by Erin R Flynn
Hudson had quipped that maybe it was both when I’d brought that up.
Maybe he wasn’t wrong.
Still, I prayed to the gods, and maybe to Faerie herself, as I also gave orders to help us while I got into place. I begged the gods for their blessing and to let us have this win when we needed it and kept finding so much death that hadn’t needed to happen. I demanded Faerie not hurt me for once, but use me however it should as the heir and save whom she could.
Pretty please.
Yes, I actually added the pretty please. I wasn’t above groveling to the gods or a whole damn world if it would help.
I glanced around and saw everyone else was in place, nodding for Taeral to start since he was leading the power gathering. One of the Light Guardian commanders was in charge of the healers since he actually had ridiculously strong healing magic, like his wings were the coloring of a healer even. It had never been done before for a healer to be high-ranking in the military.
“Why? It’s smart,” I’d commented, glancing at the others. “There should be a voice at the table making decisions for the healers who will take care of those on the front lines.”
“Your mother said the exact same thing and was the one who made the change,” the commander had told me.
Well, at least she was smart.
I shook off thoughts of her and focused on what I was doing. The moment I felt the power gathering, I got into place, and when my hair stood up to let me know it was snowballing, I started. I had already walked the path from each fairy to the reservoir, my visualization for my magic on who to unfreeze. It worked and was easiest for me.
It simply hadn’t been what other fairies had expected or seen before.
I had reminded them that the spell was unlike any done before, so it was best I worked outside of the norms as well to be careful and always use training wheels. I had no clue if that was true, but it got them to move on.
And made me feel less like a freak and I was lacking. Always an awesome combo.
I pushed my power into the reservoir, focused on the faces I’d seen, the paths I’d laid out and cleansing them of the darkness. I felt the first come free and the healers jump to saving the fairy while the others waited for their turn with bated breath. More and more joined the power gathering, layering what they were building and started pumping it right into Faerie.
And in return, Faerie answered my call. I felt the magic from the world course through me and jump onto my power to ride into the first fairy awakening. Then it ramped me up to wake the second and third, healing with a glowing light that aided the healers.
But I hadn’t told it to or pushed my magic there yet.
Shit.
I tried to control it, but it was worse than having nothing to hold onto during rough turbulence of a flight. I had the illusion of holding on with a handle in a train, unable to see the front of where we were going so I could lie to myself I was fine, but really in my heart, I knew we were going too fast and off the rails.
The next five were up and being healed before I blinked. Faerie pushed harder so the power gathering came faster and then another five were awake. My fingertips went numb against the reservoir as I mentally shouted for Faerie to stop and listen to me.
It ignored me. It pulled the darkness off more and more, faster than I had been and used me as the conduit to give aid to the healers. It didn’t want to stop at thirty, not at all. I honestly could almost feel annoyance from the world that there were only thirty fairies to try and save on the agenda. I knew the feeling, but giving that level of sentience to a planet seemed crazy.
When it tried to get more from the power gathering, I finally managed to cut the connection, Taeral realizing something was wrong too and shoving the last of the power into the world and finishing.
Neldor was the first to reach me, on standby in case there had been a problem, and clearly he understood there was one. Horror filled his eyes as he realized the state I was in, Iolas right there with him.
“Let go of the reservoir and we can heal you,” Iolas whispered, swallowing loudly as he took in my state.
“I can’t move,” I said in their minds. “Faerie fried all my nerve endings. I can’t feel my body. I have a suspicion it’s going to hurt really bad this time so not to be a baby, but is there a rune for pain before you start healing me?”
There was, but it ended up not hurting as much as I’d thought since it started to wear off after I told them. They hurried to heal me the rest of the way, and I plopped on my butt when I could, moving away from the reservoir as I did.
“You all need to seriously rethink how you view this world-heir relationship bullshit,” I whispered, upset beyond words. “I know I’m just a tool to you, but apparently you are not the only ones who feel that way.”
“Faerie is injured and—” Neldor started.
“Yeah, you’ve told me, and I honestly believed you. I know you weren’t lying to me. Everyone has said the same.” I moved my hands to my head and fisted them, trying to keep it together. “But this fucking planet shocked me with magic to fry my nerve endings so I couldn’t break the connection with the reservoir when I thought of doing that because it was going too fast and I was going to be hurt again.
“It paralyzed me. It was pissed I was only doing thirty and in that moment’s hesitation to figure out how to get more, no matter what I said, that was how I cut the connection. I would bet it was super rare for queens to call on Faerie, right? Unheard of for heirs?”
“Yes, normally only in the most dire of circumstances,” Iolas agreed. “This world sustains all of us and it would be seen to most as selfish to call upon for help unless there was no other way.”
“I think Princess Tamsin is saying that isn’t the true reason,” Taeral muttered.
“Yeah, I would guess that’s some other knowledge I didn’t get, just like all the rest,” I bit out. “I would guess the blessing of being able to call upon Faerie and being needed to be its conduit normally gets the royal females killed.” I swallowed a hysterical chuckle before looking at Neldor. “I would bet the male ancestors didn’t lose the power, but gave it up after they learned that. Hell, I would.”
I pushed to my feet and would have gone right back down if Taeral hadn’t been quicker. He wouldn’t let me go when I tried to shove away, unable to let any of them touch me.
“Can’t let your tool get a bump, huh?” I mocked, a bit dizzy, even with their healing. “I read this story once.”
“What story, Princess?” he whispered, the tension around us shooting up.
“The story I’m living. The people picked a girl who knew nothing and said she was their princess. They called her their savior and protected her like no other. Everyone loved her and she was truly blessed, watched over, and coddled… Until they sacrificed her. That was how she saved them. The gods required a sacrifice and to save everyone, they had no problem doing it, thinking it kind to call her a princess.”
“That’s not what—” Iolas argued.
“But you know what she really was?” I pushed.
“What?” Neldor asked quietly, for once not even any snark from him.
I met his gaze. “Trapped. She knew the truth, but went through it anyways because the idea that her freedom meant the death of another ate at her. She couldn’t trade her life for another. So while she was the victim of their selfishness, she was the savior for that one girl who would have taken her place.”
I stared at all of them in turn as I pulled away from Taeral.
“But she also wouldn’t play their games and let them call her ‘princess’ and pretend she was really the boss. She wouldn’t sit at their feasts and eat the food that would fatten her up for the gods she would be sacrificed for. I refused to be the tool of the humans, councils, or any supes, and I certainly won’t be yours, just because I’m a fairy like you.” I snorted at the idea before cloaking myself and putting up barriers.
Without even having to think about it. Clearly, I was s
cared.
Again.
Could anyone blame me?
I walked off, ignoring the crazy and fighting that erupted behind me. I hadn’t wanted to start drama but… I hadn’t. Our damn planet had, and I’d simply been honest about it.
Without a real goal in mind, I found myself lost, the whole area new to me, but not even remotely where we’d usually drive in from the portal. I reached the end of where they’d been pushing back, moving along the wall of caustic darkness and staring out into it. My mind was a blank. What had happened had fried me out to the point there was static in my head.
I wasn’t sure how long I walked for. A while. Probably not all that far though since my pace was a stroll. I’d honestly walked to Mars for all I knew.
Something moved in the darkness and I thought I’d finally lost my mind. What had happened today and what I’d realized had finally snapped something in me, and the rest of my sanity was just gone.
Turning to look at it, I saw the shape of a large person, much bigger than a fairy. An animal trapped on the other side? We’d found tons of animals now that there were huge sections of Faerie cleared. They were trapped in the darkness, but the magic didn’t affect them the same. Once the darkness was cleared they were free.
I hadn’t seen it, but I really didn’t have any reason to not believe the Light Guardians who had been talking about how cool it was.
A hand shooting out of the caustic darkness snapped me out of my thoughts. Before I could react, it grabbed my wrist with a grip stronger than any I’d ever felt, even now in the supe world.
I screamed. I screamed and screamed, this being one of my many nightmares about Faerie and the darkness. I think I tried to pull away, but I was so truly panicked in a way I wasn’t sure I had been before, I might not have. It was probably the most scared I’d ever been in my life. The nightmares that plagued me about Faerie and the spell, trying to find fairies had been constant.
And people reaching out from the darkness to drag me in had been something I’d dealt with at least three times a week for over a year. So yeah, it was like my personalized horror movie that left me screaming my head off.
Except the man didn’t pull me in, but shoved me back. My whole body was weak from what had happened and panicked from this new crazy, and I landed hard on my ass. I couldn’t focus enough to keep up my barriers or cloaking—though apparently he could reach through all of that anyways.
Yeah, that wasn’t terrifying. More than terrifying.
What came after terrifying on the scared scale?
A leg came out with the arm, and that seemed to give the person the leverage needed to yank out from the darkness. A few more seconds and a loud popping sound and I was staring at the largest man I’d ever seen. He had Hudson and Mr. Vogel beat by at least a half of foot. The girth was unreal. The guy was massive.
And he had bright red hair that was so bright, it looked like it couldn’t be real. Curly red hair… Like I saw in the mirror every day. I’d never seen someone with that color of hair before that hadn’t dyed it.
Was it a thing for fairies to die their hair?
No, right? And fairies didn’t get this big. So he was some type of fair folk I didn’t know about?
Yeah, probably. I would bet good money there were other species of fair folk I didn’t know about. I certainly didn’t have any clue about the plant or animal life of my home world.
“Tamsin,” he croaked. “Tamsin, stop.”
Oh, right, I was still screaming.
People must have heard because they started showing up in a blur of fairy rune speed, Taeral one of the first.
“Get away from her!” he roared when the man moved towards me, launching himself at the new person.
“No, don’t,” Iolas shouted, blocking the Dark Guardian and standing in front of the man recovering from the darkness.
That he somehow broke out of all on his own.
I was still slightly stuck on that.
And how he knew my name.
Why did people seem to always know who I was in this fucking world?
“Tamsin, don’t be scared,” he said in between coughing. He moved closer and looked like I’d slapped him when I backed away with a whimper.
“Did he hurt you?” Taeral asked.
I couldn’t make my mouth work, shaking my head to answer.
“I would never hurt her,” the man snapped.
“Oh well, now that you’ve said that, we’ll just believe you,” one of the other Dark Guardians drawled.
“You should,” Iolas sighed. “He’s her father.”
Well, that explained the red hair… Just not how he could break from the darkness, and why he hadn’t before now.
“How were you able to get out of the dark magic alone?” Taeral demanded, not backing down just yet and keeping close to me. He shot me a quick glance. “Did you release him?”
Again, I simply shook my head.
The man didn’t even give Taeral any notice, focused on me. “I saw when the first light came back to Faerie. I’ve been trying to move through the darkness since then to find you. We never thought—we never dreamed—it was like fighting to move through tar. We couldn’t have known that.”
There was a long pause, and I realized he was waiting for something from me. I nodded. I’d seen it myself how hard it had been for him to get free of it.
“We never thought all the portals would die. I’ve activated portals many, many times. I couldn’t. I couldn’t get to you.”
I held up my hands in front of me to hold him off. He wasn’t making sense. Or jumping around. I was still ready to pee myself that someone had reached out from the darkness and grabbed me.
“How did the magic not affect you?” Neldor demanded. “Every fairy was frozen until Tamsin was able to—”
“I’m not a fairy,” the man stated easily as if saying the sky was blue. “And refer to my daughter as you should, Neldor, or you won’t like what I do. Meira might have thought you were crucial to the survival of all fairies should the worst of her visions come to pass, but I didn’t, and my mate is gone.”
That was a whole lot to digest and no one seemed to know what to say for a few moments, Taeral finding his voice first. “You’re not a fairy?”
“No, Lageos is a demigod,” Iolas explained. “The last demigod.”
My vision went black, and I never felt myself fall to the ground.
I thought fainting was a fairly appropriate response to hearing that.
8
I woke back at the resort cottage, wondering if I was drunk or smoking something. Neldor was across the pool with Iolas and a bunch of the Light Guardians, plus the man who said he was my father.
And Taeral, the Dark Guardians, the wolf guards staying with us, and my friends were on the other side with me.
“So you’ve had a day, huh, love?” Craftsman whispered gently as he moved the cold pack he’d been holding to my forehead away.
I gave a slight nod, glad when Lucca helped me to sit up. I rubbed my face and surveyed the scene a bit more. It took a few tries for me to get my voice to work but finally, I did. “Why does it look like we’re about to level my resort? I really don’t want to have to explain that to my partners.”
“We’re having some issues swallowing the idea of a demigod being real,” Taeral answered.
The look I gave him actually made the fairy blush. Like no shit.
I mean, no fucking shit. He had a problem with it?
The demigod said he was my father. Yeah, poor them.
Then I wanted to growl. “Iolas, you’re an asshole. For real.”
“What did you do to her?” Lageos demanded from across the pool, grabbing the light fairy. “Why is she upset with you?”
“He was part of the posse freaking out that I made tier ten crystals before I grew wings and fairies couldn’t do that,” I explained.
Lageos frowned, slowly looking over at me. “Yes, but you’re also the daughter of a demigod. Of cour
se you would have extraordinary magic and powers beyond any fairy.”
“Which I didn’t know. But apparently, Iolas and others of Queen Meira’s advisors did from their reactions to seeing you,” I drawled.
I blinked and Iolas was in the pool. Well, at least I could see where I probably got my temper and lack of patience from.
“That does explain a lot about your power and amazing abilities, even with your not having a fairy’s normal education,” Taeral agreed, scrubbing his hand over his head. “The idea of an actual demigod is just so…”
“Yeah, I get that, but can we all chill and stop with the divide. I’m not exactly sure how we’re trading me and Neldor like this or whatever, but it’s not helping my need to freak out.”
“I didn’t want to scare you again,” Lageos explained as he moved closer. “I simply moved across the pool and let your mates tend to you, and the others followed. Neldor was already pestering me with his agenda, and those near to you are quite fond of you and were worried. It wasn’t a divide as you are thinking it.”
Well, that was nice to hear.
I nodded I heard him and scrubbed my hand over my hair, my mind racing too fast. “You were trapped in that darkness this whole time?”
“Yes, it was—yes.”
I shook my head. “How did you survive? Everything was dead. There were no trees or ways to eat.”
He didn’t answer until I looked at him. He pulled a chair over to sit in front of me and glanced at the others as if making it clear they should give us space. Most did besides Taeral and the men involved with me which I appreciated.
“I like to eat. I love to actually, but I don’t actually need it to survive. I’m not at full strength, as it does help. I’m not mortal, as you think of it.”
“Oh boy,” I breathed, spots forming in my vision again. “So I’m the granddaughter of a god. Huh. Which one?”
“I don’t know,” he answered, scrubbing his hand over his hair at whatever was on my face. “The humans clearly get a lot wrong. I’ve been caught up enough on what you’ve suffered that you know this. Also, that people lie. Even demigods. The ones who claimed certain gods were their parents lied. We never knew who we came from.”
