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Chapter Forty-Two

S erena opened her eyes to see Grim’s tear stained, ravaged face looking at her.

“Serena, thank the stars,” he whispered, before crushing her to his chest.

“What happened?”

It seemed Lore had the same question.

“No,” he whispered, and then screamed, “ NO!”

“I told you before,” said an icy female voice, and Serena was startled to see Nerida staring at Lore, “the problem was not that True Love’s kiss does not exist, it was that you could never grant it, because of the shallow, self-absorbed man you are.

” She turned to Serena and Grim. “It is time you saw what really happened that day.”

A flash of white light, and all four of them were standing in the same glade, but it was different somehow. Instead of an eerie silence, the place hummed with good magic, and you could hear woodland critters as well as the chattering of the Fair Folk.

A feminine laugh sounded, and they all saw a curly haired woman run into the glade. Serena gasped sharply when she turned, because it was a face so much like her own. This was…Arcana.

From the corner of her eye, she saw the demon take a step forward, his face an expression of tortured longing.

A younger, more carefree looking Lore appeared behind Arcana and Serena’s heart twisted when she realized that beside her, the Nerida of now was looking at him with the same expression.

“Did you bring it?” asked Lore—or Oberon as he was here, his eyes burning with a hunger that made her stomach turn.

Arcana somehow missed it, giggling instead as she took out a silk pouch.

“Of course! But you must promise to be careful or the queen will be ever so cross with me.”

“Yes, yes,” he replied impatiently. “Just hand it over.”

Serena saw a look of consternation pass over Arcana’s face before she masked it with a bright smile and slipped the jewel out of its pouch into Oberon’s hand.

As soon as it touched his skin, the air around them vibrated with a strange energy. Arcana looked around nervously and then reached out to take the stone back.

“Oby…I think it’s too vo latile for you to handle right now. Your powers are too strong, and I’m afraid that it might trigger something neither of us wants.”

Oberon ignored her and held the stone out of her reach.

“All that power,” he murmured. “Why bother with the Trials? We could simply take over the human lands.”

Arcana’s eyes widened. “You mustn’t say things like that, Oby. The stars don’t like it.”

“The stars can go hang themselves.” His voice had changed, become more guttural, and his eyes were turning amber. Fangs grew out from his mouth, and he grew taller.

“Oby, I think you should give that back,” cried Arcana, reaching for the stone in earnest now. “Look, it’s changing you!”

“A good change,” grinned Oberon, still in that horrible voice.

“If you’re not giving it back, I’m going to go fetch the queen,” said Arcana, her voice shaking as she took a step back.

His eyes narrowed and turned red.

“It’s always about the queen with you, isn’t it? Seems to me like you two are conspiring to keep me from gaining power while you claim all of it for yourselves!”

At the last word, he slammed his fist into a nearby tree, and it smashed into the ground.

Arcana’s eyes widened, and she turned away, picking up her skirts, and she began to run away.

Beast Lore growled, and ran in pursuit, stone still in hand.

When it seemed like she was about to get away, he leaped and swiped out with his claws, tearing through Arcana’s flesh.

She smacked into a tree and slumped down, eyes closed.

The stone dropped from his hands, and he began to change back.

“No..I did not..I could not have.”

Arcana lay on the ground, her skirts spilled out beneath her, an ashy-gray cast on her rosy pallor. There was a rip in her dress, the exact shape of the claws that had rammed into her back.

Oberon’s claws.

He crawled over to her, cradling her body in his arms.

“No, my love, no,” he choked. “You cannot leave me like this.”

An idea seemed to strike him, and he softly pressed his lips to hers.

Nothing happened.

He tried again.

She did not stir.

“Why?” he screamed. “Why isn’t it working?”

“I warned her,” came a cold female voice. “I warned her to stay away from you.”

Serena started to see Nerida appear behind Oberon. He looked at his wife with loathing, while she returned the look with one of disgust.

“You,” he snarled. “Why are you here?”

She did not answer him, her eyes fixed on the girl in his arms.

“The kiss did not work, because you do not love her, Oberon. She was merely another distraction, another flirtation to you.”

“That is not true! I did love her.”

“You?” she spat. “You do not know the meaning of love. You have never in your life cared about anyone other than yourself. This girl was yet another way for you to prove to yourself that you can make a conquest of any girl you want - she looked at you with her worshipful eyes, and it made you feel like the man you have never been.”

“Lies! You planned this. You could not bear to see me happy!”

Nerida threw back her head with a humorless laugh.

“Me? I loved that girl. Even as she betrayed me, I loved her. She was my apprentice, my daughter, the one who was going to help me bring magic back to the human lands.

“ For years, I taught her our stories, our magic. She was supposed to be the person who brought back balance to Faery and the human world. We were doing good, actual good, while you cavorted around with your court, getting drunk.”

Oberon snorted in disbelief.

“You mock me? She had been corresponding personally with the mortal king; she had important friends in the nearby kingdoms who would write to her for advice.

She is—was—one of the greatest historians and authorities on Faery lore on the continent.

No one knew it was because she was taught by the Faery Queen, but we were close, so close to finally reaching a point where we could wrest back power from the wretched robed men who have been sowing discord and mistrust against the Folk for years now.

The Wishing Stone that you so misused was still being worked on to bring it to a point where it could help regain the power we lost with the scepter breaking.

“ And then you saw her, that accursed day of Winter Solstice when I asked her to not venture out.

You took one look at her innocence, her kindness and knew you wanted her.

I sought to keep her from you. I knew you would never appreciate her, knew she would be just another rose trampled under your cruel unforgiving heel.

“ Last week she came to me to confess your affair, and was in tears at what she considered her betrayal. I told her I have no love for you, and she had nothing to confess, as I was already aware of your illicit affair.

“ And then I warned her—I warned her that you would not love her the way she wanted. I warned her that you would never change and would one day hurt her.” Nerida looked at him, her eyes filled with hate. “Just as you hurt me, all those years, before I finally closed my heart and my bed to you.”

He flinched.

“And now, thanks to you, all our work is ruined. Our people will have no voice to speak for them, no one to restore the balance. There will never be another like Arcana—one whose heart is as pure, whose faith in fairytales and goodness will be her greatest strength.” She looked at Arcana and whispered, “And her greatest weakness.”

Nerida’s voice had lost fight at this point. She sounded resigned.

“And as the kingdom’s mistrust grows, so does their disbelief.

“We have but a little time left. Until our powers weaken even more and eventually Faery becomes a complete ruin. Until we disappear completely.”

Oberon finally looked away.

She waved her hand, and he was thrown back from his lover’s body. Enraged, he strode forward, only to be blocked by an invisible wall of magic.

She narrowed her catlike eyes at him and kneeled next to the fallen girl; she brushed Arcana's hair away from her face, gently cradling her body in an almost maternal way.

And as she looked at the girl lying on the ground, Serena was hit with the realization that Nerida had truly loved Arcana as much as she claimed—maybe even more.

“I may not be able to bring you back to life as you were,” she whispered to her, “but you had long wanted to explore the world, to see what wonders it had to experience. And so, my dear Arcana, my daughter, I will set you free. You shall join the Daughters of the Air, your beautiful spirit no longer caged by your mortal body. You shall travel the world, see every sunset, experience every sunrise, witness the beauty and the joys of the mortal world. And when you are done, when it is time to rest, you shall return to Faery and lay down to rest in the Valley of Somnia, free to cross into the next world.”

“Wait,” cried Oberon. “Stop, what are you doing? I will bring her back!”

Nerida ignored his cries and pressed her lips to Arcana’s, and the latter’s body lit up like a beacon, dissolving in a mist of magic, and then all that was left was the glittering remnants of Nerida’s power and the final notes of an achingly familiar song.

Oberon dropped to his knees in anguish as he faced the reality of the situation.

It was then Serena saw them. A cluster of glowing lights floating towards the queen, carrying between them a familiar looking wand.

The king looked at them in horror. “The Wild Ones.”

Nerida plucked the wand from the nest of twigs and wildflowers it lay upon. “It seems the spirits have overcome their animosity towards the Fae enough to lend me this. I told you, husband, Arcana was loved by all. And now you shall pay for the grief inflicted by your thoughtless cruelty.