The ghost of a smile lit her face, and then she adjusted the plaid mantle around her shoulders and daintily stepped through the door. I watched her walk down the grassy hill toward the willow tree where Lura and Quincy stood waiting for her with a group of undines. Among them I could make out one undine with red hair bouncing up and down on her toes and waving to me. Raspberry. I was glad to see her looking so happy.

When I turned back to the glade I saw Fiona Eldritch in a long green dress, her ash white hair falling loose around her shoulders. As she stepped forward, bells chimed. I had never been fond of the fairy queen, but the sight of her preparing to leave this world forever squeezed something tight in my chest. The Stewarts piped a mournful dirge as she approached the door. She stopped a few feet away and turned to one of the pipers. “Play something happier,” she said. “The doorkeeper has pledged to hold the door open for us.”

She touched her finger to the piper’s brow and a lilting song took the place of the dirge. I felt a surge of power at the queen’s faith in me. Fiona smiled and then turned to Adelaide.

“This isn’t the first time we have had to leave this world. Always when humankind has thought they have no need of us they have soon enough seen the error of their ways and longed for us to come back. As long as one human longs for our return the door will not stay closed forever.” She turned to me. “And I believe that this doorkeeper will not let that happen.”

Gathering her skirts and in a whirl of green and chiming of bells, she stepped through the door. On the other side a man appeared mounted on a white horse. His hair was the color of spun gold, the same gold that glittered on his horse’s bridle and reins. He held in his hands the reins of another horse, white too, but with a silver saddle, reins and bridle. Fiona’s back tensed as she saw him, but then she bowed low, touching her forehead to the ground, her green skirts spreading out in a pool around her. It was startling – and a little frightening – to see Fiona bow to anyone, but when she rose at his bidding I caught a glimpse of her face, radiant in the golden light of Faerie, and saw that she looked more triumphant than cowed. As she mounted the white horse I heard someone behind me say, “She’s back in her domain.”

I turned and found Casper van der Aart and his boyfriend Oliver standing beside me. “Do they fight often?” Oliver asked. “Because no one likes a bickering couple.”