20. Revelations
Killian collapsed on the grass next to Phineas who had rolled onto his back. Jax landed with a thump as motes of dust whooshed up into the filtered sunlight. The horrors had gone, but each one of them struggled to grasp this reality after experiencing the lies of the nightmare. Killian threaded his fingers through the grass, marveling at the power of magic—they were no longer on the Spires. He recognized these trees. They were back in the Forbidden Forest. The snow, the sickly mushrooms, and the smell of rot had all vanished. Beside him, the beam of light pulsed a merry tune, hopping between each member of the collapsed crew like a puppy looking for pats.
The old woman sat gingerly, her swirl of blankets about her and her face in her hands. “Well, that was rougher than it appeared it would be.” She rubbed her eyes. “Turns out, knowing ahead of time isn’t always helpful for relieving the pain of the experience. And even knowing that didn’t aid as much as I might have wished.”
You couldn’t have warned us? Jax asked with a raised brow.
“No. I could not. To manipulate the future outcome—that would have changed the inherent magic of what Killian did.”
Killian frowned. “And what exactly did I do?”
“You saw and spoke the truth about yourself. You loved your friend more than you loved yourself. You saw yourself as you are and accepted the true version of yourself. You called the light to unveil the darkness, the lies, and the evil.” Her face pulled into its toothless turtle smile. “You did so much, it’s a shame that the whole curse doesn’t end right here.” She chuckled and then lay back with a whoosh in a deep sigh of contentment. “Seeing myself in this meadow, however … This is much better in person.” Her tiny arms and legs stuck out of her brown garment like sticks in a ball of mud, and Killian held back his relieved laughter.
Phineas rolled to his knees and straightened up. His shoulders shuddered, like he was shaking off the last of the visions. He looked hard at Killian before he whacked his shoulder with the back of his hand. “You self-sacrificing idiot.”
Killian shoved his shoulder back, halfheartedly. “You would have done it for me.”
Phineas nodded. “I tried to do it for you.”
Phineas smiled, but Killian’s heart beat with a pang. “I couldn’t let you. You’ve been the best friend I could have ever asked for. You’ve loved me by speaking truth my whole life. I was stupid then.” Killian shook his head. “But going to the beast was the least stupid thing I’ve ever done.”
Jax rolled over and plopped his head in Killian’s lap. I am glad you’re not dead. Again.
Killian laughed and tugged his fingers through Jax’s thick black fur. “As am I, my friend.” Killian’s smile faltered when he looked over at Meshougi. Her whole countenance was frozen, and tears welled in her dark eyes. Across the clearing, two women, one short and round and the other slightly taller and waifish, stared at Meshougi with gaping mouths. They clung to each other with clasped hands.
Meshougi rose to her feet and took a step forward toward the duo.
The shorter of the two women, reached a shaky hand forward. “Shourentameta’il?”
Meshougi nodded, and the waifish lady burst into tears. Meshougi opened her arms. Then all three women ran to each other and collapsed in a heap on the ground. Embracing and weeping, they spoke L’Turetian so quickly that despite all Raela’s lessons, Killian couldn’t make out half of it. The tallest woman just kept crying, “Shou, Shou, Shou!”
The short, round woman pulled back and looked at Meshougi—or Shourentameta’il—as she held her face in her hands. Love radiated from all of the women. After a moment, Shourentameta’il pulled back, clasping the others’ hands, and tilted her head toward Killian and his friends. Speaking in Common, she asked, “Have you met the prince?”
The shorter lady leaned over, her lip curled in disgust. She murmured in L’Turetian slow enough that Killian caught it. “Sadly, yes. Our Raelametanashi, he has turned her head. He’s poisoned her heart.”
Shourentameta’il laughed. “Oh, Motukalatabeli, since when is love poison? You forgot yourself all these years!” she said in Common. “The prince loves her in return, you know.”
A slow realization dawned within Killian as he remembered Raela talking about her aunties. Auntie Mo, Auntie Toru and … Auntie Shou. Auntie Mo turned toward Killian with a high arched brow and stumbled through Common. “Do he? Do he know the curse has fallen? She sleeps?”
“Raela sleeps?” Killian said as he moved closer, his brows furrowed thoughtfully. “But the princess …”
“The dark fairy fly to the castle in moments past.” The tall, waifish woman interrupted, biting her finger in between her teeth. “We must go fast. Whole castle sleeps now.”
Auntie Shou frowned. “Toru, Momo, did you forget to practice Common?” Her sisters ducked their heads. Auntie Shou leaned toward them. “Then who taught Raelametanashi to speak it?”
The waifish one, Auntie Toru, scratched her neck and replied in L’Turetian. “Her magic is honed, and she speaks L’Turetian very nicely, Shou.”
“You didn’t continue to teach her after I left?” Auntie Shou dropped their hands in her surprise. “How did you think that would go when she went to court? When she became queen?” The Auntie Mo’s cheeks flushed bright crimson as she crossed her arms. Auntie Toru hid her face in her hands. Auntie Shou just shook her head and laughed. “Oh, my sisters. That I didn’t foretell. Ah well. Thankfully, the prince now knows some of our language, thanks to our Raelametanashi.”
Phineas and Jax came up beside the trio, and Auntie Shou made rapid introductions. The aunties bowed to Jax deeply before Auntie Shou called their attention. “We need to hurry home, rest and ready ourselves, and save our girl.”
Killian agreed, but he was still confused. “But the princess. Zalina said the princess was cursed. The princess slept. Are you saying …”
Auntie Shou reached back and tugged on his sleeve, clasping it with both her hands. “Come, my dear. I will tell you everything as we walk to the cabin.”
Auntie Toru beamed and bounced on her heels until she rushed forward and clasped Killian’s other arm. “Come, come. Hungry? I feed you.”
But as they turned to leave, Auntie Mo planted her feet and stayed rooted in place like the tree beside her. Her face flickered with waves of emotion. “Shou, we made cake every fourth season. On the day you left us. Why did you go? Why did it take you so long to return?”
Auntie Shou smiled sadly. “I’ve been waiting for the prince. Waiting for this day. It was the only way to save us all. The visions were clear. After Zalina stole her father’s magic—and after she killed the queen—I had no time to lose if I wanted to melt into the chaos of the magical shift and become nothing and no one to her.”
Auntie Mo’s eyes glazed over with tears. “You didn’t say goodbye.”
“I’m sorry, Momo, Toru. I loved you, and I hurt for you every moment and with every breath, but it was the only way to protect you, to help him, and to save Raela,” Auntie Shou whispered, her voice wavering. “The visions said as much. Telling you would have altered the future and prevented this very reunion. But I also knew I would come back. And Killian has made it so.”
“We felt you enter the forest,” Auntie Mo said.
“With a great darkness,” Auntie Toru added. “Where did that go?”
“What happened?” Auntie Mo asked.
Auntie Shou held up a hand. “All in good time, my sisters. But first we must tell the prince about his princess.” With this, Auntie Mo nodded sharply, stepped forward, and grabbed Phineas’s forearm. Auntie Toru held tightly to Killian.
As they walked through the forest, Auntie Shou began, her hand through Jax’s fur. “Phineas had asked why Zalina didn’t kill the princess or you. Do you remember?”
He canted his head. “Something about blessings.”
“Indeed,” she tightened her grip. “You were there, actually. On the day of the curse and the day of the blessing. All the fairies had gathered at the moment of Raela’s birth in Walworth. Toru blessed her with beauty, and Mo blessed her with magic. Then Zalina, came in her father’s stead to represent the fairies of the Spires. The magic of the land transfers through the father, or through marriage, as you know. So being jealous of her mother’s love and bitter that she was not acknowledged as a daughter of the queen, Zalina cursed the princess. Before her eighteenth birthday, the princess would prick her finger on a shaft of wheat and die.
“We were horrified.” The three fairies shuddered simultaneously. Auntie Shou continued. “Once a gift or curse is given, it couldn’t be undone. But it could be altered. Only the last fairy could shift the curse, so instead of dying, I blessed the princess, saying she would only sleep until it was broken by true love’s kiss.”
“Ever the romantic, Shou,” Auntie Mo murmured.
“Kisses are excellent magic. But of course, the true love is the important bit. That’s what breaks the curse. Breaks Princess Raela out of her sleep.” Auntie Shou paused, biting her lower lip before speaking again, more quietly this time. “You were there with your father and mother, Killian. And your parents and hers, wanting to ensure the magic of true love’s kiss, instantly betrothed you to be wed on her eighteenth birthday. Raela was the baby. Raela is your princess.”
Killian reeled and searched his memories, trying to put the baby and the woman together in his mind, but he had only been three years old. “I remember the castle and that the baby looked funny. The queen was crying, and I was mad at my mother for grabbing my shoulder hard as she pulled me from the room. For some reason, my memory also includes bears. Huge ones. I swear they were decorating.” He chuckled.
That was probably me.Lumbering out of the forest, the giant mother bear appeared, her twins stumbling behind her. I am the ancient that chose to stay with Walworth. Just as Jax’s family chose to stay with Norwood, and the elk with the fairies.
Jax eyed the ancient bear, before pulling back a paw, and bowing good naturedly. Greetings to the ancient bear.
She snuffed at him. And to you.
Phineas cleared his throat. “So, if I have this straight, Zalina is an evil fairy. She was unable to claim the throne because she wasn’t the king’s child, so she cursed Raela. But you altered the curse, and then what? You hid her for all these years?”
“All these years.” Auntie Toru repeated. “All these years, keep safe. Keep quiet. We could not have Zalina find her before time. We take back only at eighteen.”
“The plan,” Auntie Shou said, “was to return her after midnight, after the reach of the curse had ended.” She sighed heavily. “But as is the way of curses, they … find a way.”
“So in my running away to be with Raela, I was actually just spending time with my betrothed, the lost princess?” Killian asked as he threaded his fingers through his hair. “Could that be true?”
“And this is the way of love.” Auntie Shou grinned. “Love finds a way.”
“It was the light. It called him and let him in.” Auntie Mo muttered. She glared back at the light, which danced behind them, landing leaf to leaf, thrumming happily.
Auntie Shou giggled. “Don’t be upset with the light, Momo. Killian is a good man.”
Auntie Mo sniffed and eyed him up and down. “He must be good. Only big good deserves our Raelametanashi.”
Auntie Shou looked him over, too, with a wide grin. “He is the best.”
Killian felt his cheeks flush.
Auntie Toru leaned behind him and whispered to Auntie Shou in L’Turetian, “He is beautiful too.”
Auntie Mo stopped and stared at her sister. “Toru!”
“It is truth! I know these things!” Auntie Toru continued in L’Turetian.
“Emaname u’ra.” Killian smiled and said thank you in L’Turetian.
Auntie Toru turned as red as a tomato and froze, pulling the trio to a stop. “I forgot he spoke.”
Even Auntie Mo joined the ensuing laughter.