Page 30 of Finding Closure

I snorted. Did he really need to ask?

We got two more each. Of course we did.

It was crazy, but the whole festival revolved around all the recipes with that fruit and those nuts.

And it was awesome. Not just the food but how happy everyone was. People were smiling and laughing everywhere I looked. It was—I’d never seen fairies like that.

I mean, it was understandable after all they’d been through, and the reasons I was around them were always serious but… This was amazing.

“Can we get jars of this and have it with pretzels?” I asked him after we hit up another stall.

He nodded. “Now that the stores will start carrying it again because the farmers are harvesting and the economy is recovering.”

“We should sell this on Earth and—”

“Shut your brain off or I’ll stop feeding you, baby doll,” he threatened.

“Stupid fairy,” I grumbled even as I hurried after him. I groaned when I saw where he was bringing us.

A pie eating contest. For real.

“Oh, this isn’t even fair,” I chuckled.

“We have competitive eating like you’ve never seen,” he warned.

Sure enough, we got our asses handed to us. I didn’t care. I honestly feltworldsbetter that there were a lot of fairies who could actually shovel it in faster than I could. Seriously, the jokes about unhinging my jaw and eating so much… I saw the people who they really referred to.

I didn’t know it was physically possible to eat five pies as fast as the top three did. And the winner was a woman.

I bowed to her abilities.

Oh, and the pie was fan-fucking-tastic.

We bought bags of roasted nuts, and he hurried to pull me along. I wasn’t sure why, but he won, and I was listening to him for whatever he wanted.

At least for the night.

We sat on some benches that were brought in, and my heart melted as some of the cutest kids ever did a dance dressed as the fruit and nuts. It was clearly something done every year as people were doing some of the moves with them and cheering along.

“Tell me you did that when you were a munchkin?” I asked him quietly.

“Not with the local kids,” he admitted. “That would have made them nervous and the parents worried. But Father was a big believer in learning everything important in the realm so yeah, I know it. He also learned most of the dances the Guardians did.” He smiled as he watched the kids. “He used to jump in like I did when I showed you how they danced.”

“Glad you’re keeping the tradition alive,” I said as I bumped his shoulder.

“Yeah, me too.” He moved his hand to my knee. “Someday we’ll teach our kids this dance too, baby doll.”

I swallowed loudly but didn’t argue or tell him to stuff it. We both knew it had to happen someday, and since I was pretty sure I was in love with the stupid fairy, I didn’t… As long as we could make Faerie safe for our kids and they wouldn’t have to suffer as we both did.

We shared a look and I knew we were on the same page.

As long as they wouldn’t have to suffer as we did, we would have kids.

One day in the very distant future.

A large boom startled me, and I dropped my food as I stood and let my wings out, throwing up a barrier to protect everyone around us.

People all around us gasped, and I realized I’d also dropped the glamour to tap into my magic fully and protect everyone.

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