BUNDLES OF JOY
I was laughing breathlessly-doing pretty much everything breathlessly-because I couldn't seem to stop dancing long enough to catch my breath, but I didn't want to stop, couldn't even if I wanted to, everything was twirling and laughter and motion and my feet, my feet wouldn't stop, and they hurt, but they didn't hurt, they wanted to do nothing but this forever, and the pain in my side wasn't pain, and I wasn't gasping for breath, I was laughing, because I'd never been this happy.
The faces in front of me blurred together in light and movement and sound, one indistinguishable from the next, only their hands mattering as we moved in and out and around in patterns while our feet tripped along the inevitable choreography. One of the faces looked familiar, triggered something in my brain, but then it was gone again and so was the thought, the wonder; there was only the dance.
Forever, there would only ever be the dance.
My hands met others and I prepared to spin, but these hands were wrong-they spun me the wrong way, tripping my feet that knew which way they were supposed to go. My feet kept moving, kept trying to tap out the story the music told them to, but now the hands were lifting me, and my feet kicked and turned and twirled in the air, desperate for contact with anything so they could keep dancing, because the dance was everything, I had to dance, I had to, if I didn't dance I'd fly away into pieces, everything would stop, it would be dark forever, I'd-
"Neamh," a voice like the wind through golden sheaves of wheat said in my ear. "Come back to yourself."
The name coursed through me, lightning in my veins, pushing out the desperation of the dance. I blinked rapidly, shaking my head past the fog. "Reth?" His face was right in front of mine as he held me against his body, my feet several inches off the ground.
"There you are."
"I-What on earth just happened?"
"Well, nothing on Earth, obviously."
He set me down and I yelped, immediately collapsing to the ground. My muscles were trembling, my legs riddled with spasms of pain. I looked down at my feet and cried out in horror again-they were bleeding and raw, the bottoms one big mess of blister and ruined skin.
"I saw-there was someone there I knew. Is...oh, no, is Lend there? Is he in the dance?" I turned my face toward where I thought the dancers were, but Reth had brought me back into the trees and I could only see flashes of movement from the meadow. Now that I was out of it, the music was wrong, all wrong, all desperation and frenetic motion without any sense or beat or rhythm.
"Not Lend. Jack. Stay there," Reth said. "I'll see if I can recall him to his senses, although he never had many to begin with."
I cried softly, lying back on the ground, every muscle in pain. Gratitude to my crazy faerie ex competed with the overwhelming pain for my attention. Pain won.
A body thudded to the ground next to me, and I heard a whimper like a hurt puppy. I opened my eyes and turned my head to see Jack lying there, his face screwed up against the agony. He was in as bad shape as I was.
"Reth." My voice was hoarse and my throat raw from how hard I had been breathing. "How are we going to find Lend now? I don't think I can walk."
"Yes, that wouldn't be advisable at this point."
"I don't suppose there are any unicorns here?" I asked, hopeful. If I could get a magic patch job, we could get back to the business of finding Lend.
"No."
"Crap. How long were we dancing?"
"That's not really quantifiable in terms you'd understand. Long enough that you nearly lost what little soul you have to the dance. But not so long that you weren't retrievable. Honestly, mortals. You never understand too much of a good thing."
"Jack? You okay?"
He moaned, turning and smashing his face into the flowered ground. "Mmmph."
I took it as a yes. Or at least, that he hadn't lost his soul to the dance and that eventually we'd both be okay. But we didn't have time for eventually.
"Is there anything you can do?" I asked Reth. "This can't be it. I need to find him. Now."
"There is something. It will get you walking. But you won't like it, and it will do more long-term damage than good."
"Do it."
He nodded, still hesitant, then reached out his perfect, slender, long-fingered hands and wrapped them around my feet. I expected more of his heat, the creeping warmth and later burning that he used to put in me, but gasped as a searing cold left his hands. For an instant there was blinding pain, and then...nothing.
"That should hold for a while."
I looked down to see my feet shimmering with what looked like a light dusting of snow. I stood, but the snow stayed put, not getting brushed off or melting. All my muscles screamed at me, but I could stand, which meant I could walk, which meant I could find Lend.
"Thank you. Do Jack."
"I think we should send him back," Reth said, glancing at poor, broken Jack with something that looked shockingly like compassion in his golden eyes. "He hasn't your resilience, and, admirable as it was of him to join us, this isn't his fight."
I knelt down and brushed Jack's blond curls back off his forehead. He opened his eyes. "You always did know how to have fun," he whispered, trying to smile.
"I'm a laugh a minute. Can you get away from here? Back to your room, where you'll be safe?"
"'M not going anywhere," he mumbled.
"Yes, you are. And when you're well enough to make it through the Faerie Paths, go find Arianna. She has a unicorn who can fix your feet. And tell her that when"-my voice cracked, but I hurried on-"when I get back with Lend, we'll talk."
Jack looked up at me, guilt on his features. "I really am sorry, Evie."
"I know, you idiot. Now go."
He nodded, huge blue eyes sad, then held up a hand and rolled to the side, disappearing in a shimmer of light.
I stood again, groaning as muscles and joints I'd never even noticed let me know in the most painful way possible they existed, and took a few deep breaths to push past it.
"Onward?" I asked Reth. He nodded, holding out his elbow like a gentleman, and I put my hand through it.
My feet didn't hurt, but they couldn't feel anything, either, which led to a lot of stumbling on the uneven ground. Without Reth I would have been flat on my face, but even with him progress was slow.
And so we walked, the forest around us shifting from brilliant reds, oranges, and pinks, to rich blues, greens, and violets. Just when I was sure I couldn't go any farther on my trembling legs, we came to another clearing. This one had no music, and I stopped dead in my tracks.
It was filled with six women, girls really, all human, laughing and singing and lounging contentedly next to a babbling lavender brook. They glowed with health in clothes that looked like woven clouds.
And each and every one of them was pregnant.
"What-" I started, and then it hit me in a horrible rush of recognition.
"It would appear the Dark Queen has been busy replacing Vivian," Reth said.
"Empty Ones," I whispered, unable to take my eyes away from the swollen bellies of the girls. They were making more of me.