Though my advice of taking it 'day by day' ended up being useless. 

As I'm sure any transformed fairy knows, one does not simply walk onto the ground of the Raphoe Castle ruins and leave without transforming into a fairy.

Unbeknownst to us and despite our efforts to stop the process from happening, Ollie unwillingly walked into her destiny the moment she placed her foot on the grassland. 

And as horrific as the process was for her, it was the most awe-inspiring thing I had ever seen.

She shrieked in agony the whole time as magic glowed through her skin, altering her DNA from human to fairy. Then the flesh on her back pierced open as wings, the colour of her emerald eyes, tore through her flesh and clothes. Once it was all over, she fell to a heap on the ground, a crying mess for Ben to console.

Olivia didn't take well to the unplanned transformation. When we got her back to the apartment, she spent the whole first day hiding from us in her room, only allowing Ben to see her. Though we all heard her audibly weeped worries to him as we sat in the lounge room, wondering what we could do for her.

As the hours ticked on with Jayce eventually flicking on the TV to distract himself and I opened a book, Erica suddenly leapt to her feet, grabbing the keys before announcing she was going shopping.

When she got home hours later, asking if we had seen Ollie since she left and we simply shook our heads, she heaved a sigh, plopped the bags on the table, and started fixing dinner. 

Eventually, we all got tired of waiting to see Ollie, having only seen Ben sneaking out to fetch her dinner and drinks. When we asked him how she was, he merely pressed his lips together before sighing. So... we all went to bed.

· · ───── ∘☽༓☾∘ ───── · ·

Well-attuned to the fact that Jayce and Erica were late-morning risers on most days, Ollie must have thought she was safe in the early hours of the next day to sneak out into the kitchen without running into anyone.

And she wouldn't have run into me either if it were any normal day, as I was never up this early in the morning either. But, after having spent all night calling everyone I knew about how to help her bring in her wings—considering that was her biggest concern—I hadn't even gone to bed yet when suddenly I heard the door down the hallway creaking open.

The footsteps and heartbeat were certainly not Ben's; the lullaby flutter and padding of feet against hardwood were all too familiar to my ears.

I immediately straightened in my seat.

Though just before she rounded the corner, I quickly pretended to be amused by my phone so that she didn't think I was eager to look at her in all her kick-arse fairy beauty.

Parts of me missed the human-version of her—the one who slept in my arms for four months, who only faintly smelled fruity, and who wasn't fakely modified by magic.

But this new Ollie was also a sight to be reckoned with. The magic had smoothed down all those acne scars she hated. Her eyelashes had elongated and tinted darker. Her curls formed perfect locks without the need of a curling wand. And her curves...

I shook the thought from my mind as she appeared in sight, resting a pillow atop my lap before she'd know anything different.

Her eyes flickered over to me for only a brief second before she drooped her head and shrunk into herself, muttering, "Morning." She had Ben's shirt over her, tightly constraining her wings to her body.

Oh Ollie, I thought. If only you could see how beautiful you are. But instead, all I said back was, "Morning."

Though her hunched posture and sullen state reminded me of something that would perhaps see some light return to her eyes.

Glancing over at the pile of clothes Erica had left out, before she could get any further into the kitchen, I quickly directed Ollie's attention to them.

Looking at me first in shock, she then immediately whipped her head in the direction of the table where they sat. At once, her eyes lit up and she crossed the room to inspect the garments, whispering, "My saviour."

As soon as she had arrived, she took off.

Almost half an hour passed before she had returned—hair washed, clothes changed, and sporting a green, backless shirt paired with her familiar light-washed denim jeans. But, more importantly, her green wings poking through the back of her shirt extended large and bright, capturing my eyes in their mesmerising hold, causing my jaw to drop.

Ollie avoided looking at me the whole way she entered, though her spine was a little straighter, her step filled with a little more confidence. 

Yet as she walked into the kitchen, she let out a muffled yelp as her wing collided with the kitchen island.

I did everything in my power to stifle my laugh. But, at the same time, I couldn't take my eyes off her as she pulled two mugs from the cupboard before meeting my gaze.

She held one up, as if to say 'like a drink'?

I nodded.

Once the teas were assembled, she brought them over, joining me in the living room. Huffing as she pulled a wing out from under her butt after sitting down, she grumbled, "I hate them."

"They're phenomenal," I breathed as I unashamedly took her in, admiring their glittery, scaly texture.

"Nope. Disagree."

Smirking, I met her evergreen eyes and said, "If only you saw yourself the way we all see you."

A faint blush taking hold of her face, she blurted out, "How do you see me?"

Me? I thought, jaw dropping open in shock. Why me?

"I... ah..." she turned her head down. "Sorry... that was a weird question, wasn't it?"

I should have agreed then and there. Then I never would have had to do what I did. But the bond string in my chest glowed bright as her heart drummed loudly. So I said, "I think you're the most beautiful person I've ever met."

"I—" she started, looking up at me, face turning more crimson. Heart beating even faster. "What?" she gasped.

"I said," I took a steady breath, injecting more confidence in my tone, "You're gorgeous, Olivia. Just as you are. Human or fairy. But even right now, as a fairy..." I shook my head. "I didn't think looking at you could get more mesmerising."

"Lukas," she whispered, voice catching in her throat. She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before glancing over her shoulder, towards her bedroom.

And then reality kicked back in.

Shit... did I seriously say that out loud?

"I'm flattered—" she started, but before the words of rejection could even leave her mouth, before tears could escape my already-stinging eyes knowing that look on her face that screamed 'I love Ben, not you', I pulled the magic to my eyes and brought the conversation back to the point when she initially asked the first question.

She blinked, shaking her head, before saying, "Sorry. Blanked for a moment. What did you say?"

"That you're a bad-arse fairy with killer wings." But my tone fell flat as the words exited my mouth.

And based on the slight furrowing of her eyebrows, she noticed.

She pursed her lips as her eyes studied me, almost as if she were wondering if she should ask.

Yet then she said, "Right... but how do I get rid of them?"

With a laugh, I told her what I spent all night doing. And then, while we waited for the rest of the house to wake up, I distracted her from her worries, delving further into the months of things I knew about her that she had yet to tell me in her new memories of me.

· · ───── ∘☽༓☾∘ ───── · ·

We spent most of the day on the living room floor, Ben awkwardly tucked in a corner distracting himself with a book. But I could see the bitter scowl on his face about the fact he had no magic and therefore was the odd one out.

Nevertheless, no one was paying attention to him now.

How could we when, as Ollie drew in deep, focussed breaths, her wings fluttered and glowed, capturing as all in an awe-consumed trance. The reality was, none of us knew winged creatures. Sure, the shifters became animals with wings. And some of the sirens could shift their bodies into a fish-human hybrid (somewhat resembling the merfolk from fairytales) once in water, but the fairies...

Legend went among all of us growing up that fairies avoided many creatures of the night—vampires, shifters, even witches—out of fear for the type of magic and evil that can harbour within us. But knowing the story of the Terra breed, it was no wonder that all fairies avoided us, scared their kind would be next in Rüdiger's hunt for wiping out everything that threatens him.

So seeing Ollie—someone we all knew well in human form—sitting in front of us with large wings coming from her body... Most of us struggled to close our mouths.

But in addition to Olivia's new mesmerising appearance was the power that emanated from within her.

When we first sat in our magic circle and Jayce told us to close our eyes and join hands, the moment mine and Olivia's collided, I yelped away.

"That hurts way more now, zappy," I hissed at her, rubbing my hand in disbelief that it could get even worse.

Before, I could at least somewhat tolerate touching her. But the intensity of the electrical currents that tore through my body just then at the brush of her skin was excruciating.

And while a part of me was indeed upset that I couldn't even touch her at all now... I was even more determined that my uncle would have to use a lot of careful planning to take her out.

He couldn't pin her down and torture her like he had Anja.

And while he may be able to get a witch to capture her, the reality was, no one would kill another mutant at his order. Humans, maybe. But not mutants. Unless it was a war. And what is one lonesome fairy going to do?

Well... that's what we were going to let him think. Because Olivia would totally be his demise. I was sure of it.

So after the whole morning and afternoon on the floor, with much control, patience, deep breathing, and magical practice, eventually Ollie managed to coax her wings in.

I couldn't stop the proud smile taking hold of my face when she had done it. The level of control that took most of us over a decade of schooling to accomplish, she did in a day.

But the final factor of the day that made her transformation even more intriguing was once they were gone and Ben had joined us on the floor, he leaned back, gasping at the sight of her back.

"What?" Ollie asked frantically, eyes searching Ben's face.

Yet an amused smirk took hold of his face as he said, "How do you feel about ink?"

Ink? I wondered.

Erica, who sat on the other side of her, leaned back, eyes going wide as she too took in Ollie's back. "That is so cool," she gasped.

"What?" Ollie asked as she got to her feet, running towards the full-length mirror.

But as she retreated from the group, I finally saw what they were all looking at. The once-emerald-protruding-wings had sucked into her body, now adorning her skin in two large black tattoos, taking up the entirety of her back.

"No," she groaned. "Why?"

"Oh that's an awesome tattoo," I couldn't help but say, feeling the awe consume me once again today. "I'm jealous."

Her raging eyes met mine as she snapped, "Then you have it!" She turned back to the mirror, tugging her shirt this way and that to look at them.

And while a small part of me wanted to be mad at her for taking her anger out on me, the other was relieved. Because she felt so comfortable with me now to use me as her punching bag.

To be vulnerable.

To know that being her true self wasn't going to scare me away... just like she knew before.

Ollie finally heaved a sigh before she whispered, "If my mum sees this, she is going to kill me."

If I knew anything about her mother from the stories she told me, then, indeed. Ollie's mum just might.