Enchanting the Fey- The Complete Series

by Rebecca Bosevski

  “I will not make you something that is covered in that sugary goop,” she said, before tossing me a Wagon Wheel and telling me that my chocolaty ‘things’ were all the junk I would get from her kitchen.

  The door opened behind us and my father strode in. His brow was squished in deep thought and he didn’t notice us sitting there until he attempted to pull out the stool I was sitting on.

  “Oh, sorry, Desmoree, I don’t know where my head was.”

  “That’s alright, Dad, what has got you so worried?”

  He glanced at Ava beside me but she wasn’t looking at him, she had her head almost buried in her bowl. I was about to press him further but he shook his head and I knew there was no pushing the subject now. If there was one thing I got from my father, it was the ability to end an entire conversation with one look.

  He placed a hand on Ava’s shoulder. “My dear, have you tasted it yet? It’s one of my favourites.”

  She pulled her face free from the steaming bowl and looked back up at him. “Not yet. How do I eat it?”

  Maylea held out a spoon. “Preferably not like your mother.”

  “What?” I said as I dipped a piece of bread into my bowl. “I will have you know that this is the best way to eat it.”

  Max took a seat beside Ava, and Maylea served up his portion. “Are you eating with us tonight?” he asked, eyeing the bowl beside his. Maylea didn’t often eat with us. Usually only on special occasions.

  “Thank you, but no, I have already eaten. I expect young Tai to be arriving soon. I told Jax to send him here for supper, he need not be there this evening.”

  Ava began stirring her soup with the wrong end of the spoon.

  “Like this,” my father said as he dipped his spoon into his soup, scooped it away from him, and scraped the drip at the far side of the bowl. Maylea took Ava’s spoon and replaced it with a clean one. Ava copied my father’s movement, then watched as he brought the spoon to his lips and blew softly, before opening his mouth and sucking the soup from the correct end.

  Ava did the same, but when she tasted the soup for herself her eyes widened in delight. I slopped another bit of bread into my soup and slurped the soup drippings from my fingers. They all looked at me.

  “What?” I mumbled through chews. Tai chose that moment to clamour though the door.

  “Sorry I am late,” he said to Maylea, climbing onto the furthest stool beside my father.

  “Nonsense, you are perfectly on time,” Maylea said, ladling him a serve of soup and placing a plate of bread bits beside his bowl.

  Tai liked to eat soup like me and was clearly Maylea’s favourite. He was at least five minutes late but she would never call him on it. She winked at him before returning the large cauldron of soup to the stove and collecting a few glasses from an upper cabinet.

  Tai peaked around my father. “Hey, Ava, do you wanna go play after dinner?”

  She nodded eagerly then turned to me. “Mum, can I?”

  I scraped the side of my almost empty bowl to soak up the last of my soup. “Sure, but not for too long. And stay on the Landown property, alright? Tai, you know where the border ends, don’t go past it.”

  “We won’t,” Tai said as he accidently dropped his bread bit into his bowl and it sunk beneath the surface. Maylea was ready with a fork, and he stabbed into the orange soup, trying to retrieve it.

  I shook my head. “Amateurs.”

  After Max finished up, Ava moved to sit beside Tai as they enjoyed a second serving, and I pulled my father aside. Being sure to keep my voice low, I asked, “Dad, do you know when the next new moon is in the human realm? Or how I could find out?”

  He looked to Ava. “Is this something I should be worried about?”

  “The prophecy. If I want to seal the gateway I have to do it on a new moon in the human realm. ‘Cause, you know, here, golden sky, no moon.”

  “That’s weird,” he began, moving us further away from Ava and Tai.

  “What is weird?”

  “I was looking into how Ava could be talking to seers that are passed on and I didn’t find much. Actually I found nothing on that, but what I did find is there is a growing number of humans exhibiting magic.”

  “So humans are attaining magic?”

  “It looks like it. Mostly the humans who believe in the magics don’t ever actually achieve anything, but there is a new coven. They are casting spells that are working and it’s gaining the attention of many of the magical creatures. Fey included.”

  Maylea cleared her throat and we directed our gaze to the two children leaning forwards on their elbows, Their heads resting in their hands. I pursed my lips to one side.

  “How about desert?” I suggested as I walked around the counter and pulled out the vanilla ice-cream tub from the freezer and a bowl of blighter berries from the fridge.

  Tai stuffed his last bread bite into his mouth, nodding eagerly. “Maylea do we have any cones left?” I asked sliding out the large cutlery drawer to retrieve the ice-cream scoop.

  She popped into the pantry and returned with two waffle cones. I loved mixing berries with ice-cream and when I moved into my father’s house I found Maylea kept an ice stone in her kitchen—something that didn’t exist in the human world. It made mixing custom creations all that much easier. An ice stone was a slab of rock found deep within the ground. It was always cold. Even if you placed it into a fire…which I only did once.

  I pulled it from the bottom drawer and placed it in front of both Tai and Ava. Scooping a few heaps of ice-cream onto the slab in a circle. I followed by grabbing a few handfuls of berries and dropping them into the middle. Ava scooted forwards to watch closely. Tai copied her and I had to smile at their cuteness.

  I grabbed the big metal spoons from Maylea’s cutlery drawer and began squashing the berries with the back of the spoons. The juice seeped out a brilliant blue and as it hit the cold stone, started to thicken. I brought the ice-cream in to the middle in small amounts, working the spoons to mix and squash in a fluid action.

  I could have done it magically. But sometimes doing is way more fun. I separated it into two mounds, rolled them around to make two ball shapes then lifted them into the cones Maylea still held at the ready.

  I took one from her and passed it to Ava. Maylea handed the other to Tai.

  “Now, how about you go eat these outside and I’ll come find you when it’s time to come in. Remember, only on Landown.”

  Ava watched Tai take a lick of his ice-cream then copied. She smiled huge as the flavour hit and slipped off the stool to follow him out of the kitchen.

  Max joined me at the bench, wrapped his arm around my shoulder, and pulled me in to a half hug. “Well I think they have become fast friends.”

  “I knew kids grow up too fast but it’s hard to believe she was only born today.”

  “It has been a big day for both of you. I heard that you accepted the role of Leader of the fey?” He raised an eyebrow at me.

  “Do not even start with that crap,” I said, and Maylea shuffled behind us.

  “Could you two take this somewhere else please? I would like to clean my kitchen now.”

  “Sorry,” we both said, and started stacking the bowls from dinner.

  “Leave those you two. Go on now, off with you. I will do this, you have much to discuss.” She took the bowls from us and we headed out of the kitchen and towards the study.

  As we walked down the hall we could hear Ava laughing, and it made us both smile.

  “Do you think thy could be the same covens? The coven of souls the prophecy one?” I asked as we walked through the door of the study.

  “Maybe. But either way it deserves looking into further. I know I have a lunar calendar here somewhere.”

  “You just keep lunar calendars around for the hell of it do you?” I joked.

  “Actually, many casts can only be done in the human realm. It’s a bridging realm, linking to many different realms, and to many different magics.”


  “Seriously, how am I only now learning this?”

  “Well you haven’t been a part of this world for that long, you can’t expect to know everything.”

  “But I did.”

  “You did what?”

  “I did know everything, or at least I was able to find out everything just by wanting to. It was a gift from Frey. I told you this, didn’t I?

  I looked at him for confirmation but he was squinting at me and shaking his head.

  “Well, I did a cast to accept the knowledge and power of the Oley, it’s why I didn’t die when the Dazearthro snapped my neck. It awakened my inner power and made me this,” I said, phasing. “But now it’s almost all gone. Everything she showed me, I can’t access it anymore.” My fairy form flickered as if it struggled to stay. I wrapped my wings around me like a blanket and sat in the chair behind his desk. The book pressed at my back and I reached behind me to pull it free of my waist but left it rested against the back of the chair.

  “Desmoree, the Oley might have shared something with you then, but it was never yours. It was borrowed and it would have always returned to them. You will have to figure this prophecy thing out without a shortcut into the all-knowing eyes of the Oley.”

  I phased back and joined my hands together in my lap. “Then maybe the Tanzieth magic will return to you all one day, too.”

  “No, Desmoree, that was gifted. It might always be yours.”

  “I don’t want it.”

  “I know, but you have it. Now help me with this, would you?” He handed me a rolled up poster of some kind. I moved a few things to the side on his desk and helped him unroll it. It was a table with the different moon phases listed across the top and a list of months down the side.

  “Today is Wednesday, the fourteenth I believe, so according to this, you have five days until the next new moon. Do you think you can find all the items you need in five days?”

  “Maybe. But hey, if not, I will just do it the next month right?”

  He rolled the poster back up and I had a sinking feeling come over me. “Dad, what are you not telling me?”

  He slid the tube onto the top of a stack of others on the far shelves and turned to face me.

  He seemed so large the first time I had seen him. But as he looked at me now he didn’t look big at all. His shoulders were slouched and his head hung a little. He was keeping something from me, that was certain.

  “Des, I found something else.”

  “What?”

  “You know how I said it was ‘weird’, you asking about the new moon?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, the whispers I heard about the coven, they all centred around the new moon. Like something big was going to happen then. Something that would change the human realm.”

  “So you think this coven might try to open the mouth of hell on the new moon? Why?”

  He dropped into the chair across from the desk. “I don’t know why anyone would want to open the door to that place. It’s the door to darkness. To demons and death. But, Des, you have to seal it on a new moon and they plan to open it on one. If you don’t have everything you need in five days, you will have to wait a whole month to seal it. Can you imagine the destruction the darkness could cause in that much time. There wouldn’t be a human realm left to save.”

  “This isn’t fair. I only had my daughter today and now I have to leave to find all this fabled crap to save a place I left behind. This sucks.”

  “I know it does, but if they take over the human realm—a bridging realm—they could access all of our worlds next. Every world could become the dark realm. All existence trapped in hell.”

  “Laying it on a bit thick, don’t you think?”

  “Whatever works.”

  “Okay, well I will get Ava inside and leave as soon as Jax is back. I wonder if he has had much luck convincing crazy one and two that our daughter is our daughter.”

  “Glad it’s him and not me.”

  I got up and gave him a hug, but before I could walk out he called me back.

  “Forgetting something?”

  I turned and he held my spell book up in his hand.

  “Thanks, Dad,” I said, taking it and slipping it back into the waist of my pants. I then headed out to find Tai and Ava.

  I phased once out the door and began to rise into the sky, when my form shifted back and I fell. Luckily I was only about a meter from the grass when I changed.

  “What the hell was that?” I questioned aloud. It’s been a big day, I am probably just tired.

  I tried again and my form shifted and seemed to stick, so I rose again into the sky and flew over the property looking for the kids. I checked by the gardens, and the fountain, and the small hills Tai liked to bowl marlo fruit down, but they were not at any of those places. I tried to think of where they would want to play. Then I thought about Tai, his favourite game is sneaking around.

  Little shit. He better not be where I think he is. I redirected my flight to head towards the cottage where Jax’s parents now lived. And where Jax was right now talking about our magical daughter. I saw them as I moved in on the cottage. They were huddled under a side window, both of them peeking over the sill to look inside.

  I heard Jax and his parents before I landed. All of them arguing inside the older, cottage style house, set behind the back gardens. I dropped silently beside Ava and Tai, and to be sure to not be seen through the window I returned to my regular form.

  “Oi, you two have a whole house to play in and you come here?” I whispered, startling them both so much they fell back onto their bottoms, eyes wide, mouths agape.

  “Sorry, Des, I just wanted to know what they were talking about. I didn’t know it was Ava,” Tai said, crawling under the sill to where I stood. Ava sat on her bum looking at the window above her.

  “Ava, whatever you heard it isn’t true.” I held out my hand.

  She looked up at me. “So they don’t think I am evil, and that I will destroy them and everything good in the human world, before doing the same to this one?” she replied, looking up at me with tear stained cheeks.

  Oh, Jax, I am so going to kill your parents.

  I knelt beside her. “Ava, they are wrong, you know that. You said it yourself, you are not the one in the prophecy.”

  “I am good,” she said, looking up at the window as if she would find some validation there.

  “Ava.” I touched her chin with my finger and moved her face to look at me. “You are. Tai, take Ava for a walk by the line of the picta trees, I will catch up to you in a sec.”

  Ava stood and took Tai’s hand and I watched as they headed towards the gathering of picta trees to the left of the cottage. As soon as they were out of earshot I threw the door open to the cottage and phased into my fairy form. It seemed to blink a little though, before it settled. Only Jax appeared to notice, throwing me a frown. Both Sarah and Mark had their backs pressed against the mantle of the unlit fireplace. Pity it wasn’t on.

  Jax threw out a hand. “Des, what happened, why are you—”

  “You might want to check who is listening before you start calling people evil.” I looked at Jax. “Ava and Tai were right outside.”

  “Tai?” Sarah repeated, latching onto Marks arm. “Tai is with her now? Mark, he could be hurt, you should go after him.”

  “You need to shut your mouth about my daughter before I permanently seal it closed.” Can I do that?

  “Des,” Jax moved to stand between his parents and me. He placed his hands on my shoulders and my wings lowered and came to rest at my back as I stared into his glistening green eyes. “They are worried about the magic Ava gave Tai. It isn’t like what he had before, and he’s trying to do too much too soon. They are not wrong to worry that he will be hurt.”

  I shot him a glare, but he released my shoulders and held his hands up in defence.

  “So they don’t think she’s evil?”

  Both Sarah and Mark looked to their feet. Sarah’s ha
ir hung limply by the sides of her face. Stopping just past her collarbone, it shielded her face like a dull brown curtain. Mark’s hair was like a beacon guiding you in. The ice white strands shone brightly against his tanned skin. Some men go gradually grey, others not at all, but Mark, he zipped from a caramel colour to ice white in one year. The year Tai was born.

  “You of all people should know how different a pregnancy can be in this world, Sarah, look at how you came to have Tai.”

  “That’s different, he took ten months to be born and grew like every other child,” she said, finally looking at me directly.

  “Yes, but you cast a lot of magics to get him.”

  Mark looked to Sarah confused. “You cast?”

  “It wasn’t casts, I just prayed to the angels to help me.” She tried to play down what she had done.

  “What you call praying, the angels call casting. Those were magics you used to have Tai and he’s special too, like Ava is special, so if she’s evil—”

  The floor began to rumble. A statue of an angel that sat on the mantle behind Sarah, vibrated its way to the edge and fell to the floor, smashing into a thousand pieces.

  Mark wrapped his arms around Sarah, looking up at the now shaking ceiling. “What is happening?”

  “Quake,” Jax said, grabbing me and pulling me over to the doorframe. I wrapped my wings around us.

  Two in one day. This can’t be coincidence.

  The door burst open and my fairy form faltered, returning me to my top and jeans. Our eyes locked on Tai. “You have to come. Des, Ava is trying to make a portal. It keeps breaking.”

  I stumbled on the still moving floor as I made my way to Tai. The hat stand by the door toppled over between us and I froze for a moment before leaping over it.

  “Where is she?” I yelled over the noise of plates smashing to the floor in the other room. “Where is Ava?”

  “You have to come, now,” Tai said and took off out the door. Jax and I ran after him.

  We followed Tai through the tall thin trunks, weaving through them quickly as the ground tremble grew deeper.