As he rubbed his jaw, a trio Zoe recognized flew up to them. Samuel wasted no time revealing what was up.
"We want to go back to Fairy!" he declared, hovering side by side with Florabel.
"Go?" Zoe's question broke in the middle as Magnus pulled her closer to his side.
Samuel's little chest puffed up, but it was Queen Rajel who addressed her next. She flew a bit above and behind the lovebirds, her face beaming with a joy Zoe hadn't seen on it since Alex blew into town.
"Yes," said the queen of queens. "If a five-year-old child and an ignorant fairy changeling are willing to dare the Evil One's wrath, my people can do no less."
But… what about me? Zoe thought.
"We want to see if what he says is true," Rajel continued, jerking her head toward Magnus. "Much time has passed since the last of us fled Fairy. We want to know if there are other big ones like him, who wouldn't make slaves of us, who believe their only right is to rule themselves."
"You heard that?" Zoe said, remembering Magnus's speech to Alex at the sweat lodge.
Samuel zipped a dizzying circle around her head. "We hear everything that concerns our human."
Zoe swallowed the lump in her throat. She'd always liked being called "their" human. "You don't need my permission to go," she said huskily. "But you have my blessing if you want it."
Florabel flew to Zoe's ear. "The queen would like a confidence spell," she whispered so loudly that Zoe winced. "The opposite of what that one's mother tried to put on you. He knows her magic. He can guarantee we stay brave."
This request gave Zoe an even higher estimation of Magnus's abilities. Her fairies were nothing if not magically gifted. Not knowing what to say, she turned to him helplessly.
He was smiling with red-rimmed eyes.
"Queen Rajel," he said, his formal tone causing the fairy's beaming to falter as she flew to him.
"Prince," she responded, curtseying in the air. "Since you obviously heard that, my people and I humbly request your aid."
"You would have it if you needed it, little queen, but you require my help no more than you did Zoe's permission. You are free will fairies. You reclaimed that title the moment you decided to escape to the human realm."
"But your magic has grown strong here," Rajel said, "among the slow and heavy Earth ethers."
"So has yours," Magnus assured her. "Didn't you fight off my mother when she threatened Zoe the other day?"
Queen Rajel's face twisted. "That was quick," she said. "Too quick to give us time to be afraid. And the ignorant changeling sang with us—which means honor obliges us to protect him now."
Magnus put out his hand, allowing the queen to flutter warily to his palm. "You are brave, Rajel, the bravest queen the little fey have ever known. Being a tiny bit afraid won't change that. All that my good wishes can give, you have, but I cannot steal your victory from you. I know your courage is up to this challenge. You can do what you wish without any help from me."
He seemed a prince as he said this, quietly sure of himself and her. For the first time, Zoe could believe he'd lived for centuries. Rajel also seemed impressed—if a tad suspicious. She stared at him, weighing his words. Then she squared her shoulders and put up her chin.
"Very well," she said, lifting off his hand. "We shall follow the path we've chosen on our own steam." She turned in the air to the horde of fairies who flew behind her, her next words ringing. "We go, my beloved subjects, with our honor bright and our hearts strong!"
"For honor!" Florabel echoed.
"For fun!" Samuel chimed in.
"Before the portal closes!" Rajel urged.
They zoomed away en masse, sparkling like multicolored confetti in the darkening air. The instant they disappeared through the water, Zoe had to hide her face in Magnus's chest.
Thankfully, he understood.
"Don't worry," he soothed, rubbing her back to comfort her. "Those little buggers might not realize it yet, but they wield more power than the rest of my kind combined. I predict they're not going to have any trouble once they're home."
Zoe nodded but couldn't loosen her grip on him. The fairies had been with her since she was a baby. They'd been her most constant and sometimes her only friends. It didn't seem fair that they were leaving only minutes after she'd said goodbye to Alex.
"You'll be all right," Magnus promised. "Neither your power nor your happiness came from them. Okay, maybe your good hair days did, but you'll find a way to compensate."
Zoe couldn't laugh at his joke. "I'm going to be sad for a while," she warned him. "I can't help it."
"I understand," he said, and even as his eyes crinkled in amusement, one tear slipped from them for her sake.
Zoe didn't miss her fairies any less at seeing that, but the bands of longing that had tightened around her chest loosened just a little to know she was loved by him.
Chapter Twenty
"I know you don't remember," Mrs. Pruitt's grown son was telling her, "but we all agreed to this."
Mrs. Pruitt had collapsed back against a tall red boulder that was probably going to ruin her sweater set. She was clutching Zoe's hand hard enough that Zoe's fingers were going numb. The other Oscar knelt before her and spoke gently. He was a pleasant, late twenty-ish young man—though his adroitness at avoiding being sucked into Mrs. Pruitt's hysterics suggested more years than that. His smiling calm reminded Zoe of Magnus, and she wondered if Fairy might be nicer place than its queen's habits suggested.
If it was, that had to be good news for Alex and Oscar.
"I wouldn't have done that," Mrs. Pruitt said, swiping at her nose with the tissue Zoe had given her. "I never would have agreed to give up my son."
"You did it to save my life," the other Oscar said, "and in return, you promised to love the boy you have as if he were your own. My fairy foster mother showed me the dream where we all decided. You said you wanted to experience unconditional love from the inside out. You said your mother had never loved you like that, and you wanted to be different."
Mrs. Pruitt's gasp of recognition was a sound Zoe had heard before. Her clients did the same thing each time her ghosts found the right detail to convince their loved ones that they were real.
"Mother always said my sister was the smart one," Mrs. Pruitt exclaimed. "She said it was lucky I married because I'd never make it on my own the way Conine did."