The Fairy Queen

by Jovee Winters

  Touching my fingers to my cheeks, I pulled them away, staring at the wetness glistening upon them. Tears?

  I’d never cried before.

  It is you, my little golden flower. I sent you to her to watch her. To learn and grow. To mingle amongst the peoples of that world. To learn what it was to love, to sacrifice, to hurt.

  I sniffed. I did not want to do this. I’d seen the madness that’d been borne through that seed. Galeta had been a pure soul before it had taken her. My fate would be no different.

  But it would, my little harpy. For I have learned things myself. Growth never stops, even for a Creator.

  “But you know all.”

  It laughed, and lightning struck the tops of the trees. Not even I know how things will turn out until they happen. The Pink could have told me no, but she didn’t.

  “Can I tell you no?” My voice quivered.

  Of course. The choice has always been yours.

  I wanted to say no. I wanted to plead with him to create another vessel, another creature to bear this burden. And in that moment, I knew a sad truth. Galeta had surely wished for the same.

  I swallowed hard.

  She’d been brave. I was weak. But I didn’t have to be. A lonely tear slid down my cheek.

  The breeze around me stirred, drying up my tears. My body pulsed with warmth, with love. The Creator was holding me. Showing me Its regard and loving kindnesses.

  I felt Its hope, but also Its love. It would not judge me or reproach me either way. I truly was free to do as I willed.

  I bit my bottom lip.

  “If I do not take this seed from her, what will happen?”

  She would die in this place. Even now, the magic is breaking down.

  An idea sprouted in my head. “The clone. Could the clone’s form not protect her from the ravages of that darkness? It is another shield. A piece of armor. It changed in the world above. Surely—”

  But even as I said it, I knew it could not. The clone had been destroyed by Fiera’s fiery blast. A blast I myself had whispered into her ear as command.

  I’d been the instrument of the Creator all along.

  You know as well as I that it could not protect her. And you know why. Within these walls, her mind has been restored, but outside this realm, she would revert to who she once was. And worse than ever. I made her a promise long ago that her torments would one day end. I know her heart; she is soul weary, my beautiful one. Galeta has no intentions of leaving this realm, ever. And once the magic of the mirror is destroyed, it will end her too, releasing that seed into Kingdom.

  I was outside the purview of this magic. I could choose to walk away and suffer no consequences from my actions.

  “If I take the seed, what will happen to her? To this world?”

  She will be saved. But you are right to ponder, my dear. I am not quite certain about all that will transpire—those choices have yet to be made—but there will be great change in store for all.

  “Good change?”

  It paused, and I bit my bottom lip hard.

  In the end... yes. Though it will not come without its fair share of pain too.

  I swallowed hard. “And me, what of me? Will I be doomed to walk the same path as she once did?”

  I’ve learned a great many things during Galeta’s tenure. And I will make a vow to you, my precious one, just as I once did to her. I will never forsake you, I will never leave, and I will always be there for you.

  I bowed my head, and every limb in my body pulsed and throbbed. Deep down, I’d known the day the marking had appeared on my wrist. I’d rejected the idea outright because I hadn’t been ready to accept it.

  Biting down on my back teeth, I looked up at the sky. Savoring its beauty one final time, knowing my mind and heart would be twisted by the darkness soon.

  “I am ready.”

  ~*~

  Galeta

  When I blinked my eyes open, I wanted to laugh to the heavens. Shout his name and claim him for all the world to know he was mine.

  But his strange look caught my attention, and I swallowed hard. “Syrith, what’s the matter?”

  “Galeta,” he whispered, but I heard his love, and my lips twitched into a ghost of a smile. “Look at yourself.”

  Frowning, I shook my head. “What?”

  “Look at yourself, fairy. Look.”

  Feeling a tad panicked, I called forth a looking glass and pushed on his chest to get up.

  He did, but his movements were wooden and stiff.

  Heart hammering painfully in my chest, I sat up, but I didn’t need to stand to notice the immediate changes.

  I touched a hand to my cheek. The face staring back at me was the same. The hair, so deeply blond it appeared golden, but my body sparkled. My flesh glowed. As though some mighty hand had taken a pile of diamonds, crushed it beneath its fist, and doused me in it.

  And the dress I’d discarded not long ago was now back on me. Spilling down around my body like a living wave, it clung to my every curve.

  My wings, always electric-blue and broad, also glowed. Like neon. I gasped, shaking my head. I was...beautiful. “What is this sorcery?”

  “It’s you,” he said deeply.

  I blinked. Feeling. Strangely. Whole. The darkness burned within me, but it no longer controlled me. I was free.

  With a giggle, I rushed to him, framing his beloved face in my palms and kissing him soundly. “I love you. I’m free, Syrith. We’re free.”

  He nodded. Kissing me back hard. But then a tight growl tumbled from his lips, and a flash of hurt crossed his eyes.

  “I have not forgotten what you nearly did, Galeta. You must vow to me now, in all honesty and truth, that you will never again try to harm yourself. I could not bear it.”

  Feeling terribly ashamed of myself, I shook my head. “Syrith, I was mad with grief. The burn of that darkness has been a blight in my life for so very long. I could not bear it another day. And then I saw Hook.”

  He frowned hard. “Hook. James Hook?”

  “Yes.” I nodded, recalling that vision. The pain of his hook embedding into my stomach had been so real, until Syrith had appeared and banished it all. “I’ve never meddled in his affairs, so far as I’m aware. And yet he was here”—I gestured to the ground before me—“glaring at me with pain and hate. Blaming me for destroying his happy ending...”

  I shivered, remembering how real it had all been. How visceral. I clenched my jaw. Not at the memory of my pain, but at his.

  That recollection hadn’t been one of mine. But it’d been very, very real. Why? What did it mean? When I’d stolen the Gray’s powers lifetimes ago, I’d stolen her power to “see.” What many didn’t know was that the Gray hadn’t simply seen the past—she’d also seen the future, and now...so could I.

  Had that been an omen of things to come?

  A terrible black chill of foreboding zipped down my spine, causing me to tremble.

  Syrith’s grip was warm and grounding on my hands, helping to yank me from terrible thoughts. He squeezed my fingers tenderly. “I do not know or understand the magic in this place, my beloved, but perhaps what you saw was an image of your own demons. Your own fears and doubts. You’ve destroyed happily ever afters for others. Perhaps it was an image to make you think—”

  “Maybe it wasn’t a portent.” I desperately latched onto the idea. “Maybe it wasn’t really him at all, but my subconscious way of acknowledging what I’d done and a reminder to never do this again. To fix what I’ve broken?” My words sounded unsure because they were.

  I didn’t believe any of what I was saying, but I was frantic to make it so.

  His hands were so tender on my face that I melted into his touch, loving him more than I’d ever thought I could love anything.

  He shrugged. “Mayhap. I know not. But it’s a good place to start, no?”

  My smile was wimpy. “Aye. It is, Syrith.”

  Nodding, he gazed at me as if I was his world. In a way no one e
ver had before. I was unlovable to all but my dragon. Love was a strange and powerful thing. Magic I’d never understood before. But it was deep, and it was sure and all-encompassing.

  “I will fix our world,” I said, my vow trembling with truth. “I will undo what I’ve wrought. Somehow, but—”

  I wet my lips, not sure how to tell him of my suspicions. Tipping his head forward, he lifted his brows, as though waiting on me to finish speaking.

  Nibbling on a corner of my lips, I sighed. “Syrith, I am not certain I can leave here. And I’m not sure I even should. Though I am free of this darkness in here, and I sense great magic in this realm, it isn’t stable. It is fleeting, and I am scared.”

  “Then we’ll figure this out. Together. And we will make our world right again, Galeta. You and I, side by side. No matter how long it takes, I will never leave you again. Do you hear me, fae?”

  I nodded swiftly.

  “And you must vow never to do the same.”

  Ashamed of myself, for how he’d found me, but also glad that even at my lowest, he’d not turned away from me, I wrapped my arms around him. Syrith truly loved me. I knew now how much that mattered. I’d never been truly loved before.

  Buttons had cared for me, in his own way, but in the end, he’d left. I suspected that should I ever become the monster again, Syrith never would.

  He’d stay.

  He’d suffer.

  But he’d stay.

  “I love you, beast. And I will never again try to hurt myself.”

  Syrith embraced me tight, and I knew he never meant to let me go. And that was quite all right with me, because I never wanted him to either.

  ~*~

  Syrith

  I’d rutted her like a beast on the road. I planned to take my queen back to our hut and make love to her all through the night. To whisper of my love, to be tender and gentle, as I hadn’t been the first time.

  I stroked her back, smiling into her hair at how responsive she was to my every touch. It hadn’t been light that’d pulled me out of the shadows, but darkness. I loved my fairy with everything within me, and I meant to prove it to her all the days of our lives. Soon, we’d figure out a way to bury that darkness forever so that she need never suffer again. But not right now—right now was a time for loving and healing.

  I stood, bringing her with me. And we held onto one another for several long moments.

  Sometime between the thirtieth and fortieth breath, the squeeze of power pulsed through the air. I twirled us in unison, expecting to find Aphrodite standing behind me, but it was not.

  Harpy looked at me then at Galeta in my arms. “Galeta,” she said, dipping her head regally, “good to see you again.”

  Galeta’s hand pressed into the small of my back, and she shivered. Worry scrawled a tight line across her thin brows, causing my own nerves to pinch.

  “Harpy,” she said softly, and I had to wonder when the two had learned of one another. “Why are you here?”

  “Because I found your replacement,” she said with tears sparkling in her eyes. “You are free, little fae. Free now to live and love. As you so richly deserve.”

  Galeta blinked. “Replacement? Replacement for what?”

  That was the moment I realized Galeta still didn’t know the sacrifice she’d made.

  Harpy’s smile was gentle. Walking toward us, she gently laid a hand upon my woman’s shoulders and said, “It is time, Galeta, to learn who you truly are.”

  The pulse of great and powerful magic encased us like a vice. Galeta’s jaw dropped, and I knew that Harpy was showing Galeta everything I’d seen as a Phoenix.

  Galeta gasped, shaking her head. “No. No. No,” she whispered over and over, sounding stunned. Shocked.

  Finally, Harpy stepped back, clutching her hands to her breast and nodding sadly. “Yes, fae. All true.”

  Her pretty gold eyes shimmered with unshed tears. I frowned. Dragons were highly emotional, sensitive creatures attuned to the emotions of those around them. And I sensed something great and heavy weighing down Harpy’s shoulders.

  Galeta covered her mouth with her hands. “I wasn’t always a villain?”

  The first tear dripped from Harpy’s eye. “No, wee one. You weren’t. And you won’t be anymore. When you return to your world, you’ll be who you always should have been.”

  Galeta blinked, digging her fingers into my arms. It was only then I realized I was still nude. Thankfully, with whatever Harpy was going through, she hardly seemed to notice or care.

  “Harpy, who’s the replacement?” Her words were barely a pinprick of sound in the now hushed realm.

  Harpy’s watery grin was sad.

  And all the pieces finally clicked into place.

  Harpy’s visits.

  Why she’d built this world. Why she’d lingered to learn. She’d watched Galeta, and I’d never understood why. Until now.

  The replacement vessel, it was her.

  I shook my head.

  Galeta cried. “No, Harpy. You can’t do this. You’ve been a good friend. I’ll live in the mirror. I’ll stay put. Nothing has to change.”

  A single tear tracked down the lovely bird’s face. “The mirror’s magic can’t contain this darkness forever, fairy. You know this as well as I do. We finally got you back. What kind of friend would I be if I let you—”

  Sobbing violently now, Galeta touched her forehead to my chest. “I can’t lose you, Syrith. Not now. Now that I can remember, can breathe again. I know who I am. I’d rather die than go back to what I was, but I could never force this upon another.”

  My heart shattered because I knew she’d chosen, and she was right. I could never ask Galeta to sacrifice another just so that we could be happy. It wasn’t fair. Especially not to a creature as innocent and kind as Harpy.

  I leaned down, kissing her with all the passion in my heart. Letting her know that even in death and beyond, I’d love her forever.

  I’d thought I’d known love. But I knew the truth now.

  Galeta wasn’t just my love.

  She was my soul.

  And when you loved something, you set it free.

  “I’ll stay locked in here with you until the mirror shatters. If you go, my fairy, then I go with you.”

  “Forever?” she whispered.

  And I nodded, tucking a stray curl of golden hair behind her slightly pointed earlobe. She smelled of raspberries and sunshine. Gods, I loved her. So much that it was an ache.

  “Forever,” I whispered right back.

  We were kissing again, and I was drowning in the pure and sweet essence of her. The evil still dwelled within her, and it was only a matter of time before it consumed her soul once more, but for now, I had my woman, and I would never let her go.

  I was so lost in her touch and taste that I’d not heard Harpy’s approach until she was upon us. Galeta froze, gasping painfully and going still in my arms. Heart hammering in my chest, I shot my gaze upward, only to spot Harpy with her hand extended and her claws dripping blood. Between her fingers, she held a tiny black seed of power so dark it rocked me to my core.

  I felt the evil.

  The stain of violence. War. Destruction.

  It lived and breathed and beckoned to all.

  The colors that Galeta had brought back into this world began to leech through again, turning dank, gray. Gloomy.

  The seed destroyed all it came in contact with.

  Harpy’s eyes looked shattered and tight with pain.

  Galeta’s flesh instantly brightened, flushing with blood. Her colors began to swirl. Her eyes turned golden. Her skin a shade of burnished peach. Beautiful wings dipped in bright beams of glowing magenta stretched out from behind her back.

  Her eyes were wild, frantic. She twirled in my arms, swishing the scent of wildflowers through the air with her.

  She stared at Harpy, who now sobbed silently. “I will leave. I promise. Go far away from peoples. I will never hurt a soul. I saw your fight, Galeta, and I
can only pray I’ll be half the vessel you were. You deserve your peace now.”

  Her smile was watery but brave. I shook my head. Galeta tossed out her hand, reaching to snatch that darkness back, but it was too late.

  Harpy had shoved her fist deep inside her belly, and tipping her head back, she howled. Screaming with the agony of a wounded and dying animal.

  Beams of fire covered her, and she flung her arms out. Wings spreading. And with one mighty heave, she shoved off the ground, flying away as far and as fast as her wings allowed.

  Galeta and I stood there in numbed silence. Shocked and unable to understand that we were free. That she was free.

  After what felt like hours, she turned slowly toward me, eyes wide, and shaking her head.

  The bright flush of her flesh had paled out. And her lips were pinched tight. She grabbed at her chest. “Syrith? I don’t feel wel—”

  I had just enough time to reach for her before she collapsed in a heap. Roaring, fearing my bride had died, I shook her suddenly lax body as a deep glow of gold began to pulse through her form. Growing brighter and brighter and brighter until...

  That pulse shot out of her like an explosion. Rocking the world around us, causing the mirror to rumble. Trees toppled. The land fissured, ripping open violently and dragging everything down with it.

  If I didn’t do something now, we’d die here.

  Gathering her into my arms, I shifted into that of my dragon form and flew as though the hounds of hell were at my feet. A minute later, the land we’d been standing upon vanished. Simply ceased to be.

  Pumping my wings harder, I fought the dizziness of moving at such high speeds. Swallowing my panic. I had to get us out of here before we were forever lost to this madness too. I exited the mirror only a second before it shattered completely, shooting slivers of glass like missiles in every direction, some of them piercing through the thick hide of my wings. I roared, tilting midflight.

  With a growl of determination, I clenched my fist, clinging tight to Galeta’s slight form. I dared not stop. I was headed for Nox.

  But where the clone rested her head each night was now no more. There was no land. No trees. Only the infinite void of space.

  Eyes wide, I shook my head, rejecting the reality of what I was seeing.