Fairy Keeper (29 page)

ll the hairs on Sierra’s body stood on end as Nell-who-was-not-Nell spoke. Corbin’s eyes widened, his mouth moving without sound coming out.

When she finished her last ominous statement, she started to collapse, but Corbin caught her in time to lay her gently on the ground. This time, instead of Nell falling into a deep sleep, her eyelids fluttered for several heartbeats before she sighed deeply.

“Fascinating,” Micah murmured.

“That’s what you call it?” Sierra replied.

Nell’s eyes snapped open, pale blue again, and she gasped, “What happened?”

It took a fair amount of time to calm her. She was ready to pound fists into the nearest tree to make this thing leave her alone, but no one knew what
it
was, much less how to make it shut up.

“Besides,” Sierra pointed out, “It seems like this voice is trying to help us. It’s sending a message, right?” She pointed at Corbin. “What do
you
think she meant at the end?”

“And by ‘she’ let’s be clear that it’s
not me
,” Nell snarled, then muttered more about “invisible spirits” and “complete madness.”

Corbin spared her a sympathetic glance, but his eyes mostly stayed focused far into the distance as he often did when thinking hard. Sierra loved that he could set aside weird prophecies, dragon attacks, and fairy mysteries in order to think about a specific problem with every fiber of his being.

He finally answered, each word coming slowly as he pondered. “I think that keepers were meant to protect fairies from the very thing we ended up doing to them ourselves. Kind of ironic, isn’t it? Between the alchemists and the healers, we haven’t done a very good job of keeping the fairies from getting abused―not even me.”

Sierra winced at the mention of alchemists. Once again, her life as Jack’s daughter slapped her in the face. Silence fell upon them except for the creaking of the ancient trees swaying in the wind. The sound bled loneliness into the cold dawn air.

Micah broke the awkward stillness. “I do not know about this prophecy, but my parents said magic had been dwindling their entire lives. I can tell you the world has changed even since I have been alive. There is less magic, yes, but the world feels… ill. I cannot think of the proper words for it.”

Sierra thought to ask her queen through their new connection.
What did she mean by “Start with the fairies?”

Free… Free… Free…
the longing in Queen’s emotions made Sierra sway, made her eyes prickle.

“I think,” Sierra spoke reluctantly, still unwilling to share the source of her information, but knowing the message itself had to be shared. “I think Corbin’s right. It means we’re supposed to let the fairies be free. Still be with them, still help them, but stop taking any nectar, and stop thinking of them as basic creatures to use for our own advantage.”

“But I never did,” Corbin said, voice soft.

Sierra’s cheeks burned because he was right. Micah was right, too. The message might as well be directed right at her. Sure, Jack made her take more nectar than she’d like, but she never really cared very much, did she? No, she cared about the beatings, about her lack of choice, about how Flight dominated their lives. She always hated the elixir, but not because of what it did to the fairies or the magical world. She hadn’t even known that was a problem.

No, she hated what it did to people she knew, friends from the docks. She saw them grow emaciated and brittle, dreaming away their days without eating until they starved to death with a smile on their face. She hated being any part of that. But she never really thought Queen could understand enough to hate it, too. To maybe hate her keeper for using her that way.

Shame swelled in Sierra. Turning away from everyone, she strode to the edge of camp, only a few trees deep, for some privacy. She sent out a tendril of thought to Queen, sort of a sense of questioning, “
???
” and the fairy came. Queen glimmered in the pink morning light. The sun had risen above the trees sometime during Nell’s unexpected performance, and Sierra hadn’t even noticed.

Without a hatch, the fairy glowed less than usual. Queen missed her little fairies. She wanted to have a home again. Sierra knew this because she sensed it. They were becoming more and more entwined, and for once, instead of scaring Sierra, it made her feel she’d been ungrateful for their connection all this time.

She lifted her hand, and Queen landed in Sierra’s cupped palm. She lifted Queen close and whispered, because she needed to say this out loud, “I’m so sorry, Queen. I―”

The words got stuck on her tongue. The
I love you
Sierra wanted to say wouldn’t slip past her teeth. Old habits died hard.

“I want you to be happy, too,” she murmured, which was the best she could do.

Queen caressed her wings against Sierra’s cheeks and smiled, the fairy’s little golden face charmingly beautiful. She didn’t reply in words, not even in Sierra’s mind. Words were unnecessary. Queen’s forgiveness was there in her smile. Maybe the word ‘keeper’ was the wrong word to use. Sierra wasn’t keeping anything; she was guarding the fairies, perhaps? She wasn’t sure, but certainly if the word keeper was used, it had to go both ways. Her fairy was Sierra’s keeper, too. They were each other’s keeper.

Micah approached, eyes somber. “I did not mean to hurt your feelings with what I said earlier. I understand you had little choice in your life until now. You are a strong, worthy human, deserving of your queen. It’s what you do from here on out that will matter the most.”

Sierra nodded, humbled by the grace he offered. “Thank you. I shouldn’t have kept taking all that nectar for Jack. I knew it upset the fairies, but I didn’t care. I should’ve found a way to change things a long time ago, but I didn’t realize how much I was hurting them. I couldn’t really focus on much else besides getting through each day. But I want to help fix things now. I want to do right by Queen.”

“And so you shall.”

He squeezed her hand for a moment before returning to the others. Contentment wiped away some of her shame and sadness. Micah and Queen both forgave her. Maybe one day she could forgive herself.

The four travelers took the morning to rest and plan their return strategy. Until now, Sierra hadn’t permitted herself to consider what would happen after reaching this point. Careful planning was necessary, but time was running out. They needed to get home. Now. They’d already lost too much time in the mountain from the unexpected fairy attack. With her newfound affection for Queen, Sierra felt even more reluctant to state this out loud, but her love for her sister hadn’t changed. “Look, this sounds harsh, but I have to get my sister.”

No one looked surprised.

“We’re only a week or so out. Let’s go, act like I’m going to set up a happy hatch and give all the nectar to Jack―”

Queen fluttered, and Sierra waved her down.

“No, no, it’d be pretend, see? We
pretend
we’re going to do what he wants, but then we’ll take Phoebe and run with Queen.”

“Where to? Where can’t Jack find you?” Corbin asked, kicking a tree trunk.

So her optimistic friend had finally realized this would not be easy. She shook her head. “I don’t know. We’ll figure that part out as we go. The important part is to get Phoebe safe.”

Nell looked like she wanted to argue, but then she bit her lip and fell silent. Sierra raised her eyebrow. Nell hushing herself was about as unexpected as her prophecy earlier. Sierra wondered if Nell had even asked herself what she’d do when they got back.

They set off after lunch. The day went quickly once they got moving, with very little conversation, all lost in their own thoughts. That night, Corbin built up a fire twice the size as usual, as if the light would keep back any other potentially deadly creatures. When they voted to take turns keeping watch, Micah said he’d take the first shift.

Relief filled Sierra, surprising her. It wasn’t like her to hand over her safety to someone she barely knew. But she found herself preparing for sleep, fearless of what the night might bring.

Sierra didn’t know when she handed him her trust. So few had it. And here was Micah, not even human, with unknown powers. Trust probably began after the cave but crystallized for sure after he apologized for hurting her feelings. The fact that he could steer away a small dragon didn’t hurt, either.

She looked around the clearing and realized her inner circle of people she’d fight and die for had grown. It used to be only Phoebe and grew to include Corbin during their childhood. That was it. Now, though, Sierra thought Nell might have wriggled her way in. Their time after the quake forced Sierra to admit not everything was so black and white.

She’d fight for Queenie, too. Sierra’s journey to find her fairy was for her sister, but the journey after they saved Phoebe, that was for Queenie…

And when did I start calling her Queenie?
Sierra wondered.

The fairy’s giggle floated through Sierra’s mind like silk and made her smile despite herself. Queenie apparently liked the new nickname. And Micah?

Sierra forced herself to meet his eyes, acknowledging to herself, if to no one else, she had feelings for him. Plenty of them. There was true friendship for sure, but there was the potential for more, though she wasn’t really ready to think on
those
feelings yet. Micah was in a class by himself. Simply being near him made her wish they had all the time in the world to hang out in these woods, where he’d spent so much time. How much did he know about magic that humans had discounted as myth?

But time was not their friend. They had seven days before Phoebe would be sent away to Bentwood. Micah didn’t have a chance against that kind of urgency.