I gulped the water, catching a droplet from falling off my chin. “She’s… good. Mad about Indra, sad about me, but… good.”
The more I thought about our encounter, the more I realized what a great Queen she was, a strong Queen who could make quick and hard decisions.
“She told me what to do. How to fix things until she can wake up and take over.”
They helped me stand and watched as I chewed nervously on my lip.
“Out with it!” Jasper hissed.
“Don’t talk to her like that. She’s the Queen,” Elle snapped at him, but he waved her off.
I took in a deep breath and then exhaled. “I’m going to invite all the fae from Earth to come home and live back in Faerie. Halflings included.”
I paused for the collective intake of breath.
“The Sons too?” Elle looked worried.
I nodded. “Everyone. Then, we’ll have an army to defend Faerie against future attacks. I can bring the crystals back, and when the Queen wakes, she can restore Faerie,” I said it all in a rush, and they blinked at me like I was crazy.
“Invite themhere?!” Elle shrieked. “What if they steal more crystals or hurt our people?”
“Then I’ll kill them,” I said matter-of-factly. One thing I’d gained from the Queen was that I could not go into this soft-hearted.
“Oh, Ilovethe new you.” Jasper rubbed his palms together conspiratorially.
“She said that? To invite everyone back?” Trissa looked worried, and I reached out and grasped her hand. “She said to bring everyone home, that it was time to end the war.”
A single tear welled in Trissa’s eye before she swatted it away and nodded curtly. “Then, that’s what we’ll do.”
I stood, feeling lighter, taller. The burden of doing this alone was lifted from me. I had the Queen, Trissa, Elle, Jasper, Liam and so many others.
“Did you get the activation? The powers?” Jasper asked.
I shrugged. “I think so. Stand back.”
They all took a generous step backward, and I held my hands out toward the ashy burnt floor. Leaning down, I placed my palms onto the dry brittle ground and pulled up my power. Pulses of light and heat trickled from my chest, down my arms, and out my fingers. It was like I was holding on to a livewire as the pulsing electric power buzzed through me.
Green grasses began to grow up from the cracked ashy ground and then flowers and trees. The lava hardened, becoming a thick mound blanketed with grass as the Spring Castle garden was restored to its former glory.
I stood, brushing my hands off on my thighs. “It worked.”
Trissa and Elle looked happy, but Jasper frowned. “You can’t kill the king with flowers. Shoot that stone wall into smithereens, or I’m not convinced.”
Trissa nodded. “He does have a point.”
Okay… true.
I’d felt the Queen’s power when it sucked into me, but they didn’t know that, and it was best to practice now rather than experimenting with the Winter King where I could be hurt.
Widening my stance, I took a step back and raised my hands, aiming at one of the castle’s outer protective walls. It was solid stone and would be a good test for my new power. Pulling up the light from within me, I let the power build in my palms before shooting it out in one big burst. The light shot from my palm, blasting me backward a little and incinerating the wall before me. It was… dust.
“Holy shit!” Elle breathed.
I’d been rocked back with such force that I teetered on my heels, staring open-mouthed at the ten-foot hole in the wall as the dust cleared.
“Okay, I think I got the full power activation,” I breathed.
Jasper strode across the newly grown grass and peered at me. His bald head and snake tattoo were unsettling to look at, but I’d come to have his presence grow on me.
