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Killian laughed and tugged his fingers through Jax’s thick black fur. “As am I, my friend.” Killian’s smile faltered when he looked over at Meshougi. Her whole countenance was frozen, and tears welled in her dark eyes. Across the clearing, two women, one short and round and the other slightly taller and waifish, stared at Meshougi with gaping mouths. They clung to each other with clasped hands.
Meshougi rose to her feet and took a step forward toward the duo.
The shorter of the two women, reached a shaky hand forward. “Shourentameta’il?”
Meshougi nodded, and the waifish lady burst into tears. Meshougi opened her arms. Then all three women ran to each other and collapsed in a heap on the ground. Embracing and weeping, they spoke L’Turetian so quickly that despite all Raela’s lessons, Killian couldn’t make out half of it. The tallest woman just kept crying, “Shou, Shou, Shou!”
The short, round woman pulled back and looked at Meshougi—or Shourentameta’il—as she held her face in her hands. Love radiated from all of the women. After a moment, Shourentameta’il pulled back, clasping the others’ hands, and tilted her head toward Killian and his friends. Speaking in Common, she asked, “Have you met the prince?”
The shorter lady leaned over, her lip curled in disgust. She murmured in L’Turetian slow enough that Killian caught it. “Sadly, yes. Our Raelametanashi, he has turned her head. He’s poisoned her heart.”
Shourentameta’il laughed. “Oh, Motukalatabeli, since when is love poison? You forgot yourself all these years!” she said in Common. “The prince loves her in return, you know.”
A slow realization dawned within Killian as he remembered Raela talking about her aunties. Auntie Mo, Auntie Toru and … AuntieShou.Auntie Mo turned toward Killian with a high arched brow and stumbled through Common. “Do he? Do he know the curse has fallen? She sleeps?”
“Raela sleeps?” Killian said as he moved closer, his brows furrowed thoughtfully. “But the princess …”
“The dark fairy fly to the castle in moments past.” The tall, waifish woman interrupted, biting her finger in between her teeth. “We must go fast. Whole castle sleeps now.”
Auntie Shou frowned. “Toru, Momo, did you forget to practice Common?” Her sisters ducked their heads. Auntie Shou leaned toward them. “Then who taught Raelametanashi to speak it?”
The waifish one, Auntie Toru, scratched her neck and replied in L’Turetian. “Her magic is honed, and she speaks L’Turetian very nicely, Shou.”
“You didn’t continue to teach her after I left?” Auntie Shou dropped their hands in her surprise. “How did you think that would go when she went to court? When she becamequeen?” The Auntie Mo’s cheeks flushed bright crimson as she crossed her arms. Auntie Toru hid her face in her hands. Auntie Shou just shook her head and laughed. “Oh, my sisters.ThatI didn’t foretell. Ah well. Thankfully, the prince now knows some of our language, thanks to our Raelametanashi.”
Phineas and Jax came up beside the trio, and Auntie Shou made rapid introductions. The aunties bowed to Jax deeply before Auntie Shou called their attention. “We need to hurry home, rest and ready ourselves, and save our girl.”
Killian agreed, but he was still confused. “But the princess. Zalina said the princess was cursed. The princess slept. Are you saying …”
Auntie Shou reached back and tugged on his sleeve, clasping it with both her hands. “Come, my dear. I will tell you everything as we walk to the cabin.”
Auntie Toru beamed and bounced on her heels until she rushed forward and clasped Killian’s other arm. “Come, come. Hungry? I feed you.”
But as they turned to leave, Auntie Mo planted her feet and stayed rooted in place like the tree beside her. Her face flickered with waves of emotion. “Shou, we made cake every fourth season. On the day you left us. Why did you go? Why did it take you so long to return?”
Auntie Shou smiled sadly. “I’ve been waiting for the prince. Waiting for this day. It was the only way to save us all. The visions were clear. After Zalina stole her father’s magic—and after she killed the queen—I had no time to lose if I wanted to melt into the chaos of the magical shift and become nothing and no one to her.”
Auntie Mo’s eyes glazed over with tears. “You didn’t say goodbye.”
“I’m sorry, Momo, Toru. I loved you, and I hurt for you every moment and with every breath, but it was the only way to protect you, to help him, and to save Raela,” Auntie Shou whispered, her voice wavering. “The visions said as much. Telling you would have altered the future and prevented this very reunion. But I also knew I would come back. And Killian has made it so.”
“We felt you enter the forest,” Auntie Mo said.
“With a great darkness,” Auntie Toru added. “Where did that go?”
“What happened?” Auntie Mo asked.
Auntie Shou held up a hand. “All in good time, my sisters. But first we must tell the prince about his princess.” With this, Auntie Mo nodded sharply, stepped forward, and grabbed Phineas’s forearm. Auntie Toru held tightly to Killian.
As they walked through the forest, Auntie Shou began, her hand through Jax’s fur. “Phineas had asked why Zalina didn’t kill the princess or you. Do you remember?”
He canted his head. “Something about blessings.”
“Indeed,” she tightened her grip. “You were there, actually. On the day of the curse and the day of the blessing. All the fairies had gathered at the moment of Raela’s birth in Walworth. Toru blessed her with beauty, and Mo blessed her with magic. Then Zalina, came in her father’s stead to represent the fairies of the Spires. The magic of the land transfers through the father, or through marriage, as you know. So being jealous of her mother’s love and bitter that she was not acknowledged as a daughter of the queen, Zalina cursed the princess. Before her eighteenth birthday, the princess would prick her finger on a shaft of wheat and die.
“We were horrified.” The three fairies shuddered simultaneously. Auntie Shou continued. “Once a gift or curse is given, it couldn’t be undone. But it could be altered. Only the last fairy could shift the curse, so instead of dying, I blessed the princess, saying she would only sleep until it was broken by true love’s kiss.”
“Ever the romantic, Shou,” Auntie Mo murmured.
