I nearly choked. “What? You? You’re gay?”
“What? No, I am a fairy fairy.”
“The fuck do you mean you’re a fairy?!”
“The fuck do you mean you met the Morrigan?” Katie threw my words back calmly. “No one just meets The Morrigan. Unless they’re about to die.”
That really stunned me. How could she possibly...? I felt my blood start to boil. “Why the fuck does everyone keep secrets from me?” A tingling sensation spread throughout my body. Carbonated anger.
“What was I supposed to say?” she cried. “‘Oh, hi Keira, I’m your friendly magical fairy’. I’m sure you’d have believed me.”
Of course not. But I was fucking mad anyway. “Oh, this is the cherry on the fucked-up magic sprinkles sundae my life has become.”
“How many other fairies did you know in Athens, Georgia? You’d call for the straight jacket brigade.”
“Oh, right. Because I could care less about you. Is that what you mean?”
“I couldn’t tell you. Or any mortal. Fairy business is weird, and… confidential. So is all magic, now. For self-preservation.”
“Preservation from what?”
“Everyone. Everyone without magic. Mortals.”
“Even your ‘best bestie’? Trust much?” My rising fury made me see red.
“I was just trying to protect you.”
The bed started to shake, like a freight train was rumbling by just outside the wall. Katie looked at me with cautious unease.
“Let me worry about protecting myself!” I yelled, fists clenched at my sides. “I’m fucking used to it by now. I’ve been alone my whole life!”
A rattling noise grabbed my attention. I glanced toward a picture frame, vibrating against the wall, getting louder, enough to startle me.
But this startled surge of emotional energy just caused a sort of magical feedback loop. The painting flew off the wall and hurtled toward Katie. She barely ducked in time. That only seemed to provoke me more.
I stood on the bed and shouted down at Katie. “I opened myself up to you! And you make jokes about being a FAIRY?!”
“It’s not a joke. I swear I really—”
“Asshole! That’s even worse!” I screamed.
The door burst open. Four befuddled behemoths tried to squeeze in past each other. This was the final Mentos dropped into the Diet Coke inside my brain, and I exploded with anger. “A FUCKING FAIRY?!”
“Keira, please,” she begged. “You’ve got to calm down! I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you this stuff, but—” Katie was silenced by a phantom pillow hurled at her face. Then another. My angry mind whipped every pillow off the bed at Katie now.
“You’d better be glad it’s just pillows!” I shouted in fury. I held up my hands, and Zippo, my mind-flame app, whirled and hopped and tantrumed with me. Dark tendrils of black smoke trailed across the room and hovered dangerously close to Katie’s face.
“Don’t just stand there.” Katie whimpered at the boys. “Wolfman! Leprechaun! Warlock! Butler!? Anyone! I could use a little help here!”
She calls them Wolfman? Leprechaun? Warlock? I looked over to the guys. Whoah, shit. Each pair of eyes were glowing now, displaying supernatural shades of blue, green, and black.
Keegan exclaimed “Oh, shit!” as one of the smoke tendrils surged forward. Katie morphed into a ball of light, and zipped into a corner of the room.
“Wait?” Keegan stammered. “She IS a fairy?!”
And finally, the truth of it finally poked through the rage in my brain. She’s not shitting me. Katie... a real live Fairy...
“Keira...” Orin said, calmly. “You need to calm down, Princess.”
“You’re shaking the entire house!” Keegan added.
“Fuck you! My best friend just turned into a ball of fucking light!” I yelled. “And you assholes!” I jabbed an accusing finger at them. “You all have secrets too!”
“Let us explain.” Brann mumbled. “But you must calm yourself first.”
“Someone better start telling me the whole Goddamn truth! NOW!” My voice surged to a terrifying roar, and the house began to quake even more.
Orin took a step forward, and a tendril extended from my fingers, nose-to-nose with him. He stopped. Impressed. “She’s got range. And she’s cut to the onions, sure.”
“Beyant that.” Keegan added. “She’s after bring down the house with us inside it!”
“Give me a moment. Dispelling is tricky, but...” Brann touched a rune and muttered an incantation, only to have his concentration break, as a vase hurtled past his face. “Dammit, she’s losing control!”
I heard Brann’s words, and it made me shudder. Even so, the vase made a u-turn, taking another pass at Brann’s head. I really am out of control.
Suddenly Weylyn made his move. He gently rested a hand on my shoulder from behind. “Keira, please,” he said softly. “I know you’re upset—”
“I just want the truth!”
“Please try to calm down. Once you do, all the magic will turn off.”
Weylyn’s hand on my shoulder both surprised and reassured me in a way I didn’t expect. It was a genuine, healing gesture.
“I... I just...” Words failed me. I leaned back, close enough to feel Weylyn’s warmth. The smoke started to dissipate. The shaking slowed. “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry!” Weylyn threw his arms around me, and his warm hug finally began to sooth me. My smoke tendrils unwound, dissolved, and everything settled (including the dust).
“Shhh. Shhhh. It’s okay,” Weylyn murmured softly. He sat me down on the bed and rocked me. “We’re sorry, too.” He gave the other three men a look that implied that, if they weren’t sorry, they better look like it.
Keegan piped in. “Are you sure you want to know everything now?” before Weylyn gave him a look that shooed him off.
But Keegan was actually right. I was too nuts to take in any more now. “No. I don’t. I changed my mind. Not right now.”
My ears were ringing. My head throbbed. I had a headache. The light hurt my eyes, and all my muscles felt like I just did a triathlon. The glowing ball in the corner flashed, and I covered my eyes to block the bright burst of light. Katie materialized out of her glowing orb, and dropped square on her butt with an ‘oof’. She stood up and was about to speak, but
