Free Hawthorn by Carol Goodman

mud and blood. I ferried souls from the trenches and touched the memories of those young men—so much fear and sickness and the everlasting waste of life.” He shuddered. “I couldn’t stand by and just watch. Many of us fought beside the men in the trenches, many Darklings died. Gus . . .”
    â€œPythagoras?” I asked, remembering the shy bookish Darkling. “He fought in the war?”
    Marlin chuckled. “Gus became quite the explosives expert. He and your friend Dolores blew up many a bridge and munitions factory. They were both killed in the battle of New York. So were Buzz and Heron and Sirena.”
    â€œAnd Raven?” I asked.
    Marlin shook his head. “Raven vanished before the war. He said he knew where you had gone and that he thought he had a way to get you back. But to tell the truth, he’d gone a bit crazy after you disappeared. He spent hours at Violet House talking to Uncle Taddie, tinkering with clocks. When he disappeared—well, I was afraid he might have taken his own life.”
    â€œRaven would never do that!” I said. “He left this for me.” I took the watch out of my pocket and showed it to Marlin. “He left a note saying that if I went back to Faerie it could bring me back to our time.”
    Marlin looked at the watch skeptically at first and then with a creeping flash of hope. “And if you did get back—”
    â€œWe’d set everything to rights,” Helen said. “We’d find the unbroken vessel before van Drood and stop the war.”
    Marlin smiled at Helen. He lifted his hand and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I hate to let you go again, but if you could do that . . . well, it would be worth even
that
sacrifice. I would do anything to change these last ten years. When I think of what a witless fool I was . . .” He made a disgusted sound and shook himself. “Well, there’s no hope for that. I’d better get you two to Faerie and be quick about it. The door’s been getting smaller and harder to find, choked up with this infernal soot. Master Quill thinks it will soon close for good. Let’s hope it hasn’t yet.”

    We walked the rest of the way in silence, Marlin leading the way, alert for trouble. Helen kept her head down, her face closed and thoughtful. I would have liked to ask what had happened between them, but I couldn’t very well with him right there. I could guess, though, that it had something to do with what had happened with Nathan in Europe. Had she come back sure that she loved Nathan not Marlin? But then why had she been sniping at Nathan every chance she got and acting so miserable?
    Then again, I was in love and I hadn’t been acting so happy either. Maybe love didn’t lead to all that much happiness in the end.
    I’d arrived at this gloomy thought just as we reached an obstacle—a thorny tangle that blocked the path. “We’ll have to go over,” I said to Marlin. “We can fly and one of us can carry Helen—or we can all climb,” I amended at a sharp look from Helen.
    â€œWe won’t be going over. This is it—this is the door to Faerie.”
    â€œ
This?
” Helen asked, peering into the thicket. “But there’s no door here, just thorn bushes.”
    â€œI told you it was grown over,” Marlin replied. “If you crouch down you can see a glimmer of fairy dust through the hawthorns.”
    I crouched down and peered into the thicket. There was a small opening near the ground but it looked more like a rabbit burrow than a door to a magical realm.
    â€œWe can’t possibly crawl through there,” Helen said, bending over me. “We’ll ruin our clothes.”
    Marlin laughed. “Have you seen yourself in a mirror lately?You look like something a boggle dragged through the marsh. But I can make the opening a bit bigger for you.”
    I