“I’ve got a bushel basket full of truth,” I said as I shifted in my chair to face her square on. “I know what you looked like. I saw the Eden your war destroyed. Ku’Sox knows only what you’ve shown him, and I’m sorry, Newt, but you’ve shown him only the present, not your past. You really want him in charge of your future?”

She hesitated, fingers clenching on the staff.

“I know you’re afraid,” I said, and she barked in laughter.

“Afraid of you!”

“Not of me,” I said. “You’re afraid of the endless days continuing with no change. You’re tired. You think Ku’Sox is how you can let go and still continue on, but look at him. He’s not you, he doesn’t have your soul. That’s why he keeps trying to eat them.”

She was listening, and I sat up, trying to look like I knew what I was talking about. “Look at how he’s getting past the elven curse. He’s stealing babies. He’s stealing the wisdom to keep them alive. I broke the curse you put on the elves, and I can damn well break the curse that keeps you stuck in the hell you both made of your paradise. I can free you, Newt. You can finish free of the ever-after as you began it.”

Newt swallowed hard. A tear slipped from her, and she wiped it away, shocked. Behind her, pixies were plastered against the window, watching. “We had wings.”

I smiled. “You flew between the clouds and the moon.”

Her eyes came to me. “It’s not a dream.”

“No. This? This nothing that you live in?” My hand lifted and fell. “This is the nightmare you made for yourself. Let me wake you up.”

Her lungs heaved as she took a deep breath. She looked scared, wild. She might do anything. “Strike me,” she said softly, her stick held tight in her grasp.

From the floor by the fridge, Jenks rose up, wings clattering. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” he said. Newt took a firm stance and pointed the butt of her staff at Ivy as the woman got to her feet, listing but ready to attack.

“Easy!” I shouted, standing up and holding out a hand. “Everyone just take it easy!”

Newt grimaced, and then, as if having a sudden thought, she set the end of her stick on the floor and calmed. “Wait,” she said, and Ivy hesitated, ready to jump at her. “Let’s find something from your closet for you to wear. Then you can strike me.”

Totally confused, I blinked. “Why?”

Smiling to scare the bejeebers out of me, she came forward, watching me but keeping that staff of hers between her and Ivy and Jenks. “I need a reason for you to be alive come sunup. I’ll tell them you hit me.”