“No,” I said. “I’m not taking you through the door.” I turned to face Raspberry and the other undines. “I will, however, try to keep the door open in the future for undines who promise not to hurt humans.”

Lorelei laughed and the wind roared around us. The honey light of Faerie was gone, replaced by dark scudding clouds. The undines were clustered together, clutching each other. Where had Liam gone?

“Not hurt humans?” Lorelei hissed in my ear, her spit spraying against my cheek just as a needle sharp rain began lashing at my face. “How dare you dictate terms to our breeding! You have no idea what hurt humans have done us. Maybe I should just eat you.” Her rough tongue flicked against my face. “Maybe I’ll gain your doorkeeper’s power. These undines heard the spell you used to open the door. Only a very stupid doorkeeper allows her spell to be overheard.”

I was pretty sure she was bluffing, but just in case I drove my elbow into her ribs and uttered a spell I’d learned a few months ago. It was to ward off an attack from above and right now the storm Lorelei was raising was coming from above. I was halfway through it when Liam came up from behind me, grabbed me out of Lorelei’s grasp and clamped his hand over my mouth.

“You can’t use spells in Faerie,” he yelled over the raging storm. “They do the opposite.”

“Shit,” I swore, looking up into a green funnel cloud. The tornado picked Lorelei up. She spread her arms and caught the wind in her dress. She snapped her teeth at me but she was too far away to reach me. Which wouldn’t do me any good if the storm killed me. “How can I stop it?”

“You can’t. The only thing to do is get you through the door. The storm will die out after you go. Quick, before Lorelei gets back down. It’s still her storm – she’ll use it to rip you to pieces.”

The undines were running for cover. The wind tore at their new flesh and ripped the skin from their bones. Then I looked at Liam. The wind was gnawing at him, scratching long red streaks down his face.

“I don’t know how to open the door from this side,” I shouted, “if I can’t use the opening spell.”

“You have only to need it to open,” he said pressing his lips to my ear so I could hear him over the roar of the storm.

I looked around and saw the destruction I’d caused. My first trip to Faerie and I’d pretty much wrecked the place. I closed my eyes and pictured the door as I saw it the first time – an archway in a moonlit, snow-covered grove, Liam by my side telling me he’d brought me there so we could remember how perfect our first week together had been.

The roar of the storm was suddenly muffled. I opened my eyes and Liam and I stood together in that moonlit grove. Above us the storm raged, but we were in a protected bubble. Like being inside a snow globe.