Ever After (Rachel Morgan)

gazing at our reflection and evaluating my new look. I touched my hair, deciding the braid was holding up well enough. “So we good?”
    “Just one thing.” I turned to him and he tossed his head to the front of the church when the bell gonged. “Don’t eat the pizza.”
    I froze, as he reached for the doorknob. Taking a breath, I jumped into motion, confused. Don’t eat the pizza? “Quen?” I jerked him to a halt in the hallway. I could hear the pixies in the sanctuary, Jenks berating Nick. “Why not?”
    Posture furtive, he winced. “Didn’t your father ever tell you not to eat with the elves?”
    “Sure, because . . .” I stopped, my eyes narrowed as Quen’s smile shifted and became not nice at all. “Because you might forget your life as you drink and make merry,” I said, not liking this. It was a forget spell, temporary but effective, and Ivy and Jenks would be pissed. “Quen, I’m not going to lie to them.”
    “Even to save their lives?” Without another word, he strode into the brightly lit sanctuary.
    Stupid-ass elves . . . I followed, my stomach churning. This wasn’t right, and I felt torn as I stood at the top of the hall and looked over the sanctuary with Ivy’s piano, my desk, Kisten’s pool table, and the cluster of furniture. Quen was already there among them, looking as if nothing was amiss and he wasn’t about to charm them all into forgetfulness. Nick was still sitting in his chair, watching Ivy at the front door taking the pizza and paying the man. Pixies were everywhere, the colored silk and bright voices filling the air. Jax was sitting on the coffee table with Belle, but it looked as if she was talking, not guarding him. There was a cheer when the church door shut out the cold, and Ivy came back to drop the pizza on the coffee table right in front of Nick. Don’t eat the pizza.
    Panicked, I met Ivy’s eyes, and she hesitated, eyebrows high. Nick gagged, and the pixies descended, working together to get the box open before diving in to snitch the steaming pineapple. I felt alone and apart in the hallway, unable to shake the feeling that it was just another Thursday night. Pizza, movie, and shocking the token human by eating tomatoes.
    Slice of pizza in hand, Ivy eased closer, the diverse but weirdly complementary scents of vampire and pizza flowing over me. “Remember this,” she said, smiling sadly as she looked at the chaos.
    I couldn’t take my eyes from her pizza, torn. “Because it won’t ever come again,” I finished, guilt tugging at me. I was not going to lie to her. “Don’t eat the pizza.”
    She hesitated. Jenks was watching us, and I made a small finger motion as he oversaw his kids fighting over the crust to get the one with the most sauce. Wings humming, his dust shifted to a brilliant yellow.
    “What does everyone want to drink?” I said softly, turning on a heel to vanish into the kitchen. Quen’s eyes bore into my back. He couldn’t have possibly heard me warn Ivy, but he wasn’t oblivious to her alertness, either. My heart pounded. I didn’t want my friends dead, but I wouldn’t lie to them. Ivy would follow. We could talk in the kitchen. The truth was going to hurt, but a lie would be worse.
    “Ivy, can I speak to you and Jenks for a moment?” Quen said, and my pace faltered.
    Maybe not . . .
    “They’re helping me with the drinks,” I shouted. “Quen, watch Nick, will you?”
    My heart thudded as I walked from the noisy throng, but the kitchen was welcomingly cool, and I put a hand to my face, not sure what I was going to say as they followed me in, clearly curious. Frustrated, I turned my back on the small window over the sink.
    “Okay, what the hell is wrong with the Turn-blasted pizza?” Jenks said, an unsure green dust sifting from him like an underwater sunbeam. “I’m starving here!”
    I thought about what Quen said, and then how they trusted me, not just to have their back, but to not stab them in it, either. “Quen . . .” I started, then threw my hands up, my heart thudding. “He charmed it. I don’t want you coming with Quen and me tonight. Either of you. Okay?”
    “Oh, but elf boy out there is good enough, huh?” Jenks said, his voice virulent.
    He was dusting a silver green I’d never seen before, and I came forward, pleading with my eyes. “Jenks, we both know it’s too cold for you. Ivy, as much as I want you there—”
    She shook her head, feeling her throat as if remembering how easily