"You wear a lovely smile." The amused lilt of her voice reached me like gentle wind-chimes floating in the breeze. "Always smile when I ask you to. Do you understand?"

"Yes, my queen. But—but how can I smile now?" Blood covered every inch of the battlefield. I hated it. Hated every bit of it.

But she was different.

"Saying such things will upset Manoj. This is glorious. It is only human death."

She shoved her hands into the dirt and closed her eyes.

Finally, she breathed out. "Lovely. He is pleased. Now. You must enchant them now. Some still draw breath yet."

The authority in her voice meant this was no request. I wanted to refuse, set my mouth to. What I saw of the fading day was horrid. It wasn't like the stories I'd heard in passing as a boy. It was filled with moans of anguish and despair.

"Can we make them fairies?" From where did these foolish words come?

If memory served, I could say with all certainty, that was the start of my fairy queen's disapproval of me.

"We do this for Manoj. That was what I was created for." Disgust dripped from her words. "Do you prefer the humans to us? Even after all they'd done to you?"

It was the hate in her gaze that had me shaking my head, assuring her, "I loathe them as well but—"

"Good. Now to your work!"

Manoj was still only a story to me at that time—I had never met him for myself. I only knew that he gave the fairy queen the power of life and healing. I found that fortunate, because in her heart, it was death which fascinated her.

A balling of my fist formed a lance. She guided me to tamper it until it could reach any distance.

The fairy queen's power of healing would only breed more life, even if she were to slaughter an entire village, a city of bounty would spring up the year following. All that she did brought more, and so...she stopped doing anything. Instead, she funneled her curiosity for death and destruction through me.

And I served her well.

I served her until I could stomach it no more.

The day I stood on the battlefield with her, collecting the souls to bring back to feed Manoj and decided I could do this no longer, she collected a soldier, the biggest and meanest one.

No one would believe that there were once two fairy kings. She bestowed that title to him. And she used it to taunt me, nearly as much as her savoring his body in plain view for all to see—for me to see.

She was baiting me, manipulating me, challenging me to fight for my title.

And it worked.

The fairy king II met a brutal end. It had been awful...because I'd enjoyed it.

Upon discovering him impaled on the hill at twilight, the fairy queen knelt.

She had no words of spite or malice. Grief. This was her first taste of it. It weighed her down, but she picked her head up to regard me in sorrow.

"Cease to smile," she ordered.

But try as I might, I could not.

Instead, I leaned in and told her, "I will smile forever more, remembering this day."

And I had.

Now, centuries later as I watched the gnome squeeze the new fairy queen in its grip, I'd smiled at the start as well.

In the years, I'd come to learn what it meant to be a fairy king and fairy queen. Her lust for destruction had been no accident. Manoj needed her to understand that life and death were one. But had to come and both held a responsibility.

For me, Manoj required that I could do his bidding but always understand it came at a price.

In the years following, the fairy queen never favored me. And when she died and a new one selected, she, too hated me.

Manoj liked that balance. We were not meant to find peace together. Our devotion was reserved, not for each other, but for Manoj.

And I'd accepted that. But a dull ache filled me whenever I thought of a fairy queen. It shouldn't have, but it was there. A hollow in the center of my being.

I blame that, and that alone, for the shot of panic that ripped through me, and I lunged forward.

The kick to the gnome's face was mighty and caused it to stumble back. It was a giant compared to us now in fairy form.

In its confusion, I snatched the princess from its clutches and landed with her shivering frame pressed against me.

Not to be discouraged, the gnome lunged. Ice encompassed it once more and it started to glow.

The princess, though trembling, turned her head to stare at it. Seeing it fight through the ice, only to slow again and again, came with a sadness.

"What's happening to him?" she begged.

In this, I was hesitant to confess, but it would do her no good to have a lie.

"Manoj goes in order—feeds in sync, but once something tries to take what he's claimed, like a greedy child determined to have its meal, it will consume one target faster. Meaning...." I waited and when she met eyes with me, finally, I said, "Any creature here you try to release, you will fail, and not only that, but you will also speed up their demise."

She still trembled. To my surprise, I held her. I thought to let her go but she pressed her face into my throat.

My arms tightened around her waist, and she breathe calmer against me.

Something startled her. I whipped around at the ready, taken aback to find the fairy queen...cowering by me.

What was her intent? She acted as if I wasn't her captor.

The glow from the cavern drew my gaze. It concerned me so much so that I ignored the frightened princess clutching my hand and instead awaited whatever threat might come.

Admittedly, I enjoyed the feel of her body next to mine; there was a familiarity to it. Perhaps that was why I did not inform her of this cavern's safety.

The warm glow intensified, and all calm washed over me. "It's all right, Princess," I assured her. "It's naught but the night Fae."

Her hands flew to her mouth, and she stifled a shriek.

"No." She gasped, stunned by my calm. "We must hide!"

From night Fae? My personal army? Nonsense. All the better if they come. They could help restore me faster.

Her gaze bore into me. "Please. Is there another way out?"

There were several, none safe. Her palpable fear had me formulating all sorts of foolish plans.

All around us, the world rumbled, and I picked my head up to bear witness to the first jet black fairy to flutter into the cavern. Another followed, and then another still until all of them arrived.

I waited, and sure enough, Magus came from the center of the unending army.

A wave of his hand sent one body sailing into the air. Bound by both hands and feet, the lone night Fae plummeted. Once I looked down at him and recognized him as Matax, from the day before, and not so much garbage as he was treated, Magus puffed out his chest.

"Hand over that princess," Magus demanded.

Till now, my focus was on keeping said princess upright. In this instance, I picked her up and turned to face Magus head on.

"Oh?" I asked. "And what business do you have with this fairy queen?"

Magus's face twisted. To others, he was a fright. To me, a pest.

He lunged forward and the cavern hummed to life. The wall of ice lit up and I wore a pleased smile while reminding them, "What I say here is law. Stand down and explain this all to me, Magus. What business do you have with this princess?"

Magus stared at me. Such defiance, such insolence. I would have risen up and boxed that glare clear off his face, but the princess drooped. In fact, her sporadic behavior was making itself clear now—something was wrong with her.

Impossible.

Our immortality was a given.

With the night Fae before me, the thought of regaining my authority while leaving her to lie in the dirt did not suit me but I had little choice.

"My king!" a desperate voice yelled.

Against my better judgement, I stared down at Matax.

"Hear me. Won't you spare my life. They are angry because you healed my wings," he explained.

"Ah." The sound left me. "Should I assume it was the night Fae to tear out your wing and not this Wyrn?"

His silence made me curse under my breath. A slight like this against the fairy army was unjustified. But how could I undo it?

"Sir...."

When my eyes settled on Matax again, it was with the intent to unleash my fury on him alone, but he indicated the princess and I hurried to put her to rest on the ground. She barely drew a breath.

"What is wrong?" I asked no one at all. But then I saw it. Each slow rise of her body coincided with the glow of the ice walls.

"My king, what is happening?"

Lips parted, I confessed, "Manoj's feeding off her. But I do not know why." It was instinct that drove me to stare out at Magus and the other night Fae. One fairy plummeted, all energy snatched out of it like the night swallowing up a shooting star. Then another. And another. "You must stand down," I called. "Or you give your energy away to the tree of life!" Confusion spread throughout and I reminded them, "There is a reason I am safe here. You will all be eaten up. I won't. Ground yourselves. Immediately."

Magus took in his fighters. He himself bobbed but once before he took the shaky journey to the ground.

Color returned to the princess's body. It was slow but encouraging.

"She lives," I said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Ever a self-interested fairy through and through, Matax remembered his own throat. "My king, won't you spare me? Please. I will give you what you seek. I am useful. I have much knowledge."

There was nothing he knew that I did not.

So he shocked me by saying, "I'll tell you how to find the husband of the fairy queen. She'll be yours, body and soul, and you need not fear losing her. Imagine it, the power of both the fairy king and the fairy queen, combined rather than counterbalanced."

"Hold your tongue," Magus bellowed.

I was not sure what animosity these three shared but his dubious words did make me curious.

"You don't have the power to enchant a fairy queen," I challenged.

"Don't I?" Still lying bound on his side, Matax wiggled until he faced me fully. "Then allow me to try. If I fail, you turn me over to the night Fae and I promise not to beg for my life as they render me limb from limb. But if I succeed...."

He wouldn't succeed but I returned his gaze, inviting him to go on.

"If I succeed," he continued, "you allow me to be your advisor. And you do not allow the night Fae to harm me."

"That is two things you want—"

"More than worthy as I can grant your wish this very minute. I have powerful magic. Please. I know where this Wryn is."

Magus even scoffed.

"Now," Matax said, determined to continue this trickery to the very end. "Someone as wise as you sees an unwinnable battle before him. Surely, you'll take my advice."

"Such nonsense," Magus grumbled. He took flight but a force slammed him back down onto the ground again.

Manoj's power was raw and wild.

Though I doubted Matax as well, I was careful to hold the princess's right hand while bowing my head as I prayed to Manoj for her release. It was by luck she fell under his effects here and not while touching ice.

The princess's taught body flinched.

One word came from her lips. "Wyrn...."

Wyrn.

Why was this happening?

There was a reward for Manoj's service. I'd tried to get it. This was the first time, for once, that I felt close despite her calling for someone else.

I was not this Wyrn and I would not answer to it, but the arms wrapped around me tight as I picked her up filled me with a sense of love and wonder.

This had been what the fairy queen had felt.

And the loss of it was why she'd despised me forever more.

Every fairy queen to follow hated me, and in a way, I hated them, too. I had attacked all her lovers. Especially the ones that had made her happy. She never sought blood and destruction after losing that soldier. Just this craving for a phantom of that sense of love.

In my days as human, perhaps I'd felt that longing. I couldn't recall now if I'd ever felt it. It might have been there once. But I'd wanted that from my queens. They were not interchangeable in personalities, but they'd shared one commonality—our dual purpose of serving Manoj.

Every fairy queen was forced, obligated to keep me alive or revive me. They were the anchors to ensure that I never leave Manoj's side.

And as I pulled this fairy queen close, I felt full.

Finally.

After two thousand years, the fairy queen reacted differently to all others. She did not fight me on sight—loathe the thought of me. Instead, she cowered in my embrace and sought solace by my side.

My reward had come.

Even if I'd have to steal it.

"Very well," I told him, "once we leave this cavern, all of the night Fae will follow. So be sure he's as powerful as you say, or we'll all perish. Get my shield." I willed him free and the binds loosened and fell away. His hesitation forced the words from between my clenched teeth, "Lead the way to her husband."