Jih’s feet touched the earth beside me, head bowed to hide her tears. “I’ll not go any farther,” she said, her voice a whisper. “My husband thinks it was wrong for me to have even joined the battle, seeing as it’s not truly my garden anymore. But I didn’t see any harm if I ‘visited’ my sisters while he was at home making sure no one took our own land.”

“You are your father’s daughter as much as your mother’s,” I said, touching her arm and making her look up. “Always bending the rules.”

She smiled forlornly, causing her to look beautiful, dashed the glitter from her face, and looked at her first home with a faint smile. “I think I’d like my papa back if he was happy.”

I nodded, feeling for the first time that I might be doing some good. “I’ll try.”

She rose up with a soft hum, shifting a dust of sparkles over us. Pierce sneezed, and I held my breath. “Now you’ll smell right,” she said, and with no more, she flew away. The sound of her wings faded remarkably fast.

Pierce smacked his clothes to get the dust off. “Don’t you want to smell right?” I asked him, and he raised his eyebrows.

“It’s a right smart amount she put down,” he said. “Why do we have to smell anyway?”

I didn’t know. I really didn’t care. Melancholy, I looked out over the distance, feeling the breeze, tasting it almost. It was too quiet for my garden, so long holding the singing or giggling of pixies by sun or starlight. They were either gone or hiding. Pierce gave a small start as I slipped my fingers into his. So I needed his moral support. Eyes forward, I stepped out, feet silent in the manicured dirt as I crossed the opening and watched the door get bigger. My pace didn’t falter until I reached it.

My knees went wobbly as I stared at it. Jenks was behind it, mourning his wife. Of all the demons I’d faced, of all the wicked witches, wild Weres, and evil elves, this was the most daunting thing I’d ever done. Jenks’s life was on the line. I couldn’t fail.

“Should we knock?” Pierce asked as we looked at it.

“Absolutely.” Gathering my courage, I knocked, knowing by the flat sound that it wouldn’t carry into the stump any distance. Pierce cleared his throat and pulled himself straight, as if we were calling on neighbors, and after a moment, he glanced at me.

“Can you tap a line?” he asked, his blue eyes showing a hint of trepidation. “I’m a mite skerry to try. I’m of a mind it might explode in me, being so small.”

“I’ve been connected since we did the spell. It’s okay.”