my own!'
I turned to Ivy, scared. 'What does he mean, the garden is Jax's?'
Jax rose up, and I sat back on my heels to keep him in sight. 'I'm to find a wife and keep the land,' he said. Wings clattering, he flew to the empty tunnel but didn't enter. 'I don't want it! You can't make me do this!' he raged into the darkness. 'This isn't what's supposed to happen!'
'This is Jenks's land,' I said, scared. 'He's my backup, not you.'
Ivy was crying, the tears slipping down her pale face with a slow misery. 'He's gone to ground with her,' she said. 'He's not going to come out. Ever.'
Fear pulled me straight. 'What do you mean, ever?
He's going to kill himself to stay with her.'
'Jenks!' I shouted in a panic, dropping down to put my face beside the hole and seeing for the first time the small black stones that lined the walls to hold back the earth and make the opening look like a shadow. 'Jenks, I need you!' I shouted. 'Come back!'
There was no answer, and I turned to Jax, shaking inside. 'Go in and get him.'
Jax bowed his head, his arms over his middle. 'I can't,' he said, turning away.
As if in a dream, I started back to the church, my shoes getting wet from yesterday's rain.
'Ceri?' I called, jerking to a halt when Pierce stepped from behind his own tombstone.
'Jenks?' he asked, eyes hopeful but his stance weary.
My mouth opened to tell him, and grief hit me, shocking my breath away. 'Matalina,' I choked out. I couldn't say the words. If I did, I would start to cry again and never stop. It was so awful.
Pierce took my arm to pull me close in comfort, and it didn't matter how brave I wanted to be as my next breath came out in a sob. 'She's gone,' I managed. 'Jenks is going to kill himself to stay with her. I have to get small.' Eyes wet, I looked up as Pierce pushed the hair from my eyes. 'Do you know the curse for that?' I asked.
'No,' he said, gently, the pain in his eyes echoing a loss from his past.
'That's okay,' I said, head hurting as I struggled to stop my tears. 'Ceri probably does.' Disentangling myself from him, I started back across the graveyard, skin tingling as I passed through the ley line. I could hear Pierce behind me talking with Ivy. Desperation kept me moving forward, and finally I reached the knee-high wall separating the graveyard from the garden—the dead from the living. Miserable, I stepped over it, wondering if the spirits of the dead could watch us by crossing a barrier just that easily. Thoughts of my dad made the tears prick again, and I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. 'Ceri?'
It was obvious by the way she stood with her hands clasped before her middle that she knew what had happened. High above the garden, I could hear Jenks's children filling the world with their grief. Tears glistened in her eyes, and she held out her hands to pull me into a hug when I came close. 'You'll miss him dearly,' she said, smelling of cinnamon and earth.
Hands going to her shoulders, I pushed us apart. 'I need your help,' I said, heart breaking. 'I need to get small. I have to save Jenks.'
With my peripheral sight, I saw Sidereal turn, shushing the fairy woman he was talking to. Ceri's eyes widened, and dropping back a step she asked, 'Why?'
Desperation turned to frustration. 'Why? He won't come out, and I have to tell him it's going to be okay,' I said. 'Shrink me down so I can fit in his stump. Can you do it?'
Pierce's voice rose over the distance, telling me that either he was using his magic to listen in, or Ivy was relaying the conversation. 'Make me small as well!' he shouted, voice softening as he got closer. 'I'm going with her.'
I watched Pierce and Ivy step over the wall.
Doubt hit me, followed quickly by resolve. 'What do you mean, who am I doing this for?' I said, imagining his heartache, alone in his stump with Matalina and thinking his life was over. 'Jenks kept me alive for two years through two death threats, a crazy banshee, and at least two serial killers. Its about time I return the favor! And if I can't, then I can sit by his bed and hold his hand as he dies, 'cause I've had plenty of practice doing that, too!'
Crap, I was crying again, but Ceri shook her head, eyes downcast. 'I understand your frustration, but he's lost, Rachel,' she said. 'I'm sorry.' Her gaze shifted behind me to Ivy and Pierce. 'There will be no others like them,' she whispered.
'He's not dead yet!' I shouted in sudden anger, born of helplessness. 'Matalina wanted him to live on, and you've already got him in the ground, you cold, unfeeling bitch!'
'Rachel!' Ivy exclaimed, and immediately I relented.
'Ceri, I'm sorry,' I said with a bad grace. 'I didn't mean that. But Jenks is alone.' My eyes started to fill again, and I wiped a hand over them. 'He shouldn't be.'
'I understand,' she said stiffly. 'It's the grief speaking. You do realize, none of this would have happened if you had killed the fairies.'
My jaw clenched, and I turned away. I suppose I deserved it after calling her a bitch. Depressed, I sat, slumped, at the picnic table, as far from the fairies as I could get. This was so wrong. Jenks thought he was alone, and unless I could get in there, he would be. Damn it, he couldn't die. He couldn't! And not alone.
Pierce put a hand on my shoulder, but I didn't look up. My heart was breaking, and I held my breath until my head started to hurt.
Ivy stood with her arms crossed over her middle, her cast awkward and her eyes red. 'Ceri, she's right. Whether we can convince Jenks to live or not, one of us should be there with him. His wife just died. Don't let him grieve alone.'
'I never said I wouldn't do it,' Ceri said tartly, and my head came up. 'I just think it's time for Rachel to grow up. Face the facts. Pixies die young. That's why you befriend a family, not an individual.'
I spun where I sat to look at her, aghast even as my chest hurt from trying not to cry. 'You
I wasn't thinking clearly, but I didn't care. Jenks thought his life was over, and I couldn't get to him.
'He's a pixy, Rachel,' Ceri said, eyes flicking over Ivy, probably calculating the odds that her next words might send the vamp after her. 'This is what they do.'
Emotions jumbled and numb, I looked over the garden for something, anything, seeing the fairies at the edge of their prison, listening. Jenks had let them live. Something no other pixy had ever done.
'Yeah,' I said bluntly, not ready to let him go just yet. 'Jenks is a pixy. And pixies die of heartache when their spouses die. But Jenks is more than a pixy. He went into partnership with Ivy and me; no other pixy has done that. He owns property. Has a credit card. Minutes left on his phone. He's probably going to live another twenty years because I reset his biological clock by accident last summer. He showed mercy and let those who attacked his garden live. What happened with Matalina is tragic. It's my fault she's dead. I can't sit here and just let him die as well, can t.
'People die, Rachel,' Ceri said, her cheeks flushing.
'Not if I can help it,' I snapped. 'And not of a broken heart. If you could, I'd be dead already.' I turned away, frustrated. 'Please. At least let me be there so he doesn't die alone.'
Ivy's breath caught. 'I want to go, too,' she said suddenly, and I turned to her, shocked. She would take a curse?
'Me as well,' Pierce offered.
Ceri's lips pressed as she saw our united front. 'Fine,' she finally said, and the sudden relief almost