We were led into yet another room, me with the shard hidden under my kilt—this skirt was certainly handy.

Bobore took interest in it as we walked. "It is quite fashionable."

I stepped into the room and assured him, "More for practicality than aesthetics. Lost my phallus in a war." His mouth hung open and I wasn't surprised to find him studying the princess's clothes as well. "Her? It was the nipples."

More than one elf shuffled out, horrified. Bobore considered my words for a long minute before exiting as well.

As soon as the door closed, the princess slapped my arm. "What did you do that for?"

I revealed the mirror shard and looked around the hovel. "They are going to eat us. And I can't say that I blame them. Two unknown entities claiming to be the fairy king and queen, walking around in clothes. Hell, I'd order something to eat us, too."

As I moved around, looking for any sort of weakness in the structure, the princess remained rigid.

"Will they—will they honestly eat us?"

They most certainly would. My search came up empty and I found myself standing before her. The worry in her gaze broke me.

In my left hand, I held the mirror, but I used my right to caress her face as I lied, "Of course, not. Once they know who we are, everything will go differently." She wasn't convinced so I put the shard into my pocket and took her by both hands. "Listen, I've slipped two stones into the stew. As soon as they know who we are, they'll give us a customary dinner. It'll mean passing the meal from person to person to get it to the other end of the table. We've just got to scoop them all out before anyone notices. Then." I clapped. "We're all set."

"And how do we convince them of that?"

Of course, I had no idea!

After a moment, it occurred to me. "Our clothes. We must take them off. Fairies simply don't have any."

"I don't want to go around naked," she argued.

This woman.

"Besides, I don't think we can now. Thanks to you."

I leaned away, insulted. "Me?"

"Your lie. You just told them you had no penis. Won't this show us both to be liars? Is that really all right?"

Despite my mouth opening to convey some choice words, it snapped shut again with nothing to utter beyond, "Right...."

After a moment, she said, "I have an idea."

My eyes met hers.

"Is it safe to assume that elves are a bit...paranoid?"

"Understatement."

"Then we're confusing them." At my diminished comprehension, she explained, "We've always fought."

Shock stole my response. But less so of her words and more for the fact that...I didn't want to fight her.

I took a step back and she noticed.

"We can just make a few strikes."

The suggestion wasn't one I wanted to entertain. Funny how things had turned around so thoroughly that now I was the one running from a battle with her.

"But we're finally alone," I complained. "That is literally the last thing on my mind."

I wasn't sure her thoughts ran along the same lines but after scanning the little dingy room, she draped her arms over my shoulders then went on the tip of her toes to steal a kiss.

This was nice. I'd kept looking at her but when her lashes fluttered, I shut my eyes.

After a long pause, she leaned away. "You had your eyes open," she teased.

When our lips met yet again, it came with a hum—that is...until we looked at the rickety wooden door.

"Shh!"

"You shh!"

"Don't you shh, me."

"I think they're kissing."

"Kissing?"

"The fairy king and fairy queen?"

"They're ogres for sure. I knew it."

"But the mirror—"

"Damn the mirror. They're ogres."

"We'll be eaten for sure."

Morons. Absolute morons.

A scream tore through my ears. "Don't you talk to me like that."

I rotated my head to regard the panicked princess in shock, then confusion, then realization, and finally defiance.

"No," I mouthed.

"Shh! They're fighting." The voices came back.

At the silence to follow, the princess raised an eyebrow at me, and I groaned. Truly, my heart wasn't in it when I yelled, "You will learn your place!"

"Or—or what?" She might have been more convincing if she didn't smile while patting my arm in approval, encouraging me.

For her trouble, I clapped her right on the backside.

The hum came in a flurry. "He struck her."

"To be fair, that does seem more fairy kingly."

"That is true."

The nerve. I fought back the urge to march to that door, drag it open, grab one elf by its boney leg, hold it like a stick and use him to beat all his wee friends."

Everything was too quiet after that.

"So it was a trick—"

Something whipped across my backside, and I bit back a yelp. I hadn't even noticed when she'd moved the skirt in order to do so.

"Get—get your hands off me," the princess cried, though it sounded more like a question.

Teeth gritted, she mouthed sorry while slapping me in the thigh this time.

"I'm so sorry," she muttered.

But while she cringed and I died slowly at her terrible acting, excitement erupted from behind the door.

Contempt. It was in my gaze and surely in my voice when I grumbled, "Take that." I waited, and the princess slapped my leg again. "And that."

Each wince had her holding both hands up, soothing me as she silently apologized.

I hadn't minded. In fact, the way she'd flinch with me before holding my neck and face had me laughing on the inside.

We went on like that until something caught the princess's eye.

The sudden stop in our fight had the elves panicked.

"He's killed her."

"He must have."

"Who'll tell the king?"

"You do it."

"Your mother! You do it."

"Run before someone finds out that we know!"

In seconds, they were gone.

Morons. Utter morons.

I turned to the princess and asked, "Why'd you stop?"

"That."

That what? I'd never know because a cry and a fear-tinged goblin's shout dragged me back to reality.

Under my feet, the ground rumbled but at my back, a tree shot from the ground, missing my shield by fractions. It wasn't aiming for me, though I was the one to harm it with stealing back my magic.

"Majesty!" Running with the shard was foolish but I did just that. When I reached her, I meant to drop it but the reflection inside, moved opposite to me. "Goblin.... Keep all manner of plant-life from reaching her. At all cost. Even if you must break them."

The goblin understandably wanted no part in this. "But these are young saps. It took everything to force themselves to grow. If they were flesh and bone, they'd still bleed from the afterbirth. I cannot break them."

"Goblin...."

My words were enough. "I—I can move the sled. That's as much as I can get away with."

"That is enough." I was busy staring at the reflection of myself which did not move its mouth with me or look where I looked. "What are you?"

The image blinked back at me. "I can grant a wish. You want nothing more than your memories back. Would you like that again? There's yet one wish left."

When it smiled, only the mouth responded, all other areas, eyes, cheeks, brows stayed static.

"How many wish do you give?"

"Three per year. Upon the third—"

I let it fall to the ground. Manoj sucked it in immediately, returning it to the elves who would lock that dark magic away.

After that, I froze up. Plant after plant came from the snow, desperate to reach the princess. The goblin went to work, shuffling her from here to there and at great expense to itself and I...I stood watching.

"Three wishes. Two used." I touched my temple, baffled and angry. I'd used the dark magic of that mirror and been run through for the fact. Why? There had to be a reason why. Once the exhausted goblin came to a stop again, I dug through the snow until I reached the frozen soil. "Stop, Manoj. I now understand. I understand now why you are angry. I understand it. Forgive me. I will prove myself to you. I know I've lied so much but I now understand it. Please give me my memories—"

"I cannot give what I have not taken!"

The ground shook so I put both ands there, soothing, "I understand. I understand now. I know what I must do."

"Sir...."

The goblin's word of warning had me picking my head up. An army of ogres were some ways off, Wyrn leading the charge. His speed alone meant he outpaced them, closing in before his comrades would find me.

Despite the urgency, I approached the princess slowly for I did not want to be right.

And I did not want to trick her, but there was no way to be sure otherwise.

The ogres' battle cries closed in, yet she could not possibly know by my calm tone when I eased the fur coat back and climbed in before her.

"Majesty...."

Two big brown eyes opened. The relief in her gaze transformed all my worry into something safe and incidental. I wasn't here, minutes away from an attack from both the ogres and Manoj—perhaps even the night Fae for good measure.

So I caressed her face and stole a kiss. I didn't expect to see her shed a tear when I eased away to regard her again.

"I remember you now," I lied.

A gasp left her. Pain mixed with relief in her gaze. She tried to reach for my forehead, as I'd anticipated, but I caught her hand.

"No. Don't lock my memories," I begged.

Tears shimmered in her eyes. "I have to. I have to or—"

"Or I'll try to kill myself again."

The silence between us despite the world erupting into hell confirmed my fear. I did not remember this woman, but I had—I had with the elves. I had been desperate enough to use dark magic from an unknown source to regain my memories.

I took a chance now and guessed, "You noticed the strange reflection in the mirror shard. And I used it to regain my memories. And you used it...to call your ogre. And you did that...."

Her lips trembled, but though they did not beg me to stop talking verbally, they did so in their hesitation.

"Because I then used that same shard to run myself through."

Eyes closed, she buried her face in the fur.

I needed no other confirmation.

"Why? I simply don't understand why. Each time we give you back your memories—you—"

She was panicked but there was no need for it; I could answer her question.

"Because I've fallen out of Manoj's favor. Look at the forest; humans have infested it. Trees are being cut down for useless structures such as houses. Old laws of magic are being abused by the new that run amuck unchecked. And let's not forget the fact that I was so far gone in my previous incantation that I betrayed the night Fae, locked them away for years, because I'd been mad enough—angry enough to set them loose with no way of stopping their destruction."

Her body trembled as she cried, "That was then. You've changed. Why can't he see that?"

But I hadn't changed. In just one day, I'd betrayed Manoj more than I had in two thousand years. And without hands or other appendages to rise up and catch me himself, he'd begged his fairy queen to do so.

"You must understand, Majesty. You were born from a plant—a seed from the tree of life, Manoj can touch you so long as you are on land, tree, or stone. But I...I was born human."

"But I was—"

"No. Your birth is different. Even if a human vessel nourished you, your life came from Manoj. He granted you to someone as a child but from start to finish, you are his. And he cannot...disappear me. But he can disappear you. When even you won't serve him, he is lost. He's helpless and he's afraid. I've just injured him, and he has no way of stopping me. My attempts at dying were no accident."

When I tried to rise, she grabbed my arm. It wasn't a strong hold; it was so feeble that I feared for her.

"Don't...."

She did not know what I had planned, but she could see my intent.

"I love you," I told her, and not in a heartfelt way, but rather, an accusation. "I loved you enough to exchange my life to ensure yours continued. Don't you see that?"

In her crying, I found peace. She feared for me. I dared to imagine that she, perhaps, felt the same. Sometime after my rebirth, she'd come to me and instead of lifelong enemies, we'd been lovers. But that love for her had been the problem because it took my devotion away from Manoj and put it solely on her.

"I ordered this wall demolished, hadn't I?"

Tears streaming down her face, she nodded.

That had been the last sacrilege.

"Three women lived there," the princess explained, defending my past actions. "Near starved, eyes sewn shut, writing without end. They even wrote of your time with me."

Fool. I was a fool. In fear, I croaked out, "Where are they now?"

"The magistrate has them. They're living in his manor. He's trying to undo their enchantment so that they can fight the impulse to write about you."

"Madness." Now it was me closing my eyes. "We've perverted all of Manoj's decrees—I have—"

"It's your good heart—"

"It's a feeble heart," I yelled. Her eyes took me in, and I needed no explanation. This had been for her. All of it. Each and every part of it and I tried to understand why. I was hiding something from Manoj, from myself. "Speak truthfully," I begged her, "Why didn't I want to subjugate myself back to Manoj? What did he request of me?"

For this, she pressed her lips together.

The goblin, watching the imminent attack, hurried to reach us. "Sir, let me take my offspring and run. I beg."

What insolence. I nearly stood and threw the goblin babes in response but in my rise, as my hands grazed that fur pouch, however, the princess reached for it.

The world stopped for me, and I gazed down at her. In the back of my mind, it was my own voice to reach me, ordering her, "Put on clothes. Make certain of it."

Why would she hide her body from me? I could see through all illusions. What would a fairy queen's bare form have to show me?

"A child." The words left me with a gasp. "You had a child."

My realization had her eyes widening that big. And when she struggled to sit up but couldn't, I formed one final conclusion.

"No." I marveled, "We—we had a child." I stepped down from that shield. The trembling in my limbs wasn't from Manoj shaking the ground, ordering me to turn over all that was rightfully his, nor from the ogres closing in. It was from my fear. "Oh, Princess...now it's making every bit of sense. Every bit of sense," I repeated. When our eyes met, I showed her the last bit of sympathy she'd ever get from me—because she'd earned it. "We had a child you—I refused to give to Manoj. That simply won't do."