“Get away from me!” Anita’s terrified shout cut the air like a blade.

The dark-haired girl stumbled to a halt, astonished.

“Tania? Do you not know me?”

Anita stood her ground, but she was trembling from head to foot.

This isn’t real. It’s all in your head. Refuse to buy into the hallucinations and they’ll go away. They will. They have to. . . .

The girl moved warily forward, her face concerned.

“Tania, sweet sister, why so distressed? There is nothing to fear here. All is good.”

Confront the nightmare. Break it down.

Anita looked into the girl’s anxious face.

“I’m Anita Palmer,” she said, slowly and deliberately. “And you don’t exist!”

“By all the spirits of love and devotion, I do!” said the girl. “I am your sister Rathina. Why do you not know me? What dread blight has the Divine Harper put upon you that you know me not?” She turned her head. “Master Chanticleer! I fear her wits are addled. Is there aught you can do to amend her sorry state?”

Anita turned to look at Jade; she needed to make sure the whole world hadn’t gone crazy. Jade was staring from Rathina to Evan with a look of absolute disbelief on her face.

If these are my hallucinations, how come Jade can see them?

Evan waded to the stone rim of the pool. His face was empty, his eyes still filmed with silver. He lifted a leg, awkward, unsteady. His foot slipped on the stones, and he pitched forward into the grass.

“Evan!” His heavy fall jolted Anita out of her unbelief. She pushed past the dark-haired girl and ran headlong toward where Evan lay as still as death in the clipped grass.

She crashed onto her knees, leaning over him, using both hands to turn him onto his back. His face was pale, wasted, the silvery eyes staring up at nothing.

Rathina stood over her. “The summoning of the spirits was hard,” she said. “It has taken much of his strength. His first charm failed, and it was not until the Great Salamander used his claws to tear asunder the fabric that divides the worlds that we were able to break through.” Anita felt Rathina’s hand on her shoulder. “But he would have spent his last breath to be by your side, Tania.” Her voice trembled. “He would have done this thing, even if the Dark Arts had devoured him.”

Anita peeled Evan’s hair off his face, stroking his damp skin, leaning in close.

“Evan?”

The eyes were frightening. Like balls of molten quicksilver.

She held his face between her hands, her forehead touching his. “Wake up! Please wake up! I need you.”

The silver slithered over his eyes.

“Tania?” His voice was faint and far away.

Jade’s voice came from somewhere close. “Is he okay? Should I call an ambulance? I’ll call an ambulance. Is that the thing to do?”

The silvery sheen faded away like dissolving mist, and Anita found herself looking into Evan’s chestnut brown eyes.

His hand came up to cradle her cheek. “Tania,” he breathed. “It worked. I found you.” He let out a gasp of exhaustion. “That was hard!” he said, smiling wearily. “That was really hard.”

As Evan sat up, Anita drew away from him, resting back on her heels, gazing into his face.

Rathina’s voice drifted through the white fog that filled Anita’s mind. “She knows not your true name. And she does not remember me. What bane came upon her in Tirnanog? And how did she come here?” She looked around, seeming to notice Jade for the first time. “You! Maiden! What place is this?”

“This is my house—my garden,” Jade replied, looking dazed. “How did you do that . . . that appearing-out-of-nowhere thing?”

“This is the Mortal World,” Rathina said, lifting her head and sniffing the air. “I smell it well enough. Unclean is the air, but I have endured it before, and I’ll endure it again till we can escape and return to Faerie.”

“Oh my god!” Jade gasped. “Oh! My! God!”

“And what are you, maiden?” asked Rathina, eyeing Jade up and down with disapproval in her eyes. “Are you human, or are you some feckless water nymph that you disport yourself with hardly a stitch on your body?”

“I’m a person!” Jade said. “What are you?”

“I am Rathina Aurealis, princess of Faerie.”

Jade let out a long, low breath. Lost for words.

Evan reached out and touched Anita’s cheek. “Are you okay?”

“I don’t know,” said Anita breathlessly. “Am I?”

“You will be,” he murmured, “now we’re together.”

She sighed, not knowing what to say.

“We waited on the shore for you to come back,” said Evan. “The Great Salamander was with us. He told us what had happened. But . . . but you never returned. You never came back from the land in the sky.” He smiled reassuringly. “Didn’t I tell you that I’d find you wherever you went? Remember? You’re in my blood, Tania, and I’m in yours. Love never dies in Faerie. Nothing can keep us apart.”

“I’m not Tania.”

“Yes. You are.” His brow furrowed. “Something happened to you in Tirnanog.” His fingers touched cool against her forehead. “Your Faerie soul sleeps,” he whispered. “Deep within, behind locked doors, in a dark and silent place.”

Anita swallowed hard. “Who are you, really?”

“My name’s Edric, and I’m in love with you.”

Anita gasped. “You never told me you loved me before.”

“Yes. I did. Plenty of times. You don’t remember is all.”

“Truly?”

Edric nodded. “Truly.”

“I’m not crazy?”

“No, you’re not crazy. Your memory has been taken away from you.”

“We cannot tarry in this benighted place, Master Chanticleer,” Rathina declared. “We have found Tania—let us be on our way! The people of Faerie need us! The balm of Gildensleep cannot last forever. Even now the sickness may be spreading.”

“I don’t have the power to get through to Faerie,” said Edric.

Anita gazed into Evan’s face.

Edric’s face.

Am I Anita Palmer? Or am I Tania Aurealis?

“This is crazy weird.” Jade sounded almost as stunned as Anita felt. “Evan Thomas from our school is really a guy called Edric from another world?” She shook her head. “I always thought there was something freaky about you!”

The shimmering sound of bells brightened the air.

“Hist! What is that?” said Rathina, staring around herself.

“Something is coming,” murmured Edric, getting to his feet.

As Anita stood up she saw that Rathina’s hand moved to her waist, as though she expected to find a weapon there. But her fingers closed on empty air.

The chime and chink of the bells grew louder and deeper until it was no longer the shimmering sound of tiny bells, but now also a plangent ringing, and finally the toll of great booming bells that shook the ground under their feet. Sweet voices mingled with the bells, adding harmonies and descant to the rising music.

A wheel of blue fire blossomed in the air, warping everything around it. It was like and yet unlike Edric’s portal—deeply blue but without the white lightning.

“Something has followed in our wake!” shouted Edric. “It’s using the trail of my charm to get into the Mortal World!”

From the heart of the wheel stepped a female figure.

The hoop of blue fire vanished, and the pealing of the bells and the singing of the voices were blotted out.

Joy filled Anita’s heart as she stared at the girl, although she had no idea why.

The girl seemed dazed. She was small and slender, clad in a gown of vibrant sky blue that echoed the light in her eyes. Her long golden hair cascaded over her shoulders, her features fine and delicate. Her chest rose and fell as she gulped in breath.

There was something so deeply familiar about her that Anita was drawn toward her. I know her. Who is she?

Rathina stumbled toward the swaying girl. She let out a cry, her voice filled with wonder and disbelief.

“Zara!”

The golden-haired girl smiled. She held her arms out. “Rathina! Sister! And Tania! I . . .”

But then her eyes glazed over and she fainted into the grass.