"Why isn't it working?"

"Try again."

"She'll die."

"She's already dying."

"Stay with me."

"Say the spell again."

"I've said it a dozen times. The full moon is nearly over. We're running out of time."

"Luna, stay with me. Please...Luna!"

Voices tuned in and out as I wavered between consciousness and sleep. Every inch of my body was cold and damp and aching. I couldn't move, not to lift my head or my eyelids. I was stuck in an between place, not quite living but not dead.

"Please."

My heartbeat sped up. There it was again. The others spoke around me, but this voice came from inside, and whoever it was sounded broken, each syllable a desperate plea. I wanted to answer and tell them I was trying, but I didn't have the strength. My life drained from me with every passing moment. Every tick of the clock dragged me further into the darkness.

"It's too late. Our moment is lost."

"No!" The ground beneath me trembled. "We've waited centuries for this."

"The sun is rising."

"Heal her. We can study the texts and try again on the next full moon."

A disgusted snort. "Her heart barely beats now. We won't be able to find a healer in time, and there is nothing new to study. We have failed."

"Damn it! Open your eyes! Just hang on. I'm close."

I wrenched my eyes open and saw nothing but glittering ice and rock above me. And even that was dim and fuzzy as death's veil lowered further, stealing my vision. The speakers move beside me, casting blurry shadows over my naked, broken, and battered body. Glancing down, I saw streaks of blood staining my skin.

Dry lips parted, but no sound came out. That scared me more than my worsening vision, and my chest heaved with every attempt I made to speak. The shadows disappeared, and the sound of footsteps faded as my companions moved away from me. They were giving up on me. Leaving me here.

Tears slipped down my cheeks. Their warmth thawed the skin there, but it was not enough to beat back the ice, freezing my joints together and holding me captive against this altar. This was where I would die.

I'm sorry, Daddy. I'm sorry.

He tried so hard to protect me. Maybe if I had not given into that wild side of me, I might not have come to such an end. At least he wasn't here to witness it.

"Don't you dare, Luna. Don't you dare."

Daddy?

"Luna."

I sucked in a shocked breath as a face appeared above me. He was nothing more than a dark, grimacing shape, but he was familiar. And there was something so sad about the way he looked at me. Shrugging out of his jacket, he placed it over me, and instantly, I felt more alert and stable.

"We're getting you out of here," he promised, gingerly sliding his arms beneath me, his head raised and eyes drifting around the room to watch for threats.

"I want to go home," I muttered.

Eyes drifting shut as relief from the cold lulled me to sleep. I imagined my bedroom with its enormous bed and overstuffed mattress. Books and pillows and a window that overlooked my favorite park. The trees there were so beautiful in the autumn. Scarlet and amber and titian—all vivid colors set on fire at sunset. So much prettier than forever summer green.

"We're going home."

"Thank you," I whispered, finally letting go and sinking into oblivion.

******************************************************************************************

The next time I woke, my eyes flew open as my body rocketed upright. Morning light blazed through the slit between my curtains, striking me directly in the face. Groaning, I clambered out of bed and jerked the curtains closed, cursing myself for forgetting to shut them all the way before falling asleep.

Rubbing my arms to stave off the cold, I debated crawling back into the bed. It looked so inviting in the dim glow, but I wasn't really sleepy. There was a dull throbbing behind my eyes, the kind I only got from sleeping too much, and my back hurt.

"Welcome to thirty, huh," I mumbled, rolling my shoulders to work out the knots. "Wait."

I turned in a full circle, registering my surroundings for the first time. This was my bedroom. In my apartment. In the human realm.

"Wake up, sleepy head," Jones called out, barging into the room with a tray of breakfast. "Oh good! You're awake."

"How..." I stumbled backward, sitting down on my bed before my legs gave out. "How did I get here?"

"Oh, honey," Jones said, setting the tray down and rushing to my side. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Cold. Dread. Pain. Calix!

Just thinking his name was enough to make my physically flinch. Remembering how he betrayed us. How he killed Niamh and attacked me. I sucked in a sob, my heart breaking, which was foolish. There had been no love between us, but now that I was free from the adrenaline of the moment, I couldn't escape the hurt.

"Luna," Jones murmured, smoothing back my tangled hair.

"I was...I...I..." I took several gulps of air to steady my voice. "I was in Faerie. I wasn't in our world. How did I get back?"

"This again?" Jones gripped my shoulders and forced me to look at him. "You kept mumbling this in the hospital, but the doctors thought it was just the concussion. They said after some rest, your thoughts would straighten out."

"Concussion?"

Guilt dragged down his normally cheerful features as he nodded. "After I left you to meet that guy, someone mugged you. Someone found you unconscious in the park."

"What? No, that's not—" I pressed my fingers to my temples. "No."

"They kept you in the hospital for a couple of days. I brought you home last night."

"But I remember everything so vividly..."

Niamh's bright blue feathers. Her sweet smile. Lorcan's smirks and dedication. Calix's snark and touch... My body stirred, the memory of his hands and mouth on it enough to create a deep yearning in my core.

"Here," Jones said, stooping to pick up a book from the floor. "I saw this last night while you were sleeping. It's one of your Faerie pornos. I think you must have been reading it before we went out, and the hit to your head mixed everything up."

I took the book and looked at the cover, my heart plummeting as I took in the two beautiful Fae males on the cover. One blonde and angelic, his beauty breathtaking. The other was darkly handsome and brooding, his power leaping out from the shiny page. And along the spine, behind the author's name, was a single navy feather.

"But I don't remember reading this," I protested.

"Well, your bookmark says you were on chapter fourteen, but look on the bright side, you're always saying you wish you could read your favorites again like it was the first time."

"Jones—"

"Luna, it's okay. Everything is going to be fuzzy for a while. That's what the doctors said. We're lucky you're okay. So, how about you crawl back in that bed, eat my fantastic breakfast, and take another nap?"

I stared at him, searching for any glimmer of insincerity, but I only found concern in the eyes of my oldest friend. At last, I set the book aside, crawled back into my spot, and nodded. I accepted the tray with a smile and ate the first bite of scrambled egg, grimacing at its bland taste and texture. After eating Faerie food, human food simply couldn't compare.

"Come on now, it can't be that bad," Jones joked.

"It's good," I lied. "I think my stomach is just a little unsettled. I'm going to take that nap first, and then try eating again."

"Okay." He picked the food up and walked to the door. "Sleep tight, Luna. I bet it's all going to feel like a bad dream when you wake up again."

"I bet."

I snuggled into my pillow and closed my eyes until I heard the door snap shut. Rolling to my back, I stared at the ceiling fan, willing it to disappear and reveal the vines and flowers covering the stone ceiling of my room in the Summer palace, but it never faded or faltered. It was not a glamor or a trick. I was truly back in the human realm.

Or...or maybe Jones was right, and I had never left it at all.