FOUND AND LOST

My mouth opened in a scream, but I couldn't hear anything as I ducked my head against Reth's chest. I blinked rapidly, trying to get my eyes to adjust, then looked back out. Where the street should have been was a wall of black nothingness. And stepping out of it was the most terrifying creature I had ever had the misfortune of seeing.

The Dark Queen.

She was just as I remembered: hair pooling down her back, iridescent like oil in the sun, skin pure white, lips violet and full and cruel. Perfection, terrifying and overwhelming. And in her whirlpool eyes I saw death.

Nona stood straight in front of the gaping window frame. My ears finally cleared and I caught the end as she said, "You have no claim." Her voice took on a deep echo, a cracking and groaning of growing things unnaturally accelerated. She raised both hands in the air and roots shot up, slamming through the asphalt and wrapping themselves around the Dark Queen's legs beneath her gossamer white dress.

The Dark Queen smiled, a knifing look, and her mouth moved in a whisper. Nona trembled, and the roots shook, faster and faster until they split into pieces. Nona shrieked and fell to the floor, her glamour falling away as small cracks spread along her oak-brown skin.

Grnlllll ran forward, jumping up onto a table and out the window. The roar that issued from her tiny gnome frame made the ground tremble and buck; I fell to my knees as the tiles beneath my feet rolled. The road, already broken up from the roots, crumbled into jagged pieces around the Dark Queen. She flicked a hand, sending Grnlllll flying into the side of the building.

The ground immediately stopped shaking, and her bottomless black eyes looked straight into the diner. "I want the Empty One." Her voice rippled out like a shock wave; I felt it go through me, felt it pierce my heart, overwhelm it, leave nothing in its wake but a vacuum that only she could fill. Yes. I would go.

I started to stand, but Reth pushed me to the floor and put a hand over my heart. I gasped as the heat invaded, pushing out the vast emptiness the Dark Queen had put there.

"Give her to me, you golden fool, or I will unmake you."

I felt Reth's hand tremble on me; he'd turn me over. He had to. He wouldn't die for me. I was shocked to realize I didn't want him to die here, either.

Suddenly Arianna's voice rang out from above us. "Hey, witch! That's the fugliest dress I've ever seen!"

I looked up to see the Dark Queen pelted with the contents of our apartment fridge raining down from the second floor window. She raised a hand and I screamed. Not Arianna, I couldn't lose her, too. Then a plate smashed against the Dark Queen's perfect white arm from the side, distracting her.

Kari and Donna stood in the doorway of the diner, loaded with every dish they could hold, throwing them with remarkable aim. Cups and bowls crashed off the Dark Queen, not doing any real damage but sure as anything pissing her off.

"Dad! The pans, in the kitchen! Iron!" Lend said. David nodded and ran back.

"Behind the counter, now!" Lend hissed, grabbing Reth's arm and pulling us both back to the flimsy shelter where we all crouched. "We'll wait until my dad distracts her with the iron and then get away through a faerie door."

Reth nodded, and I let myself hope for one second that we'd get out of this, that we'd escape her and somehow be okay. Then there was a horrible noise like an animal in pain that cut off far too sharply, and Donna screamed, sobbing Kari's name.

"Enough," the Dark Queen said, her voice pushing out and somehow making the very air feel different, thicker. Reth's golden eyes widened in horror; he put a hand out on the wall.

Nothing happened.

Lend watched, and I saw his face as it sank in. We weren't going to get out.

"It's okay," I said, my voice breaking. "It's okay. You guys stay back here. Try to help the others. I can't let her hurt anyone else. She won't leave until she gets me."

"You," Lend whispered, then looked at Reth. Something unspoken passed between them. "Keep her safe," Lend said fiercely.

Reth nodded. "Always."

Lend leaned forward and smashed his lips into mine, kissing me desperately, then pulled away. "I love you," he said, his glamour melting off so it was him, just him for a heartbeat, and I got ready to stand and be lost forever. Then he replaced his water self with:

Me.

"No!" I screamed, but Reth wrapped his arms around me and traced one finger down my throat, freezing my voice.

I screamed and screamed, ripping my throat to shreds but no sound came out. Lend-as-me stood up, lifting both hands in the air.

"I'm coming," my voice said. "Stop."

He walked out from behind the counter and I couldn't see him and she'd kill him and I'd lose him forever and I couldn't live in a world where he wasn't.

I kicked against the counter as hard as I could, trying to force Reth to let me go, but his arms weren't flesh, they were permanent, there was no give. I slammed my head back into his chest again and again, but then I felt more than heard her faerie door closing as the air thinned again and I knew it was over and my world had been destroyed.

Lend was gone, and it was my fault.

I slammed my head against Reth again in rage; he pulled me closer and said, in a voice tender and sad, "Sleep."

And then it was black.