"It was a trick," Winter counters the apology grouchily. "An unfair trade. Not your fault." Maybe a little bit Stevie's fault for not remembering that bit of faerie lore, but Winter doesn't know why he remembers it, so he can't exactly blame Stevie for not.

He frowns. "I don't know. Even if they did, would the faerie actually do it? Stop protecting people? There's so many of them. Who left. If they can keep going with so many a few more or less isn't. Isn't anything, is it?" God, that's got to be a lot of power. Who all is this faerie scaring in order to fuel it?