Faerie Path #6: The Charmed Return by Frewin Jones Read Free Book Online

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