Focus.

I try to think light and airy thoughts even as I move stiffly, lifting my voluminous skirts in a sweep. They’re heavy, especially for something that might be an illusion. I have no idea how I’m going to find anyone. This party could go on for miles—if they’re even here. An instinct I didn’t know I had reaches for my magic, for the reassurance that it’s still there, that I can defend myself if I have to. It rises like a riptide, like it’s fighting against itself within me, and it takes several gasping breaths to keep my head above the water, to calm it back into a subdued current. I should be relieved that it’s still there, but I don’t know how useful it is in this state.

The gentle babbling of a creek turns my head. There, at the edge of the clearing, a gentle little stream bounces happily along mossy rocks. Every other thought fades away as I take one shaky step and then another. I need water so badly, I still might faint. By the time I make it to the creek, I just drop, letting myself fall onto the springy moss of its banks. I scoop water with my hands, splashing it all over myself.

After a few moments, I come to my senses enough to wonder if faerie water is safe to drink, but if it isn’t, it’s too late anyway. I keep drinking.

Finally, I push myself back onto my haunches like a wild creature, panting heavily, crystal-clear drops of water streaking down my face and staining the delicate silk of my bodice.

That’s when my eye catches on a flash of bright red hair.

Raze is easy to pick out of a crowd, even the just-slightly-not-human faerie crowd. My heart rises, then falls so quickly I think I might have bruised it. If Raze is here, Isolde probably is, too—and Olani. Just my luck to find him first. He’s still under the enchantment, lounging at a picnic on the other side of the creek with several faerie girls fawning over him. Worry settles over me—faerie food is definitely bad news. But if it’s affecting him, besides making him silly and thoughtless, I can’t see how.

I wipe an arm roughly across my mouth, and I feel the bumps of the scars on my face. It’s strange, having so much bare skin. Raze doesn’t notice me staring. Then again, I could have stepped on him while chasing fireflies, and I doubt either of us would have noticed each other. One of the faeries, a girl with amber-colored skin and a halo of golden coils around her head, wraps her arms around his neck, draping herself over him. Raze blinks down at her with a dreamy, idiotic smile. Then he leans down and kisses her nose. She catches his lips with hers, pulling him closer.

It’s disgusting. I want to run in the opposite direction, but I should probably go save him from himself.