Silver stared at Fiona. “This happened before? I thought you said the world would be destroyed.”

“Slowly,” said Devon. “It will be slowly destroyed. The link was severed for about two hundred and fifty years and then repaired in the mid-twentieth century, thanks to a group of brave heroes, Fae and human, who planted the portal trees and worked to connect them. The industrial revolution and the world wars would never have happened if humans had still been connected to the Fae.”

“And terrible things happened in Faerieland at the same time,” said Fiona. “Fae need human logic and critical thinking or they become creatures entirely of emotion and anarchy. Humans need creativity and empathy or they become merciless and cruel. Humans are just now starting to repair the damage done to your natural world by industry and capitalistic extremes. And the Fae are beginning to recover their ability to act in cooperation and have rebuilt their cities and confined the monsters that ravaged the land. We can’t go back. Dusvlaine and his army must be stopped, no matter what the cost.”

“Now that we know where they’re hiding, we should be able to stop them, right?” said Silver.

Devon shook his head. “You are not included in that ‘we,’ Silver.”

Silver frowned. “What are you talking about? Your mom said that I was the one who could stop them.”

“And you’ve given us the information we need,” said Fiona. “We can take it from here. That’s our job.”

“But–”

Rosza raised a hand. “Silver. You’re completely untrained.”

“Yeah, but–”

“This isn’t a young adult novel,” said Fiona. “You’re not the Chosen One, who overcomes all of the odds stacked against you, and goes from totally untrained to kicking ass and taking names within a week, simply because it has been prophesied.”

“But Gwenneth said–”

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“And she was right,” said Rosza, firmly. “Without you, we would never have figured it all out and we wouldn’t be able to stop it. But you’ve helped a lot. And now people like Devon and Fiona – people who are trained warriors and strategists – can go and take them out, while the rest of us take comfort in the fact that our talents lie elsewhere.”

Silver’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re not going to help?”

She shrugged. “I will if they ask me to. It’s unlikely that they will. After all, this isn’t going to be an epic battle, is it?”

The last question seemed aimed at Devon, who shook his head. “Most likely, we’ll take them out one at a time, probably kill some of them, take the rest prisoner. Slowly, so that the humans don’t get too freaked out.”

“I have an idea!” said Silver, vehemently. “I told you back in the visions – I have a thought, and I still have it, and I would like to tell it to you.”

“Fine,” said Fiona. “Go ahead.”

“Kaelen is pretty sketchy,” said Silver. “Not just because he’s a Fae hiding in Humanland and plotting the end of the world. He’s also cooking his books. I know the book-keeper and she told me that her spreadsheets get changed all the time, but she doesn’t want to say anything because he pays her really well and she doesn’t want to lose her job.”

“Interesting,” said Fiona. “I bet they’re all crooked. We could use that. Hard for them to take out portals from prison.”

“Exactly,” said Silver.

“Thanks for the info,” said Devon. “We can take it from here.”

“What?” Silver stared at him. “No, I can help you. I work for Kaelen.”

“Which I’m still very confused about, for the record,” said Devon.

Silver shrugged. “Maybe my stormsoother abilities helped me see the ad. I don’t know. The point is, though, that I can get you access to–”

Devon shook his head. “Too dangerous. You’re not ready for something like that.”

“Well, wait a second,” said Fiona. “He might be in danger anyway. We still don’t know why Silver was able to see the ad.”

“Most likely his boss was planning to corrupt him and use his abilities to his own advantage,” said Rosza, much too cheerfully for Silver’s taste.

“How would he be able to do that?” Silver asked.

“Oh, any number of ways, really,” said Rosza. “He was probably planning to introduce you to the whole existence of the duoverse at some point, after he gained your trust, then get you a tutor, and then probably use you as a medic for the army in case someone figured out what they were doing and came after them.”

“Someone like Devon and Fiona, you mean?” said Silver.

“Yep!” Rosza grinned. “But it didn’t work, so why worry about it?” She stood up. “Who wants Kurtoskalacs?”