“You’re not alone. Jenks, please,” I said, unable to stop the tears from slipping down. Somewhere I’d heard pixies died of heartache when their spouses died. “It’s going to be okay. You’ve got Ivy and me. We’re here. We need you. Matalina told you to stay with us.”

The clatter of pixy wings came just before Ivy’s footfalls. Rex hunched furtively. In a swirl of blood-stained silk, the entire clan dropped to the ground as a great keening rose. Unable to take it, the cat ran away. Ivy stood above us, and as I looked up, her eyes spilled over with tears. I could say nothing, my heart aching for his pain. Matalina.

“Oh, Jenks,” Ivy breathed as she dropped to kneel. “I’m sorry.”

He had turned back to his wife, trying to smile as he brushed her face and arranged her hair. “She’s here, but I’m alone,” he said as if trying to figure it out. “I don’t understand.”

The keening lifted and rose, and Ivy’s jaw tightened. “You’re not alone, pixy. Don’t you dare go somewhere to die!”

Face riven, he stared blankly at her. “I am alone,” he said simply. Getting up, he found Jax standing miserably, holding Jih as she cried into his shoulder. “Jax, the garden is yours,” he said, and the younger pixy jerked. “Keep Rachel alive if you have an ounce of respect for your mother,” he finished bitterly. And as Ivy and I stared, Jenks took Matalina and walked into a shadow that hid the back tunnel to their home.

A wailing grew, turning into harmony with no words, heartrending in its beauty. The pixies joined together, rising up with wings turned blue from sadness, the tears sifting from them to make them glow. All but Jax, his feet riveted to the wet earth.

“No! I don’t want the garden!” he shouted at the small opening. “I don’t want your dreams, old man! I have my own!”

I turned to Ivy, scared. “What does he mean, the garden is Jax’s?”

Jax rose up, and I sat back on my heels to keep him in sight. “I’m to find a wife and keep the land,” he said. Wings clattering, he flew to the empty tunnel but didn’t enter. “I don’t want it! You can’t make me do this!” he raged into the darkness. “This isn’t what’s supposed to happen!”

“This is Jenks’s land,” I said, scared. “He’s my backup, not you.”

Ivy was crying, the tears slipping down her pale face with a slow misery. “He’s gone to ground with her,” she said. “He’s not going to come out. Ever.”

Fear pulled me straight. “What do you mean, ever?”

“He’s going to kill himself to stay with her.”