“You beat me until I was on the point of death,” I said. “so that you could tell the truth when you said I was dead. And then you made sure that I was left in the care of a group of warriors that had access to unicorns.”
I could remember that night now, the night I had gone straight from Orionis to my family compound. I had interrupted a party of some sort. My parents had acted strange and made excuses to lead me away from their guests.
It had all come back to me when I’d seen my own flying horses, Autumn and Skye, being led into their stables.
“We know what you have done,” I said. “We have all heard your story.” I gestured towards the twins. “You have been forthright and honest in your dealings with us, once you were forced to be.” I drew in a deep breath and faced Astraea. “What says Justice?”
Her face was still and grim. “Justice demands restitution and punishment. Two hundred years banishment or hard labor.”
My parents staggered back. The fairies around them stepped away as if they could be contaminated by their ill fortune.
I turned to Dallan. “What says Mercy?”
Dallan gazed at me steadily, his eyes full of compassion. “These fairies have recognized their wrongdoing and are prepared to swear binding oaths that they would never again behave in such a manner. Mercy demands clemency.”
I turned to my parents. “Justice and Mercy have spoken,” I said gently. “What do you want?”
My mother shook her head speechlessly. My father took her arm. I could see him squeeze her hand. “We have done great evil,” he said, his voice rough. “and, if we could go back, we would… change everything.” His voice broke. He cleared his throat. “But we know that what we did was unforgiveable. We do not deserve clemency.”
“What if,” I said gently, “you could make restitution?”
My father shook his head. “How can we?”
My mother stirred and looked up at me. “Even if we spent the rest of our lives devoted to healing this land and serving its people the way we were always meant to do, we could not make up for what we’ve done.”
“Will you?” I asked. “Will you commit to doing all you can?”
My mother looked bewildered. “Of course, but…”
I reached my hand out towards them. “Come.”
The crown parted to allow them to pass through and climb the hill until they faced me.
“Grace,” my mother said, her voice cracking.
I shook my head. Now wasn’t the time for words. I held out my hand. “I can give you what you need, but it may not be what you want. Will you accept it? Or will you stand before Justice and Mercy instead?”
My mother drew in a deep breath, but it was my father who stepped forward and held out his hand, his eyes steady on mine.
I took his grasp.
We were swept away together.
I could see it all. And so could he. Everything he’d done in his life, good, bad, neutral, petty, sweet… everything. The images passed quickly, but I could see my father’s face twist as he, for the first time, truly saw who he was and what impact he had made in his life.
It wasn’t up for me to judge. It was up to him.
When it was done, he turned to me with tortured eyes. I knew he wanted to speak and make excuses, but this was not the time or place for those things.
“Grace exists to give you what you need to end up in balance,” I told him. “So that, after you have done all you can to make restitution for your mistakes, you end up the fairy you were meant to be.”
“How?” he asked.
I held out my hand. “Accept it,” I said simply. “The Magic will decide what will help shape you into a better fairy.”
He nodded grimly, then shuddered. “I’m not sure I deserve it.”
I smiled. “Grace isn’t about deserving. It’s about asking and trusting the Magic to set things right. You may not be happy with the results, but they will be what you need.”
He drew a deep breath and nodded. “Very well. I accept.”
He leaned forward and took my hand again.
The outer world appeared around us again.
My father stepped back from me, his face strangely bright and glowing. I could see that his wings were gone from his back—which I knew now only meant he didn’t feel he deserved them—but in his eyes was a fervent expression I’d never seen before.
“I’m going to found human universities where they can study Magic,” he said. “And I’m going to offer scholarships to orphans.” He pulled his un-needed glasses off his face and threw them away from him in disgust.
“What did the Magic give you?” I asked, curiously.
“Purpose,” he said. He looked a little overwhelmed. “There’s so much that needs to be done.”
My mother regarded my warily.
“You can trust me, or you can turn to Justice and Mercy,” I told her. “It has to be your choice, or it won’t work.”
“Will it hurt?” she asked in a small voice.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “But it will give you what you need to heal what you’ve done.”
She glanced at my father, but he did not tell her what she should so. Having experienced it all—seeing the truth of who he was and truly understanding what he had done—he knew that this had to be a personal choice, a personal experience.
Personal Grace.
Slowly, she nodded. “I want to,” she said. “I am afraid.”
I smiled. “Don’t be. Magic will only give you what you need to succeed.”
I took my mother’s hand.
Chapter Twenty-Four
It was a very long day, but at last we were finished. Every fairy who had been implicated in the least had been given the opportunities to face Justice, Mercy, or me. I wasn’t terribly surprised when many of the fairies chose to face Dallan and Astraea and have them find a middle ground between Justice and Mercy.
Those that faced me were, to a one, changed by the experience. It was better for those who accepted that they’d done wrong. It was harder for those that saw their lives, saw what they had done, and still thought they were right. Those fairies didn’t just lose their wings. Some lost their Magic altogether. Some became human. A special few turned into Magical donkeys, who had their own special paths to redemption that were never easy.
But they were all given the choice. They’d let Magic choose what was best for them. And they would grow, all of them, because Grace wasn’t a one-time thing. It was part of them now, and it would change with them as they needed it to change.
For my first flight, I was accompanied by longma, dragons, and my flying horses, two of whom had been returned to me by my repentant and changed parents. Dallan and Astraea flew on either side of me, keeping an eye on me, just in case I got tired or hit the wind wrong.
They didn’t need to. I took to flying as if I’d been born to do it. We flew a long way, past Talia’s tower, over the castle of Merrow where the merfolk sang, across the archipelago where we were escorted by a familiar winged unicorn. I didn’t see any Bellatrices, but I was sure that I would be able to make my peace with them eventually.
I’d traveled all around my world my entire life, but it wasn’t until I flew across it myself, tasting the changes in the air, seeing the fields and the people and the kingdoms, that I truly realized what a glorious place it was.
Everywhere we looked, fairies were working to fix what had been broken and to correct the places where we had gone astray. My father and a group of human scholars, I knew, were working on creating new spells to replace the cruel and harmful ones. There would be no more murdered mermaids or innocent dragons slain by human knights to satisfy the need for Magic.
Magic itself had never felt more present. Its awareness felt keener than ever. If I had once thought it was semi-sentient, I now recognized it as a fully aware force, one that I could communicate with. And I was working to teach others how to speak with Magic as well.
It wasn’t perfect. There
were two scorched pieces of forest outside my house that reminded me of my own wrongdoing. I had killed my uncle and my onetime love. Whether it was in defense of myself or not, it left a mark on me. I had my own path to walk to make sure that fairies never became predators of humans again, that they would never become so hungry for power that they would turn on one another.
It helped that we were fairies. It was in our nature to love beauty and nature and joy and spread those things around. It had never been in our nature to manipulate and kill. We just had needed a reminder of who we were.
Just as I had needed to learn that lesson before I could reach my true potential.
I wasn’t a Fairy Godmother anymore.
I wasn’t even a fairy anymore. I was something else. I had a different purpose. I’d been right, all those years of trying to be something else. I’d never believed that I was cut out to be a Godparent. I’d been right. I’d been designed for something more.
We landed in front of my house. Our house, now, really. Dallan and Astraea’s house and mine had decided to combine forces and become one enormous fortress. Dallan had suggested that this was because my house had always been a piece of his. Whatever the reason, the combined building was growing and changing every day. The dragons now had their own section of buildings, while other rooms were being prepared for a series of scholars—human, fairy, and Magical creatures—who wanted to study in my library.
My own private quarters were still as I liked them, just a whole lot closer to Dallan’s. Astraea, on the other hand, had her own wing where she could do what she wanted.
Which apparently was racing miniature dragons up and down the hallways every midnight.
Dallan and I wandered through the new conservatory hand in hand, looking at all the new plants that kept appearing. Some, I knew, were being imported by dragons or various scholars. Others just seemed to appear. Maybe those were a gift from Magic. Or the world itself. I didn’t know.
“How does it feel to have changed the world?” Dallan asked, brushing his fingers against my cheek.
I smiled up at him. “You’ll laugh,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow. “Try me.”
I breathed in the sweet, earth-smelling air and grinned. “Changing the world was easy. It was changing myself that took all the effort. In a way I’m grateful to Ferdie and Cooper. If it hadn’t been for them, I might never have been forced to trust myself on the level that I needed in order to get past all the flotsam in my head. I had to accept myself and that was a lot harder than it sounds.”
He kissed me softly. “I’m glad that you figured it out.”
“Mmm,” I responded. “I’m glad I didn’t die before I figured it out.”
He chuckled. “That, too.” He bent his head and kissed me again, this time longer. He pulled back and smiled down at me. “What now, Grace?”
I slid my arms around his neck and smiled up at him with all of my heart.
“Now,” I told him, “we live happily ever after.”
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Other Books by Elizabeth A. Reeves:
A Middle-Aged Fairy Godmother:
Stinking Beauty
The Little Murder Maid
Twelve Dancing Witnesses
The Cindy Eller Series (Complete):
How (Not) to Play with Magic (a FREE short story)
First Kisses, Near Misses (short stories)
How (Not) to Kiss a Toad
How (Not) to Kiss a Prince
How (Not) to Kiss a Beast
How (Not) to Kiss a Ghost
How (Not) to Kiss a Gargoyle
How (Not) to Kiss a Were Bear
How (Not) to Love a Hero
How (Not) to Spook a Spectre
How (Not) to Soothe a Siren
How (Not) to Amuse a Muse
How (Not) to Free a Firebird
The Goldie Locke and the Were Bears Series:
Baehrly Beginning (a FREE short story)
Baehrly Breathing
Baehrly Bitten
Baehrly Alive
How (Not) to Kiss a Were Bear (crossover)
Baehrly Breaking
Drawing Breath
The Unlife Series:
Deathly Still
Deathly Quiet
Midnight at the Salem Cafe
Karma’s Witches Series:
Life’s a Witch
Love’s a Witch (Hope Welsh)
Karma’s a Witch (Lanie Jordan)
Haunting Karma
Healing Karma (Hope Welsh)
Sharp as Steele (Hope Welsh)
Hard as Flint
Karma Steele (Hope Welsh)
Black as Obsidian (Hope Welsh)
Flint Lock
Amber in Ashes
Pandemonium: Demons of Karma (Hope Welsh)
Amber Alone
Payback’s a Witch (Hope Welsh)
Spark of Life
The Voice of Bees
Cost of Found (Witness Protection for Monsters)
The Dangers of Black Magic
Twelve Dancing Witnesses Page 16
