“I suppose you might as well hear the whole thing,” she went on and proceeded to tell how her car had broken down at the crossroads, taking us through the story all the way to when a pair of invisible hands gave Siobhan a shove down the stairs last night.

Andy and Con just looked at her when she was done, waiting for the punch line.

“These bogans,” Geordie asked. “Was there any indication as to what court they were from?”

“Wait a second,” Con said as Lizzie shook her head. “This is all a joke, right? No one’s taking it seriously.”

“I am,” I told him.

Geordie smiled at the men. “I know exactly what you’re feeling,” he said. “Trust me. I spent years pretending that there’s no such thing as fairies and ghosts and monsters in the dark. Unfortunately, what we’d like to believe is true, and what actually is, can be two different things.”

“No, come on.” Con looked to Andy for support. “Am I the only one here who’s not buying into this?”

Andy fingered the rowan twig that he had sewn on his shirt pocket.

“So that’s why you wanted us to wear these,” he said.

“There was no one on the stairs with us,” Siobhan said. “Just me and Lizzie, a few steps down from me. But someone pushed me because I totally felt their hands on my back.”

“But why?” Con said, shaking his head. “Even if this is possible—which I don’t buy for a minute—why would fairies suddenly attack you?”

“Because,” Geordie said, “from what Lizzie told us, she was badmouthing them. Normally, you can say what you want and nothing happens—it’s not like the old days when people really did have to be careful about what an offhand remark might invoke. The fairy courts are peaceful now, coexisting with our world. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t rogue fairies, which is why it would really be helpful to know if they’re associated with a specific court.”

“What difference would it make?” Andy asked.

“We could petition their queen for a hearing—settle the problem before it gets any worse.”

“Oh, please,” Con said. “Fairy queens? Courts? Who are you kidding?”

Andy nodded. “And even if they were real, where would you start to look for them?”

“Well,” I said, “Geordie’s girlfriend for the past couple of years has been the queen of a fairy court in the Woodforest Plaza Mall.”

Con laughed. “Fairies live in shopping malls?”

“Mother Crone’s not my girlfriend,” Geordie said to me, “and she’s not a queen, she’s a seer.” Then he turned to Con. “Fairies live everywhere. You just can’t see them because they exist in—”

“The between,” Lizzie said. “That’s what Walker told me. Or maybe it was Grey.”