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“Surprise!” they shouted.
It definitely was.
Lend twirled me to the beat in the furniture-free living room and I laughed, my dress spinning around me. They’d draped the walls with swaths of shimmery material in purples and violets, and covered the overhead lights so that even the lighting was filtered and soft. I didn’t know what it was about putting on masks and fancy clothes, but the people I saw every day in the halls seemed prettier, more mysterious, older. Easton Heights totally had this one right after all.
I spun back into Lend’s arms and rested my head on his shoulder. “This is the most amazing thing anyone has ever done for me.” The amount of time and preparation he must have put into this—it boggled my mind.
He squeezed my hand in his. “Had to make up for prom, right?”
Reth kidnapping me, confronting Vivian and almost killing her, nearly sucking the soul out of Lend … yeah, prom hadn’t been quite what I’d hoped. “Let’s not mention that dance. Where did everyone get the masks?”
Each mask was individual, with different flourishes and details; everything from sequins to feathers to what looked like gold leaf. They were breathtaking. Definitely not something from a cheap party store.
“I designed most of them and Arianna made them. A little mystery that you can’t see through—and you don’t have to. Just a magical normal night.”
“It’s amazing.”
He dipped me down, then leaned forward and nuzzled into my arched neck. “So are you.”
When the dance music sped up, Carlee found me amid the crush of people. She looked hot in a deep green strapless mini, dark brown hair stick straight and loose, her mask blue and green with peacock feathers trailing down either side.
“Happy birthday!” she shouted, throwing her arms around me, and I hugged her back, giddy.
“Thank you!”
“Is this not the best freaking party ever?”
“Totally!”
She beamed. “Lend’s been working on it for like a month. I’ve been here all day setting up.”
“You were in on it?”
“Psh, of course I was, girl. Who do you think did invites and forced the idiot boys from school to actually dress nice?”
“Carlee, I’m so glad you’re my friend,” I said, blinking back any hint of tears because I was so not messing up my makeup.
“Me, too. And I’m glad Lend finally manned up and threw a decent party.”
“I’m right here, you know,” he said, leaning over my shoulder. “So let’s not go too heavy on the manning up talk.”
My stomach growled. “Food?” I asked.
“In the kitchen. Want me to make you a plate?”
“Perfect.” I watched him weave away through the crowd.
“So, are you two going to get married already or what?”
I laughed. “Excuse me?”
Carlee rolled her eyes. “Please. You don’t even look at other guys. And I have never seen a guy that crazy about a girl before. You’re, like, his entire world.”
I shrugged, smiling. “I can’t imagine ever finding someone better than Lend. He just—he knows me. Totally. Everything. And miraculously he still likes me.”
“Likes? Girl, he head-over-heels-freaking-loves you.”
“It’s mutual!”
“Find me one like that, okay?”
“He’s one of a kind.” Way, way, way more than Carlee would ever know. She just laughed and we danced for a few minutes before I left the middle to watch from the edges and wait for Lend. The Vicious Redhead, my old soccer nemesis, was awkwardly grinding with a tall, skinny kid who was one of the stars of the basketball team, and Carlee was now surrounded by no less than four guys. I was surprised at how many of the kids I recognized under their masks, and how many of them I considered my friends. Maybe I wasn’t on the fringes of normal society. Too bad I’d already volunteered for, like, ten clubs. Probably could have thrown an awesome party and called it good.
I scanned for Arianna but didn’t see her anywhere. Turning to look out the window, I noticed a small point of light like fire, going in and out.
It took a minute, but I made it through everyone, nodding and grinning to birthday wishes, before bursting out the open front door. A bunch of kids lingered there, talking and laughing on the wraparound porch, but I walked straight off and into the trees that hugged the borders of the yard.
“You know you aren’t supposed to be smoking those things,” I said.
Arianna swore, surprised, and dropped her cigarette on the ground. “Great, that was my last one.” She ground it out with her foot.
“Come in,” I said, taking one of her hands, but she pulled back.
“Nah, not my thing.”
“Arianna, seriously. This dress? The masks? It’s incredible, and you did it, and you should be in there with me.”
I could barely see her in the dark, but I think she smiled. “Vicariously living through you is enough for tonight. Tell me it’s the best party you’ve ever seen.”
“This party kicks the masquerade episode’s trash.”
“Got that right.”
I took her hand again. “You’re telling me you spent all that time on masks and didn’t make one for yourself?”
Her voice was soft. “You know I already wear one.”
I scrambled for words, but she squeezed my hand and let it go.
“Get back in there or I’m never doing anything nice for you again. And if you don’t have the best night of your life after I spent all that time on this stupid party, I’m gonna turn you and make you spend eternity playing MMORPGs with me.”
I hugged her tight, feeling her tiny body through my dress. “Thank you.”
“Go be a teenager.”
“That’s my specialty,” I said, grinning at her and going back to the house.
The rest of the night passed in a blur of color and noise and laughter. There were no fistfights, no furniture thrown through windows, nary an overdose or tragic revelation, so it wasn’t quite the same as the Easton Heights episode, which I was grateful for.
Around 1 a.m. people were mostly filtering out, stopping to wish me happy birthday and to congratulate Lend on a party well thrown. David had been around on the periphery all night and looked exhausted as he pushed furniture back in. Lend was beat, too, beneath his always flawless dark-haired dark-eyed hottie glamour, but I was still buzzing.
When the last guest left, Lend leaned his head on my shoulder heavily. “Meet me on the porch in five minutes,” he whispered.
“If you’re surprising me with another party, I don’t think it can top this one. Or that you’ll make it without passing out.”
He laughed softly. “No more parties. Pretty sure that’d kill me, immortal or not. Just a little present.” He kissed my neck then went upstairs. I grabbed an afghan off the back of the couch and walked out, wrapping it around myself. The house was too brightly lit to see many stars, but it was a gorgeous night.
I wondered what more Lend could possibly have in store when I saw the light, bobbing and twinkling on the trail that led to his mom’s pond. It winked on and off a few times, then slowly started moving away.
I bit my lip and smiled. He must have gone around the back way. I couldn’t imagine what surprise he had for me at the pond, but I couldn’t wait to find out. I stepped off the porch and followed the light as it stayed always the same distance ahead of me, barely visible.
I could just make out where the edge of the pond would be through the trees; dozens of pale lights shimmered around its edges. He must have set up out here, too. I shivered, anticipating spending time with him, alone, on such a magical night.
Then I came through the trees and saw that Lend wasn’t there and the lights weren’t lights at all.
They were people.
Well, no. People was definitely the wrong word.
My eyes flicked around the group gathered at the edge of the frozen pond. I saw the three black-haired and mournful beauties from the diner—now definitely floating above the ground, their filmy dresses fluttering in a nonexistent wind. Banshees? Then there were Nona and Grnlllll, who had that same glowy salamander thing on her arm I’d seen them talking to once. The dragon, because this situation couldn’t suck as much without a dragon. A little furry thing that looked sort of like Grnlllll but with massive, luminous orbs for eyes. It was holding up a small lantern—the source of the winking light. Of course. A will-o’-the-wisp, how fabulous that I’d meet one now. At least it hadn’t led me to my death in a bog. So far. Kari and Donna, the traitorous seals. And there, floating over the pond, bleep! It was the stupid sylph who had flown off with me. I still had a part of its soul crackling around in me, and neither of us was happy about that.
The lights I’d seen around the pond were obvious now—the glow they each had centered around their hearts, their bright, immortal souls like dim lanterns behind fabric.
No faeries, though. That was something, I suppose. I didn’t like my odds against most of these things, but at least I didn’t have to worry about being whisked into the Faerie Paths.
“Child,” Nona said.
“Stop right there. Enough with this ‘child’ nonsense. In case you hadn’t noticed, I had a birthday. Which makes me seventeen. You are welcome to use my name, but if you’re going to ambush me like this, the least you can do is treat me like an adult.”
“Happy birthday, Evie!” Donna said, grinning.
I couldn’t help but smile, exasperated by her enthusiasm. “Thank you. But somehow I doubt this is another party.”
Someone in all black melted out of the woods next to me and I tensed, shocked to see Arianna. I frowned. “You’re part of this? Did you set all this up?”
She rolled her eyes. “Please, so not my crowd. I saw you wander off into the woods alone and followed.”
A huge crack echoed through the air, and water and ice shot up in a fountain from the middle of the pond, slamming back down and breaking more of the frozen surface. The fissure pushed straight through to the bank in front of me, water spraying up as the ice creaked and groaned and moved to the sides. The pulsing cold in my veins left over from the fossegrim I’d partially drained swirled as if in recognition. It had better not be him in there.
I stepped back, waiting to see what would come out of the water. It bubbled up into the form of a woman, and I let out a surprised breath. Cresseda—Lend’s mom. Lend’s mom whom no one had seen in months.
“Evelyn,” she said in her rushing-water voice. As usual she glowed from the inside, far brighter in the night. Her features were perfect and strange and beautiful, and I could see points of starlight through her.
“Did you want to see Lend?” I asked. He’d be relieved to see her, even if I wasn’t.
“I am not here for my son. It is time to take your path.”
“You do mean the path back to the house, right? Because that’s the only path I’m considering right now.” I bit my lip. Maybe I shouldn’t mouth off to the elemental I kinda hoped was my future mother-in-law.
“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.”
