“I saw the opportunity,” I said, after a moment. “If I’d stopped to think about the trouble it would create… I don’t know if I’d have done it any differently. They had my girl.”

Her eyes gleamed. “Spoken as someone worthy to wield power.”

“Coming from you,” I said, “that’s… a little bit unsettling, actually.”

She kicked both feet, girlishly pleased, and smiled down at me. “How sweet of you to say so.”

The best thing about my faerie godmother is that the creepy just keeps on coming.

“I’ll trade you,” I said. “The rest of the tale for information.”

She nodded her head in a businesslike fashion. “The tale for questions three?”

“Done.”

“Done, done, and done,” she replied.

So I told her.

Chapter Thirty-one

I ran and ran for a good long while. I wasn’t on the cross-country team at school, but I often went running with Elaine. It was how we’d hidden sneaking off to make out—and stuff—from Justin. He was a thorough sort of guy, so we made sure to actually do the running, too, in order to make our deception flawless. And the whole time, we thought we were getting away with it.

As an adult, I could see that our efforts were about as obvious as they could possibly be. Justin had known, I was certain—now. But back then, Elaine and I had been sure that we were masters of deceit.

That scheme’s trappings were sure as hell turning out to be handy that day. My strides slowed but turned longer, steadier, machinelike. I was sixteen. I didn’t wind down for almost an hour.

When I finally stopped, the terror had faded, if not the heartache, and I found myself in an entirely unexpected position.

I didn’t know what was coming next. I didn’t know what was expected of me.

I had to think. All by myself.

I ducked off the road and into a large culvert, huddling there while I got my breath back and flailed at the wet paper bag my brain was trapped within.

Mostly, I just kept thinking that I should have known. No one in my life had gone an inch out of their way to look out for me once my parents were gone. Justin’s generosity, even seasoned with the demands of studying magic, had been too good to be true. I should have known it.

And Elaine. She’d just sat there while he’d been doing whatever he was going to do. She hadn’t tried to warn me, hadn’t tried to stop him. I had never known anyone in my life I had loved as much as Elaine.

I should have known she was too good to be true, too.

I wept for a while. I was tired and cold and my chest ached with the pain of loss. In a single moment, my home had been destroyed. My life had been destroyed.

But I shook my head ferociously, wiping my eyes and my nose on the leather sleeves of my jacket, heedless of what it did to them. I was still in danger. I had to think.