A Fairy Tale (36 page)

It must have, for the palace truly came to life. When she’d sat on the throne earlier, it had merely removed the outside barriers. Now it was as though the electricity had been reconnected. Light shone from above onto gleaming surfaces. At the same time, a wave of
awareness
swept over her, and she suddenly knew and understood so many things that it was as though her mind had lit up along with the palace.

Every head in the room turned to face the throne, and Sophie realized that standing on the furniture was hardly dignified, so she gracefully lowered herself into the seat. “Now, y’all stop it right there,” she ordered in her best scolding teacher voice, like she was making a student spit out her gum. “Drop the weapons.” Much to her surprise, they complied, and then they all knelt without her even having to give the order. Maeve was already on the ground, wiping blood away from her mouth, so Sophie couldn’t tell if she meant to be kneeling, but she figured it was safe to assume the others now all knew Maeve wasn’t the rightful ruler, and that was the important part.

“As you can probably tell,” she continued, “the throne is now occupied. Whether or not I’m here, you can consider it occupied, so there’s no point in all this fighting.” They all bowed their heads in acknowledgment, and she had to stifle a smile. She could get used to this.

She allowed herself a sigh of relief when she saw that Amelia and Athena were tending to Michael, and he was moving his good arm again. With a sense of satisfaction, Sophie stood and said, “And now I’m taking my people home, but I will be back.” The knowledge pouring into her brain told her what to do. She removed the crown and placed it in the throne’s seat. A glowing bubble formed around the throne, sealing it and the crown safely out of reach.

Tallulah, who had reappeared at some point in all the commotion, met her at the foot of the dais. “Very good, little one. Our debt is cleared, and you are welcome to dance with us at any time, with no additional obligation.”

“I should think so,” Sophie said, “considering I’m now your ruler.”

Tallulah didn’t kneel, but she did bow her head with a smile as Sophie brushed past her. Emily and Eamon helped Michael to his feet, and they and the enchantresses joined Sophie. “Let’s get out of here,” Sophie said.

“Please!” Emily said with great enthusiasm. “I hope you know how to get us home.”

“More now than ever,” Sophie said. “I can create a gateway, but we’ll have to get outside the palace to do so.” Sophie and her friends headed for the doors at the end of the hall, and all the fairies followed behind. Now that taking the throne was no longer an option, they were jockeying for a position close to the queen.

When they reached the massive front doors, Sophie opened them with a gesture and prepared to enter her Realm.

The Doorway of the Great Hall

A Moment Later

Michael couldn’t tell if the fairies were blindly following their new ruler or if they were up to something, but he braced for another fight. His left arm still tingled, but at least he could move it, thanks to Athena’s balm. He got through the doorway, as did Emily with Beau, Eamon, the two old ladies, and a few of the fairies, who made a hasty departure from the scene. He couldn’t help but look back to see if Jen was coming, too, and then he saw Jen, Maeve, and most of the fairies clumped together in the doorway. “Sophie?” he called softly.

She turned and smiled with a wicked gleam in her odd eyes. “Never take food or drink from strangers, especially strangers you can’t see,” she said. “It looks like you’re stuck in the palace.”

“You’re going to leave us here?” Maeve whined.

“I’m not sure even I could free you. It wasn’t my spell.” Sophie moved forward until she was practically on the threshold, face-to-face with Maeve. “And why should I? You kidnapped my sister—twice. You can expect no help from me. In fact, I think my palace needs staff.” In an instant, all the fairies’ fanciful clothes turned into servants’ uniforms—and not cute French maid stuff, either. They looked like the downstairs staff in the costume dramas Jen used to watch. In spite of the dire situation, Michael almost smiled to himself. If that didn’t lure Jen out of the palace, he wasn’t sure what would. She’d hate being forced to dress that way.

That seemed to be Sophie’s plan. She turned away from Maeve and gestured toward Jen and the other woman, her expression softening. “You two can come with me. You didn’t eat or drink in the palace, so you aren’t bound here. I’m afraid Maeve can’t hold true to her promise to make you a princess. But I could, if you come with me.”

Michael held his breath to see what would happen. He wondered if he should say something or if he should leave it to Sophie. When Jen glanced to him, he couldn’t stop himself from speaking. “Jen, please,” he said, surprised by how badly his voice shook.

For a heartbeat, he thought he’d actually reached her, but then the other human woman hooked her arm around Jen’s, and Jen’s fairy paramour put his arm around her shoulders, shooting Michael a defiant glare. Maeve smiled smugly at Sophie. “It seems your power isn’t absolute,” she purred.

Although Michael was exhausted and sore, and just a few minutes ago he wasn’t sure how he’d make it home from the park, a surge of adrenaline shot through him as his body geared up for a fight. “Why don’t you just let her go?” he shouted at Maeve.

Maeve turned to him, acknowledging his presence for the first time. “I’m not doing anything,” she said, her eyes wide with feigned innocence. “She’s making her own choice.”

Michael would have sprung forward to attack or to grab Jen or to do
something,
but an arm caught him around the waist and held him back as the giant doors slammed shut.

“You can’t get to her like that,” Sophie said.

She was small, but she was too strong for him to break her grasp. “I’m not leaving her.”

“We’ll have to get to her another way.” With the slightest of smirks, she added, “I know people here, people in very high places. I should be able to get something done.”

But he couldn’t go, not when he was so close. “I’m not leaving her,” he repeated, his voice breaking.

“I’ll figure something out, I promise. Now, let’s get Emily home, okay?” He still couldn’t bring himself to move, and she said gently, “Michael?”

“Don’t you dare enchant me,” he said, turning on her with a snarl.

She didn’t flinch from his anger. “Okay, I won’t, if you’ll be reasonable,” she snapped in response. “Do you want to stand here looking dramatic and tragic, shouting to the heavens, or do you want to accomplish something worthwhile?”

Her appeal to common sense made it past the red haze filling his mind, and he took a few deep breaths before saying, “I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I am.” Keeping one arm around his waist, she gently turned him back to face the others. “And now I desperately need to eat something and sleep for about a week, so let’s get Emily home.” He noticed as he walked with her that she was leaning on him almost as much as he leaned against her, and he slid his good arm around her shoulders to offer support. Whatever it was she’d done back there couldn’t have been easy, and there was all that blood. This hadn’t been easy on any of them.

He felt like he was leaving his heart behind as they moved away from the palace.

Outside the Palace

Minutes Later

They walked along a great terrace overlooking the river. Below, on the other shore, the battle had stopped and the soldiers were dispersing. A few stayed and knelt, somehow recognizing their new ruler, even without her crown. Emily wanted to crack a joke about Sophie finally getting the treatment she’d always felt she’d deserved, but this was so far beyond a small-town queen bee scenario that the joke wouldn’t be all that funny.

She kept an eye on Michael as he walked leaning heavily on Sophie. She wasn’t sure how he remained vertical after all he’d done in his condition. Maybe the Realm’s magic had given him a boost. Or Sophie had. He seemed to be a little stronger since Sophie had put her arm around him. Emily didn’t want to speculate on what he might be going through emotionally. Somehow she doubted this was the closure he’d been looking for.

“Wow, it’s really changed since we were inside,” he said. “It’s all Technicolor now. I feel like the Munchkins are going to come out and greet us with a song-and-dance routine.”

“It’s always like this,” Emily said.

“Not when I came in here, it wasn’t. It was like winter, everything dead and dry.”

“So Sophie really did bring the place back to life.” It was slowly dawning on Emily that her sister was a big deal here—and merited it.

“I merely facilitated it,” Sophie said primly.

Emily asked, “How long have I been gone?”

“It was Saturday afternoon when I entered the Realm.”

“That long? It only felt like about a day to me. I don’t suppose there’s any chance we could return last Wednesday.”

“That would require time travel for me, and I don’t think I can do that. But your mysterious disappearance has been great for publicity, so I doubt you’ll be recast. They even had a candlelight vigil.”

“That’s what Eamon said. Did it make the news?”

“I’m not sure. There was a news crew there, but I didn’t watch.”

“Sophie! You should have recorded it.”

“I was busy.”

Even as they bantered, Emily’s dread grew. She’d have to tell Sophie she’d disobeyed the rules and taken a drink. The fairy world was lovely and had its own delights, but Emily really and truly wanted to go home, back to her usual life. She hoped Sophie would know what to do.

Sophie stepped off the walkway onto the grass, released Michael, and waved her hands in a sweeping arc, leaving a shimmering space in the shape of a broad doorway. With the gateway formed, Emily knew this was her last chance to come clean. She blurted, “Um, well, there is something we need to talk about before we can go home.” She hesitated, then plunged ahead before Sophie could ask her what was wrong. “I took a drink. I know I wasn’t supposed to, but I was trying to buy time by singing every song I knew for Maeve, to string her along while she waited for the right one, and I hadn’t had anything to drink in ages. I couldn’t sing anymore without some water, and when I stopped singing she talked about sending gangs into the city to kidnap you, so I had to sing the first verse to stop her, and I took a drink—just a couple of sips, but I could tell it did something to me.” When the words stopped tumbling out of her, she felt as breathless as if she’d just done a tap number while singing. If she hadn’t been panting, she’d have held her breath, waiting for Sophie to respond.

“What does this mean? Is she trapped here, like Jen?” Michael asked.

Sophie shook her head. “I don’t know. Most of my information is folklore. I do know that eating or drinking within the Realm makes it harder to leave, but I don’t know what the threshold is. A couple of sips may not be enough to make a difference, and you do have some fairy blood. That may matter.”

Emily swallowed the lump in her throat. “Okay, worst-case scenario, what happens?”

“You’re stuck here for seven years.”

“
Seven years?
That will kill my career.”

“Then again, I am queen of the Realm, so you’d think I have some pull, so long as you want to go back.”

“I do, believe me, I do.”

“Well, since I’m queen, that means I represent the Realm. If you’re with me—if you’re attached to me—then maybe that counts as being in the Realm even if you’re outside.”

“And by attached, you mean …?”

Sophie turned a little pink and glanced down at her shoes before saying, “You’d have to swear fealty, more or less that you belong to me.”

Emily put a hand on her hip and glared at her sister. “You have
got
to be kidding.”

“It’s just a formality. It’s not like it means anything.”

“What do I have to do?”

“Start by kneeling.”

“You’re enjoying this way too much,” Emily muttered as she knelt in front of her sister. She started to think that this was just formalizing the way things had always been, but then it occurred to her that though Sophie was bossy, she was usually the one doing things for others. She was never the one being waited upon. “I swear to serve you for seven years, your majesty,” she said, then added as she stood, “And you’d better not take advantage of me.”

“I told you, it was merely a formality.”

“So I’m okay now?”

Sophie pulled off her sweater and handed it to Emily. “Here, put this on.”

Emily held it distastefully at arm’s length. “It’s covered in blood.”

“I know, but giving the captive an article of your own clothing to wear is another way of getting someone out of the Realm. I don’t want to take any chances.” As Emily reluctantly struggled into the too-small sweater, Sophie turned to Eamon and asked, “Do you have any other ideas?”

“She is likely to pine, with or without having drunk.” He clasped Emily’s hand in his and added, “But perhaps if I go with her, she will feel the loss less.”

“That could work,” Sophie said with a nod. “Like fairy methadone, a little bit of the Realm to help overcome the addiction to the Realm itself. Okay, then, everyone, hold hands. I think I need to be connected to all of you to get you through the gateway.”

Sophie and Eamon stood to either side of Emily, so she was flanked by the two strongest in fairy magic. If they couldn’t get her home, Emily didn’t think anyone could. Athena held Eamon’s other hand, with Amelia on her other side, holding Beau’s leash. Sophie put her arm around Michael, and Emily thought those two looked awfully comfortable like that.

That thought distracted her so that she barely noticed when Sophie stepped forward. The next thing she knew, she was in a world that was dull and flat. She fought to go back, but then Eamon touched her cheek, and she looked into the swirling colors of his mercury eyes. He, at least, had color in this drab place. As long as she focused on him, she was okay. She looked to her other side and saw that her sister was as bright as ever—brighter, even—with her strawberry blond hair standing out against a muted landscape.