“No need to shout, love. I was hanging around
on stand-by.”
Since she appeared out of nowhere, there was
no doubt this woman was a fairy godmother, but this was not the
Reina he remembered from that long ago meeting. Her skin was much
darker and her hair close-cropped to her head. “Who are you?”
“I’m Laura. Reina got married and switched
divisions, so I have taken over all her open cases. Let me tell
you, yours was one of the more awesome ones. All the FGs are really
excited to see how this turns out. Now, how can I help you?”
She spoke so quickly he almost got lost in
the flow of words, but what was relevant penetrated. She was a
fairy godmother, and she was here to help him. “I want to cast my
wish, the one Reina promised me. I wish to be the one affected by
the spell.”
Rosamund’s gasp was loud in his ear, but his
focus was on Laura. The fairy godmother’s features became a study
of puzzlement, her lips and brows moving in odd ways as she thought
on his words. “Clarifying here—you’re saying you don’t want
Rosamund to fall asleep. Instead,
you
want to go into
Eternal Slumber?”
He nodded. “Exactly. I know you can’t change
the spell and I don’t
want
a single condition of the spell
changed. What I want is to be the one it affects.”
Laura held up a forefinger. “One moment,
please. I have to double-check on something.” Laura pulled out a
wand from the side of her skirt and tapped it against her forehead,
her eyes closing in concentration.
Rosamund pulled at his hand. “Don’t do this.
I never wanted you to do this, not for me.”
Seth removed his hand from her grip and
stroked her cheek. She was as smooth as porcelain, but he preferred
the rough vibrancy that marked Kira. “Promise me that you’ll go on
that picnic. Better yet, jump in that lake. Make sure you start at
the shallow end.”
“I’ve finished conversing with my
supervisor.” Laura’s voice broke through and both Seth and Rosamund
turned toward the dark-skinned fairy godmother. “Seems the switch
is a go. Say goodnight, Prince Charming.”
Lethargy infused his limbs and his vision
blurred. He closed his eyes, but when he opened them again he was
on the bed, his legs too long for the mattress.
Rosamund was crying. He tried to lift his arm
to wipe away her tears, but no hand reached her face. His limbs
wouldn’t obey the commands of his brain. “You shouldn’t have done
this,” she kept saying. “Why did you do this?”
“Don’t cry.” That was his voice? It was so
small, so far away. How could he lead his kingdom with a voice as
unimpressive as that?
Focus. Focus on Rosamund.
“It will be
all right. I have a true love and she’s going to be here soon. And
if a dragon is dumb enough to stand in her way? She’ll hand him his
ass.”
Not to mention his ass was in trouble. Kira
was going to be so upset with him over this. But… His eyes slid
shut, impossible to keep open anymore.
But first I’m going to get another
kiss
.
Kira should have been riding, as hard and as
fast as she could push her horse to go.
Instead, she did what? Waited just outside
the town, where she would have a spectacular view of Seth and
Rosamund when they entered and proclaimed to all that the curse was
over and their wedding would be forthcoming.
The cheers would be deafening.
She picked up a rock and threw it hard
against the trunk of the tree across from her. The
thunk
was
hardly satisfying, and she looked around for a bigger one.
Then vibrations began under her feet, and
within moments it went from a low buzz to throwing her around like
a ragdoll and knocking her into the tree. She wrapped her arms
around the trunk to stabilize herself just as the last vibration
hit, and the ground stilled once again.
What was
that
?
And then came
the answer as a roar bellowed over the land, long and loud and
terrifying.
Dragon? It couldn’t be.
It couldn’t.
The curse was broken. Seth had saved the day. Nothing was going to
stop the fairy tale story of the prince who saved the princess.
“I’m afraid that’s not quite how it happens,
child.”
She knew that voice. From her left…
“Sara?”
Sara from the tavern, as grandmotherly as
ever, her face marked with generous laugh lines and eyes that
gleamed with merriment. “Don’t mind me. I’m just here to give you a
little support. You’ve got quite the job ahead of you.”
As Sara talked, Kira’s birthmark began to
warm, similar to when she’d fought the fey the night she and Seth
had left the kingdom. But instead of the stab of a red-hot burn,
this time the warming was soothing and gentle, the way it felt when
she sank into a hot bath the end of a long day. She held up her
wrist to show Sara her mark. “What part do you play in this? You
said I was fairy-marked.”
“I did? Well, then you are. I’m usually right
about these things.” Sara sat down on a fallen log, folded her
hands in her lap, and kept her gaze on Kira, her whole attitude one
of patient and good-humored expectation.
The birthmark burned hotter and the whisper
of memory tickled the back of her mind. Something was here,
something that happened before. She knew this woman from before
their meeting at the tavern— long, long before. There was
a…question? —No, not a question, it was more—purpose. Something to
do with purpose.
Her mind churned and uprooted, but there was
no image to grasp, no word to enlighten. Whatever she and this
woman shared, her mind would not give her the answer, so she asked
the source. “The tavern wasn’t the first time we met, was it?”
“No, not at all. We met a very long time
ago.” But when Kira parted her mouth to speak again, Sara waved her
question away. “We’ll discuss that later. Right now, we have a
curse to break and a prince to save.”
Seth. The dragon. Kira crouched down so she
was eye level with Sara. “Where is Seth? That was the dragon I
heard, wasn’t it? Why is there a dragon loose when Seth is with
Rosamund?”
Sara reached out and patted Kira’s hand in
support. “Because I’m sorry to say, the curse was fulfilled.”
“No.” Sara didn’t know Seth. Sara couldn’t
know that he’d never allow that to happen. “Not possible. I saw him
leave to go to Rosamund. He would never break his promise.”
“No, no he never would.” Sara’s voice gentled
and filled with respect. “And he didn’t. He kept his word. Rosamund
isn’t asleep.”
“You said the curse was fulfilled! You’re
making no sense.” Panic snaked through Kira but she pushed it back,
because what she was thinking – what she was thinking was not
possible and didn’t happen. Couldn’t have happened. Seth was fine.
“You said the curse was fulfilled, so that means Rosamund is
asleep.”
Sara’s eyes weren’t merry now, and her laugh
lines were greatly diminished. “He promised that little girl he
would not let the curse take her, and he didn’t. Instead he took
the curse upon himself.”
Kira grabbed the old woman by the shoulders
and gave a hard shake. “You’re lying! He went to her to break the
curse. Seth is fine.
It can’t touch them now!”
Sara made no move to break free. Instead, she
placed her weathered hands over Kira’s and held them. “Do you
believe that man could make love to you but still marry another
woman? Is that who you think he is?”
It was meant to be one night, just one night,
for her to carry in her heart the rest of her life. It wasn’t meant
to change anything. It wasn’t meant…
No.
Is that who you think he is
?
No.
It had been her victory over Rosamund, hadn’t
it? No, that wasn’t what Seth was. With their loving, she had won,
hadn’t she? Over the curse, over Rosamund, over the circumstances
that had defined her life since the moment she realized she loved
Seth, the same moment she’d realized she could never have him.
Her knees buckled, rocks and branches bit
into flesh and muscle as she sank into the muddy ground. Her fault.
She cursed Seth. In her determination to have him, to win, she left
him vulnerable to the curse.
The gentle touch of Sara’s hand on her cheek
caught her attention. “Enough of that, child. You’re not evil,
you’re human, and you’re in love. So is he, and if anything, you
are two of the most admirable people I’ve ever met. So enough
self-flagellation. What’s done is done, and we move on.”
We move on, we move on
. “Yes, we move
on,” Kira agreed. She drew a deep breath, pushing away the doubt
and self-pity with it. There would be time in the future to revisit
this, time to reflect on her failings then. Now, she had work to
do. She rose, her posture ramrod straight. “What needs to happen to
save Seth and Rosamund?”
Sara rose as well, the smile coming back to
her face. “We need two things. We need you, and we need a fairy
godmother.”
The persistent burn of the birthmark flared
in response to the words and Sara stood there, straight and tall,
her eyes filled with a knowledge and a power no human could
possibly have, knowledge and strength even that evil creature she
fought hadn’t projected. This woman… well, she wasn’t a woman, was
she?
The burn intensified.
Yes, yes, I understand the symbolism.
Kira motioned between the two of them. “So we have both of those
things. Now what?”
Sara’s smile widened, as if in approval of
Kira’s acceptance. She clapped her hands three times in quick
succession. “Now we get to the fun part.”
***
“This Elf King sounds like a real jerk.”
Sara gave a great, loud, long-suffering sigh.
“I know he’s made your life particularly difficult and I truly
sympathize, but try living in the same land as the royal oaf the
last several millennia.”
That little piece of info caught Kira’s
attention. “Just how old are you?”
There was a
tsk
, then, “Never ask a
woman’s age. What is it with young people? No sense.”
“Apologies, madam.” They were trailing
through the forest on foot. Sara had been very firm that they
needed to walk to the castle, and what use was having a fairy
godmother around if you weren’t going to listen to them? The only
thing to do was trust and move. Speaking of… “We’re getting
near.”
“Yes, which means soon I’ll have to
leave.”
Kira stopped walking. “You said I needed a
fairy godmother. You said you would help.”
“And I am, by what I’ve told you so far and
what I’m going to tell you now. But I can’t go into battle with
you.” Sara reached out and gave Kira’s hand a firm squeeze. “In the
end, we all battle alone.”
Except she wasn’t alone. She carried Seth
within her, the power of his love and friendship as strong as if he
were beside her. And she carried purpose, the pure will to save
Seth. He was counting on her.
He had never failed her. Damned if she would
fail him now.
Sara’s smile turned impish and knowing. Could
fairy godmothers read minds? Then Sara started to speak, and all of
Kira’s attention was on her words. “First, you must realize the
dragon is not real. Someone is guarding Seth, but the dragon is
nothing but an illusion.”
“Am I going to be going up against the Elf
King?” Somehow, the thought of facing the being who started all
this twisted her stomach in a way the roars she heard earlier
couldn’t touch.
“The Elf King doesn’t cross over to this
side, but you will face his servant.”
The echo of malevolent tones skittered over
her skin. Her dread must have shown on her face, because Sara said,
“You can defeat him. He is powerful, not invincible. But you fear
the wrong battle. This will not be a battle of swords, but of
wills. The Elf King couldn’t care less about a mortal life won or
lost. What he wants your misery, your despair. That is the fight
you fight.”
Kira had grown up with a sword in her hand.
Blade and sharpened edge she understood and respected. What Sara
was talking about was outside anything in her experience, and more
terrifying than the slice of steel against skin. “Just what am I
facing?”
“He can see into your heart and drag your
weaknesses out to parade in front of you. If you give any quarter,
he’ll have you, and Seth is doomed.”
Kira had only walked a few moments alone when
the dragon appeared above. It was black and monstrous, blocking out
the sun as it landed before her, wings extended. The smell of
sulphur and smoke surrounded it, choking her, while its long neck
brought down its head to the ground, its eye as tall as she
was.
Kira beat down any fear that tried to rise
and squeeze the air from her body. Sara said it was fake and the
elderly godmother had her trust. Her wrist burned as never before
as she pointed her sword at the magical creature. “Show your real
self, servant of the Elf King. I have no time to be dealing with
illusion.”
“Ah, you are one of Sara’s.” The voice came
from inside the dragon, but not its mouth. It had an echoing
quality that suggested its source was far away. “Do you trust the
fairy so deeply that you will take her words to heart?”
“Yes.” And she did. At this moment, Sara and
Seth were the only two she trusted – and that trust was
absolute.
With that, the burning of her wrist flared
and deepened and burst through every nerve-ending of her arm. With
a yell, Kira thrust her sword forward through the dragon’s eye.
She felt nothing solid underneath her blade.
The dragon shimmered and disappeared, and the same fey they had
encountered on the road was now before her, reptilian as she
remembered, his dark eyes malevolent as they took her in. She was
violated, stripped raw, every dark and dirty part of her left out
for consumption.