Disgusted, and sick of my own smell, I boiled some hot water in the electric kettle and brought it upstairs with one of the plastic basins I’d used last night to catch drips. I mixed the hot into the cold water until it was the right temperature. Then I took a sponge bath. It wasn’t as satisfying as a soak in the tub, but at least I didn’t smell as much anymore. Which meant I wasn’t as bad as Annie’s Nonna or Lura Trask. I wasn’t rich but I had enough money to hire people to fix the house – just until Brock came back. And he was coming back. I’d make sure of that, just as I’d make sure the door remained open so that my friends wouldn’t have to go back to Faerie forever. To reassure myself, I checked on the Aelvestone again. I took it out of its flannel covering and held it in my hands for a moment. Surely there could be no harm in that. Its warmth coursed up my arms and spread through my chest. A sense of well-being suffused my body. It was better than a Xanax! With this much Aelvesgold, I’d be able to help Brock and keep the Grove from closing the door. With this much Aelvesgold, I was capable of anything! Ann Chase wouldn’t have to choose between helping her daughter and curing her arthritis. Liz would never have to grow old and die – no one would ever have to grow old and die! The possibilities were endless … but for right now I’d better put it away. Both Liz and Lura had said it was dangerous to handle it too often.

Reluctantly I wrapped the stone back in its cloth and put it back in its drawer. I still felt its warmth radiating through my body as I crawled into bed. I hugged the delicious sensation to my bones and fell into a deep sleep …

And straight into Faerie, as if there were a trap door beneath my bed that led directly to that grassy bank beneath the willow tree where Liam lay waiting for me, his bare flesh awash in the golden light of Aelvesgold.

“Am I really here in Faerie or is this a dream?” I asked.

“Is there a difference?” he replied, drawing me down beside him. I was naked, too, and drenched in the same golden light. We lay side by side, not quite touching, but joined by the same golden light. “It’s one of the gifts of Aelvesgold – it links true lovers together no matter how far apart.”

I snorted. “You’re making that up.”