Starfall stood at the edge of her tower balcony and watched the human world glow far below. A mortal prince lived down there. She had seen him once, through the clouds, kneeling to help a lost child. His kindness had pulled at her chest ever since. If she won his heart, the fairy realm and the human world could touch at last. But her feet would not move past the railing. The tower rose high above the flower fields, its pink petals carved into every wall. Vines bloomed along the stone. Starfall gripped the balcony edge and stared at the drop. Below, a creature waited for her. It had the body of a small dragon and the wide, veined wings of a butterfly, all soft pink in the morning light. It could carry her down. It had been ready for days. "You keep looking," a voice said behind her. "You never go." Starfall turned. Her younger sister stood in the doorway, arms folded, flower crown crooked on her hair. Lily Dewdrop had followed her up every morning this week. She was small and quick to speak, and she never softened the truth. "What if he doesn't love me?" Starfall said. "What if I cross all that way and he turns me away?" "Then you come home," Lily said. She walked to the railing and pressed a flower into Starfall's hand. Its layered petals glowed orange and pink. "But you won't bridge anything from up here." Starfall held the bloom. Her kindness reached across the whole sky, the fairies said. Yet it could not reach one mortal because she was afraid. She thought of the prince kneeling in the dirt for a stranger's child. She thought of her heart breaking. Both felt real. Only one was certain if she stayed. "Come with me," Starfall said. Lily grinned. "I thought you'd never ask." The dragon-winged creature lifted on command and hovered beside the balcony. Its wings stirred the vines. Starfall climbed onto its back. Her hands shook. Lily settled behind her and held tight. Starfall looked at the human world one last time from safety. Then she tucked the flower against her chest and leaned forward. "Go," she said. The creature dropped from the tower. Wind tore at Starfall's hair. The flower fields shrank above them. The human glow rushed closer, sharp and bright and unknown. She did not look back at her tower. They broke through the lowest clouds. Cold air met warm. The ground spread out below, strange and solid, full of stone roads and mortal lights. Somewhere down there, the prince lived. The creature landed in a quiet field at the realm's edge. Starfall stepped onto human soil for the first time. It held her weight. She was here now, far from home, with no way to know if her heart would be welcome or crushed. She had crossed. There was no going back the way she came.

Starfall stood in the quiet field and knew she could not stay there. The human lights glowed past the trees. The prince lived somewhere among them. But dawn was coming, and her wings still shimmered with fairy light. Her skin gave off a soft glow that no mortal could ignore. If a human saw her now, they would not see a princess. They would see a strange, glowing thing to fear. Lily pulled her toward a wide oak at the field's edge. Its bark was dark and cracked, with frost along the high branches. "Hide under here," Lily said. "Wait for your light to fade." But the glow did not fade. Starfall held out her hand and watched it shine. Panic rose in her chest. She had crossed the whole sky and could not even walk among the people she came to join. Footsteps crunched in the grass. A man stepped from the dark. He wore golden armor, cracked and worn, and a torn black cloak. His hand rested on his sword. His eyes found Starfall's glow at once. "Don't scream," Lily hissed, stepping in front of her sister. The man did not scream. He did not even draw his blade. He stared at Starfall, and his hard face changed. His hand slipped off the sword. "You carry the enemy's banner," Lily said, pointing at the dark mark on his cloak. "I do," the man said. His voice was rough. "They call me Cael Brynn. I serve a warlord I once swore to destroy." He looked back at Starfall. "But I will not hand you to him." Starfall met his eyes. She felt the warmth under his cold armor, the same kindness she had crossed the sky to find. "Why help me?" she asked. "I can't say," Cael said. He pulled the torn cloak from his shoulders. "But if the patrols see your light, they'll take you to him. Wear this." He stepped close and wrapped the heavy cloak around her. It smelled of smoke and iron. The dark cloth hid her glow and folded over her shimmering wings. Starfall pulled the hood low. In the gray dawn, she looked like any tired traveler. "Keep your face down," Cael said. "Keep your hands covered. No one will know what you are." Starfall touched the rough fabric. The fear in her chest loosened. She could walk among mortals now. She could reach the prince. "Thank you," she said. Her kindness reached him, and she saw him breathe it in. Cael looked away, as if the look hurt him. "Don't thank me yet. The warlord's men ride these roads. And they know this cloak better than any face in it." Starfall gripped the cloak tighter. She was hidden now. But she had taken the mark of the enemy to do it.