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It’s only in Fairy tales that people declare their undying love and then actually go on to live happily ever after. But we did the best we could.

Three weeks had passed since that horrible day in the rain, and we had managed to live more or less happily, though both of us had suffered and both of us knew how hard it was always going to be.

The fact that I had been the one to kill Bracca’s beloved father would always be a fact and to some extent, it would be between us. But Bracca was well aware that Larek had come there that day to kill me and had tried his best to do so. He would never forgive his father for doing that either. In some ways, those issues, as great as they were, paled in importance when compared to how much it meant for us to have each other and be together, and we could never let ourselves forget that.

I had decided to renounce my claim to the Elven throne, though I would come back to put my blood on it if it needed it from time to time. Hendris made a much better king than I ever would have been, and I had decided to make Hendris the King’s Regent forever and go home to live in Fairyland with Bracca, who of course, had his own kingdom to run. Especially now that his father was gone. He was the new Fairy King after all.

He had his own coronation to get ready for too. And we had already decided that there would be absolutely no tournaments to celebrate the ceremony. In fact, if I never saw a tournament again, it would be too soon.

I wanted to go home with him and never be parted from him again. As for the curse, I began to think that it might actually be gone.

There were signs.

The blood stone no longer pulsed and trembled when I came near it. I dropped some of my blood on it after the coronation just to see what might happen, and nothing did. Nothing at all, which was amazing to everyone after the strong reaction it had that first time.

And Bracca’s insane jealousy toward Hendris had disappeared as rapidly as Hendris’s flirtations with me. Hendris no longer hung on my every word, and barely looked up anymore when I came into a room. We were friends now and nothing more. I was glad of it, but it did strike me as odd, because it happened so quickly.

The strangest thing of all was the silver locket. Bracca saw me wearing it one day and held it in his fingers. “This has something inside it,” he said.

“Yes, but it won’t open.”

“Are you sure?” he asked and pressed the little lock on the side. It easily opened up in his hand. I glanced up at him in shock and he smiled and brushed his lips against mine. “It seems easy enough to me.”

Inside it was a tiny slip of paper with a little poem written on it in a flowing hand. Bracca read it to me in a strong, beautiful voice.

Corrupt is the stone and will always be,

until true love shall come to thee.

The power of true love will break any curse,

for no spell is more powerful in the universe.

The words seemed to ring in the air around us. I looked over at Bracca with wide eyes. “What does it mean?”

“I think it has to do with the curse on the blood-stone.”

“Until true love shall come to thee…does that mean us?”

“I think so. I was ready to kill you that day on the lists. I pulled my sword to fight you and then you fell to your knees and told me to go ahead and do my worst.”

“Or words to that effect.”

Yes,” he said, kissing my lips again. “You were ready to sacrifice yourself for me. And I couldn’t hurt you. I knew I could never touch a hair on your beautiful head.”

“Because you loved me too much.”

He smiled down at me a little indulgently. “Yes, a chuisle , because I love you too much.”

“True love. Self-sacrificing love. We were ready to suffer and die for each other.”

“Yes, indeed.”

“Then it was true love that broke my grandfather’s curse. And like the poem says, ‘there’s nothing more powerful in the universe.’ True love can break any curse.”

“Perhaps you’re right.”

We spent a little more time kissing after that—all right, a long time. And then Bracca asked me where I got the locket.

“A lady gave it to me, along with my mother’s book. She said she’d once been close to my mother and her name was Rosheen.”

“ Roisin ,” he corrected me. It means Little Rose in the Fae language. That was a name your mother was once called. The name her people called her, because they said she was as beautiful as a little white rose.”

“Oh. I need to speak to her again.”

“I actually went to look for her a few days ago, when you first showed me your mother’s book. No one at the inn had ever heard of her. And no one saw her there—no one except for you, a chuisle. ”

“Oh my God. She looked like me a little, too, I think. Not the white hair though. Didn’t someone tell me she had hair like mine?”

“She glamoured you for many years. Don’t you suppose she could have done the same for herself?”

“Bracca, do you think it could have been my mother? Come to give me the locket and the book of spells? Was she…not real?”

“She was real enough to give you the book and the locket, because here they are. Maybe it was her spirit. Come back to save you from what happened to her. Save both of us.”

“Oh, I like that. But that would mean she’d be dead. Do you think she is?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. She was a powerful witch. I know that some witches can travel through time and space.”

“But if she knew about true love breaking the curse, why didn’t she use it on her own relationship with my father?”

“Maybe it was too late. Or maybe she didn’t figure it out right away. She had a few years or so to think about it after she left. Maybe she came to you as quickly as she could. Try not to judge her. She had a very unhappy life and like all of us, she probably did the best she could.”

“I know. I’d like to try and find her someday though, if she’s still out there somewhere. And thank her. Perhaps we could go look for her someday.”

“Of course,” he said, and started kissing me again.

“I love you,” I whispered to him, just in case he needed reminding.

“I know,” he whispered back and took me in his arms again.

It was the place I wanted to be forever.

The End