Tales of the Fairy Anthology

by Catherine Stovall

  Wings of a Butterfly

  *This story is written in UK English*

  The iron chains were cold around my wrists and ankles. For the longest week of my life, they had rubbed, creating unpleasant sores that wept and bled. The healers had been rubbing a salve on them, but nothing seemed to work. They had finished applying another layer of the light pink, sparkling substance, before I was summoned to the door of my cell and ushered towards the light.

  I was weak from hunger and thirst, and I walked as best as I could. Other prisoners called out to me and grabbed at the flimsy and now filthy shift I had been assigned to wear. I could do nothing, but let their punches and pulls rain down upon me as I struggled onwards, trying to keep my head held high.

  The stairs were the hardest part, but I forced myself to move, taking them one stone step at a time. My bare feet were scratched and blistered to the heavens, and my jailers waited patiently, knowing how much pain I was in. They should know. After all, they had inflicted it upon me. The Queen’s orders. The guard with the tanned skin reached out a hand to steady me as we neared the top, but I shrank from his touch, and nearly sent myself backwards in the process.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said.

  “Liar.”

  The corridors of the castle had not changed in the time that I had been imprisoned. Not that I thought they would. The banners that hung on the wall were still the deepest shades of purple known to Fae kind. Wind whistled through the arrow slits, and candles flared in the braziers. Laughter and song came from behind closed doors, where Seelie and Unseelie alike joined in celebration. Today was a joyous occasion, a time to celebrate and make merry.

  After all, it wasn’t every day that a disgraced princess tried to regain her dignity—not to mention her wings.

  We moved along corridors that all looked the same, but I knew where I was being led. There were subtle changes here and there. Splendid jewels had been embedded in the walls, creating rich, colourful mosaics. The floor became warm under my bare feet and my back tingled. The magic was strong here, overpowering almost. My body shook and the guards had to hold my arms firmly as we walked. It was useless trying for composure. Without my wings, I was at the mercy of the dangerous, wild magic that flowed from the Queen’s pores.

  We stopped before a door on which a goblin head hung listlessly in the centre. With bulbous eyes and a long hooked nose, it was quite ugly. As the guard cleared his throat, the eyes snapped open and raised itself straighter, which was a task in itself.

  “What do we have for the Queen today? A silly old Fae with the price to pay?”

  I hated goblins. The rhyming was enough to get on anyone’s nerves, but the Queen wasn’t everyone.

  “We present, her Royal Highness the Unseelie Princess Ember, prisoner of the castle, for her Majesty the Queen Jupiterglow’s inspection.”

  The guards clicked their booted heels together, and their wings hummed with the energy I longed for.

  “Send her right in, guardians fair. I happen to know the trouble she bares.”

  The goblin closed his eyes, bowed his head, and the door swung open wide. There was a cooling breeze, before a great waft of heat, incense, and power overwhelmed me. The tanned guard removed the manacles on my wrists, whilst the guard with the jet black hair did the same with my ankles. They gave me a small salute, before turning and marching away, wings fluttering excitedly.

  “Well come on in, child. Let me see what has become of you down there.”

  I did as the imperious voice bade. As soon as I entered, the door swung shut, and I was left in the darkness with someone I truly detested.

  “Let us have some light, shall we?”

  All the better to see me with, I thought, remembering the fable that I had once been told. My heart ached as I thought of my poor Alexander, and I felt tears prick my eyes. I rubbed them away with my hands, not wanting to show weakness here in front of her.

  The Queen clapped her hands twice in quick succession, and the light sprung forth from tall candles and scattered about the room. She had redecorated again it seemed. There were still deep purples and lighter shades on the wall, but the great bed had been removed, and in its place was a chaise lounge draped with bright soft fabrics. Mannequins were lined behind her, displaying latex and leather clothes that wouldn’t have looked out of place at a mortal fetish club. Coins, gems and jewels littered the floor, creating a lone pathway in the middle.

  The Queen was sat at her dresser, bedecking herself in more jewellery, hair sealants, moisturising creams, and perfumes than was necessary. The mirror she sat before was adorned with cherub faces, and each one had hair pins embedded into the foreheads and cheeks. Some of the faces were charred and burnt, others had survived her rampages. She turned to peer between her huge lacy wings, spotting me in the reflection.

  “I must say, you look positively ghastly, dear. Take something from my wardrobe; we’re both the same size. I can’t stand to see you looking like a commoner.”

  “Yes, Mother.”

  She had ordered an oversized walk-in wardrobe prepared when she had taken these rooms, and all of her outdated dresses, accessories, costumes, shoes, and hats were stored in here. I took my time, washing down my skin and brushing my hair, making myself presentable. The bruises and scars, I couldn’t hide.

  When I returned, she appraised the dress. It was the least degrading I could find; a black silk number that clung to every curve of my body like a second skin. My feet were clad in black ballet pumps, and I had swept my hair into a low ponytail, apart from the wisps that curled stubbornly around my face.

  “Oh darling, couldn’t you find something a little more…me?” Her own dress was red mesh, front and back.

  Alexander would say, “You can see the whole shebang,” but thinking of him made me feel sick to my stomach.

  I was conservative for an Unseelie Fae, and my Mother resented me for it. Just because she liked to hold court in her underwear, didn’t mean I wanted to. If I lasted long enough to rule the courts, I would be a different kind of ruler altogether—one with decorum, manners, and with only a teeny tiny hint of sensuality. I wanted our kingdom to be more than just an orgy. I wanted it to be respected.

  “I am comfortable, Mother.”

  She raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow and finished layering a pillar box red lipstick on. “The courts were most excited by your little demonstration earlier. I must say, I was rather impressed.”

  “Thank you Mother.” I curtsied as well as I could. My ankles still hurt from the chains.

  “Felling three armed guards with just a dagger! It makes me wonder what magic is really concealed in that flesh of yours.”

  “It was not magic that saved my life out there today, Mother. It was instinct.”

  “Hmm…. Did you pick it up from an unreliable source? Somewhere like…” She let the rest of her sentence trail off as she adjusted her diamond encrusted choker.

  I kept silent, waiting for the next remark. Yes, I had felled the guards that I had been put against, but it had been a close call. Blades had been against my bare skin, and I had twisted and writhed like a snake to escape their clutches. Whilst they had used the ability of flight and magic, I had defended myself with nothing but the dagger in my hand. I had watched their movements, observing where they flew, how they stood. Every warrior had a tell, a point of weak defense, and I had found them.

  Alexander had taught me how. He was a black belt in the mortal martial arts.

  “Now, I suppose you’ll be wanting these back?” Mother flicked a hand to the mirror, where it split in two and my wings were presented to the world. They fluttered in the golden gilt cage, struggling to be free. Deep mauve in colour, they were lined with silver and on the peak of each, an amethyst shone brightly. Sensing my presence, the wings flapped and fluttered viciously, and my back ached again.

  “I beat the challenge, fair and square. I claim my reward.” Unseelie Court ruling was the same— three guards versus the
prisoner. One weapon, against three. I had seen many guilty and innocent Fae lose their lives, yet I had been victorious.

  “Yes, yes, of course.” Mother flapped her hand in the air, brushing away my words. “Sit down, and I’ll pop them back on. You wait and see. They’ll be as good as new.”

  A black spindly chair appeared before me, a plush red cushion enticing me forwards. I eyed my mother, who was rummaging amongst the tangle of threads, needles, jewellery, hair accessories and make-up before her.

  If I thought the removal had been painful, then this would be ten times worse.

  I sat down, my back exposed in the dress. The air brushed past the incision marks that had been left there by the silver blade that had sliced them away, and I winced. A different healer had come to visit me each day I had been in the cells, packing and cleaning the wounds, but their words had done nothing to console the pain in my heart.

  Mother approached me, the clack of her heels on the flagstone floor. As she moved, jewels parted like the sea, creating a much more elegant pathway than I had ever thought possible of her. I opened my mouth to speak when she jabbed the top of the right scar with the needle.

  I howled in pain.

  “Don’t be such a baby, this won’t hurt.” She had such a way with words. She had told me that when she had sliced through the nerves in my wings, before gutting them from my back.

  Then, I had been strapped down. Now, I had to hold onto the chair for support.

  Mother moved slowly and purposefully. She wanted me to feel every ounce of pain she put into my body, and I swear she was savouring it. She might have been my mother, but she would always be the Unseelie Queen Jupiterglow, first and foremost. I held onto the sides of the chair tight, keeping my mouth shut as my wing began to draw ever closer to my skin.

  “I so wish we hadn’t had to go through all this, Ember. You’re my daughter; we could have made some other arrangement.”

  “I had nothing more to give.”

  “Surely those chambers of yours are filled with trinkets. I know you like to collect. I would have settled for anything. I always did love those crystal earrings of yours. Weren’t they a gift from the neighbouring Prince Lacke?”

  “You can have them,” I said dismissively. I knew I should have shut my mouth there and then, but I couldn’t help myself. “Mother, what are trinkets compared to the life of a young man?”

  She sighed wistfully. “I do have to admit, he was very brave. Trying to save you, and all that. Risking his life for yours. Very heroic!”

  “He has a name.”

  “Yes, but its dreadfully boring, isn’t it? Alexander. Droll and bland. The goblins will be hard pressed to sing of his valour with a name like that. Couldn’t you have found someone else to play with? Prince Lacke has always been fond of you.”

  “I’m not interested in that little self-absorbed—” She nicked me with the needle and I winced, shutting up.

  “I don’t know what you saw in Alexander, personally.” Mother continued sewing my wings into position, letting his name drip with sarcasm.

  “Well, I don’t know what you saw in Father,” I muttered. “Alexander was a kind, handsome man. He was intelligent, he was—”

  “Mortal, is the correct word you’re looking for. I mean, when he was brought before the Court, what on this side of the Unseelie was he wearing?”

  “Clothes, which is more than you wear.” I could remember plain as day. His long hair had been tied back in a ponytail and he was resplendent in his pinstriped suit. We had been on the way to a dinner reservation when the guard had caught and doomed us both.

  “What a lovely daughter you are. Really, such gracious compliments.”

  Her snide comment didn’t hurt. Learning that she had arranged for me to marry Prince Lacke, of the Winter Kingdom, well that had hurt. In a fit of rebellion, I had stolen away to the mortal realms. Found myself in a strange city, full of bright lights, noise, and iron. I had been weak from the moment I set foot there, but I had met Alexander, and he had given me the strength I had so desperately needed. Thinking me nothing but a drunkard, he had escorted me to his home, where he had offered me a bed for the night and a warm drink. Not many men would do that—Fae or mortal.

  I missed him terribly. Those six months we spent together were the happiest of my life. I had learned his advanced mathematical techniques and devoured novels by the greatest writers of his time. I had learned the lay of the land and how their royalty differed to mine. He hadn’t even cared that I was Fae!

  On the anniversary of my arrival into his life, Alexander had arranged a special dinner. He booked a table at the fanciest, most expensive restaurant in the city, but we had never made it. Mother’s guards had found us and dragged us home.

  That was when I had found the ring. When he had been thrown to the floor before Mother, it had tumbled from his jacket pocket. An amethyst stone set in a silver band. I would have been his wife, if my mother had not called for his head to be removed from his shoulders that instant.

  I couldn’t see him die, not after giving me a life I could only have dreamed of.

  For love, I had given away my wings. They had altered his memory returned him to the city, where I knew I would never see him again. I could search the world for him, and I would never find him, even if he was staring straight at me.

  The stitches in my back tingled, as mother secured a final stitch. Without a word, she moved onto the second wing, her sutures faster and even more furious than they had been at first.

  “I know you must hate me for what you have gone through—” that was an understatement, “—but you must know that I did it, because I love you. It wouldn’t have worked between the two of you.”

  “It could of. You didn’t know him, not like I did.”

  “Darling, I didn’t know him at all. Mortals and Fae, they don’t go together. It’s a hard lesson, but one everyone must learn.” Her voice had taken on an edge, and I almost felt pity.

  Her final stitches were slow and methodical as she bound them properly in place.

  “Flex,” she said, and I did.

  I felt my wings flutter, and already, the magic was spreading through my body. I smiled to myself in spite of the pain and continued to flex my wings, giving me back my strength. Slowly, one of the bruises on my wrist began to fade, and my feet felt normal.

  “Ember Jupiterglow, you have the finest wings of a butterfly in all of the Unseelie Court. It would be a shame to take them from you. Again.” My mother’s voice was soft, deadly.

  “I apologise for any indiscretions I have caused you, Mother.”

  “You are a princess, and it is high time you acted like one. I have sacrificed everything for you, and I hope you will remember that. Now, get to your chambers. You must…rest.”

  I curtsied low, my wings fluttering as I did so. The power, the relief to have them back was amazing, and on my way back to my chambers, my feet barely touched the ground. I was so delirious on power, that when I saw the man sitting on my four poster bed, I did a double take.

  “Alexander!” I gasped. “What are you doing here? If you’re caught, you’ll be killed.” My wings drooped in shock, and I felt my heart break all over again.

  As he stood straight, he flexed his back, as I had in my mother’s rooms. Slowly, I watched as a large pair of green and yellow wings unfurled from the back of his black ragged shirt. They had beautiful swirling patterns of ebony through them, apart from the tips, which were dotted with white daisies. I grasped for the door handle to keep upright as he crossed the short distance to stand before me, his legs strong and muscular in leather trousers. Taking my hand, he pulled me close towards him.

  “You know the old saying about drinking with faeries? Well, I didn’t read the memo.”

  He flashed me a devilishly handsome grin, wiping away any confusion I felt. Happiness welled within me as our lips met in a searing kiss.

  As far as Queens of the Unseelie Court go, my Mother wasn’t so bad, aft
er all. She had given me more than my wings and my freedom. She had given me a second chance.

  Don’t Let Go

  This is without a doubt the worst spring break in the history of spring breaks. For the record, I wanted to go to Cabo San Lucas. A week off before the crush of finals demands to be spent sipping margaritas on a sandy white beach and soaking up the sunshine with my two best friends. We’ve been BFF’s since we drew the short straw and wound up sharing a triple in the dorms at Washington State.

  I mean, come on. What are the odds that three girls named Annalise, Anne Marie and Anna Beth would be stuck in the same room? It was fate. We were destined to be best friends for the rest of our lives, and I am a strong believer in destiny. We are the Anna’s. All for one and one for all, and all that cliché bullshit that turns out only existed in my head.

  The problem with my great plan is that Anne Marie watches just enough of Fox News to make her afraid of everything, and when I suggested Cabo, she had a full on anxiety attack. Bill O’Reilly had done a show just two days before about Mexican drug cartels, and the poor girl was convinced that we would all be kidnapped and held for ransom, or forced to mule cocaine across the border.

  “Ireland is safe,” she had insisted, her eyes pleading and her full lower lip pushed out in supplication. “Come on, it’ll be fun! We can go pub crawling and listen to those awesome accents. And think of all the Irish hotties we can meet!” She had looked at Anna Beth for help.

  “Jamie Dornan is Irish,” Anna Beth had offered, flipping her long blonde hair over her shoulder. “And Gerard Butler.”

  “Gerard Butler is Scottish,” I had pointed out.

  “Same thing.” She had waved her hand dismissively at me, and I stifled a laugh.

  They so were not the same thing, but it didn’t matter. My friend wanted to go to Ireland and I knew as long as the three of us were together, we’d have a blast.

  ***

  Instead of a fun night out with my friends on the second night of our trip, I had the pleasure of having my life come crashing down around me in the middle of a crowded pub in a foreign country.