our apartment’s tired floral couch. “Seriously, pink is a neutral color! And what’s elegant about navy blue? No one ever says, ‘Hey, you know what’s elegant? The Navy!’”
Arianna rolled her dead eyes. “There is nothing neutral about pink. They need a color that looks good as a background to any shade of dress.”
“What color clashes with pink?”
“Orange?”
“Well, if anyone shows up in an orange dress, she deserves to clash. Yuck.”
“Chill out. You can do a lot with navy.”
I sank down into the couch next to her. “I guess. I could do navy with silver accents. Stars?”
“Yawn.”
“Snowflakes?”
“Gee, now you’re getting creative for a winter formal.”
I ignored her tone, as usual. I was just glad she was here. She’d been gone a lot lately. “Hmm … maybe something softer. Like a water and mist theme?” I asked.
“I … actually kind of like that.”
“Wanna help me with the sketches?”
She leaned forward and turned on Easton Heights. “Decorating a stupid dance is all yours. You’re the one who decided to be more involved in your ‘normal’ life. I’d prefer to be sleeping eternally six feet under.”
“This is probably a bad time to mention I also might have signed up to help with costumes for the spring play. And since I know nothing about sewing, I kind of maybe signed you up as a volunteer aide.”
She sighed, running one glamoured corpse hand through her spiky red and black hair. “I am going to kill you in your sleep.”
“As long as it doesn’t hurt.”
We hummed along to the opening theme, which ended when the door banged open and my boyfriend walked through, shrugging out of his coat and beaming as he dropped a duffel bag. “Free! What did I miss?” Lend asked, his cheeks rosy from the cold and his smile lighting up his water eyes beneath his dark glamour ones.
“I lost the vote on color schemes for the dance, the last episode of Easton Heights before they go into reruns is back on in three minutes, and Arianna is going to murder me in my sleep.”
“As long as it doesn’t hurt.”
“That’s what I said!”
Lend scooped me into his arms, turning around and sitting back down on the couch with me in his lap. This Christmas break of his couldn’t have come soon enough. After the crazy events of last month—including but not limited to finding out that my father was a faerie, being abandoned in the Faerie Paths by a vengeful Jack, and finally finding my way back to Lend—we needed some time together to relax. I’d figured out that this was the only answer I needed about my life. No more worrying about how much time I’d have, no more fretting over what I was or wasn’t. What I was was here, now. And happy.
“Anything else?” he asked, playing with my hair.
“Oh, yeah, there’s a dragon in the alley behind the diner, hanging out with Nona.”
Lend frowned at me, his warm fingers lingering on the back of my neck. “And this gets a mention after the color scheme for a dance and a new episode of a teen soap?”
“Priorities, Lend. Priorities.”
My IPCA communicator beeped from the coffee table during a commercial, earning me an icy glare from Arianna. “If it goes off during dialogue, I will smash it to pieces.”
“Sorry! I told Raquel to call on my actual cell. The one that is cute and pink and has a cool ringtone instead of an annoying beep. Not like I can do anything for IPCA now anyway.”
“That whole lack-of-faerie-transportation thing does kind of make it pointless.” Lend tried not to sound too happy about it, but I knew he was secretly thrilled.
