"I was kidnapped and tortured..." I tell Tyler. He glances at the spot on my kitchen floor where he'd cleaned the blood from the floorboards. He looks back at me with questions in his eyes and I nod. "I got away."

"Yeah," he half smiles, "I could guess that much."

"Then I brought the Prince - the one who didn't kidnap me - back here because I was worried about what the other prince might do to him." It might not have been a wholly accurate explanation but it was all I was willing to give. "We were getting ready to take Faerie Land back from his cousin and you walked in while we were doing that."

"I didn't damage anything did I?"

"No," I said. "I was just testing something." I stared into a point in space between us, trying to forget the tortured look I'd inspired in Tyler's eyes. "I needed to find something out."

"Did you get the answer you were after?" he asked.

"I got an answer," I said. "Sometimes, that's the best you can hope for."

"That was incredible," Kieran said, after I took the circle down.

"It wasn't," I said.

"It was."

Realizing that arguing wasn't going to get me anywhere, I gave up. "We should get ready," I said.

"What do we have to do?" he asked.

"Oh, you know," I wrinkled my nose. "Shower. Get dressed. Take the precaution of arming ourselves. The usual."

"That's usual, is it?" he frowned.

"Actually," I said, "that was a joke."

"It didn't sound like you were joking."

"It's not supposed to." I sighed. "We call that dead pan humor here."

"Oh." He looked at me for a moment, like he was expecting me to provide another example. I stared blandly back at him. "So, shall we?"

A part of me was expecting Jack to turn up and tell me that I was wearing the wrong thing, anyway, so I guess I shouldn't have been overly surprised when he appeared in my room while Kieran was in the shower. I could have used the downstairs shower while Kieran was in mine, but, somewhere along the line, I'd stopped feeling as though I owned the entire house. I felt like I had no right to use the downstairs bathroom. That was Tyler's territory, not mine.

I was surprised to see Jack though. Not because he appeared in front of me, but because of the way he looked.

"Are you okay?" I asked, looking at the discoloration across his cheekbone. It seemed that everyone around me had bruises. I was the only one who'd managed to get rid of mine so fast. When everyone around you is magic, the fact that you're the first to heal makes you feel really special.

"Hurts more than a virgin on prom night," Jack said, wincing as he sat on the end of my bed. He was wearing a pretty snazzy black waistcoat with red embroidery, a black silk shirt, breeches, knee high boots and a red cravat. I didn't think a lot of people would be able to pull that look and still look halfway tough, but Jack did. Maybe it was the black eye.

"And you know do you?" I asked.

"No," Jack said. "I heard someone say it on TV once. Thought it was clever."

"If you're feeling up to stealing lines," I said, "then I guess you aren't going to die on me any time soon, are you?"

"Not if I can help it, no."

"Want to tell me what to wear?" I asked, opening my cupboard. I thought the opportunity to raid my closet might cheer him up, just a little bit.

"No," Jack said. "I brought you something."

"What?" I frowned, taking the sack that Jack held out for me.

"Brought something for Kieran too. Thought we'd go in uniform."

"Okay..." I heard the water shut off. I called to Kieran through the bathroom door. "Jack's here. He's brought clothes."

"Great," Kieran said, opening the door. I had a moment of panic that he'd be standing there naked but he had a towel wrapped around his waist.

"I don't know how much time we've got," Jack said. "Zephan's arguing that you've deserted. He's trying to get himself anointed as the king before you get the chance to come back."

"Really?" Kieran asked, grabbing his own sack from Jack.

"How long will it take for him to push that through?" I asked, hovering between my bedroom and the bathroom.

"Put it this way," Jack said, "I wouldn't take longer than fifteen minutes showering, if I were you." I nodded and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind me. Lucky for us, I thought, tearing my clothes off, in Queensland, we practice the four minute shower.

"Uniform," I muttered, examining the contents of the sack that Jack had given me. "Jack," I called out, standing in my underwear, holding the clothes he'd brought me. "Can you come in here?"

He opened the door and slid into the room.

"What's wrong?" he asked, maintaining perfect eye contact, in case you were wondering.

"What is this?" I asked, holding a scrap of fabric up.

"That," Jack smiled, "is a veil."

"Oh," I said, looking at the black gauze again. "I don't know how to wear any of this."

"I'll help you," he said, taking the fabric out of my hands. "Do I have your permission to tie your ribbons?" He turned me around as he asked the question, so that my back was to him and the mirror was in front of me. I stared at his reflection blankly. "Do you trust me to only tie the ribbons," Jack asked, semi-ritualistically, "and not place any other bonds upon you, be they physical, emotional, or just plain ethereal?"

"I trust you," I said.

"Good," Jack pulled something down over my head and grinned at my reflection. "Of course, there are charms woven into the fabric itself," he said, watching my expression become slightly outraged. He leant down so that he could half whisper in my ear as he started tightening something around my waist. "But they're all good, and we need all the help we can get, don't we?"

"Yeah," I sighed, "that we do."

"That we do?" Jack smirked.

"Yeah," I said, glaring at his reflection. "You got a problem with that?"

"No," he shook his head. "Have you ever heard of a roving circle?" he asked.

"No," I frowned.

"Neither had I." He pulled a line of some kind of stiff fabric out of the sack and shook it so that it sprung into a hoop. "This," he said, "is filled with salt."

"Really?" I asked, as he gestured for me to stand in the middle of the hoop. He brought ribbons up from the base of the hoop and tied them to a stiff belt which he'd placed around my waist a few moments before. I noticed that the ribbons all had metal charms attached to the ends of them.

"You close the circle," Jack said, "by connecting your energies through this," he held a larger version of the metal charms up by a long, thick, black ribbon. He handed it to me. "Do you want me to tie it around your neck?" he asked. I glanced at the medallion that I already wore there.

"It might be a bit cluttered," I said.

"Around the waist then," Jack took the ends of the ribbon, carefully avoiding contact with the charm, and affixed it to the belt.

"Thanks," I said.

"No problem," Jack said. He draped what felt like yards of black gauze over the top of the hoop, so that even I couldn't tell where the gauze stopped and the hoop took over providing volume. "Almost finished," he said, grabbing the crimson half jacket off the basin, where I'd dropped it after finding the veil. He helped me shrug into it, then did something behind me that made the red fabric seem to magically stay against the belt. Actually, it probably didn't just seem like magic.

"Done?" I asked.

"Just the finishing touch," Jack said, pinning the black veil to my hair. He opened the door to my bedroom and pulled me through. I checked my waist to make sure that the charm was still firmly attached, and looked up at Kieran.

We all matched. Crimson and black. Kieran's shaggy black hair and ivory skin went well with the color scheme. I remembered what I'd thought when I first saw him. Emo rock god. The bruises on his cheek made it look more bad boy of rock, but the otherworldly beauty and obvious royalty were still there.

"Ready?" Kieran asked. I nodded. Jack hadn't let go of my hand. Kieran took my other hand then clasped hands with Jack.

"You look great," Jack said, looking at us approvingly.

"So do you," I said.

"Right," Kieran nodded. "We're ready for this, aren't we?"

"Not at all," I smiled. Jack laughed. We fell through the darkness, all three of us, together, clasped firmly in each other's arms. Jack laughed all the way down and my soul was laughing with him.

I can honestly say, with absolute certainty, that that was the last moment I remember being happy.

-------------------------------------

Sorry not sorry I had to ruin a light hearted chapter with that last line.

Four more chapters left after this, and Laurel's about to kick some ass.

Til next time,

x zuz