“Then it worked.” Shoving him aside, I tapped the line out back and flung the door open. Lunging, I swore as a handful of needles went thunking into the couch behind me. I dove for the bottom of the step, turning it into a roll. The soft, rain-wet earth cushioned me as I somersaulted behind the picnic table, propped up on end against the big tree for winter. I took a breath, and Pierce was suddenly crouching beside me.

“I swan, Rachel,” he muttered, peeved. “You’re going to be the death of me again.”

Immediately I set a circle around both of us. “I thought you said you liked what scared you.” There was a surge of noise from the pixies, and I peeked to see them beating the butterfly-winged fairies back, the fight rising higher as they both struggled for supremacy. The bobbing color of the fairies’ wings was encroaching from over the graveyard in a highly structured pattern that went up as well as from side to side. Surrounding the stump between us were darting shapes shedding sparkles to confuse and misdirect. If one didn’t know that a battle for survival was going on, it’d be breathtaking.

“Ivy?” I shouted while rubbing the dirt from my palms. Pierce took my arm and I jerked from him, only to find him take a stronger grip. “What are you doing?” I snapped.

“Hold still.” His lips pressed together, and I gasped when a surge of ley-line energy spilled into me. I pulled back at the invasion, shoving him when I felt a hot pulse of pain from my arm where he was gripping me. We fell over together, but he wouldn’t let go and we broke my circle. Only now did he let go, and I jerked when a new, green-tinted circle enclosed us.

“What is your problem!” I exclaimed. Great, now my knees were hurt and wet.

“Poison,” he said as he huddled close to the old wood. “I burned it up within you.”

Embarrassed, I looked down. There was a tiny hole in my shirt, the edges charred. The skin under was pink with the hint of a sunburn surrounding a nasty bruise I didn’t remember getting. Oh. “Um, thanks,” I stammered. “Sorry.”

“Do tell,” he said, his jaw tight and not meeting my eyes.

Peeking around the barrier, I saw a cluster of brightly colored wings rising over the protection of the shed. “Jenks! Behind you!” I exclaimed, then jerked behind the wood as three spears bounced off Pierce’s bubble. Cripes, I had nothing for fairies. Nothing!