“Well, you’d know,” I said. “As for the rest of us .. . I guess. But I don’t think it’s the same for most people. I’d say you have to be pretty intense to start off. Christy certainly fit that bill. He was a bad-tempered little kid, but one day he just changed—like someone had thrown a switch inside him. He didn’t suddenly start liking our parents, but he didn’t bother battling them anymore. He just kind of shut himself off from everybody. At least, that’s what our older brother Paddy told me.”

“You have another brother?” Lizzie asked.

I nodded.

“Let’s see,” she said. “You’re a musician and Christy’s a writer . . . so he must be an artist. Or an actor.”

“No, he’s dead.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to make a joke of him.”

“I know. And I’m sorry, too. After I learned to make an effort to get along with Christy and found out that, what do you know, I actually like the guy, I wished I’d been able to do it with Paddy, too. But I never got the chance.”

“What about your parents? Did you reconcile with them, too?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t even try. They’ve always been a lost cause.” We fell silent for a few moments. Timony added some more wood to the fire—he’d taken on the role of caretaker for it, and I was happy to leave him to it. There must have been some mesquite in the new wood he’d added because its distinctive scent was soon wafting over to me.

“So, was Mother Crone really your girlfriend?” Lizzie asked.

“I think it was more that I was her boy toy. Except she surprised me today. Now she wants to get serious.”

“After you’ve hooked up with Jilly.”

“Isn’t that always the way? But nothing should surprise me when it comes to Mother Crone. She . . .”

I broke off when I saw Timony leaning close, eyes wide. Lizzie laughed.

“You have to dish all the dirt,” she said. “Timony’s kind of like the royalty junkies back home when it comes to court fairies.”

“I am not.”

“You are so,” Lizzie told him.

I think he blushed, though it might just have been from the way the firelight fell on his features.

“Well, there’s not a whole lot to tell,” I said. “I was at her court a lot—you’d have liked it, Lizzie. Fairy musicians have tunes you just never hear anywhere else. But you’d never get her out of the place.”

“And where was Jilly during all of this?”

“She had a regular boyfriend. That’s the way it’s always been. When one of us isn’t in a relationship, the other’s been seeing someone else.”

“And now neither of you is,” Lizzie said. “So what’s the problem?”