29. ~ Estelle ~
CHAPTER 29
~ Estelle ~
“R eport.” The head fairy was in pink again today, from her ballet flats to her hairband. Just like every day.
“Char is back to making wishes?—”
“Are you granting them?” Gram-Gram asked, eyes narrowed.
“No. Her amount owing is still above the threshold. But something has come up that I fear will interfere with her ability to repay her debts. I was wondering if I could request an exemption on her account, and grant her a wish or two in order to increase the likelihood of reclaiming some of the amount owed to us.”
“Sounds like a grey area.” Gram-Gram opened Char’s file. It appeared as though she was getting regular updates from Igor now, and I made a mental note to beware of how close I danced to the lines with my actions surrounding Char’s case. “What are the wishes you want to grant?”
I started with the more innocent of the two. “She would like to fix James’s life.”
“The man you sent into her arms?” The fairy was watching me, her delicately pointed chin still tipped down toward the file, her lavender eyes raised my way.
“Yes.”
Her slow blink of I-told-you-so shamed me, and my next words were embarrassing. “She’d like to remove him from her timeline in hopes of saving him.”
“Remove him?”
“Create distance.” Char had really done a good job of her wish. She’d calmed her mind and pictured James as the innocent man we all knew him to be, then made her plea. “She wished him away from her and requested he be protected.”
I wasn’t sure why she’d done it though, as it was clear he was innocent, and was going to be fine.
“Did she ever wish for him to love her?”
“There have been several romantic-themed wishes over the past few months, but none specifically for him to love her.”
“Interesting.” Gram-Gram’s lips formed a slow smile. “She’s wishing him to her, but also away. Is she afraid to love him?”
I shrugged, unsure. Humans were complex.
“Well, all of her wishes will wear off,” Gram-Gram said, “if they haven’t already. Looking at these dates, he’s likely back under his own agency, and choosing to be close to her. In other words, there is little to reverse.” She was reading the lines of her printout, eyes flicking like she was speed reading. “Besides, reversing these would be too much work and the cost is high. Too many tendrils of effects reaching out everywhere to clean up. Let these things continue to resolve on their own.” She was still skimming the long list of recent wishes.
“She is a very good wisher, isn’t she?” Gram-Gram tapped a line and looked up at me. “Is this the other one you want to grant? She wants to be innocent and get the park back on track?”
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
“The park is her karma project to repay her debts, is it not?”
I nodded again, cringing.
“Debt repayment related.” She shut the file. “Automatic no.”