“Are you still there?” I asked.

“Who are you talking to?” Siobhan wanted to know.

She and Andy had come out of the bathroom, and I turned to look at them.

“A friend who I hope can help us,” I said, “except we seem to have been cut off. Hello, hello?” I added, speaking into the phone.

“We’re here,” Galfreya said. Her voice came from the receiver again. “Just in front of the hotel. I can see you in the window. Is it okay if we come up?”

I turned back to look outside and she really was there, wearing her usual baggy skateboarder pants and a tight top, standing on the sidewalk below with Hazel and Edgan on either side of her. Hazel waved when she saw I was looking.

“Um . . . sure,” I said.

And then, almost before I got the words out, she and the treekin appeared in the middle of the room.

“Holy shit!” Andy cried.

He took a step back, tripping against the footboard of Siobhan’s bed and went sprawling across it. Siobhan stood staring at the fairies’ sudden appearance with big eyes and an open mouth.

“It’s okay,” I told them. “This is Mother Crone, Hazel, and Edgan.” I pointed to each as I said their names. “And this is Siobhan and Andy,” I added for the fairies’ benefit, finishing the introductions.

“You . . . they . . .” was about all Siobhan could get out.

She backed up slowly and sat on the end of the bed that Andy had tripped over. Andy pushed himself into an upright position.

“How . . . how did you do that?” Andy asked the fairies.

Galfreya turned one of her hundred-watt smiles on him.

“Do what?” she asked.

“Just appear like that.”

“We travelled through the between.”

“The between,” Andy repeated. “Right. Of course.”

I held up my hands and made two fists.

“Look at it this way,” I said. “This is our world, this is the spiritworld. They’re connected by another . . . well, world’s not really the best term. Let’s say they’re connected by a place that’s wider than the whole of our world in places, thin as a veil in others, and it’s called the between. Time moves differently there, just like it does in the otherworld. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower. Which can be confusing, for sure. But if you know the right paths to take, you can move almost instantaneously from one place to another by going through it.

“But the thing is,” I added, turning to look at Galfreya, “to be able to do the instant travel bit, you usually have to have been to your destination before. Otherwise you could end up just about anywhere.”

“I haven’t been keeping tabs on you,” Galfreya said. “We were able to get here so quickly because Edgan has been following some bogans for me, and they took him here last night.”