Rika passed the faeries, putting herself between them and the mortals. She could go closer to the dangerous metal than the other faeries could because she’d been mortal first, but she still couldn’t walk all the way up to it. Being even this close to the steel made her queasy and weak. Fortunately, the nearby faeries couldn’t approach it either, but sooner or later, Jayce would have to leave the protection of the railroad tracks and thus become vulnerable.

Although she wasn’t convinced that they would actually harm him, she couldn’t risk it. She made a noise, not quite a word but the start of one, before she realized what she’d done. Much like seeing him fall and reacting without thought, she’d done the same thing now. The result was the same as well: she’d begun talking to Jayce when he could see her. By her choice, she’d broken her own rules on keeping him at a safe distance.

Before she could think of how foolish it was, Jayce turned his head and saw her. “It’s you. . . .” He smiled and took a hesitant step toward her. “Where did you come from?”

Rika didn’t move. She opened her mouth to speak, to find some answer that was true. She settled on, “Out there.”

She made a vague gesture northeast, toward the desert, or more accurately, much farther away, across an ocean to a land where it grew cold, where there were seasons and so much greenery that her heart ached a little to think of it. Home. She couldn’t stand being there now, not after so long with winter’s pall on her, but she still remembered the beauty.

Jayce left Del and Kayley, moving farther from the safety of the railroad tracks. “You look like you’re not feeling well.”

When she didn’t answer, his arm went around her. He led her toward a wooden bench. Farther still from the tracks. Palm trees, looking battered and still proud despite it, cast narrow shadows.

“I knew we should’ve had you checked out. I couldn’t figure out how you vanished, where you were hiding. I looked in the caves where we were. I—” He stopped himself nervously before continuing, “I almost thought you were a dream, but Del saw you too.”

She stared at Jayce. Bruises shadowed his cheek. His ripped shirt had been replaced, but this one looked tattered too. A steel chain-link bracelet hung on his left wrist. Fortunately, since he held her with his right arm, the steel wasn’t likely to brush against her and injure her.

“Are you real, Rika?” he asked quietly.

“I’m real,” she assured him. That part she could say with certainty.