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Then sat up with a stab of panic. The extraordinary emerald green of Faerie greeted me, the same view as that first time and, for a horrible, endless moment, I thought none of it had happened. That I’d never left this hill or that I had been trapped in some sort of psychotic fugue state.
One that had just looped around and started again.
A baby’s cry wafted up the hill and Puck appeared, somehow carrying my daughter while dancing a complicated jig. “Oh good, you’re awake. She’s hungry as a pig in a poke.”
“I think that’s a very messed-up metaphor.” I levered myself to my feet, sweating in the winter clothes, shouldered the bag and took my daughter. “Welcome home, sweetheart,” I murmured to her and kissed her on the forehead with love and relief. At least she’d come through fine.
That was one. “And the Dog?”
“Chasing the cat.” Puck shrugged elaborately. “You know how dogs are.”
Then he was not himself. I steeled myself against the reality that I might never truly have him back again. As a form of insurance, of fulfilling all my promises, I felt through the gate I’d gone through so long ago. It anchored to me in that way, to my initial entrance to the other side. I pulled it gently closed behind me, locking it to me, to the girl in my arms.
With a pointed wish, I imagined Stonehenge and created the ring atop the hill, the gate itself beneath the capstone. That should hold it.
And if not, I would know.
I could only hope I could do right by Rogue as well.
“Show me?”
We walked down the hill, then up another, me sweating bullets. Kicking myself, I tested the magic. It flowed in with a rush, green as the hills. My daughter waved her fists, blue eyes sparkling. “You like that? Me too.” I vanished my winter clothes and replaced them with a sundress and did likewise for her and her blankets. I sent the bag of things to our bedroom along with a mental message to Athena that we’d returned and would be home soon.
Home. It sounded like where I wanted to be. With my family.
Holding on to hope that my dying wish—it counted as that, right? Since I fully believed I’d die when I made it—would come true, in all the best ways.
Let everything come out okay.
Two hills over, the Black Dog saw us and came leaping over, then ran back to show us our other traveling companion. Isabel had made it through. Hissing and thoroughly unhappy, but just as she’d always been. I handed the baby back to Puck and crouched, letting Isabel catch my scent. Suspicious, she sniffed, then a purr welled up and out. She pushed her head against my hand and I rubbed her blue-smoke fur, tears dampening my eyes. Happy ones, for once.
There was two.
Finally, I turned to the Dog, capturing his great head and staring into his amber eyes, so unlike Rogue’s. But I’d pulled Rogue back from this before, when we had far less connection.
I reached for it, throwing my faith and belief into the hope it would be back, the strong golden cord of our connection. So much had changed in the mass mind. As if the absence of Titania had reworked the system, causing all the connections to reset. Like a brain recovering from injury, releasing bad synapses and recreating new ones.
So, when I found it, it had moved some.
But there it was. I poured all the mental magic I could muster through it.
Rogue.
Rogue.
In my mind, a boy swam to the surface, hopeful, seeking light and life. He struggled for shore and I fed him the magic he needed. Anything and everything for him. Had I done this before? Not possible, and yet…
He made it to the beach, running. I took his hand.
And the fur under my hands changed to skin, the black of the Dog condensing and intensifying into the inky lines embedded in Rogue’s skin. Amber eyes deepened to midnight, then sharpened with intelligence. Rogue gazed back at me with some bemusement, then growing insight and remembrance.
“And you said you couldn’t bring someone back from the dead, magical Gwynn.”
“You promised me you couldn’t die.”
He stood, pulling me into his arms and I reveled in being able to simply be close to him again. “It’s good to know you’ll hold me to my promises,” he said against my hair. He cupped my chin and raised my mouth to meet his. I kissed him back full of happy greed for him and everything about him.
“I have someone for you to meet,” I told him.
