Amarielle Everglimmer's Arc

Chapter 3 of 7

The green light over the grove had faded. The elders had not come at dawn after all. Amarielle watched the castle on the far hill instead. The prince wore her ring now. He had her light on his finger, but he had never seen her face. She wanted him to know the fairy behind the glow. But the ivy fairies still circled the hills, waiting to catch her near a mortal. She needed a way to reach him that they would not see. She flew low to the flower shop, where blooming vines wrapped the walls and glowing blossoms hung by the door. The prince came here. She had seen him buy flowers at the counter. If she hid among the real blooms, she could watch for him and slip out when the ivy fairies turned away. She landed in a bucket of pink roses by the counter. Her wings folded against a petal. She waited. Boots crossed the floor. The prince stepped to the counter and set her ring there, turning it in the light. "I keep thinking it was a dream," he told the shopkeeper. "But the stones still glow." Amarielle's heart raced. He was close enough to touch. She rose from the roses, wings open, glittering pink in the shop's warm light. The prince went still. His eyes found her. "You," he breathed. "You're real." "I gave you that ring," she said. "I am the light you wished upon." He reached a hand toward her, slow and careful. She drifted onto his open palm. For one breath, she had everything she wanted. He saw her. He believed. Then the glowing blossoms by the window trembled. Not from wind. Three ivy fairies pushed through the vines, their green wings sharp against the petals. They had followed her light. "Fairy and mortal, hand to hand," the first one hissed. "The elders will hear every word." Amarielle's breath caught. "Go," she told the prince. "Don't let them see you grieve. It makes it worse." He closed his fingers gently, shielding her a moment. "I won't forget you," he said. She shot upward, past the ivy fairies, out through the vine-wrapped door. They did not chase her. They did not need to. They had what they came for. Her name, the prince's face, the touch between them. Amarielle landed on a cluster of moss-covered stones outside, mushrooms glittering around her feet. She was shaking. She had shown him her true form. He knew her now. That was done, and no one could undo it. But the ivy fairies were already streaking toward the grove. By nightfall the elders would know she had touched a mortal with her own hands. The ring had been a secret. This was a crime they had witnessed. Now they would not come to warn her. They would come to take her wings.