by Kimbra Swain
WHEN I WALKED into the salon just after it opened, the owner, a young slender man, was leaning over a counter looking at the latest issue of Cosmopolitan. He smacked his lips while chewing on a piece of bubble gum. He wore dark denim Wranglers and brown cowboy boots. His face sported a five o’clock shadow although it was still early in the day. His plaid button-up shirt finished off the authentic cowboy ensemble. Except for the fact that his hair was dyed silvery grey, despite the fact he looked to be in his early twenties, and it was heavily laden with mousse. The sparkling spikes stuck up in different directions. I was sure he probably spent an hour looking in the mirror picking the direction of each one.
I always found it amusing that there was a derogatory term for homosexuals in the regular world, fairy. Most fairies had some tendencies toward the same sex. Actually, the tendency was toward sex in general no matter the partner. In the Otherworld, there were many different creatures, so gender really didn’t play a part most of the time. Fairies weren’t animals, by any means, but we could fuck like the best of them.
I’d never admitted it to anyone here, but I had once kissed a girl. I didn’t like it. My body always responded to the rough hand and kiss of a man. And dicks. I loved dicks. Which was what landed me in this exile in the first place. My choices in the Otherworld were limited to the fairies in my father’s court. I had more fun exploring the human world full of fairies and humans alike. Insatiable.
I stared at Chaz for a moment before he noticed me. A wide grin crossed his face.
“I’ll be damned if it isn’t the Queen herself, Grace Ann Bryant,” he said. “Good to see ya, honey. Whatcha in for?”
“Haircut,” I said.
“Don’t you dare cut off that hair,” he said.
“Chaz, it’s hotter than Hades. Plus, I’m pregnant. I’ve got to cut off this hair. I can glam it up if the situation arises that demands that I need longer hair,” I said.
“I don’t suppose there will be any rough hair pulling sex for you now, will there?” he said light-heartedly. It was one reason I loved Chaz. He had no filter whatsoever. He was hilarious, too.
“I suppose not,” I replied.
He grabbed the top of his head pulling on the longer bits that dangled down curving toward his face. “See this? I keep it long here just in case my man likes to get a handful,” he said. “I was hoping that Finley would come back. That fairy has the finest ass I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s hereditary,” I said.
“Turn around and let me see. Maybe I can imagine his ass by looking at yours,” he said.
I giggled and turned for him. “Well?”
“Oh, honey, your ass is expanding,” he said, walking over to me. He took my hand patting it like it was the worst thing in the world.
“I’ve got to fit a baby through that hole,” I said.
“Don’t remind me. It will never be the same,” he quipped.
“It’s not like you have to worry about that,” I replied.
“Lord, no. If it ain’t tight, I don’t want any part of it,” he said. “Come sit, and I’ll talk you out of this haircut business.”
Chaz chattered away about his newest boyfriend, and how he couldn’t wait for me to meet him. He’d said that about all his boyfriends, but never once did he actually introduce me to them. He fiddled with the long brown strands of my hair, then massaged my scalp as he talked. He barely drew a breath. He made me smile with his idle chatter. I needed it more than I needed the haircut. It allowed my mind to relax so that I could for just a few moments not think about anything in particular.
Then I felt it.
A thump inside my belly.
I gasped, and Chaz bit his bottom lip in worry. “Is that the baby?”
“Yes. He moved,” I said.
“You sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” I muttered. My heart filled with sadness and elation all at once. A tear trickled down my cheek.
“None of that! I won’t have it,” Chaz protested. He kissed me on the cheek. “You sure about this?”
“Yes. Cut it,” I replied.
“As you wish, my Queen,” he said.
“Who would have thought Shady Grove had enough room for two queens?” I quipped as I rubbed my belly hoping that the little one would move again.
“Oh, honey. Don’t get any ideas. I’m still the only queen that matters around here,” he smiled as he made the first snip. He sighed as though it pained him. It was funny because I could make my hair as long as I wanted it to be. This was more for his company than anything.
“Good grief. What did you do to your hair?” Tabitha exclaimed as I walked into the bar. She sat on a stool next to Remington Blake.
Nestor stood behind the bar, drying glasses. “I think it looks wonderful,” he said.
“I cut it. It’s fucking hot,” I said.
They both looked sad at the loss of my long locks, but I waved my hand and my glamour shifted to have long hair. “We can see through that,” Nestor said.
“It’s just hair. Jeez!” I said as the bean inside of me jumped. It startled me more than hurt, but I leaned on the nearest table for support. Suddenly I was surrounded by concerned eyes and hands reaching for my belly. “Don’t touch me. He’s fine. I’m fine. He’s just more active now.”
“You can’t go to Summer,” Remy said.
“Can or can’t. It doesn’t matter. I’m goin’,” I replied.
“She will be fine. Women are resilient. Especially pregnant ones,” Tabitha said taking my side.
“Heh! That ain’t resilient. That’s stubbornness,” Remy said with a smile.
“To-may-to. To-mah-to,” Tabitha replied.
“Naw. We call ‘em maters,” I said.
We all got a good laugh despite the fact that Remy wasn’t wrong. I don’t have any business going to Summer in this condition. The pregnancy will progress rapidly. My body should adjust, and for where it doesn’t, I have magic enough to adjust it myself. Tabitha explained it to me. Fairy women sometimes had to shift their glamours to accommodate their babies. A glamour was a spell that shifts the physical form of a fairy into another form. Just like my hair. The long glamour looked and felt like real hair because, for all purposes, it was real. It’s not much different than a were-shift. The physical form is real. My body would naturally adjust to the baby, but in an effort to remain comfortable, I could shift my form to accommodate. I already felt huge with just a small bump.
But emotions weren’t something I could glamour. As the child moved inside of me, I longed for his father’s touch. The loving gaze of denim blue eyes. I needed Dylan, but more than anything, I wanted him back. For all my protests and clinging to the hope that he was alive, my heart knew that the chances of him being really gone were just as probable. I sank into the nearest chair as Nestor knelt beside me. He hugged me tightly allowing me to cry without a word. Dylan’s death, Levi’s disappearance, and everything else had taken its toll. I kept pushing forward, but all I wanted to do was quit.
“Is she okay?” I heard the voice of a young man behind me.
I hadn’t heard anyone else come into the bar. Shifting in my seat, Betty stood there with Devin, who was the spitting image of Dylan. Looking deeper, I realized that he too wore a glamour, but it was only subtle changes.
“Hello, Devin,” I said to him. His eyes widened at me addressing him directly.
“Um, hi,” he said shifting his feet. He bowed his head.
“Will you come sit with me?” I asked. Looking at his shy face, I saw some fear, but mostly uncertainty. Instincts that I didn’t know I possessed kicked in. Maternal instincts. “It’s okay. I promise not to hurt you.”
“Go ahead,” Betty said, pushing him toward me.
He dragged his feet but took a seat next to me. Nestor raised up, moving away from me. I wiped tears with the backs of my hands. Devin kept his head bowed, but he looked up with just his eyes to watch me.
“May I remove your glamour?” I asked. When
fairies are young, they haven’t fully mastered their abilities, so I wasn’t sure if he knew how to do it or not.
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.
“Look at me,” I said with a soft tone. His blue eyes met mine with fear. I waved my hand in front of his face removing the subtle glamours that Stephanie must have put in place. He still had many similar facial features to Dylan, but the most defining ones left his face. I wasn’t sure why he was actually speaking to me now, but I was going to roll with it. “Now you are yourself.”
“Thank you,” he muttered.
“Devin, did your mother tell you who your father was?” I asked.
“She did, but I am forbidden to speak about it,” he said. Lifting his blue eyes to me, he looked scared, but he braved the eye-to-eye contact.
“Forbidden is a big word. I understand though. I won’t ask you again, however, I am leaving today to go to the Summer Realm. Would you like to go with me? Possibly find your father? Or do you want to stay here in Shady Grove? It is your choice,” I said to him.
“My choice?” he repeated as though he’d never had a choice in anything in his life.
“Yes, your choice. I want you to be happy,” I said. This poor child had been torn from whomever was his father or perhaps his father didn’t even know he existed. The depths of my pity for him was because of his evil mother. I knew the little one growing inside of me stirred things that I’d only felt for Winnie. I loved her. My heart ached for her sweetness. The almost feral instincts for the child in my body were off the charts. How could I feel like this and Stephanie not feel the same way about this child? One conclusion was that she wasn’t his mother at all, but he gave off the same aura that she did minus the darkness from the taint of her soul. The other possibility was that her darkness had removed any sense of love, honor, or loyalty.
“I want to go to Summer, please,” he said.
“Wonderful,” I replied with a smile. He held my gaze for a moment, then returned the smile. A cute lopsided grin of a happy child. I’d never seen the look on his face since he came to town. Looking at him again through my sight, I could see the binding that Stephanie placed on him with regards to his father, but other than that, he was free of bindings. Free to be a child. It made this mother’s heart happy.
TABITHA SHOWED me the items she had bought for our journey. I looked at the dress laying on the bed in her house. She hadn’t offered a room to me when I had no home, because her house was a small cottage. It had two rooms with a small attached bathroom.
“Good grief. This is tiny,” I said.
“Whatever, trailer girl. I love it,” she said. “I don’t need anything larger. Remy keeps telling me I need to move in with him.”
“Telling you?” I said.
“Trying to persuade me,” she said.
“He can be very persuasive, if I recall,” I smiled.
“He can indeed,” she said. “Do you like it?”
“I’m not sure I can wear that,” I replied.
“It matches your eyes,” she said.
I sighed because the bright turquoise of my eyes had returned after those moments in the trailer as it sank into the earth, when my magic was blocked. You would think with the block to the Otherworld, my original form would have popped up, but that was the funny thing about glamours. I had worn the brunette glamour for so long it was more a part of me than the fairy queen. So, when I was cut off from the Otherworld, I lost every bit of Winter. It didn’t help that I had this burning ember in my belly. I wondered if I would ever be cold again after this pregnancy.
As you should be, not as some glamour hiding your true self. Levi’s words echoed around in my head. I couldn’t get it out. The loss of Dylan broke my heart, but losing Levi tore away my hope. Despite his brooding and bingeing, Levi dreamed of a bigger and better world. It was built inside of him, probably because of his mother. Would I have such a deep influence on my own child? Right now, I had so little hope for the future. Everything seemed to be just one trouble after another. I was neck deep in trouble and sinking.
“Where did you go, Grace?” Tabitha asked bringing me back to the present.
“Just thinking,” I said. “Nothing important.”
“Well, do you like it?” she asked.
“I’m not sure I can pull that off. My body is changing rapidly,” I said, looking at the delicate dress.
“That’s why I bought this. It’s soft and flowy, so it has plenty of room to grow into for that belly,” she smiled. “Try it on.”
The sheer fabric kissed my skin as Tabitha lowered it over my head. It didn’t feel like anything I’d bought in Shady Grove. Hell, it didn’t feel like anything I’d bought on this earth.
“Where did you get this dress?” I asked.
A devious grin stretched across her face, “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”
Lifting an eyebrow, I challenged her, “Tabitha Mistborne, I’ve already decided that you’ve spent too much time with Remington Blake.” Walking over to the full-length mirror in her small bedroom, I stared at myself in the mirror. I didn’t look like myself.
“This doesn’t look like me,” I said.
“Drop the glamour,” she said.
I did as she asked and stared at the woman in the mirror. Something about the dress revealed the fairy roots that I desperately kept hidden.
“Flawless,” Remy drawled behind me. I looked up to see him standing in the doorway. “We did good, Tabitha Dawn.”
“Stop saying my whole name,” Tabitha protested but kissed him on the cheek. “And yes, I did well. She’s a goddess.”
My forehead pursed, and I looked away from my reflection in the mirror. For a moment, I saw that young fairy who got banished from her father’s kingdom. That cool darkness stirred inside of me for the first time since I’d become pregnant.
“Grace, what’s wrong?” Remy asked.
“Makes me feel like the old me,” I said.
“Did you tell her where we got it?” Remy asked Tabitha.
Tab sighed. “No, but I might as well,” she said. “Grace, I know a dressmaker in Atlanta. I called her yesterday, and she delivered the dress this morning.”
“Fairy?” I asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “A daughter of Clotho.”
The daughters of Clotho were fairy weavers who could weave anything, from garments to tall tales. They were respected in both kingdoms for their rare talents.
“I feel the magic in it,” I said opening my sight. Golden tendrils of power, the size of a thread, glistened through the weave of the dress. It rode my curves giving the illusion that it was see-through, but no matter which way I turned, you couldn’t see through it.
“It will keep you safe. Well, to a point,” she said. “Any layer of protection is welcomed. I have these too.” She placed a golden spiral cuff around my upper arm. More magic flowed around it making it look like a snake coiling itself around my upper arm. Then she draped a large golden necklace around my neck. I could see the weight of it but could barely feel it on my neck.
“Who made these?” I asked.
“Bubba,” she said. Remy snickered. She swatted him on the arm.
“Who?”
“Michael,” she replied.
She had dated Michael Handley for a short time. He didn’t seem to pique her interest for very long. I had no idea people called him Bubba, but the South was full of Bubbas, Sonnys, and Taters. We had all sorts of nicknames you wouldn’t believe. Bubba was rather tame. His father was a metal fabricator. The modern word for blacksmith. It seemed as though his son had the same gifts. The jewelry was intricate and beautiful.
“Maybe Rhiannon will take me seriously. I don’t want to look like lipstick on a pig,” I sighed.
Remy patted Tabitha on the arm, then approached me. The instant he touched me, I felt his power ripple over my skin. His hands brushed over my bare shoulders down to my elbows. He leaned in over my shoulder to whisper in my ear. “Grace Ann Bryant, you are
a Queen. I don’t want to ever hear you say such a thing again,” he said. Before releasing me, he kissed the top of my head. I felt his breath through my hair.
No one had touched me since Levi was taken. Since Dylan died. And even though I knew that Remy didn’t mean anything by it because his attentions were consumed with the good doctor, it felt good for a moment.
Remy walked back to Tabitha, kissing her on the cheek. “See you at the church,” she said to him.
“I’ll be there,” he said, leaving us alone.
“He’s right. I’ve packed some other things to take with us,” she said. Lifting a medium-sized duffle bag off the ground, she waved her hand over it causing it to shrink. It became wallet sized, and she stuffed it into a hidden pocket on her maxi dress.
“Travel light,” I said.
“Only way to go,” she smiled. “Let’s get on with this.”
WE GATHERED at the church inside the lobby because the sun had heated the day to the point that it was impossible to stand outside. Inside Tabitha and I found Remy and Tennyson talking quietly. We walked over to them. Tennyson had the lovely ginger with him. She smiled as I approached. She was clearly Summer, but besides Tabitha, the Summer fairies generally hated me. I was skeptical.
“Grace, I’d like you to meet Rowan Flanagan. She would like to accompany you to the Summer Realm,” Tennyson said.
“Um, I’m not sure about someone going that I don’t know. No offense,” I said looking at her. She seemed familiar in an odd sort of way.
“I think it would be in your best interest to take her with you,” Remy added.
“Then be straight with me, and tell me why,” I said.
“Men,” she grumbled, pushing Tennyson out of the way. She reached out her hand to me. I shook her hand in return. “Gosh! That baby has you feeling like Summer.”
“He does,” I replied.
“Grace, if you are going to see the Queen, then I can assure you safe passage from here to there,” Rowan said.
“How is that?” I asked.
“Because Rhiannon is my mother,” she replied.
