by Olivia Hart
The words filled me up. Then, the dream stopped, and Aurora walked through the crowd. When she stood a few feet away she said, “The Court of Light needs a Queen who can remind the world that it was built on love. Can you do that?”
I sniffed and wiped my eyes. Could I be a Queen? Could I be that important? I said, “I’m going to need help. I’m not good at that kind of thing.”
Aurora came even closer and said, “You’ll have all the help you need, Princess.”
I nodded and tried to ignore my tears. “I’ll carry the burden.”
Chapter 44
Rose
“Then, Risna and Aurora taught me things. They told me about what the Court of Light was all about. From before Aurora got old. Before Seraphina. Back when everything was like it was supposed to be.”
I nodded, my eyes wide with surprise at Amra’s story. Sebastian, Amra, Embrys, and I were sitting in the Throne Room of the Court of Light. None of us sat on the Throne. I hated the idea of sitting there even though it was my right.
“So, Seraphina came in and tortured me every day,” she said, glancing at Sebastian. “It was terrible. You know what it’s like. Then, Aurora and Risna would take me into a vision and hold me while I cried.”
“You know what’s weird, though? By the end of it, I didn’t cry anymore. I didn’t need to be held anymore. I just accepted the pain, and I looked forward to learning about stuff. I like Risna and Aurora. They’re really sweet, and they know so much! Kind of like Embrys.”
Embrys blew a puff of smoke into the air, and I tapped into it. A vision of him chewing on a bowl and thinking that it was food. “I learn new things every day,” he said.
Amra grinned at him, and he rubbed his head against her leg. “Yeah, but you know about other stuff.” She turned back to Sebastian and me. “Aurora and Risna think that I should be Queen, and I’m willing to try. Are you okay with that?”
I looked at the girl who I’d thought of as a little sister since I met her. She’d been the real reason that we had won. I’d been powerless against my mother. I felt a tear run down my cheek as I thought about her like that again. No, I needed to focus. I needed to be the Queen.
“You’re a Princess of Light, Amra. The Throne of Light is yours if you claim it.”
She nodded and took a deep breath. “I claim the Throne of Light by birthright.”
As with nearly everything in the Immortal Realm, there was no fanfare or magical light that shined down from the sky. No, in the real world of the Fae, all things required sacrifices.
Then, the doors burst open, and Talek entered the room. Talek was covered in blood and I wondered how much of it had been his. I was thankful that the dragons had healed the wounded. So many more of the soldiers would have died if they hadn’t. “Meals are being prepared for both sides. It seems that for the time being that there won’t be any squabbles. They’re terrified of the dragons.”
“Thank you, Talek. Why don’t you stay to watch Amra claim the Throne of Light?” I glanced at the Throne, and Aurora was already sitting there. She’d known this would happen, and she was ready. She held an orange crystalline blade in her hand.
Talek blinked several times as he looked at Aurora as though he were seeing a ghost, but he didn’t move. Aurora said, “It’s time, Amra. You’ve said the words. Now it’s time to bind yourself to the Throne as we talked about.”
Amra gave me a broken smile as she stood up. “Thank you, Rose. For being there when no one else was. For believing in me when no one else did. For being the big sister that I never had.”
I didn’t know what to say, but I nodded to her and smiled back. She was so different now. I just hoped that she was ready for what she was about to do.
She knelt in front of Aurora and solemnly said, “I sacrifice myself and my power to the Realm of Light. I will be the sacrifice so that the world may learn to love again. I give everything that I am to helping the Realm of Light be what it once was.”
“Your words are accepted, Daughter of Light and Sister of Darkness.” Aurora held her crystalline dagger, and Amra offered her wrist. A quick slice across her wrist let loose a steady stream of blood that ran onto the marble throne and disappeared immediately. The walls seemed to glow brighter.
Aurora and the Throne of Light began to glow with a light so bright that it was hard to look at. Aurora sliced her wrist, and a stream of liquid light began to flow from her vein. She held the stream to Amra’s lips, and when she drank from it, she glowed with that same brightness.
“Amra, you have given your body, your life, and your power for the Realm that you are to rule. Let the Kingdom of Dawn know that today, a Queen has been crowned.”
As she said the words that were so similar to when I bound myself to the Dark Throne, Aurora, the Throne of Light, and Amra glowed so brightly that I had to shield my eyes.
The lights dimmed, and Amra knelt before an empty Throne. On her head, a simple crown of gold rested. Exactly as I had expected. Except for one thing.
Gloriously white wings rose from her back. They glistened as though they were covered in tiny liquid diamonds. I ran to Amra as she slowly stood up.
“You have freaking wings!” I yelled.
She nodded, and I remembered what it was like when the memories had flooded over me. She was remembering the things that had happened thousands of years ago.
“Aurora said that I’d grow wings,” she murmured as she stared into nothingness.
I heard a growl and quickly turned to see Embrys blowing smoke. When I tapped into it, a simple thought came to my mind. “Give her space. She’ll be excited tomorrow.”
I nodded and Embrys went to her, wrapping his tail around her leg. She was his, and we all knew it. After his speech at her funeral, everyone knew that he had claimed her.
I sat back down next to Sebastian. He put his hand out, and I took it. “It’s done, Rose,” he whispered. “It’s all done. Things are right again.”
I gave him a smile and nodded. “Yes, it’s done.”
Chapter 45
Sebastian
9 months later
Amra sat in the hallway outside of our bedroom, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. Embrys was curled around her legs in that odd way that seemed to tell the world that she was his. She wore a beautiful gown fitting of the Queen of Light. I still had a hard time remembering that she was the Queen sometimes because she was still so Amra.
Those white wings of hers helped to remind me. They still looked strange on her, and Asli always touched them when she was near Amra. She always said that Amra was the only gnome with wings, and that made her extra-special.
I could hear Rose screaming in pain on the other side of the door, and I winced with each one. There was nothing I could do about it. The birth of a baby fairy was an exceptionally difficult process. Rose had talked at length about how she wanted an epidural. She’d even forced me to go into the Mortal Realm and watch a video of the way that they gave birth there.
She was very unhappy to find out that human drugs wouldn’t work on her fairy body. Her magic would break them down almost immediately, and she would get no effects from them.
I stood up and began pacing. I needed to move, but there was nowhere to go. I felt helpless knowing that the woman I loved was screaming and there was absolutely nothing I could do.
It had been hours now. Hours of relentless screaming. I remembered all of the times that I’d been tortured, and none of them sounded as bad as what I heard from that room.
“You’re not helping anything by pacing,” Amra said.
“I’ve managed to sit here and listen to my wife scream for the last fourteen hours. I obviously know that I can’t help Rose, or I would have already done it.”
Embrys growled, a noise he’d started to make before blowing an image of smoke. This one looked like an egg. When I made the magical connection to the image, I saw a picture of a full-grown dragon curled around her egg, her eyes wide open. The words that came we
re simple. “Dragon mothers watch over their eggs without sleep for ten years. That is a sacrifice for dragons enjoy their sleep. The Queen’s pain is an annoyance. She will sleep soon.”
I snarled at Embrys, and he put his head back between Amra’s legs. I heard him snort softly, but Amra raised an eyebrow, and a low growl came from her throat. “Learn some patience, Prince. We have the easy job.”
I ran my finger over my wedding ring. I hadn’t felt so little control in longer than I could remember. I let out a soft breath as I felt those familiar ridges. Smooth obsidian and sharp gold. I’d been patient for a thousand years while I waited for Rose. I’d been patient while I waited for someone to take the Dark Throne. I could be patient now.
Then the screams stopped. All of our eyes turned to the door. Seconds passed, and then the wailing of a baby. Immediately, I ran to the door. Without waiting, I burst into the room.
Rose was dripping sweat. Her linen dress was soaked. She had dark rings around her bloodshot eyes, and a steady river of tears had made a trail down her face.
But she was smiling.
In her arms, wrapped in a tiny blanket was the smallest fairy I could remember ever seeing. Blazing white wings rose from her back, still wet from being formed. Rose held her to her breast, and she looked at me.
“My mom was right. She’s a girl. We have a baby girl, Sebastian.”
I’d never felt happier. In a thousand years, I’d never see anything in the world that had brought so much joy to me. I squatted down next to Rose, and I looked at my baby girl’s face.
She was beautiful and seeing her made all the hours of frustration and anxiety instantly forgotten. When she opened her eyes, though, I saw something I’d never expected. Behind the swirling mix of colors that she’d gotten from her mother, there was just a hint of mist.
I reached out my hand to touch her. Her skin was so soft. So fragile. Then, she seemed to realize that I was touching her, and she reached her tiny little hand up and pushed on my finger.
“She’s feisty when it comes to food just like her mother,” I said.
Rose grinned. “You can hold her when she’s done nursing. Let her eat though, being born is hard work.”
She smiled down at the baby and said, “But it’s worth it. Being alive is worth the struggle.”
“What are you going to name her?” I asked.
“The only name that feels right. Catarina. The strongest woman I never knew.”
Epilogue
Aurora
Three hundred years later
Rose and Sebastian stood against the wall as Amra walked beside the young Catarina to the Throne of Light. It stood beside the Dark Throne only a few feet away. Rose and Amra had moved the Thrones to a new home. To their original home. After rebuilding the Court of Light, they’d built a new palace where the Ancient One had taken her last breath.
That barren strip of land that was not in either realm had become the Palace of the Queens. They’d built it of stones from both Realms, and they ruled together. The Court of Light and the Dark Court remained the centers of commerce within their realms, and they were ruled by the councils.
The Palace of the Queens was something different. These two young fairies ruled the entire Immortal Realm from here. Shadow walkers took petitioners to and from both Courts to this palace, and together, the two Queens gave rulings.
Not since the Ancient One ruled had there ever been complete cooperation between the realms, but Rose and Amra had done it.
And they’d seen three hundred years of peace and growth in the Immortal Realm. Longer than this world had seen in so long.
Together, Amra and Rose had worked together to rebuild the ties that had bound the dark and light together. The animosity that had slowly grown over the last thousand years had been blown aside. The councils that ran the Courts had been rebuilt, the corruption and incompetence eliminated.
They had worked together in ways that even Risna and I never had. They were young. They could learn and change so quickly. I glanced at Risna who stood to the side of the Throne of Light, barely more than a shadow. This was not her place, but she had come to witness.
It was time. Finally.
The room was silent as Amra sat on the Throne. Her white wings that looked so similar to my old wings had become normal. They were natural for her now just as Rose’s wings were natural on her. They were no longer the children trying to fix the world that they had once been.
Embrys lay on the ground next to the Throne, never allowing himself to leave Amra’s side. He was so much bigger now. Nearly the size of a pony, he no longer fit under her chair. Catarina knelt in front of her wearing a dress made of raw magic, something Amra had never been able to do.
Amra had been a good Queen. Like Sebastian’s mother. She’d worked hard. She’d taught the Realm of Light how to love again as she’d vowed to do. She wasn’t strong enough though.
Little Catarina was. Long blonde hair that was just a shade darker than her grandmother. Her eyes danced between colors just as her mother’s did, and behind the colors, there was always a hint of mist. She was small and looked almost frail, but no one who looked into those eyes would doubt the power that she held.
On her back were wings that glowed white. Along the bottom edge, a thin line of darkness ran. It matched her mother’s streak of white. Unlike my sister and I, neither of them was entirely one Court or the other, and that was what was so perfect about them.
Catarina looked up at Amra and smiled. A grown woman with the power of a Queen, three hundred years of teaching, and a mother whom she could work with. Born a full-blooded fairy with a gift that had never been given before.
She couldn’t see in the past or future as I did. Instead, she saw the ties that bind us all together as clearly as the dragons did. I’d spent years teaching her how to use this unique vision to interpret what could happen and how to change it. She knew why I worked so hard to teach her. She was the last piece of the circle that Risna and I had waited for.
My true heir to the Throne of Light. Someone to finally release me from my burden.
Catarina began the ceremony as Amra held my crystalline blade. “I sacrifice myself and my power to the Realm of Light. I will be the sacrifice so that the world may become as beautiful and wonderful as it once was. I give everything that I am to the Immortal Realm.”
Amra smiled and said, “Your words are accepted, Daughter of Darkness.” Catarina held out her wrist, and Amra made the cut. Wincing, Catarina watched her blood flow onto the Throne, disappearing immediately. The walls began to glow brighter.
Amra and the Throne of Light began to glow, and both Sebastian and Rose slid on their goblin-made LightBan sunglasses, such interesting inventions. Yet another thing that only the young could have created. Amra cut herself across the wrist, and the stream of light began to flow. Catarina put her lips to Amra’s wrists and began to glow.
“Catarina, you have given your body, your life, and your power for the Realm that you are to rule. Let the Kingdom of Dawn know that today, a Queen has been crowned.”
The light flashed and on Catarina’s head sat the same golden crown that Amra had worn that night three hundred years ago. Catarina stood up slowly, and Rose approached her.
The memories given to each Queen by the Throne flashed through her mind, but unlike the Queens before her, she had learned to interact with multiple realities at once. A true Queen of the Light.
I felt a tear run down my cheek, and my sister’s hand touched my back. “It’s time, isn’t it?”
I nodded, grateful that the heavy burden I had carried for all these years could finally be held by another. “Yes. I know what she felt like all those years ago. I know now why she didn’t give us a choice.”
“She carried all of it on her own all those years,” Risna said softly. “We have not carried it even a quarter of that time.”
“We are not dragons. Our shoulders are not as broad as hers were. But we have done what we were task
ed to do, and that is what matters.” Risna’s hand went to mine, and she gave me a squeeze.
Catarina stepped away from her parents and walked towards us. Her eyes filled with mist as she spoke, “You’re leaving, aren’t you?”
I nodded to her. “The time of our rule is over, Catarina. It is you and your mother who will carry the burden now.”
She smiled then. “No, Sisters. We will all carry the burden. There were only two of you, but there are many of us. My mother and I will be the conduits, but all of my family will carry the burden. Each of us with our own skills and strengths.”
She put one of her hands in mine and the other in Risna’s, and she said, “Enjoy your rest in the void. Tell my grandparents that I love them. They are missed and loved. The pain of lost love is the greatest pain of all.”
She turned to Rose and nodded. I felt the tug on my soul as she pulled on my power to create the portal into the void.
“Thank you for everything,” Rose said.
“Thank you for your sacrifice,” I replied.
Risna said, “Thank you for being more than we could have hoped for.”
As we began to walk towards the portal, Amra called out, “Please wait!”
We stopped, and I raised my eyebrow as she ran to us with a bag in her hands. “Chocolates. For Enivyn. Tell him that his brothers miss him.”
I smiled thinking about the gnome. “For Enivyn,” I said and stepped through the portal into the void.
The End
Bonus Chapters