Ever After

by Marly Mathews

  Richard’s magic transported them into the house.

  “Where is the Unseelie bitch?” he asked.

  “In the lower region of the house.” Lily reached out with her senses and headed toward the lower level.

  “You should go to where Leo is. He’ll be with Aunt Poppy in the living room.”

  “I should go to intercept the sorceress that did this to my husband.”

  “I will deal with the Unseelie Hag. You free Leo.”

  “I can’t leave you to fight her alone. You are ill-matched. Her magic will be beyond your powers.”

  “I’ve fought a member of the Unseelie Court before.”

  “Alone?” She raised an eyebrow.

  “I’ll be fine. Besides, you said yourself that you didn’t like me.”

  “I’d also rather see you live to fight another day. I will free Leo and then we will both help you.”

  “Good. Get to it, then,” Richard said.

  She darted toward where she could feel Hawthorne and the other women.

  “Do you smell Lily of the Valley again? It’s becoming awfully pungent…OH!”

  Two women turned to look at her in shocked amazement.

  “Lily!” Hawthorne moved forward. Her eyes pinned on the brooch. Her heart skipped a few beats.

  “Leo.”

  “That’s the second time someone has said this Leo’s name. He must be a very important spirit.”

  “This spirit is my husband. Please, give me the brooch.”

  “I must say everyone is quite fascinated with this particular brooch.”

  The young woman who Lily assumed was Mia looked at the older lady, who had to be Poppy. “Give it to her, Aunt Poppy. It didn’t cost me that much, don’t worry about it.”

  “Mia.” Lily smiled and then extended her hand toward Poppy. “I will make sure you are compensated. Do not worry.” Her fingers reached for the brooch. Would she be able to break the curse just by holding the brooch in her hand and reciting a standard reversal spell? “Please.”

  A crash in the basement jolted the entire house. Hawthorne caught Poppy when she lost her balance. Poppy quickly handed her the brooch. “Take it, and do whatever you need to do to quiet the restlessness of the spirit.”

  *****

  Leo held his breath. Pounding footsteps raced up the basement steps. All she had to do was hold the brooch and kiss it. Then, hopefully, he’d be set free. But would Lily figure it out in time? He knew her first inclination would be to recite a standard reversal incantation. But it wouldn’t do the trick. This curse had to be broken with a kiss. He could feel it in his bones.

  “I will kill the bitch that is trying to free the foul faerie that pissed me off so many years ago!”

  *****

  Lily’s hands enclosed around cool silver. She could hear the Unseelie Sorceress approaching. Whispering the words of the incantation, she waited. Nothing.

  “I don’t know what to do, Hawthorne.”

  “Now would be a good time to summon your blade, Lily. She comes.”

  Lily pinned the brooch above her heart and then turned. “Get behind something sturdy. Do not come out unless I tell you it is safe. Hawthorne, you should be able to erect a fairly stable force field around the three of you.”

  “I’m on it, Lily.”

  “What’s going on?” Mia demanded.

  “In a nutshell, I’m a faerie princess here to save my husband who has been trapped in the brooch I’m currently wearing. Your husband, Richard, could be wounded terribly in the basement. That’s why I must end this battle before it begins. The two of you must stay quiet unless you want to feed the Unseelie. She will take sustenance off of your fear and anxiety.”

  “Richard! I can’t leave him, I must go to him,” Mia cried.

  “He would want you to stay safe. Hawthorne, get that force field up, she’s nearly here.”

  “Be ready,” Leo whispered. He could feel the change in her when she heard his voice.

  “Leo?” Lily’s voice cracked.

  “Don’t get distracted. Just do what you’ve been trained to do. Fight and win.”

  “I don’t know how to free you.”

  “I know how.”

  He fell silent.

  They both looked at the same terrifying sight. “I am here. Now finish this, Lily, my love.”

  Lily’s heart thrummed. She watched the Unseelie bitch transform before her eyes. Her stomach rolled, at the dark creature she’d shifted into.

  Calling upon her wings, she transformed back into her native form.

  “Faerie. I shall imprison you into a necklace, or perhaps a bracelet. You can travel the world on a human, as their possession.” The Hag cackled with glee.

  “I don’t think so,” Lily whispered.

  She went to call upon her sword, but the Unseelie sorceress blocked her summoning magic. “You are innovative when it comes to using your magic in this realm,” Lily said. She hadn’t expected the hag to be so cunning. She should have, after all, she’d gotten the advantage on Leo.

  “I’ve been using magic here on Earth for far longer than you. You haven’t mastered the elemental power this world is endowed with. It will be your downfall, just as it was Leo’s. He thought he could handle me. He was mistaken.”

  Rage flowed through Lily when the Unseelie mentioned Leo. She screamed, and conjured her faerie magic forth. It flowed around her, haloing her in a brilliant light.

  “You are quite showy. Pity the man downstairs hadn’t been like that. He was easy to take down. Right now, he’s hopping around the basement on four legs. He makes a very interesting looking rabbit. I shall have him for supper!”

  Her heart skipped a beat again. “You need to be stopped now!”

  “And you honestly think you have what it takes to stop me? You’re made of sparkles, rainbows and sunshine. You’re hardly a match for my might!”

  Lily laughed, as she figured out what she had to do to bring down the Unseelie.

  If she could find a mirror, it would reflect the Unseelie’s terrible power back on her.

  “Use me.”

  “What?”

  “Whom are you talking to?” The hag looked at her, dropping her eyes to the Celtic Brooch in sudden understanding. “I see. Most unexpected, indeed. I hadn’t bet on your magic even transcending the curse. Faerie love, how quaint.”

  “There’s nothing quaint about it.”

  “You think that you’re going to be able to get close enough to me to get me with that sword? Unlike some of my friends, I don’t care for sparring. I never have had a liking for fencing. It’s such a waste of energy.”

  She could hear Hawthorne doing something in the background. Why he just wouldn’t wait for it to be over, she didn’t know. Didn’t he realize he could get himself killed acting so foolishly?

  “Use me!” Leo repeated more urgently this time. “I should be able to reflect her magic back upon her.”

  “I don’t think so!” she whispered.

  “Do it!”

  His emphasis on his last word, made her think. Projecting a bubble of magic around her entire body except where the brooch was pinned, she waited.

  The Hag hit her with a bolt of black magic, though it made her tingle, her magical field around her body protected her from harm.

  The brooch however was lambasted with the magic. Her heart stopped beating for the briefest of moments.

  The Hag’s magic went arcing back at her. The scent of flesh burning filled her nostrils. When she opened her eyes, the Hag was gone.

  “Holy Shit that was some standoff!” Mia breathed, coming up to stand behind her. “Where’s Richard?”

  “Downstairs,” Lily muttered.

  Mia booted it past her, straight for the basement staircase.

  “Leo?” Lily asked.

  She dropped the shield of magic around her body. Hawthorne walked up to her pulling Poppy along behind him.

  “My rug!” Poppy exclaimed. Shock lined her face.
/>   They looked down at the burnt hole in the antique rug.

  The rug could be repaired, the question was, how had Leo fared?

  She touched the brooch, and pulled back when heat struck her fingers.

  “I’m fine,” he coughed. “It’s a little smoky in here though. You forget I’m invulnerable in this form,” he coughed again. “I could do with some fresh air!”

  “I’m about to fix that for you, my love.”

  She unpinned the brooch, and longingly traced her hands over the Celtic knot work on it. “How do I release you?”

  “Kiss the brooch.”

  She passed her hand over the brooch, to cool it off. “That’s better. Now instead of it being insufferably hot in here it is back to being cool.”

  She laughed. She couldn’t help it. The quest was almost over. Her heart was nearly whole again.

  “You really are a faerie princess!” Poppy’s tone was matter of fact.

  “Aye, I am. I’ll be happy to give you a full explanation of what just happened here once I release my husband.”

  “So, you’ll be releasing him so he can cross over?”

  “My dear Poppy, no one is going into the light today. Granted, I’m certain Leo will be overjoyed to see the light of love in his wife’s eyes again after being parted for so long,” Hawthorne said.

  Poppy gazed up at Hawthorne.

  Lily turned her attention from them, back to the brooch she held. Relaxing her furiously beating heart, she raised it to her lips and kissed it gently.

  In the next blinding instant, magic shook the house once again. The brooch disappeared. She fell into Leo’s waiting arms. He pulled her into his embrace and held her close. Their lips met in the longest and sweetest kiss she could ever remember. She was in heaven.

  “Oh, my!” She heard Poppy’s sigh.

  She didn’t care—all that mattered was Leo. They had waited for centuries to finally feel this way once again. She tightened her hold on him. When they finally parted, she drank in the full image of him. He looked tired. As if the weight of many worlds rested on his broad shoulders. She couldn’t completely release him. They needed to return home, so they could become more intimately reacquainted. Thoughts of Leo in her bed once again, made her flare up with passion.

  He grinned at her. She found herself smiling back like the besotted fool she was.

  “Hatred created that brooch and love shaped its destiny.” He snapped his fingers, using his magic freely for the first time in one thousand years. She grinned again. He was back and fully restored to his former glory.

  When the bright sheen of his magic activating dimmed, she watched him relax the hand he had clenched into a fist. In his palm rested a perfect replica of the Celtic Brooch.

  “Why did you recreate that? It was your hell for over one thousand years, Leo.”

  “It is a reminder, Lily, and a gift to Poppy.”

  “I can’t accept it. You should keep it,” Poppy said.

  “No. It is yours, Poppy. I’m sure we’ll see each other again. I know it.”

  “What are you talking about, Leo?” Lily asked.

  “Even as we speak, Hawthorne and Poppy are falling in love. I can sense it.”

  “You are no Cupid, Leo.”

  “I might not be, but while I was cursed to be a prisoner of the Celtic Brooch, I witnessed many couples finding true love. I happen to think that I was the defining factor in all of the love matches. I helped them to fall in love and it was the only blessing in my dismal existence. I might have been stripped of my powers, but there was one thing that Unseelie bitch could not take from me.”

  “Your love for me,” Lily whispered.

  “Aye. Our kind loves for all time. When we find our perfect mate, our soul mate if you will, that flame of love is never extinguished. I think that the humans could feel my love for you. And it in turn led them to their own true mates.”

  She nodded her head. “I can’t understand why you are not bitter, but I don’t care. I’m just thankful to have you back with me. I will never allow you out of my sight again.”

  “Trust me, Lily. I don’t want you to ever leave me again. We’ve been apart long enough. An Eternity is awaiting us, and I want to spend each and every moment with you by my side, I want us to finally have our Ever After.”

  “I don’t understand. Why were you trapped in the Celtic Brooch? I knew a spirit was attached to it…,” Poppy shook her head, obviously still confused.

  “Thank you, Poppy. Thank you for your belief that you could help me. You never would have been able to lead me into the light, but your companionship for the last few weeks has been quite enjoyable.”

  “The house has been filled with a certain tranquility since Mia gave me the brooch.”

  He smiled. “The brooch was created by dark magic, but the hag didn’t know that my white magic would overcome her dark magic and in turn make the brooch an object of hope and love. Wear this replica with pride, and no matter what happens in the future, never forget the message of love that it has brought to so many men and women.”

  “I need some help here!”

  They all turned to see Mia dashing in clutching a bunny against her chest. “I think this is Richard. Can someone break the spell on him?”

  “I…,” Lily smiled. Leo frowned at her. “Just try kissing him. It worked in Leo’s case, if it doesn’t work you’re obviously not meant to be.”

  “Leo was in a brooch. Richard is the rabbit!”

  “If you truly love him, it won’t matter what he’s been turned into.” Lily watched Mia do an inward battle.

  “I love him but I know he’s hiding things from me.”

  “I already told him that wasn’t a good ingredient in the recipe of love. Why don’t I fill you in while he’s currently voiceless?”

  The rabbit started to squirm frantically in Mia’s arms. “I’d like that,” Mia decided.

  “Your husband is a wizard. He’s a part of a mystical Order called The Timekeepers. They basically watch over the threads of time to make certain that nothing catastrophic happens in the numerous timelines of the realms, magical and non-magical.”

  “I see.” Mia’s voice was clipped.

  “He does love you for what it’s worth.”

  “He’s hidden what and who he is from me.”

  “Indeed. But deep down, he loves you with all of his heart. He might have kept other things from you, but he never kept his love from you.”

  Mia looked at the rabbit. “When I turn you back, you’ll be telling me everything!”

  The rabbit nodded his head.

  “Well, I think that’s good enough. You should free him from his furry coat. Give him a break. He is your husband.”

  “For now.” Mia’s eyes hardened. “He won’t remain my husband unless he stops hiding things from me.”

  Mia went silent and kissed the rabbit. Before their eyes, Richard transformed back into a human male. A naked human male.

  “Why does he come out with his clothes on and I get to be naked?” Richard looked up in annoyance at Leo.

  Poppy grabbed an afghan from the couch and tossed it to Mia. Mia handed it to him with a smirk.

  “I think we should return to our home realm, Leo. Mia and Richard have things to sort out between them.”

  “I would like to take Poppy back with me,” Hawthorne said.

  “Keep an eye on the time passing…you’ll have to have her back before more than a year goes by.” Richard smiled. “Have fun, Aunt Poppy.”

  Richard seemed to have had some of the pomposity knocked out of him. Maybe the hag had done a favour for them all.

  “I’ll keep an eye on the time.”

  Lily nodded her head. “Give me one second and I’ll have a gateway between the worlds opened.”

  The doorway materialized in front of them. Taking Leo’s hand, they walked out of the Realm of Terra and returned to Daoine Sídhe. As long as they were together, they would always be home. For their hearts were
whole again.

  *****

  “Prince Leo had lost over one thousand human years, and yet he had left a legacy of love for an entire world of lovers. From one world to another, one era in history to another, one constant remained. Love. Reunited with Lily their love story had a happy ending,” Hawthorne said.

  “And what happened to Poppy?” One child asked.

  “Poppy decided to become my wife—proving to me and to her that it’s never too late to find love. It’s never too late to find your happily ever after.

  The End.