Page 53 of Fairies Don't Fall

“But surely Lord Vervain…”

I raised a brow. “He wishes to remain friends and nothing more.”

“Why will you not take him? It is your right, your power.”

I scowled at him, forgetting to be regal. “Pontif, do you honestly think it’s a good start to my official ruling to force some guy to be my one and only? Seriously, you think I would do something so unjust and stupid? Move along. You have work to do. If we’re going to make me queenly, everyone will have to do their best.”

He bowed low and hurried off.

Ruin elbowed me. “Even with your glow-up, you still scare the snot out of him. He looked at you like you were going to rip off his head and eat his brain as pudding. Doesn’t he know that fairies are vegetarians?”

I stared at her while I remembered Pontif in the battle, helping hold Malamech down with strands of ropes he’d made out of silk while I ripped out the Lupin Sorceror’s heart and ate it. “It is a puzzle why he’d react like that,” I murmured.

“Seriously, if all the fairies are that nervous around you, maybe you should cast your net a little wider. What about elves? They’re kind of beautiful, and they have lots of skills. Like shooting bows, and their warriors are pretty tough. They wouldn’t be so nervous around you, just because you’re a princess.”

“Elves dislike fairies, and the feeling is mutual.”

“Why?”

“Music, magic, and information. Fairies record their knowledge in plants, but elves have scrolls. Elves collect knowledge from everyone, but they can’t source ours, which is eternally frustrating to them. They can’t terraform a shell, but we’re so flighty and undisciplined. It drives them crazy that we can do so much with so little effort.”

“What about music? Oh. The fairies sing and the elves weep. That makes sense. Fairies really are awful.”

“We do more dancing than singing spells.” I shrugged. “It’s what we are. Anyway, it will be enough of a peace offering to request some musicians to play for my coronation.” I grabbed the arm of a fairy going by. “Gerania, will you see that someone polite and willing to condescend goes to elf land to request musicians for my coronation and the ball?”

Gerania stared at me. “Wouldn’t Vervain…”

“He’s not here right now. Which reminds me, I need to find someone to go after him. Which of the guards is not personally in his pocket? I could search minds, but that would take time.”

She flinched at the idea of me going into someone’s head. “The wolf-fairy, his name is Felix. He stayed away from Vervain, and Vervain hasn’t officially interfered with his success, but he’s made his disapproval clear.”

“Thank you, Germania. You’re doing a great job.”

I summoned the wolf-fairy while Ruin climbed on a balcony railing thirty feet from the stone below and then did a handstand.

“My Lady,” Felix said, sounding uncertain, like he should call me ‘Queen’ but traditionally I had punished people for using that title by making them listen to Vervain lecture about the history of Queenship and explain all the reasons why I wasn’t a Queen. “You summoned me?”

“Yes, Felix. I would like you to go into earthland after Vervain and bring him back before he starts torturing fairies outside of my jurisdiction. We can make a statement about the former Lady Dawn, but as she has exiled herself, there is nothing more to do.” However much I wanted to personally rip off the head of the person who had betrayed our people, my mother, her own sister, it was out of my hands. Even if the thought of her made my hands tremble and my claws prick. I really was incredibly balanced, thanks to Max. I could focus on the future. Be a Queen that my mother would be proud of.

“Yes, my lady. Can I take some guards? Vervain will not be easy to control.”

“For his protection, you may take as many guards as you like. You will not harm him. He is my most loyal subject, even if at times he gets slightly unhinged.”

Felix bowed low and then loped off, ready for excitement.

Ruin dropped to the stone behind me. “Felix is a funny name for a wolf-fairy.”

I turned to look at her. “Is it? Oh. Cat. That is funny.” I smiled and linked arms with her as we walked towards the doorway. “Are you ready for the glow-up? The fairies are dying to get started.”

She grinned at me mischievously. “Yes, my Queen. The next time Felix looks at me, he’ll think I’m a goddess.”

I kept smiling as we walked, but my skin was starting to flinch away from the entire idea of losing my old skin, my old wings, and becoming something else, something that couldn’t hide from the burden of responsibility. But it was time.

I had to protect my people. I would need to establish alliances with as many races as I could, which meant correspondence, which meant reading and writing. I would need to have a system of spies throughout Fairyland and all the other worlds who reported only to me. I would need to organize our entire kingdom, and hunt down the producers of pixie dust and put an end to that as well as…The list went on forever and ever. I needed this ball to get as many people together as possible so I could ferret out any traitors before I lost more of mine.

And I had to do it all without thinking about Max.

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