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Chapter Forty-Three

“ I t’s over,” whispered Serena. “I can’t believe it’s finally over.”

Her legs wobbled, and she fell against Grim who put his arms around her.

“Not all of it,” grumbled Nerida looking toward a patch of trees on their left.

Through them five figures appear, and she immediately knew who they were.

The first one she recognized was the woman with olive skin and the most beautiful brown doe eyes she had ever seen. She had long dark hair, and a delicate circlet of gold leaves placed upon her head. She looked like she stepped out of a fairytale book.

“The first is Lady Wilde; she managed to outsmart a fairy prince who wished to steal her from her husband and trick her into staying in his fairy palace under the hill for as long as he wanted.”

The second one was the young man with a boyish grin, who was dressed in clothes of a hunter, and was carrying an axe like it weighed no more than a piece of paper.

“ The second is Lord Jack, who climbed a beanstalk and defeated a giant when he was but a boy.”

Then there was the maiden with eyes like slivers of ice, and pale, almost translucent skin. She wore a red cape, with the hood pulled over her head, although her long silver hair spilled out from the front. There was a large hunting knife in her hand.

“ The third is the Red Maiden, who saved her grandmother and herself from the wolf who tried to trick her into letting him eat her. She is the blood thirstiest of them all.”

Then there was a man with deep brown skin and a genial smile. However, Serena caught a cruel kind of intelligence in his eye that made her shiver a little.

“ The fourth, King Arthur, who managed to create a kingdom so vast and so awe inspiring that there has been none like it in the years since.”

And then was the individual in armor who followed at a sedate pace. He carried a sword, and there was no part of his body that was visible .

“ The fifth is the Ghost Knight, who is a bit of a mystery. He never speaks to anyone outside the Five, and no one knows where he came from.”

They stopped in front of them, and for a minute a tense silence ensued.

“I suppose we can count your mission a success, boy,” Lady Wilde said in a voice that sounded like silver bells. “Although this was not what we sent you for.”

Anger at her words rose in Serena, making her forget her awe for a moment.

“Well, considering that you lied to him about being able to lift his curse, I should think you should be even,” she snapped.

The Spirits stiffened at her rudeness, although she could have sworn she saw the Red Maiden turn away to hide a smile in her hands. Nerida was openly smirking, and when she turned to Grim, he was gazing at her with unabashed adoration. Cheeks warming she looked away and shuffled her feet awkwardly.

“In any case,” spoke Lord Jack, looking between them curiously, “your quest is considered complete, and we are grateful, Grim, son of Grendel.”

Grim inclined his head but said nothing else, his eyes cold as he looked at the Five.

“Now to the matter at hand,” said Lady Wilde. “We have come to retrieve the Spirit Wand.”

Nerida looked at them, brows raised. “I see no reason to hand it over.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” muttered Grim under his breath.

“Wait,” said Serena, stepping forward, before an argument ensued, “None of you are thinking clearly. The wand is not enough, don’t you see?

We need the scepter to have anything truly change.

” She looked at Nerida. “You need the scepter for the Faery Trials—the wand will do nothing more than delaying the inevitable. ”

Addressing the Spirits, she said, “I thought about why you would want the scepter, especially after Nerida mentioned you having the ability to consult Oracles. You knew the Crystal would be near the Wand when you regained it. The only question was, why the scepter and not just the wand? Then I realized, it’s because the scepter was creating all the spirits, not the Trials — just like the original story.

The wand was only helping you hold on to this plane, it cannot do much more. ”

“So what’s your plan,” asked Lord Jack, his eyebrows raised. “Do you think you’re the one who can reunite them?”

“I don’t know,” she said truthfully, “but I do know that any further discord between Faeries and the Spirits will render any effort useless.”

“Rosilocks makes a good point,” remarked the Red Maiden in a husky voice, throwing Serena a look that made her blush.

“Very well then,” said Nerida. “Here, hold the wand. You already have the Crystal inside you.”

As soon as the wand came into her hands, her chest burned up, and her heart rose in anticipation. A minute passed, and then two. The Spirits murmured in discontent, and Nerida sighed.

“I don’t understand,” whispered Serena, a tear of frustration escaping. “Why isn’t it working?”

“Enough, child,” said the queen heavily. “You have done enough. It is time for us to accept that the era of Faeries and Magic is at an end. I have nothing more left in me to give. You may surrender the wand to the Spirits. Come, Annara.”

Grim slid an arm around her. “Chin up, Princess,” he whispered, laying a soft kiss on her forehead. “It’s not your fault.”

She felt it then, a heat rising up in her chest. She gasped as the crystal floated out, and she rose in the air, along with Grim. The wand flew out of her hand and began to elongate, shaping into a staff. The crystal floated toward the staff and then fit perfectly on top of it.

“We did it,” whispered Serena, her eyes shining.

They floated down on the ground, and faced the immortals who looked at them with wide eyes.

“The Scepter of Wishes,” said Serena, her heart feeling like it would burst.

“But how…?” asked Nerida.

The Spirits were all looking at the silent knight intently, and after a minute, they faced them, and Arthur spoke.

“The Knight says it has to do with the origin of the scepter. The Scepter of Wishes was born out of the pure love of a Faerie for a Human that became a Spirit. When Grendel took in the human child and named him Grim, son of Grendel, that made him a spirit. As for the girl—”

“Serena is the descendant of Arcana,” whispered Nerida. “Arcana who was like a daughter to me, who became an honorary citizen of Faery.”

There was silence then, but not the tense kind—a silence that held centuries of rumination, as the immortals realized that their biggest treasure had been restored by the love between two humans.