Chapter 3

• Firo closed the door to his room and then leaned back against it with his eyes closed. All of this was going to catch up to him someday, and there was a good chance he wouldn’t survive it. Opening his eyes, he went to his closet and grabbed a clean jacket. The one he’d left in the sitting area would drive him to distraction because of the smell of the forest on it. Anytime he caught a smell similar to that, his mind automatically went there.
• Shoving his arms into it, he paused and stood there staring at the floor. He hadn’t lied to Aireese. He just hadn’t corrected her assumption when he told her the halfling was intended for him. He knew she would go to a sensual outcome and presume the woman was meant for a dalliance. She was not. Avalie was his other half. The one and only that would complete him. Having an affair with a halfling was acceptable to his people. Binding yourself to one for all of your existence was not. Their powers were often unpredictable, and in turn, most of his kind were very threatened by them. He knew how powerful Ava was, and she would not be accepted. At some point, that was going to cause him to make a hard decision. Her or his realm. It was a bad place to be, but in the overall of it, this was the least of his worries. He had secrets from his Queen, his princess, and his one and only. All of which could end him with not much more than a thought.
• Sighing, he reached up and made certain his hair was in order before leaving his room. He smoothed his jacket and squared his shoulders. He didn’t walk around with his wings on display all the time. Instead, his were folded in, and they sat flat, down on his back. His reputation in FaTerra was one that he’d worked hard to accomplish, and walking around with mussed-up hair because you wanted to pull it out wasn’t going to work for him.
• Opening the door, he exited into the hallway and didn’t get three feet before servants were pausing in their task and bowing their heads until he walked by. Very few adults in his realm would make eye contact with him. He supposed that might bother some, but it didn’t him. He didn’t have time for friendly connections.
• He reached the door to the outer courtyard without encountering anyone else. For that, he was thankful. He hadn’t seen his Queen in a few months and was good with that. It didn’t matter how many years passed, she still looked at him with disappointment in her eyes. It broke his heart each and every time.
• Walking with long strides through the courtyard, he glanced around. It was very quiet here today, and he didn’t know why. He chortled internally, he didn’t even know what day it was, so it was quite probable that he’d missed some event or celebration. He still believed letting the entire realm carry on without warning after everything that had happened was a mistake, but it wasn’t his place to make decisions like that. Personally, he would have preferred the traitorous discovered events and lies be shared. That way, he, with other guards, could stand back and watch for the ones that tried to disappear and be unseen. The guilty were predictable in that way.
• Once he was outside the gate, he paused and looked around. It was a bright, warm day today. Flowers in full bloom, birds singing their songs. His realm was a beautiful place. Which made his longing for Interealm even more unsettling. Shaking his head, he started for Astrella’s home. It was a ten-minute walk, but he intended to do it. He needed time to bring his focus back to center. If he didn’t, then his secrets would reveal themselves, and he couldn’t have that. It was one of the downfalls of being a fae. Others could sense his discord and possibly see the lies he hid behind magic.
• When he turned on the path, he saw snow falling up ahead. Some fledgling was trying on her earth magic. He walked in the direction of the snow. He didn’t get far before he could hear the whispers.
• “Oh, flak, I can’t get it to stop.” A young girl said.
• “Well, you better. The Queen’s gardens are just over that wall.” Another hissed.
• “I know. I know.”
• It took great restraint not to grin as he stepped out of the trees to see two young redheaded girls.
• “Oh, it’s Firo.” One of them whispered. The other one squeaked and hid her hands behind her back.
• He looked at them and felt like he was archaic. Their young faces were flushed, their wings still small, and innocence shone from their eyes like the brightest star in the sky. “Ladies.”
• “I’m so, so sorry.” The one waved her hands around. “We didn’t- we were just…”
• He put his forefinger against his lips to hush them.
• “Sorry.” She said one more time and then stood there with fear on her face.
• Firo lifted his hand and waved it through the air, and the snow stopped falling. Both of their mouths dropped open. “I suggest if you’re going to try to make it snow, you do it over a lake.” He offered a slight smile. “The snowflakes melt into the water, and you won’t kill any plant life that way.”
• They both nodded. “Thank you.” One of them whispered.
• “Go.” He said softly and they took off into the trees. Shaking his head, he smiled. What he wouldn’t give to feel a moment of innocence and marvel again. Clearing his throat, he closed his eyes. Walking to Astrella’s was taking time out of his day he didn’t have. Lifting his hand, he flicked his wrist, and when he opened them again, he was standing outside her door.
• The door flew open. “Oh. Firo.” The old fairy inclined her greyed head. “I was just going to come to the palace.” She wrung her hands in front of her. “There was a…”
• “I know. I was in Interealm and saw it.”
• “Was it bright and vibrant? I hope as much.” She stepped back, almost knocking a picture off the wall with wings of silver. “Please come in.”
• Astrella was very old, even by their standards. He could never understand why she didn’t retire and spend a millennium just relaxing after such a long life of service to their people. She refused to, said her job was too important to leave to some fledgling that would muck it up.
• He stepped into her small home and stopped right inside the doorway. She had tiny glass stars hanging from her ceiling. There had to be thousands of them. He didn’t understand the significance of them but knew he couldn’t walk through her home without ducking the entire time. “It was very vibrant.” That was a lie, but he’d learned years ago that it pained her less if she thought the fae that passed on had been celebrated by the sky.
• “It was?” She nodded and then smiled. “She was so young, Firo. To be gone already is a shame.”
• He nodded. Astrella’s idea of young and his weren’t the same. Anything under a thousand years was ‘so young’ to her.
• “Senka. It was Senka.” She whispered and then lowered her head.
• Firo hated that he was right. He knew her. All of the royals did. She was in Interealm to monitor other spells from their people and keep any in check that went awry. He sighed. “I will let our Queen know.”
• “Yes. Do that.” She turned her back to him and walked slowly toward the chair in the corner. “I’m just going to rest for a bit now.”
• Firo watched her sit down and lower her head. He needed to talk to Aireese about finding her an apprentice. If she wouldn’t retire, she should at least have help. “Enjoy your rest, Astrella. I will see you again.”
• “I know, young warrior, the lost lives will never pause, despite how much we wish it so.”
• He nodded and stepped back outside. Closing the door, he looked at it for a moment. There was truth in her words. More of their kind had been dying in Interealm in the last few years, then ever before. Someone needed to find out why.