“Ah, Kat,” I said, and sighed. Then I trudged into BB&B, carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. Literally.

As I was settling in on the sofa, the doorbell tinkled and I glanced at the entrance.

The Dreamy-Eyed Guy walked in.

I had no idea why he used my door. I was pretty sure he could still sift, unlike the rest of us. Or just ooze in, a great dark stain sliding down my chimney or rising up from the floorboards.

A year ago I’d have gotten excited, believing he was here to help. And if not, that I could surely talk him into it. I knew better now. “Come to sing the song for us?” I mocked anyway.

“Don’t have it. Evaporates when passed. You, Cruce, must put it back together.”

Well, that seriously sucked. So, I couldn’t even talk him into it. I studied him intently as a thought occurred to me. “There’s something about this that’s necessary. What is it? Do good and evil have to work together in some cosmic-balance way?”

“Subjective. Still not seeing. Same source.”

“Are we being tested?”

He flashed me a smile and for a moment I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs. “Always. You owe me three boons, Beautiful Girl.”

“I don’t know if I can grant them. My power is fading.”

“Can and will.”

“Who are you?” I demanded. And why did he talk about the king in third person?

“Told you. At Chester’s. Said you’re no more the king than I.”

“Because we both are. In some way.” Me with the Book, but him how?

He stopped at the sofa and fixed his starry gaze on me with a faint smile. “A skin that refused to return when summoned. I demanded my own fate. He is a storm. I am but a drop of his rain.”

“I saw you in the abbey. You became him.”

“Illusion. It amuses him. As does my defiance. He could reclaim me. When you see her, you will say nothing of my origins. She believes me human.”

“Her, who?”

“The concubine.”

I narrowed my eyes. “I thought she was in the White Mansion.”

“You will restore her mortality. I will sift us to a world but you will pretend you’re doing it.”

“And your third boon?”

“One day, either the king or I will come to claim it.”

I nodded, knowing I had so little time left it was doubtful anyone would claim anything further from me.

When he brought Aoibheal inside, her eyes narrowed. “I can’t help you,” she said instantly.

“I’m not asking you to,” I told the woman whose mere existence had caused every single problem I’d had, through no fault of her own but as a pawn on a vast chessboard, in a game played by vast beings. It wasn’t as if there was anything she could do to save us anyway. I would be dead soon, with no True Magic to require advice about. “I’m going to take you somewhere.”

“Where?” she demanded.

I glanced at the DEG and the transition was seamless. Suddenly the three of us stood beneath the triple canopy of a tropical rain forest, and I was hearing the DEG’s voice in my head, telling me what to say.

“The king protected your world,” I told her. “Though your clan is long dead, you will find your planet the same.”

She stared blankly at me, then past my shoulder, then at me again. “My world still exists? I’m home? But how do you know any of this? How did you even know where to find it?”

That was a tricky one. I waited for the DEG to say something and he didn’t so I said, “The Sinsar Dubh knew about it. It was in the king’s memories.”

She spun in a slow circle, absorbing her surroundings with faint wonder.

I relayed the DEG’s next words: “I’m going to make you mortal so you may live and die as you’ve always wished. You will not perish with the Earth.”

She whirled back to me. “Why would you do that? I left you and your world to die.”

I stared into her vaguely puzzled, sad eyes and these words were my own: “There was nothing you could have done to save us. No more than I.”

The DEG whispered in my brain the keywords to sort through my mental files so I could find the spell to transform her. Along with his words came a rush of dark power, and I whizzed through the tabs so quickly it pissed me off that he hadn’t been around a few weeks ago when I really could have used this kind of boost.

Then another flood of raw, unfocused energy exploded inside me as he boosted me further since I could no longer tap into the earth.

I murmured the words of an ancient curse used to turn a Fae human as punishment by the queen. Aoibheal stiffened and hissed, doubling over as she transformed. Then I felt another jolt of magic flow through me from the DEG, and her hair and skin began to darken to a lovely shade of brown. Glossy dark curls tumbled to her waist. Her clothing shimmered, shifted, and flowed into a brilliantly colored tunic.

When finally she straightened, she inclined her head in an imperious nod, then with her bird on her shoulder turned and walked slowly, stiffly, into the forest.

“Awk! Fly now!” the bird squawked.

She paused and glanced up at it. With a ghost of a smile, the concubine removed her shoes and curled her bare toes into the leaves and soil. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.

Then she shook herself, gathered her skirts and dashed off into the lush, dense wood.

The brilliant squawking bird soared into the air, taking flight above her.