Page 71 of Knowing Trust

One of the nobles said we had to let them into their houses and we could handle that as it came. That he would open his home to a couple dozen if they didn’t mind doubling up. He could put protective magic on his expensive paintings and seal off part of the house they shouldn’t be in.

And that was the answer. We could all do that. We’d been so focused on the mess that we didn’t take a step back and figure out the solution was right in front of us.

It made me feel stupid if I was honest, but there was just so much.

People came out of the woodwork to open their homes when they realized that was the hold up to waking more fairies. I spent hours and hours unlocking barriers I put over housing and sections of cities once all the paperwork was in order and fairies were able to prove they owned the houses. It all started to come together much faster.

Which led to another huge awakening Saturday morning. This was probably going to be the last one before finals, everyone agreeing that more needed to be handled with getting the administrative side done and even the logistics to plan out where all the construction would be next. People needed notice and to make plans as well. It was all complicated.

Too complicated, but we needed to make it work… And I needed to accept some people were going to have to live in slums while we fixed the world.

It seemed like such a bitch move while I was looking at wedding dresses and excited about the cake I’d decided on after the hobgoblin bakery had made a bunch of samples. I was honestly all hearts and rainbows as I told the commanders how cute Julian and I had been tasting all of the samples and he wanted to make the flowers for our ceremony.

Yeah, they were shocked.

They would get over it.

The guest list was already getting out of control though for us to elope. My dad, Izzy, Darby, Hudson, Lucca, and Neldor. Then Iolas demanded to be there since he was my godsfather. Katrina hinted that she would cry if she wasn’t involved. Irma too. Fine, I accepted that. Shael and Stefanie were hinting as well.

Well, I couldn’t just invite some of the commanders even if I only liked some of them… Actually, screw it. It was my wedding.

But it also seemed wrong not to invite White if Katrina was coming. Oh, and Katrina was involved with Taeral now so we couldn’t exclude him. Ara seemed like she hoped she’d get to see it just on my detail… And so did the rest of them.

And Claudia was with Izzy. But Geiger also looked sad he wouldn’t be invited, but then that meant Cluym. Now it was getting weird if I didn’t invite Mel and probably Sasha… So yeah, the guest list was spinning out fast.

“So much for eloping,” I grumbled after Calarel muttered that she loved weddings and should be there to make sure everything went okay that day.

“Your demigod father could cloak and silence us so we’re not imposing, Your Highness,” Commander Talila offered. I couldn’t even hide my shock. She had hated me! She simply shrugged. “I love weddings too and… We all need some happy. You making it with the warlock who hurt you—I think my soul has healed some that you worked things out.”

“Praise be to the gods,” someone else agreed as people got into place.

“I’m going to have to invite more of Julian’s people. We weren’t going to invite Nelson or Edelman, but if you lot are all—this is getting silly.”

“You have a lot of people who love you both,” Iolas chuckled. “Keep it informal. It’s the formal you hate, Tamsin. Have it on the veranda of the castle overlooking the ocean and we can all bring food and just say your vows sweetly as you wanted. No speeches or spotlight things you hate.”

I opened my mouth but then closed it. “You promise no speeches?” I blew out a harsh breath when they all nodded. I found Taeral in the group. “You need to reel in Katrina. She’s talking floral arrangements and all kinds of crazy. I have enough stress.” I pouted. “Julian wanted to make the flowers and be romanticable.”

“We will help him—preserve them—whatever,” Iolas promised. “And we can handle Katrina.” He held up his hands in surrender when Taeral cleared his throat. “I meant Shael and Stefanie can sit on her.”

“I would pay to see that,” someone else snarked.

Oh, dear gods. Really? These people.

“I will discuss it with Julian,” I finally declared. “I would validly skin him if he just decided all of this for us, and I’m not going to do the same to him.”

“We’re all in place, Your Highness,” one of the coordinators told me, giving me a wink when I glanced over at the woman. She was trying to save me from being pressured and I greatly appreciated it.

Still, I got to work letting out my wings and ramping everything up. I felt more and more fairies wake. With this last group that we hoped to get the rest of a large city cleared out completely. It was one in the dark realm that most were waiting to get back to normal.

We had construction going on and more, but… It was difficult to open houses when there was a frozen fairy five feet in front of their door. Nothing was normal about that. So we were done with being fair and going round-robin, and we were going back and forth between the different realms and clearing full cities and surrounding areas in between waking more kids.

It was really the only way to keep things moving.

“Call more people,” I warned people after the ringing in my ears stopped after I shut it all down. I nodded when they hesitated. “This was bigger. Much bigger.”

“We’re ready for a hundred and fifty thousand, Your Highness,” Onas told me. “We do learn from our mistakes.” He froze when I didn’t respond. “Are you saying it’s more?”

I ran my tongue over my teeth and met his gaze. “I don’t have like a gauge or anything.”

---