"The Fae can't lie," Susan said.

  "True, but they can bend the truth until it looks like a mutated pretzel," Logan muttered. "A double-jointed person playing Twister. A—"

  "Gee, who does that sound like?" Jack asked.

  Logan just snorted and shook his head.

  Susan sighed and shoved her chair back. "Okay if I make more coffee? I mean, since we might be here for a while?"

  When Jack nodded, pointing to the cupboard that held the coffee, she continued. "Everybody in this room knows you didn't steal any Fae daggers, magical or otherwise, Jack. What's important now is that we need to convince a queen of that."

  Everybody started talking at once with ideas, indignation, and proposals, and my head started hurting again. Finally, when we all had fresh coffee in front of us, and everybody was still talking, I cleared my throat.

  Nobody heard me.

  I did it again.

  This time, Jack stopped mid-sentence, looked at me, and then tapped the table, getting everyone's attention. "Hey. Tess is trying to say something."

  Susan, Jed, and Logan stopped talking and turned to me.

  "Go ahead, Tess," Jack said, concern in his eyes as he reached over to hold my hand.

  "I don't know how to convince a Fae queen of anything, but I do have an idea." I took a deep breath. "Why don't we try to find this dagger ourselves and give it back to her?"

  Silence.

  They all looked at me and then at each other.

  Finally, Jed spoke. "The dagger could be anywhere in the world—anywhere in either of two worlds. How could we possibly find it in such a short time frame?"

  "I don't know a great deal about the Fae, but I do know that they have a resonance with certain objects. A connection. If she thinks the dagger is here, maybe it really is? But she can't figure out exactly where from her side of the doorway?" I gave Jed a steady look. "But if that's true, why didn't she know it was in the tree—if it ever really was? Or is there more you need to tell us?"

  "Kal'andel claimed he put a magical shield of protection over it," he said.

  "Sure," Susan muttered. "Nothing is ever simple with those … people. So, the big question is what do we do now?"

  "No," I said, putting my mug down with a thud and pinning Jed with a stern look. "The big question is, how does a man who claims to have been frozen into a statue for three hundred years know so much about what the Fae are doing and thinking?

  13

  Tess

  Jed's eyes shifted left—just for a split-second—but I recognized the move from customers in the store who tried to convince me that a piece of junk they wanted to pawn was really a priceless heirloom passed down from Great Aunt Esther.

  "Ah ha!" I pointed at him. "Spill, Grandpa."

  "Welll." Jed scratched his chin, looking sheepish. "I wasn't exactly a statue all the time. They took me out on special occasions."

  Jack said, "How often?"

  Susan said, "Took you out? Like the good china?"

  Logan said, "What kind of special occasions?"

  I waved my hands at the three of them, brushing off the chatter. "So you know more than you've told us?"

  Jed thought about it for a minute and then finally nodded. "Yes. But I'm not sure any of it is helpful."

  "Let us be the judge of that," Susan said in her most serious sheriff voice.

  "Agree," Jack growled.

  "You may not even know what you know, if that makes sense," I said, as kindly as I could, with the headache ramping up again.

  "Let's go outside," Jed said, pushing away from the table. He looked somewhat better since eating, but was still pale. "I've been trapped in that statue or the Fae lands for so long. I just want to sit outside in the fresh air of Dead End."

  We followed him out to the porch, and Jack turned on the lights, since dark had fallen completely while we'd talked inside. Jed and I took the porch swing, Susan perched on the railing, and Jack sat on a wooden veranda chair he'd recently refinished. Logan took a running step off the porch, shifted into an eagle in midair, and then winged his way around the yard.

  "That's just so darn cool," Susan said wistfully. "I'd almost wish to be a shifter, if I could fly."

  Jack and Jed snorted simultaneously, and I laughed. "I think they're saying tigers are cooler."

  "That word has certainly evolved," Jed mused. "Cool, as in not quite cold. Cool as the night air in spring. But not for your generation, according to the sound waves. Now it's cool beans, cool cats, cool your jets. What are jets, and why do they need to be cool?"

  I started to explain, but Jack cut me off. "You're stalling, Granddad, and we have a deadline. Talk."

  Jed blew out a huge breath and slumped back against the swing. "Fine. When we founded Dead End, we did so by making a Bargain with the Fae. They realized that more and more humans would settle here, and they didn't want any of us accidentally wandering through the portals into their world. Ever since we started using the Bane—iron—in large quantities, the Fae have been wary of us. There are far fewer of them than of us—"

  "And they find it difficult to have children," Jack interjected, as Logan flew toward us and then landed on the railing next to Susan, where he immediately shifted to human.

  This time, he wore clothes. I guess the naked thing earlier had been to poke at Jack or impress me.

  "Yeah, they'd have died off as a race, if it weren't for the immortality," Logan said. Somehow, the words sounded even more chilling in his brogue.

  "So the Bargain? What did they trade?" I turned toward Jed.

  "Long life and health for me and my family; the usual sort of Fae Bargain," Jed muttered. "I'd had no previous encounter with them and had no idea how even such simple words could be twisted."

  "Right," Logan said bitterly. "Long life, but you continue to age, so you're eventually a two-hundred-year-old walking skeleton. I've seen that one in person."

  Jack narrowed his eyes, glancing at me, and I could almost feel him wondering if being part of Jed's "family" meant that he'd inherited any part of the Bargain.

  I swallowed the lump that surged in my throat but said nothing. One problem at a time.

  "And in return?" Susan asked.

  "In return, we would keep the secret of the portals and protect them from random encroachment."

  Jack leaned forward in his chair, folding his arms. "What happened?"

  Jed shrugged. "What you might expect. We weren't careful enough; some very dangerous humans got through the portal. They killed a lot of Fae before they were destroyed, and …"

  He broke off and looked down at his feet. "One of the Fae they killed was the queen's niece. They tried to trap her with steel, and she wasn't strong enough. She … she died."

  I could tell that, even after hundreds of years, the memory pained him.

  "She was a lovely girl," he continued, after a moment of silence. "Young and sweet, not yet hard or cruel like so many High Court Fae. Her name was Naleana, and she had a singing voice like an angel."

  I felt tears prickling the corners of my eyes and blinked them away. "I'm so sorry. That sounds awful. Her poor family."

  "Yes. Well." Jed's eyes flickered. "Her poor family, indeed. I felt horrible—all of us in the village did. We'd also lost many of our own fighting the invaders. But the queen cared nothing for that."

  He coughed, and I jumped up. "I'll get you some water. Wait for me to get back to tell the rest."

  Jed gave me a faint smile, and I ran inside to get a glass of water, thinking about how devastated I'd be if anything happened to Shelley. No matter who was to blame, would I be capable of thinking clearly?

  I wasn't all that sure, and I suddenly had a great deal of empathy for Queen Viviette.

  Back outside, Jed took a long drink of water and then picked up his story. "Thanks, Tess. As you can imagine, I bore the brunt of her … unhappiness. I was the one who'd made the Bargain, after all."

  "And the punishment was to turn you into a statue?" I blinked. "Why a statue?"

  "Not at first. There were other punishments before that." Jed clenched his jaw, and I could see that he would never tell us about that. "And then it amused the queen to turn me into a statue to decorate her gardens. When she couldn't bear to see even the sight of my stone face, she moved me here, and I've been in the Dead End town square ever since."

  Susan whistled. "You know, I'd heard the rumor that your statue just appeared one day, but I always took it with a grain of salt. There are so many rumors, myths, and lies about this town and its residents and history …"

  "But again, sorry to interrupt and keep beating on this point," I said, barely able to contain my frustration. "If that dagger really ended up in Dead End in that willow tree, how would all the kids who play there all the time not find it? Or any of the many, many Dead Enders who have magic? Wouldn't they feel it? And if anybody ever had found a magical dagger in that tree, everybody at Beau's Diner would have known about it by lunchtime. I just find it hard to believe that it was ever there."

  "It's a place to start," Jack said, his voice calm even when his expression was anything but. "Tomorrow morning, first thing, we go check out that tree. I know it's a ridiculous long shot, but it might still be there."

  "We should go now," Logan said. "Take all the lights. We need to explore the tree and do it now. There's a deadline, and the sooner we figure this out, the sooner—"

  "We can help your sister," I said, not without sympathy. "But it's a bad idea. First, it's—"

  "Dead End," Susan said. "We do that, and we're surrounded by people demanding to know what we're doing about this threat, offering 'helpful' suggestions, and getting in the way. My phone and the station's phone have been blowing up since this happened. I finally had to turn it off."

  "Oh, crap," I said, eyeing my car. I'd forgotten about my phone when I saw Alejandro, and Aunt Ruby and Uncle Mike were bound to have called me a thousand times. Not to mention everyone else I know.

  I took the chicken's way out and decided I'd check it later.

  "And we're likely to miss anything that is there in the dark," Jack added. "Let's get some sleep and head over there at dawn."

  Susan stood, brushing off her pants. "I'm going to have to call a town meeting. I'll call Lorraine to activate the phone tree to have everyone who wants to hear about this meet in the square at eight. The five of us, and the mayor, if she wants, will meet at dawn. See you at six a.m.—"

  "Dawn will be five forty-five," Logan said. He shrugged when we all looked at him. "Time is an eagle thing. Sunset will be at seven-fifteen. I don't know how we know, we just do."

  "Okay, five forty-five," Susan gritted out. "And let's hope we find that dagger, or at least figure out some way to find it. I'm guessing this queen won't be amenable to negotiation?"

  Jed shuddered. "I tried that in 1847, and she hung me upside down from her balcony."

  I blinked. "Well, that's—"

  "For a year." His breath caught, and his expression chilled me to the bone.

  "I'm so very sorry," I whispered.

  He glanced over at me and then studied my face as if searching for something. Before I had a chance to respond to the pain and desperation I saw in his eyes, he looked up at Jack with a shaky smile. "You've got a wonderful woman here, Jack. Why haven't you married her yet?"

  Then, before I could stop him, Jedediah Shepherd reached over and grabbed my hand.

  And I had to watch him die—all six times.

  14

  Tess

  Jed died.

  And he died and died and died.

  Because the Fae queen kept bringing him back.

  She threw a bolt of lightning at him.

  And brought him back.

  She drowned him.

  And brought him back.

  She stabbed him with a sword, ran a spear through him, and dropped a boulder on him.

  And brought him back, and back, and back.

  Then she hung him from her balcony, which took longer, but finally killed him. Again.

  And she brought him back.

  But after that—after I'd been present at each of his deaths, because that's how my "gift" works, it's full living color—after all of that, it stopped.

  I opened my eyes. I was shaking, tears were running down my face, and Jack was holding me, saying my name, over and over and over. Susan and Logan stared at me, concern in both their faces, and Jed huddled at the other end of the porch, on the floor, and I waited, sucking in deep breath after deep breath, and I waited, but …

  That was it. There were no more visions.

  I only saw the deaths he'd already endured, not the final one still to come.

  Exactly how it had been with Jack.

  "I'm okay," I finally managed to say. "Just—that was harder than usual."

  "There's an understatement," Jack said, his arms tightening around me. "Tess? Honey, are you all right now? Do we need to get you to the hospital?"

  "I'm fine," I said, and I actually was okay—not fine, not even close to fine, but okay. I'd survived worse. And the good thing, if anything could be said to be good about seeing how someone was going to die, or had died, is that physically the aftereffects had lessened significantly since the visions had first started when I was a teenager.

  I just really, really wanted to sleep.

  In my own bed.

  "It's okay, Jack, put me down," I murmured, because I could see Jed collapsing in on himself in guilt and distress, and it was suddenly more important that I help him than try to catch my breath.

  Jack protested, but I insisted, and then I shakily walked over to Jed and dropped down to sit on the floor next to him. This time, I took his hand, holding tight when he tried to snatch it back.

  "It's okay," I reassured him. "I really am fine, and the visions only kick in the first time I touch a person."

  "I'm so sorry," he rasped out, the trace of tears shining on his face. "I didn't even think. I just wanted to thank you for being so kind, and I … I … I'm so sorry."

  I patted his hand. "It's okay. Even people who've known me for a long time forget sometimes. It's over now, and I'm fine. I'm just so sorry for what she put you through."

  Anger seared through me, burning away any lingering weakness from the visions. "That … that … horrible woman! I saw it all. She killed you six times. You're so lucky to even be alive to talk to us. I'm in awe of your strength."

  Jack snarled; a low, terrifying sound. "Six times? She'll answer to me for that."

  Jed started to answer Jack, but then his gaze snapped to me. "Six? But I thought … You didn't see a seventh? You didn't see how I'll finally die for the last time?"

  I shook my head. "No. It happened that way with Jack, too. I only saw how he died in the past, not how he'd die in the future."

  Logan cast a speculative glance at Jack. "You died before? When was this?"

  "None of your business," Jack snapped. "Tess, are you sure—"

  "Yes, I'm sure. I'm fine. I just really, really need to sleep. Especially if we're meeting at dawn…"

  "I can take you," Jack said, but I shook my head.

  "No, you need to stay here with your granddad, and I need my car." I gave Jed's hand one last pat and then stood and walked over to my car.

  Jack followed me and touched my cheek, staring down into my eyes. "Tess, are you sure? You can stay here, in the other spare room. I'm not sure you should be alone."

  "No. I really want to be home in my own bed. I just need to sleep. Really. I'll text you before I fall asleep, okay?"

  He nodded, but his expression was troubled. I hugged him and said a quick goodbye, and I followed Susan's car out of the driveway while Logan and Jack were still squabbling over whether Logan could stay in a spare room or "go sleep in a tree."

  At home, I locked my doors, although who knew if that would do any good against a vengeful Fae queen, called Aunt Ruby and Uncle Mike, and filled them in about the story to date and the dawn rendezvous to find the missing dagger. Then I brushed my teeth, texted Jack good night, and fell into bed. Lou jumped up, curled up next to me, and started purring, and the next time I looked at the clock, it was beeping, and I was trying to understand who the idiot was who'd set my alarm for five o'clock in the morning.

  I sat up, woozy, and it all rushed back. "I'm the idiot," I mumbled to Lou, who gave me a slitted-eye look of disdain, rolled over, and promptly went back to sleep.

  Lucky cat.

  I stumbled to the kitchen for coffee, then back to my room to find a clean Dead End Pawn shirt and pair of jeans (Sundays were laundry day, and that hadn't happened), and tied my shoes.

  "Here we go. Wish me luck," I told Lou, who'd deigned to come out to the couch and was curled up on the embroidered pillow Molly gave me that said,

  "What greater gift than the love of a cat.—Charles Dickens"

  She yawned, which I took to be her best wishes, and I kissed her head and then headed out into the chill November morning in search of a magical dagger so that a Fae queen wouldn't destroy my town.

  My life this past year—Wow.

  Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.

  15

  Tess

  We were a party of five. Jack said Jed had been too exhausted to come with them, so he'd urged his granddad to go back to sleep. There wasn't much a three-hundred-year-old man could do to search a tree that the rest of us couldn't manage, anyway. He'd never seen the dagger, either.

  "Two shapeshifters, a sheriff, a vampire, and a pawnshop owner walk up to a willow tree," I said as I ambled over to where Susan, Logan, and Susan's brother Carlos Gonzalez—the vampire—waited. I had to laugh, despite the situation. "Our lives are now the beginning of a terrible joke."

  Susan sighed, but then laughed too. Jack and Carlos joined in, and Logan stared at us like we were all buffoons. Maybe we were. But at some point, a girl just has to laugh at Dangerous Situation #703.