by L. C. Mawson
“And now?”
He responded by leaning in and kissing her.
The world seemed to shift around her as she kissed him back, and she found herself clutching his shirt in an effort to stay, despite the fact that leaving was exactly what she had been hoping for.
Her clutching did nothing, however, as the world faded from her, the feel of Damon’s lips the last thing to go.
Chapter Fifteen
The Dwarves carefully placed Freya on the sofa before beginning to wonder what they should do.
“Who do we kill to get her back?” Warrior asked, his hand eagerly gripping the hilt of his blade.
“Were you not listening before?” Lawyer asked, rolling her eyes. “This has to play out according to the book. The only way to break the curse is true love’s kiss.”
“Which would be helpful if it existed,” Miner interjected, folding her arms.
Builder sighed in irritation but his expression quickly softened. “Its existence is immaterial given that she has no lover.”
“What about the boy she was messaging?” Merchant asked.
“Damon?” Engineer replied.
“Yeah, him.”
Doc gave Freya a quick glance before seeing her phone stuffed into the pocket of her jeans. She pulled it out before tossing it to Engineer. “Think you can work this device?”
She eyed the device dubiously but eventually nodded. “It’s primitive but I think I have it figured out.”
“Tell him where she is and that it’s urgent.”
Engineer nodded before tapping away at the phone for a minute or two. “Done,” she finally said.
Within two seconds there was a knock on the door.
“Freya?” they heard from outside.
Doc went over and opened the door.
“Hey, I was already in the park when I got your message so...” The boy standing in the doorway spoke quickly but trailed off as soon as he got a good look into the cottage beyond. He seemed to count the Dwarves before seeing Freya unconscious. He paled, despite his already paper white complexion. “I was right, wasn’t I? Fairy tales are coming to life.”
Doc tried not to show her surprise at his apparent understanding of magic. There was no way a Human would realise the truth of what was happening so quickly. “You’d better get in here,” Doc told him, stepping aside to let him in.
He nodded, following her before moving over to where Freya was lying. “So, Freya got trapped in the part of Snow White?”
“Yes. We’ve been trying to help her as best we can, but...”
Damon smiled weakly for a moment, seemingly at some private joke, before frowning. “Wait, how did you explain this to her without exposing magic?” His frown deepened. “And how did you know to text me? How did you know I was magic?”
“We didn’t,” Engineer clarified, stepping forward. “Freya, like all Humans, is too adept at burying her head in the sand when it comes to matters of magic. She’s been ignoring the correlations between what’s going on here and the story.”
Damon’s bittersweet smile momentarily returned as he sighed, looking to his unconscious friend. “Yeah, that sounds like Freya.” He turned his gaze back to the Dwarves, his gaze hardening once more. “But, if you didn’t know I was magic, why did you text me?”
Doc shrugged. “Because we figured you were the prince who would break the curse.”
Damon snorted at that but his face swiftly fell as he realised they were serious. “We’re just friends,” he told them shortly.
Doc rolled her eyes. “Look, if you want to believe that’s true, that’s fine. But right now, Freya’s life is in the balance. One kiss won’t kill you. If we’re wrong, we’re wrong and we’ll find another way, but if we’re right this might be her best shot.”
Damon sighed, shaking his head. “It’s not going to work.”
“Again, we won’t know that until you try it.”
Damon relented at that, leaning towards Freya before hesitating, shaking his head. “This is super gross. I mean, she’s unconscious. This is just creepy.”
Lawyer sighed. “Yes, it’s all very creepy and unethical and kind of rape-y but we’re not the ones who wrote the story or the ones who cast the spell. This is the only option, so just kiss the girl so that we can all go home.”
Damon nodded but still hesitated, speaking up after a moment. “If this does work, which it won’t, but if it does... Give me your word that you won’t tell her I was here. I’ll shift out and you can tell her whatever, just... not that I was here or that I’m not Human.”
“We won’t tell her if you insist, but I don’t understand. I get you not wanting to expose magic, but why not tell her how you feel?”
Damon looked to his friend once more, his expression giving away his love for her, as Doc imagined that he was thinking of what might be between them.
“She can’t know,” Damon eventually told them softly. “She doesn’t belong in this world. She belongs in hers. If my- If anyone were to find out that I loved her, she would constantly be in danger. I couldn’t lose her through my own selfishness...”
“Maybe whether or not she takes that risk should be up to her.”
“But telling her would mean exposing magic, which would be a death sentence for us both.”
Warrior looked over to Doc and she found herself surprised by his soft, pleading expression. Her heart tugged as she felt the same compulsion he did. Telling Damon of Freya’s true nature would free them both. Doc finally made the decision to speak up but found her voice just a whisper of breath. Damon had already leaned forward to kiss Freya and the Dwarves were fading.
Damon pulled away as they finished fading from Earth, seeming momentarily dejected before she began to stir. His face immediately lit up with joy before it was swiftly replaced with a look and panic and he shifted away.
Chapter Sixteen
“Well,” Freya said as she sat up, “I guess that was one way to end the curse.”
“What way?” Amber asked her with a frown as she reappeared. “I assumed the Dwarves did something.”
Freya shrugged. “The sleeping curse sent me to the Shadow Realm. It turns out I usually go there when I sleep.”
Amber’s frown deepened. “That shouldn’t be possible. It takes powerful magic to send someone to the Shadow Realm.”
“I don’t know. Ku thought it had something to do with being conceived there.”
Amber’s eyebrows shot up into her hairline. “You spoke to Ku? I thought she was gone.”
“No, apparently she’s rattling around in here somewhere.” Freya tapped her head. “She’s sealed herself away, though. Says that she refuses to let me access her powers.”
“That’s for the best,” Amber said, looking relieved. “So, how did you get back?”
Freya blushed at the thought of the kiss she had shared with Damon. It had been so strange to see him look at her like that. It made her insides all gooey. “It turns out, in the Shadow Realm, Damon and I are... together.”
Amber gave her a knowing smirk before looking around the room.
“The Dwarves have gone.”
“Then I did it. The spell is broken. All I have to do now is retrieve Zoe.”
“Retrieve her? From where?”
“The Shadow Realm,” Freya admitted sheepishly. “I might have pulled her soul there to cut her off from Peter’s magic.”
Amber looked a little alarmed at that. “You managed to pull her into the Shadow Realm?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Just the fact that you go when you’re asleep is miraculous enough. Being able to send someone else there...”
“Well... Has it ever been done from that side? I only could because I was there myself.”
Amber frowned. “No, I guess not.”
“Then maybe it’s just easier from that realm. And hopefully it will be easier to get her back from this side.”
“And what if it’s not? What if you’ve trapped her there?”
Freya shrugged. “Well, I managed to get her there when I was in the Shadow Realm, so I might have to push her back from there as well. That just means that I’ll have to go to sleep first.”
FREYA’S LIMBS FELT weird as she walked around the park. According to her phone, she had barely been out for ten minutes. And yet that time in the Shadow Realm... It felt like days.
She wondered if Damon being there was some kind of sign. Maybe he was close enough to magic himself that he would understand. Maybe it would be worth the risk. After all, she was pretty good with memory alteration. If Mel could teach her some more complex alteration spells, she could try things with Damon. Give him a few days to adjust to the idea, and erase the experience if it didn’t work out.
Her stomach twinged with guilt at the thought, reminding her of her first kiss. The kiss she had stolen with magic and then made Damon forget.
He wasn’t some doll for her to play with. Not to mention, if she messed it up, there could be another war. Her stomach froze the idea of sacrificing herself as her mother had to correct the timeline. Even for Damon.
“Freya?” she heard from across the path. She turned to see Jamie approaching.
“Oh. Hey, Jamie.”
“Please tell me you haven’t been staying here since you ran off.”
Freya shook her head with a smile as she realised that she was in the same clothes. “No. I’ve been staying at Damon’s.”
“So, are you two...?”
“What? Oh! No. No, we’re not... We’re just friends,” Freya stammered. “Really, Jamie. Always were, always will be.”
“Okay, then I’m lost. You two are constantly looking at each other like lost little puppies when the other one isn’t looking.”
Freya shrugged. “We’re just better as friends than we would be together.”
“Why do I get the feeling that there’s more to it than that?”
Freya shrugged. “It’s a long story. Regardless, we’re never going to be together. You should try things with him again if you want. I guarantee that I’ll never be a threat.”
Jamie folded her arms as her gaze became glued to the ground. “It’s not him I’m bothered about.”
“What do you mean?”
Freya couldn’t have been more shocked as Jamie leaned forward, kissing her. Though her hands moved down to Jamie’s sides, drawing her close as she kissed her back.
“Please tell me you weren’t mean to me to cover up the fact that you liked me,” Freya joked as Jamie finally pulled away. “That would be incredibly cliché.”
Jamie responded by lightly punching her arm. “It’s not that. I really didn’t like you when I was dating Damon. But then I realised how petty I was being, and that I didn’t even really like Damon all that much. Then I started actually talking to you and I just...” She pulled away, looking a little confused. “I’ve never kissed a girl before,” she admitted.
Freya shrugged. “Girls or not, I’d be more than willing to bet that you’ve got more kissing experience than me.”
“I... I didn’t think I liked girls.”
“Did you like kissing this one?”
Jamie nodded, her cheeks turning pink. “I... I liked it a lot.”
Freya couldn’t help but blush back at that. She would be lying to herself if she said that she didn’t like Jamie now that she was acting like a decent human being.
“Well, this girl wouldn’t argue with more kissing,” she figured.
She could do kissing. Kissing was just kissing. There was no guilt over not telling Jamie that she wasn’t Human. There might be, one day, the pessimistic part of her brain figured, but one day wasn’t today. Today, kissing was just kissing.
“I think I’d like that,” Jamie said before leaning in once more, her hand moving up to play with Freya’s hair.
Of course, Freya pulled away after not too long. She had things to do. The world was ending and all that.
Kissing could wait until after the Fae were dealt with.
“I actually have somewhere to be.”
“Are you going back home?”
No, I’m probably just going to knock myself out so that I can retrieve the soul of a girl that I sent to another realm.
“Yeah, I am.”
“Alright. I... I’ll see you later?”
Freya nodded. “Definitely.”
As soon as she left, Freya heard a small voice next to her.
“Aren’t you a lady’s woman.”
Freya frowned, turning to see Tilly sitting on the hedge next to her.
“That your prince?” Tilly asked.
“No,” Freya replied. “Just... Someone I can actually be with.”
“Fair enough.”
“Are you here to help me with your brother? Because I already took care of it. The Dwarves were gone when I woke up.”
Tilly nodded, folding her arms. “Yeah, about that. He’s got that whole house under some kind of barrier spell now.”
“What? Why?”
“Because you messed with his plan. Peter doesn’t really want Zoe. He wants you.”
“Yeah, he said, though I’m not sure why. Fae only take children. I’m sixteen.”
“Right. There have rarely ever been teenagers taken by the Fae, but I talked with some of the others. They think another war with the Humans is inevitable. There has been a line of thinking that... Well, that we should let everyone else kill each other. We’d be left to reclaim the ashes of Earth. To claim it from the people the Creator gave it too.”
“You guys really hate the Creator, don’t you?”
“How would you feel, knowing that you were nothing more than a glitch in the system? An unaccounted for error? The Creator didn’t just leave the first Fae alone. Her Ancients tried to erase them, and we have not forgotten.”
“Taking over Creation still seems to be an overreaction.”
“Tell me about it. Look, there’s no evidence that the Creator has so much as glanced at this Creation since she finished making it. She gave the Ancients a vague plan and left them to watch it. When they screwed that up, She passed the plan onto the Big Three. What they chose to do with the plan is nothing to do with Her. Including trying to hunt us down.”
“You were awfully chummy with Ku for someone who blames the Ancients.”
Tilly shrugged. “Ku saved my life as a child. She and Amber were there for me and my sister after our mother died. I wasn’t her blood and yet she treated me like I was. I’m not going to forget something like that.”
“So, what does being mad at the Creator have to do with the Fae wanting me?”
“They think you can lead them. That you’re strong enough to protect us and to help us reclaim the Earth.”
“They really thought I would do that?”
“If the choice was you or Zoe? Yes. Peter is especially convinced that you’ll want to join us, so that you can be with family.”
Freya sighed, not really having an argument for that. “Yeah, he didn’t exactly lead with ‘Hey, want to be queen of the Earth?’ when he was trying to convince me before.”
“No. They were going to build up to that over the years.”
“And they thought Fate wouldn’t intervene?”
“She sent one of her Oracles to talk to me right after I finished speaking with Ku. She convinced me to stop them.”
“So, you’re really going to turn on your own people to help me?”
Tilly shrugged, holding her arms tight to her chest. “In the other timeline, when my sister died, she left Lily in my care. I was young and I did my best but... I couldn’t help her when she got her powers. I always thought... If I had only tried to contact Amber sooner or something... I clung too tight to the hope that history wouldn’t repeat itself. I was wrong and my niece paid the price. A price you’re still paying.
“My brother thinks that making you a Faerie will make up for that. For the fact that he left for the Glades before Lily needed us. He’s wrong, though. Your destiny
is on Earth. We can’t rewrite Creation for our selfish needs.”
“What will happen to you once we stop him?”
She shrugged. “They’ll probably banish me. That’ll be new for this millennium. But I’ve got a few contacts on Earth. I’ll be fine.”
“So, how do we stop him? Please tell me it involves swords.”
Tilly shook her head. “Unfortunately not. How good are you at complex spells?”
“I’m a quick study.”
Chapter Seventeen
“I haven’t been this big for... Well, since I became a Faerie,” Tilly commented as she cast an illusion charm to hide her wings and make it look like she was wearing clothes that weren’t fashioned from plants.
“Yeah, when was that?” Freya asked. “And why was my mother left in your care? You look younger than me.”
“You stop ageing when you commit to the life of a Faerie,” Tilly told her. “In the other timeline, I stayed on Earth with my sister after our mother died. Peter left right away. My sister didn’t die until Lily was a young girl. In this timeline, she died just a few years after our mother. Before Lily could ever be born. I joined my brother at that point.”
Freya groaned. “Okay, enough timeline talk. It gives me a headache.”
Tilly laughed at that. “It gives everyone a headache. That’s why we don’t do it often.”
Freya nodded as the two of them headed towards the grandmother’s house.
Once they got there, they were stopped dead in their tracks by an invisible barrier.
“Do you sense the girl inside?” Tilly asked as they approached.
“Yes,” Freya confirmed. “She’s faint, though. Just basic life functions. No soul.”
“Peter hasn’t been able to retrieve her then.”
“So, what now?”
“Okay. So, can you feel the Energy of the barrier?”
Freya nodded. It seemed to almost vibrate in front of her.
“How do we get through it?”
“Brute force will do nothing, even as powerful as you are. But you should be able to phase through it by matching the magical signature.”