“But you can’t see like us,” he argued. Lexi and Hob shared a nervous glance as the flames on the pillars erupted in hot white fire. Wynn scooped up Mildred and scrambled toward Shadow.
“Can you see as well as her?” Flame tilted her head down toward her tigereon. Shadow bared her long fangs at him and hissed. “She tells me what she sees. That’s all I need to know.”
Another loud boom sounded as the catapults assaulted the shield. It could shatter at any minute. A flash of lightning illuminated the forest, and the rumble of thunder that followed made them all flinch. “We don’t have time for this,” Lexi warned from the edge of the forest. “The Grendel is coming. He will follow the storm and attack the fairy realm as soon as my father breaks through the shield.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Flame said. “I am home.” She crossed her arms, still holding her long staff ready as the sudden gusts of wind from the oncoming front stirred the billowing curls of smoke around her legs. “Come, Shadow.” She turned with her staff, and the beast rose to take its place beside her.
“You can’t run!” Elric shouted at her. The mark on her back stood out. It took up the entire width of her shoulders, a fiery star. The mark of a warrior. “You can’t hide from this. War will tear everything good in the fairy realm and the Nightfell Wood apart. There is no safe place. The Grendel will take over everything. He will destroy everything. The only thing you can do is fight. It is your destiny.” He held out his sword to her. It was hers by right. The silver sword glowed as if it too were on fire. Elric had to squint his eyes as he offered it to her. She was the one born to fight the Grendel, not him.
Flame scoffed and turned her head, not enough to actually face him, but that didn’t seem to matter much to her at the moment. “You want me to fight for the elves?” she said. “Creatures that ruthlessly hunted down all of Shadow’s kind?”
Lexi cringed.
“Or you want me to save the fairies. The ones who are so cowardly that they ordered others to hunt down and kill anything they couldn’t control with their magic—anything with the strength to defy them. Both the elves and the fairies brought this storm upon themselves. The fairies hide under their precious shield. They gladly throw the rest of the world away to rot while they live in their perfect little bubble. And the elves? They are more than willing to destroy in the name of anger and let innocent life perish because it means nothing to them. They have their books, and make their terrible weapons. Yes, the storm is coming. Why should I right it? The world is already broken.” She began to walk away. The fire on the pillars dimmed. The light in the sword slowly died in his hand.
“It doesn’t have to be broken,” Elric called after her.
She paused. He had to use his chance. She wouldn’t listen to him long. He just wasn’t sure the best way to reason with her.
“You can change things. You are the queen’s daughter. She will listen to you.”
She let out a choked laugh that almost sounded like a sob. “My mother? I never had a mother. I have always been alone. How do I know this queen even exists? Shadow has never seen her. If what you say is the truth, if it is real, then she never came for me.” Flame took a step deeper into the darkness as the shadows of her dress swirled over her like a cloak. She turned back, and her hair lit with red fire. “She means nothing to me!” This time stones nearer to the ground burst into flame, and threatened to spread the fire to the trees. “Only Shadow has ever been there for me.”
“The queen still loves you,” Elric said. “Whether you love her or not.” He paused, feeling a tug near his heart. He didn’t have time to get distracted by his own feelings. He looked at Flame. “If the queen didn’t still love you, Wynn and I would not be here. She brought us here to soothe her broken heart. It has never healed since the day she lost you. You are still precious to her—so precious, she named you Estaria, after the stars.”
She turned to him, and Shadow circled around her body. “I don’t know what those are,” she said.
Elric took a step toward her. “They burn. In the deepest part of night, they shine. They give people hope that there is something powerful beyond this world. Even when we cannot see them. Even though we cannot touch them. We know they are always there.”
Wynn came forward and walked past Elric. She held Mildred out and placed her in Flame’s arms. Flame fumbled a bit with the hen, surprised.
“Come back with me?” Wynn asked. Flame gently stroked the bird in her hands. “I want you to be my sister.” Wynn reached out to pet Shadow. “We can be princesses together. I will keep Shadow safe. No one will hurt her. I promise.”
Shadow purred as she rubbed up against Wynn with enough force that Wynn almost toppled over. Elric helped steady her.
“If the Grendel comes,” Wynn said, “he will kill the queen. My first mother died during a storm. I don’t want that to happen again.”
Wynn’s words were jumbled, but Elric knew what she was trying to say. She had lost one mother already. She didn’t want to lose another. They finally had a place where they belonged.
But as he looked at Flame, Estaria, the lost princess, he saw a deep loneliness. An isolation as profound as the first star to appear in the night sky. She had never known what it meant to have a family. She only had her tigereon.
Thunder crashed, or it could have been
