Page 42 of Accidentally Ever After
The thought should have been alarming. Instead, it felt like the first true thing I’d recognized since waking in my apartment.
I stepped into the center of the fairy ring and waited, heart pounding. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the air around me began to shimmer, the early morning light fracturing into prismatic patterns. The world seemed to fold in on itself, reality bending in ways that should have been impossible.
I’m coming back, I thought, though I didn’t know where “back” was.I’m choosing you. Again.
Light engulfed me, white and blinding, and the world fell away.
When I opened my eyes, I stood in a crystal chamber filled with startled-looking beings with pointed ears and massive, insect-like wings. And directly in front of me, his violet eyes wide with disbelief and dawning joy, was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen.
“Blake,” he breathed, wings extending fully in what I somehow knew was extreme emotion. “You came back.”
“I don’t understand what’s happening,” I admitted, my voice shaking. “I don’t know who you are. But I know I’m supposed to be here. With you.”
He approached slowly, as if afraid I might vanish. “You are Blake Morgan,” he said gently. “And I am Prince Caelen Luminaris of the Autumn Court. We are bonded—consorts—though you cannot remember it now.”
“Consorts,” I repeated, the word feeling right on my tongue despite its strangeness. “Like… married?”
“Yes,” he confirmed, now standing directly before me. “Though the circumstances were… unusual.”
I should have been terrified. Should have been demanding explanations, proof, something to make sense of this impossible situation. Instead, I reached out hesitantly, drawn by an instinct I didn’t understand, and touched his wing.
The contact sent a shock through both of us. His wing trembled beneath my fingers, and images flashed through my mind—not complete memories, but fragments: flying together above a glittering palace, sitting beside a pool of glowing flowers, bodies painted with luminescent patterns, wrapped in wings that felt like home.
“I know you,” I whispered, awed by the certainty even as the specific memories remained elusive. “I don’t remember you, but I know you.”
“The bond remains,” he said, wonder in his voice. “Despite the ritual. You felt it.”
“I found the fairy ring,” I explained. “And this.” I touched the ear cuff. “It was in my pocket, though I have no memory of putting it there. When I put it on, I saw your eyes. I heard your name.”
His own hand rose to touch the cuff gently. “My gift to you, before a formal court function. You must have transferred it to your human clothing at some point.”
An older fairy with enormous wings stepped forward, his expression thunderous. “This proves nothing,” he declared. “The human returns out of curiosity, not choice. The ear cuff is a physical reminder that should not have been permitted.”
“Father,” Caelen said, his voice cooling noticeably. “The terms of the ritual stated only that Blake must choose to return of his own volition, without direct intervention. The bond drew him back, just as the matchmakers intended.”
“I don’t understand what’s happening,” I said, looking between them. “But I know I’m meant to be here. Something led me back, something stronger than memory.”
A fairy woman with butterfly wings in sunset colors approached. “The convergence,” she said, her voice warm and somehow familiar. “The Festival of Lights created a connection that transcends the ritual’s effects.”
“This is highly irregular,” the older fairy—Caelen’s father, apparently—protested. “The council must deliberate on whether this constitutes a valid return.”
“There is nothing to deliberate, Your Majesty,” the sunset-winged fairy said firmly. “As Keeper of the Covenant, I declare the test satisfied. Consort Morgan has returned of his own free will, drawn by the bond despite the absence of memory. The union stands.”
Murmurs broke out among the assembled fairies, most seeming to agree with her assessment. Caelen’s father looked furious but contained, his wings held rigidly against his back.
“So be it,” he said finally, his voice cold. “The presentation will proceed as planned this evening.”
As the other fairies began to disperse, discussing the unexpected development in excited tones, Caelen turned back to me, his expression a mixture of joy and concern.
“You truly remember nothing?” he asked softly.
“Fragments,” I admitted. “Feelings more than specific memories. I know that I… care for you. Deeply. But the details are missing.”
“They will return when the twenty-four hours of the ritual expire,” he assured me. “Until then, I will help you navigate as best I can.”
“So I’m really married to a fairy prince?” I asked, still trying to process the situation. “That’s… not what I expected when I woke up yesterday.”
His lips curved in a smile that felt achingly familiar. “Our beginning was unconventional, to say the least. Though I believe you once called it ‘the best mistake you ever made.’”
