As she sprinted, she looked to her left and watched Erebus spread his arms out, releasing his fog and whipping it at Avery. She retaliated by sending hundreds of Death Wishes hurtling toward him. They cracked bolts of lightning around him, but he didn’t flinch. His anger was too powerful to break.
Shea flew up to Grayson’s shoulder and landed, catching her breath.
“Grayson! Miranda!” she yelled. They turned their heads at the sound of their name, and Shea flew back and forth between them as she yelled through the storm.
“Squeeze your hands a little tighter!” she continued. “Look at the Pool!”
Goren and Foster quickly watched the water of The Pool and as Grayson and Miranda listened, squeezing their hands together, they too noticed the water flutter with a white light.
“Shea, the wish!” Goren yelled. The wish brightened again, just as before, though it was still stuck in Erebus’ spell. “Now!”
There wasn’t time for second-guessing. It was Shea’s chance to end this - to grasp the True Love Wish one last time and bring it to the Keeper statue. It had to be fulfilled. It was the only way to stop Erebus and release her mom from Avery’s spell.
Her hair whirled around her head as she stared at it. Erebus was focused on Avery and not paying attention to the wish. It hung there, vibrating with a slight red glow and when it looked at Shea, she remembered the last time the Makers’ wish was destroyed. It had looked at her with such a sense of knowing, as if it knew that no matter if it was fulfilled or destroyed, everything was going to be okay. The weight on her chest from her panicked breaths subsided and she raised her wand.
BLAST! She put every last ounce of energy into her wrangling spell and as it exploded through Erebus’ hold, it wrapped tightly around the wish.
Thane and Beren watched as the light of The Pool glowed with a white light, but just as they were about to fly and help, Erebus roared. His bellowing scream raged across the valley, and he flung his darkness in every direction. With flashes of black shadow, he whipped tendrils around Avery’s neck, and just as quickly, wrapped another around Shea’s waist. Pulling each of them in, despite the Death Wishes plowing lightning into him, Erebus wrapped his hands around the True Love Wish. Elanor fell from Avery’s grasp, her limp body bouncing against the unforgiving dirt.
Foster and Goren fired spell after spell at the retaliating WishingKing. Their spells bounced off of him like annoying flies and Erebus laughed. “Enough of this! It is time to complete what it is I came here to do!” As he gripped Avery tighter and tighter, and despite her growing size, her last breaths were pushed from her lungs.
Tendrils gripped around Beren and Elanor once more, and Grayson and Miranda were raised up in the air with another. Cupping his hands around the True Love Wish, he pushed his fog straight into the sky, enveloping the darting Death Wishes, consuming them all at once. A circle of fire burst up in a ring around The Point as Erebus pushed harder and harder on the Wish.
Its power flashed bright red energy through his shadowed body. His head reared back as he felt the rush of the power of true love pulse through him. His tendrils dropped the captors to the ground. Thane was thrown back and Shea was helpless as she watched his wings burn from the surrounding flames. He growled in pain and rolled, dousing them, but his wings were gone.
Leaning on his hands, howling in pain, the wall of fire raged higher and higher and all Shea could do was stare in horror as Erebus sprung his arms out wide. His black, shadow cape spread across the cliff as he grew in height, towering over the mountain. The True Love Wish beamed a blinding red light at the center of The Pool, cracking and breaking, connecting itself to Erebus as he grew.
Like the sound of a raging locomotive, Erebus roared with every sudden pulse of energy as the wish flashed and exploded, bit by bit. To her left, Grayson helped Miranda pull herself up from the ground and run for cover along the side of the mountain. Shea raced through the wind and floated in front of them.
“What did you wish for?” she screamed.
Miranda burrowed her head into Grayson’s chest, holding him as if she might blow away.
“Shea, get out of here!” Goren tugged on Shea’s arm as Foster flew to the other end of The Point, helping Thane and her parents take cover.
“No! Grayson! What did you wish for? Tell me!” she screamed again.
“I - I wished for her to be happy!” he yelled back.
“Wrong! You wished for true love. Not to have it or to keep it or to even give it away, but you wished for it to just simply be!” she flew to Miranda’s hand and pulled it up to Grayson’s.
“I saw it! Just before -,” she braced herself as Erebus roared again. His dark black fog whirled over the point, completely taking over. The ring of fire burst higher - a wall of swarming heat. Beads of sweat trickled down Shea’s forehead as she pulled harder on Miranda’s hand. Their hands gripped tight, intertwining their fingers.
“This is what matters. Not the wish. Not anything else! Look at the water!”
The water beamed brighter than before, even as Erebus swooped out over the cliff and towered over everything. The wish was beaming brighter as well, but Erebus was so consumed with power he hadn’t noticed the glowing white and red of the pool and wish.
“Please! Come on!” she tugged on Grayson’s arm and motioned for them to follow. They ran across The Point, dodging the sputtering flames of the ring and joined their friends. Beren was holding Elanor - her body broken and she was falling in and out of consciousness. Shea rushed to Thane’s side, holding him up. They had nowhere to go as the wall of fire surrounded and trapped them.
“Dad! What did you say earlier? About time and love. Do you remember?” she called out through the storm. He was about to answer, but Erebus roared over top of them and hovered above The Pool, wrapping his darkness around what remained of the wish.
“Keepers and Makers!” he bellowed with a deep, powerful voice. “I promised to show you that I could be as powerful as true love. You stripped me of my freedom when you placed me on that worthless throne. Imprisoned me in this secret realm and took from me what I cared for the most! It’s time for retribution!”
Shea burned with anger as Erebus spoke. Without thinking, and only reacting to the flaming anger boiling inside of her, she flew up directly in front of Erebus.
“Shea!” Thane yelled, but Foster grabbed him.
“Stay here, you fool!” Foster yelled.
“We took nothing from you! But you’ve taken everything from us! From me!” Shea screamed. Her face burned hot and not because of the fire surrounding her. For so long she blamed her parents for all of what had happened to her. For her lonely, bullied life and her broken, pathetic wings. But Erebus was everything she’d grown to hate: a monger of power, control and the darkest nightmares. But Shea was done with it. She was done with it all. She couldn’t watch her mom whittle away into agony any longer, nor catch constant glimpses of her once strong and capable father dwindling into nothing more than a fearful and hesitant fairy.
“Little Shea. So eager to make a name for herself. So willing to sacrifice everything not for one wish of true love, but…” he paused and swooped down directly in front of her face. His dark, shadowed face even larger and thrashing with flashes of red lightning. Shea didn’t flinch like before. Fear was something she was not going to allow him to give. Erebus, though, was also unflinching. “Shea Evenstar was so willing to sacrifice the hopes and promises of a once again powerful Paragonia, just to fix her worthless, decrepit, broken wings. You are to blame for all of this! You are the reason I am here before you and more powerful than anything you will ever know or possess. For that, I must thank you.”
He rushed back high above them all and reached out his blanket of fog. Like a tidal wave, it rushed down the cliff of Exclamation Point and devoured all of the surrounding land. Everything disappeared behind a wretched covering of shadow and fog. All that was left was their spot high above the valley mountain, ringed with fire, and
owned by evil.
Shea floated back, closer and closer to the wall of flames. Grayson and Miranda held each other tight. Thane looked up at her, proud yet terrified. Her mom was lying in her father’s arms, incapable of moving and waiting to die. Below Erebus was the rippling water of the Wishing Pool and along the edges of the small tips of its waves were a bright, white light, shimmering and dancing with each crest and fall. Shea stared at the water and called down to her father once again.
“Do you remember, Dad? What always remains constant?”
Beren followed Shea’s eyes to the cresting waves of The Pool. Quickly, he realized what she was seeing and yelled up to his WishMaker.
“Miranda! Take Grayson’s hand,” he called up. She did what she was told as Erebus and his dark fog poured over the remaining edges of the world.
“Grayson, can you feel it?” Shea said. “Do you understand that what’s important is not having or holding on to something, but to let something go,” Shea cried. “Love is not what you can get or even give someone,” Shea looked at Thane. “But what you can learn from them.”
Shea floated down to Thane and looked at him. It had been barely a few days that they’d known each other, and they would probably both agree that in some ways they annoyed the other even more than they loved each other. They didn’t know what love was, nor did they really care, but as they met eyes, a knowing was shared in that they were willing to learn how, together. As he squeezed her hand, their wings - even Thane’s blackened remains - glowed a bright, white light. He tugged, as if for her to rejoin their friends, their family, but she tugged back and shook her head.
“Time is the only thing that changes,” she said with a purposeful voice. Beren hugged Elanor and looked up at Grayson and Miranda. The Makers watched as the fairies’ wings also glowed white.
Exclamation Point was now floating along the edge of nothingness. The valley and land around them had vanished into darkness. The forest behind the Keeper statue was gone and Erebus was all that was left.
As the darkness covered The Point, Shea held on to Thane’s hand and looked at his broken and burned wings. Thane noticed a kind of smile she had yet to share with him. She knew something he didn’t. For the first time, true confidence gleamed from her radiant eyes. Shifting her gaze to the marble ridge, she watched Avery, small, petite and free from the darkness in her eyes, painfully stand along the rim of The Pool. Her black hair was waving in the wind, and she was looking at her one-time king.
“Thane. Look around you. What do you see?” Shea asked quietly.
“Avery!” he shouted, but Shea held him back.
“Love. At least what I think is love. All kinds of love. I’ve missed out on this my whole life and there is no way that it could end now. Not with all of this around us,” she smiled, squeezed his hand tight and looked at Grayson and Miranda.
“I don’t know how to love you, Thane, and maybe I’m not supposed to, but I know it might be fun to try.”
The white glow of the Wishing Pool suddenly brightened and beamed a soft beacon into the sky. It cut through Erebus’ darkness and pushed him to the side. He watched as Avery looked at Elanor. Thane held Shea’s hand. The WishMakers holding each other. His anger burst up from the deepest part of his blackened soul and he pushed his fog back over the shining pool. The darkness bounced off the light, breaking it like a knife. He pushed harder and harder, screaming with every thrust.
“Grayson. Miranda,” Shea called out. “There are some things in life that you simply don’t need. As much as you try to hold on to it, dreaming for it to come true, sometimes you just have to start over and let go of what isn’t necessary.”
Shea smiled at her mom, then up at Thane…and backed into the fire.
“Shea!” Thane yelled.
Her wings burst into flames. She fell to her knees, holding back the cries of pain. As she knelt there, wings lapping with fire, she looked up at him and fell into his arms. The beacon of light beamed even brighter and Erebus recoiled. His shadowed body rippled with energy. Cracks in his foggy chest broke open and shafts of light burst through. Pulses of static energy exploded from him, ripping through the surrounding darkness. Patches of the world returned, one by one revealing the hidden land. Avery was forced off the ledge and thrown to the ground. Goren and Foster hurried to her side. Her body was frail and dangerously light. They easily picked her up and brought her to the group.
Elanor let go of Beren’s hand and crawled to where they placed Avery. She opened her eyes and saw her friend staring down at her. Nothing was said as they intertwined their hands. Elanor brushed the black hair out of her eyes.
Grayson pulled Miranda away, huddling behind a boulder. He held her with wrapping arms. “Maybe we don’t know how to love each other either,” he said through a laugh.
“I’ve always known how, Grayson. Maybe we just need more practice,” Miranda smiled and rested her head against his chest. He tucked his fingers under her chin and raised her mouth to his. It wasn’t a kiss to end all kisses, but one that would be merely the seedling of a thousand more.
Erebus fought through his cracking darkness, but when Miranda and Grayson touched their lips together, there was an instant of sudden silence, followed by the brightest of light blasts.
Thane pulled Shea away from the fire and wrapped his trembling arms around her. The Pool exploded with radiance and a True Love Wish was granted.
48
Paragonia Please
“I think you should stick around. As a matter of fact, I think it’s the best idea I’ve ever had,” Shea said. She was sitting on a banister that rimmed the stone veranda of Castle Paragonia and dangling her legs over the edge. The valley stretched out in front of Miranda and Grayson as they giggled at Shea’s little comment. The sun was a bright ball of warmth in the sky and the fairy homes lining the branches of the Paragonian forest each had their windows open, allowing in the soft cool breeze of another perfect day.
Life returned to the valley when Erebus was destroyed. His darkness even left the most remote corners of their land, and reports from the Fairy Intelligence Agency brought news that WishingScouts had found forgotten regions - regions of Paragonia that had been lost long before even Erebus’ rule. There was a rejuvenated sense of discovery in every little fairy and Keeper, and though not all of the Gates had reopened yet, WishGathering had returned at a very rapid rate. The Nursery was full again and it had been barely a week since The Breaking. The fairies had a name for everything, of course, and when the fog was lifted and Erebus was sent away for good, there was a breaking of more than just the darkness. There was a freedom to be and do what the fairies of Paragonia were meant to do - grant wishes - and the crushing inability to do so was finally broken.
Shea knew Miranda and Grayson weren’t going to stick around and, in a way, she was glad. Yes, of course, she wanted to them stay, but though she’d grown quite fond of the two Makers over the past week, she understood that now the Gates were reopened and safe enough for a Maker to pass through, her Grayson and Miranda needed to get back to their life. A life that needed a new beginning.
“We have some work to do at home,” Miranda said, smiling at Grayson as he rocked back and forth in a wooden rocking chair. He had a pipe in his mouth and was poorly puffing smoke rings.
“I don’t know. I kind of like it here,” he said. A sudden spat of coughing came over him as he swallowed a bit of the pipe smoke.
“That was Erebus’ pipe, ya know,” Shea said, holding back a laugh.
Grayson curled his lips and lightly set the pipe down, wiping his hands on his pants. Miranda stood and took her husband’s hand.
“Time to go home, your majesty.”
Sprinting onto the veranda, Thane stopped and saluted. He was wearing a green tunic and despite his burned wings, a look of wide-eyed excitement. Even though Thane hadn’t yet been officially sworn in as a WishKeeper, he was on his way and loved every second of his military duties.
“Your Gate aw
aits, WishMakers.” He lowered his hand and relaxed when Shea rolled her eyes. “What? Doing my job, here.”
“Whatever,” she sighed. She jumped off the banister, walked past Thane and smiled. When he smiled back, she stuck out her tongue and jumped away from Thane’s playful swat. Leaving Miranda and Grayson alone on the veranda, they ran out of the castle chambers, laughing.
The Makers looked out over the sunny valley, deep in thought. What had just happened? What had they just experienced? Ridiculous, really, to consider everything they had been through over the past few days, but there was a slight tinge of a notion that somehow this place was not going to simply be left behind after they had gone. It was a fantasy of a thought that Shea had when she said that they should stay, but when Grayson and Miranda turned and looked at each other, the whole of fairydom beneath their feet, all they could do was laugh and shake their heads. They truly did have to get home. As much as they felt an innate connectedness to the land, they couldn’t possibly belong there.
It was difficult for Elanor to feel at home in their little fairy cottage at the base of the tree. Most of her time after The Breaking was spent in bed, but she was feeling some of her strength return. Most of her strength came from her husband, however. The past week’s nights had not been kind to Elanor - waking from nightmares, and vomiting from the sudden onset of crippling headaches. Beren was there for her without complaint and she marveled at his ability to remain patient as she attempted to return to a normal life.
When she wasn’t sick or fighting another headache, she would sit in Shea’s room, looking out her bedroom window, and wonder how many sleepless nights her daughter had as well. How many hours did she spend in anger and confusion as to what had happened ten years ago? Though Shea would repeatedly tell her mom that she understood and wasn’t angry anymore, Elanor knew what it was like to be a teenager and couldn’t help but worry Shea was harboring secret frustration.
The WishKeeper (The Paragonia Chronicles) Page 25
