A man bowed in front of me and took my hand to kiss it. He was so gentle and careful and he gave me the same smile you did. I wondered if it was you as well. Had you become a man for me, like you had been that younger girl? I let the man lead me out in the middle of the floor to dance, all the while believing it was you. He pulled me close while he whispered to me how beautiful I looked and drug me along in the steps I fumbled through.

That man mesmerized me with his beautiful smile, his perfect soft face, and the gentle touch. But I never would have let him take me in a dance if I hadn't thought it was you. I lost count of the dancing and he attempted to kiss me but he only kissed my cheek when I turned my head as the bell struck midnight.

I pulled free from him, the worry rus.h.i.+ng over me as I dashed away and back down the steps. I felt a shoe free from my feet but I never stopped to pick it up, I just kept running, hoping you would meet me out front while my darling dress turned to shreds and my hair fell around my shoulders. The carriage had already become what it had been previously, so I kept running away, limping at some point because of the damage to my foot from the shoe I was missing.

I can't remember when I started crying on the way home, but it must have been at least half-way home when I realized you wouldn't be coming for me like you had said you would if I past midnight. Why had I trusted you like a fool? You probably had thought I was just some stupid girl to toy with.

My heart felt torn, thinking you had given me the perfect night then abandoned me when I had needed your help most. You had given me everything I could have dreamed of, then it all fell apart at midnight, leaving me with even less than I had before and so much pain that I just wanted to curl up on the street and lay there until I stopped crying.

I made it home. I forced myself home rather than breaking down in the street. My aunt scolded me when I got home, asking me repeatedly where I had been and yelling at me about losing a shoe and how much it would cost to get a new one. Even if we both knew she would fetch one from the trash or something and throw it at me later.

I spent that entire night crying in my tiny room, silently as I could so my cousins and aunt wouldn't hear me. I thought I had cried you all out of my system that night, but I must have been wrong.

Days of even rougher ch.o.r.es than before had gone by before the man I had danced with that night came to my door, holding the gla.s.s slipper you had made for me. When he had asked me to try it on, I realized that man hadn't been you, since you would have known it was mine and where to go. But at least he had come for me, unlike you had.

When the slipper fit he asked me to marry him, despite the rags and dirt that I was covered in. My aunt nearly shoved me out the door, probably expecting a dowry to help her family when I got married. I went along with it, though when I had known he wasn't you, I just couldn't muster the same feelings for him as I had felt for you or him on that first night.

Somehow you had enchanted me more than even a prince could.

The day of the wedding had come far too quickly than I had been expecting, and I was in a dress that couldn't match the one you had made for me but I tried to think that it was better, just to try to get you out of my mind.

That day, when I had been all prepared and left to myself before the ceremony was going to begin, I let myself shed my last few tears for you, trying to shed the memories of your hair sliding along your skin, or the soft smile and those glinting eyes drawing me in with the raw power of your magic.

I tried replacing them with him, his more coa.r.s.e hands, his darker hair, darker skin and even darker eyes. But your face kept forcing a way through until the door opened to lead me away.

I wiped my eyes before being led down the aisle by someone I didn't know, since my father had been gone for years. I saw my aunt and cousins on one side of the seats as I went by, while everyone else around me were complete strangers that might as well have been blank faces. I didn't see you. I thought, at the very least, maybe you would see me off in to the married life, but you even abandoned me there.

My hands were shaking as I held the bouquet and looked ahead of me to see the man I would be marrying. He was a good person at least, and I probably wouldn't have to scrub another floor ever again. He smiled your smile at me and all I could see was your face in place of his. I had to look away before I'd feel tears down my cheek again.

The ceremony began and I inched closer to becoming Mrs Charming. But all I could think and hope was that you would walk in that door and stop this from happening. The ceremony kept going though and we said our vows. Mine had been written for me by him. I had thought about what I'd say if it had been you standing across from me that I was marrying, but I couldn't write it down as something to say to him no matter how much I tried.

It was in the middle of my vows that you did something I would forever have etched in my memory.

You blasted through the stain-gla.s.s window closest to me, your hood flying from your head so I could see your flash of red hair and blue gem eyes, even the freckles softly touched to your cheeks as you stood up from landing on one knee. My heart jumped and a s.h.i.+ver rolled across my body that filled me with so much excitement at seeing you. Had you read my mind finally?

Your hand shot up like you were going to yell stop, but instead the front doors of the church ripped open to where they nearly broke from their hinges. Two women flew in to the aisle of the church; a golden-haired G.o.ddess and an older woman around your age, maybe, with skin so white and hair so dark.

The priest shuffled away from you as you placed a hand on Charming and thrust him toward the aisle. You followed after him as the other two women came down the walkway from the other direction. You asked him why he planned to marry me when he already had two wives and before he could say anything your fist shot across his face and he spun to hit the ground. I could feel the rage emanating from you, my eyes never even drawing from looking at the back of your head as you pointed to the two women.

I didn't care about them; I didn't even care the man whom I was about to marry had two wives already. He hadn't been the one to betray me. He hadn't let me lean on him, and then rip it all away from me to leave me falling and crying.

You had.

Both of the women threw their rings on top of the charming prince as he lied on the floor looking up at you with fear toiled in his eyes. He stuttered to explain but I didn't care to pay attention to that. He had his reasons, whatever they may have been, and he probably thought they were fine in his mind.

Instead I lifted my dress as I lowered myself down the couple of steps in my way and pulled on your shoulder to turn you around before my fist shot against your cheek. I hadn't even realized what I did until after I felt the pain in my hand from striking you.

A red imprint of my knuckles were strung across your cheek when you turned your head to look back at me through the waterfall of red hair, which didn't match the mark I had made on your face.

Your eyes were filled with pain, but not from the physical strike I had made against you. I hated seeing them like that, they just made me want to cry and comfort you. I didn't even notice my jaw set as hard as it had until it softened when you reached a hand out to take my fingers and press them through your curtain of hair to the mark I had made. You didn't say sorry to me, for all the pain you had forced on me, instead you asked me if I wanted to hit you again.

My lips parted from how stunned I was by what you said. My fingers coiled against your cheek, to feel how soft and warm they felt but when I realized we were not the only ones in the room, my hand yanked from the delicate fingers you used to touch me and my face burned somewhere between embarra.s.sment, anger and pure admiration.

Would I ever be able to be like you? I would have been on the floor begging for you to accept my apology if I had done what you did to me. But you knew I didn't want a sorry; I don't even know how.

You knew they were just empty words to me, said so many times by my father that they were nothing. Instead you gave me the chance to unleash all that anger and hate for what you had done to me. But when you had, I couldn't muster myself to strike you again. Instead I asked why you even bothered coming back for me.

I saw just behind the frame of your body, the golden-haired woman kicking in to Charming's crotch as he begged after the two women. Should I have done that to you?

I was tempted to, but I wasn't sure it would have the same effect like it had with that man. My eyes drew back to you so easily with just the simple gesture of you pulling your hand through your hair to set it away from your face. You smiled that wonderful smile to me and all my heart told me was to jump in to your arms, rather than hurt you again. I couldn't hurt you again, no matter how much you might have hurt me.

You told me you had made a promise to come for me. You had promised me you would come for me when I needed it most, just as you had before. Then you actually asked me if I would have rather liked you to never have come back, and I couldn't hold myself back anymore. I flew forward in to your body, my arms wrapping around you. I could tell with how stiff you had gone, you weren't used to being hugged like that, but I didn't care.

The closeness of our faces allowed me to whisper that I'd want you to come for me no matter what, for the rest of my life. Even if I told you I never wanted to see you again.

You smiled up at me and stroked a hand through my hair as your body softened to accept me better. It made me wonder how many people didn't hug you. Or how much pain you must have gone through to know what a person really wanted when someone betrayed them like you had to me. I wanted to see you suffer. But I never thought seeing you suffer would make my heart hurt so much.

You pulled to my side and grabbed my hand to hold it out for me like you had the first time I had gotten in the carriage, letting me step up on Charming and then past him before you followed after me this time and out the church to take me away from this place, away from that man, and away from the miserable life I would have lived had you not come back for me.

I'm not sure you realized what you had become to me the moment you had let me lead you from that church. You were not my faerie G.o.dmother. You were something so much more than I could ever describe with any words.

I truly think I had fallen in love with you on that day. After you told me you were pulled away by the faeries not wanting you to interfere again like you already had the night I met the prince, and then that you sacrificed your faerie G.o.dmother status so that you could keep your promise to me.

You gave up your wings for me.

I knew then, what you had said to me at the carriage was supposed to mean what I had thought it was. You would come for me no matter what, whenever I needed it, for however long we were both around.

That day in my wedding dress was my wedding day.

And I walked out of that church with the real person I married.

I only wish I had the strength to tell you that, Gnidori.

- Ashe -.

Act II.

"The Better to curse you with, my dear."

Seventeen.

The Blue Faerie.

"This is so-o-o-o not funny, Red!" Goldie drawled in between some curses.

I had to agree with her, but not on the part she was ticked about. I settled for snickering under my breath, which only made her face do an impression of an angry strawberry faster.

She had already asked me four times to change her outfit and give her weapons back. But I was honestly enjoying the dress she was wearing now. Besides, I was too distracted in thought to really listen to her rambling complaints, so she wasn't really bothering me.

"I'm serious, change me back." She demanded, following curtly along my side as we strode along the Pixie Path.

"Just be glad it isn't raining." I mused, trying to rein back my smile. I had way more important things to figure out. Not to mention the less magic I performed the safer I was, even if my body was itching to use another spell at any moment.

I was practically on a magical high; it had been a couple years now since I had last cast a spell or even felt magic again. I don't know how I ever gave it up before. The world felt so much more alive with having my magic sense back.

"That is not funny either. You better not start making it rain." I heard Goldie add, the frustration in her voice still hanging, though it was coated in that same melancholy I remembered from before.

I'd handle Goldie's situation as it came, there was enough stacked against me already. The first of which, was Goldie herself.

I swirled around on the heels of my boots to face the auburn haired thief, whom had stopped dead in her tracks before nearly colliding with me. "First, I would sooner turn myself in for the faeries before I want to relive the kiss that almost was. Second, I won't remove the spell until I know you will stop calling me Red. Otherwise you can just wait until midnight."

Her eyes went wide. She seemed like she was about to stutter out a word but I interrupted her. "Got it? And next time just be glad all I did was s.h.i.+ft your outfit into a dress and change your hair up. I just needed to test something minor. So lay off the pixie powder, and try to act like an actual person for once in your life."

She opened her mouth to say something, looking like a fish gulping, but closed it again before nodding.

I swung back around, with my cloak skimming against Goldie's tights and the ground. Ever since I had my cloak and hood wrapped around me again, I wanted to just cuddle it and hold onto it forever. But I didn't want Goldie to see that, or anyone for that matter.

I heard the thief behind me stumble a few times, as we continued along the trail, already reaching another mountain pa.s.s that we would be taking.

"Uh, Re- Gnidori?" Her voice sounded squeaky and high like squeezing air from a bottle. "Where are we going?"

"A palace. You'll probably fit right in. Taking you to the person who asked me to pick you up." I explained, with only half interest as I found the path leading up to Charming's elaborately decorated castle. I could still see the large wolf prints in the sparkling dirt that I had found last time. It made me wonder if that had been a set up.

Gabbi and Charming working together, to get me off her trail. Before I had met with Charming, I had been following what I thought was her trail into his territory. Now, I couldn't be sure of anything.

We both stopped at the apex of the sloped path, side by side, looking at Charming's sparkling silver palace.

"Kurt wanted you to get me and take me to him?" Her voice had fallen back into that sweet honey texture, oozing out with a sultry tone.

"No. But he wanted me to get you and take you to Bluebeard's Tower." I said simply.

She gasped, and turned her head to me. "I don't want to go."

"To Bluebeard's tower? I don't blame you. But we have to check in here."

"I don't want to go." She reiterated.

"I heard you the first time. But if you don't want to be here, then maybe you should explain why you got Charming to look for your family?" I asked, I would have eyed her, but I knew even this close she wouldn't have seen it from under my hood. So it would have been wasted effort.

Her face lit with a light pink all around her cheeks, practically completing her doll-like look.

"I don't know." She finally said, and turned away from me.

Now I was the one giving her a look like she was crazy.

"Well if you don't want to tell me, fine. But we are still going up there." I shrugged, and took a couple steps forward. I felt her slender fingers slip around to catch my wrist and pull me back. I half turned and eyed her once more.

She blew out a sigh and glanced to the floor with her honey eyes before looking back to me. "I have a contract out on me. Hue was nice enough to provide shelter and protection to me. And Kay managed to find my only remaining family just in case someone fulfilled the contract."

"Kay? Did you really just call Charming, Kay? Oh Fey, Goldie. You are still with him?" Her blush flared up and her eyes darted away to the side. If that wasn't an obvious answer I didn't know what was.

"Midnight flipping magic." I cursed. At least I knew why she needed the escort. Though I was speculating as to why she didn't want to see him, yet was blus.h.i.+ng so fiercely at the mention of them being together.

"And a contract? Why did I hear nothing about you being on the bounty list?" My voice was rising in annoyance as I turned on her. I hated being out of the bounty hunter loop. It looked like I was going to need to go ogre on some of my contacts.

I didn't get the chance to bring any further thought to it, since a stream of pixie dust flittered between us. Soon, twenty specks of dust were scattering around us, all different colors.

The couple dozen flying gnats were floating fifteen feet or further in front of us, glittering dust trailing all around them, like they were a ma.s.sive moving waterfall of sparkles.

It'd be easier to put Humpty Dumpty back together again than figure out which one had spoken up with a deep ba.s.so tone. "Gertrude Locke, you have been declared an outlaw due to sixteen different faerie rule violations. You are to be put to death immediately."

I turned to Goldie, the annoyance in my voice s.h.i.+fted to just pure fury. "You have a b.l.o.o.d.y Faerie Contract out on your head? Are you kidding me? You couldn't have mentioned that?!"

"What does it matter, faerie, regular, legend, they are all still bounties on my head!" She screamed back at me defensively.

"Yeah, except if you had said that I wouldn't have used magic on you. Anytime a spell is used on someone in their bounty database they are all over it!" I growled before slipping my hand into my cloak and realizing I no longer had my long-handled axe, but I had my entire collection of axes back. So I pulled out two one-handed hatchets.

My stance became placid, as I used one arm to push Goldie behind me. Not that it would really do any good. Pixies were fast, and now that my magic was unlocked I would have to actively channel magic through my body to enhance my speed and strength enough. But even then I couldn't swat down twenty over-glorified bugs before they could get to Goldie.

Still, it didn't make sense as to why they would only send pixies. Annoying as they were, there was no way they could carry Goldie away and deal with me. It was almost like the Faerie Security Force was giving me a pa.s.s.

"Well... if it isn't the former Red Faerie. Stealing away innocent young girls again are we? And another one of your charges no less, though I guess this one isn't quite so innocent. Disappointed?" A voice of sultry amus.e.m.e.nt chimed from behind me, sounding like metal being tapped against gla.s.s.

I didn't even have to turn around to know who it was that had come up behind Goldie and me.

"I don't steal innocent young girls, Nera. Still trying to turn a boy into a real man? Or was it trying to give wood to a young boy? I can never remember exactly." I mocked, the fury still wavering in my tone.

"Hmph" Nera harrumphed with little care.

Neraid Crest or Nera was a Sidhe. A race of beings supposedly well-endowed with magic, which was why it was no wonder she also became one of the top notch Faerie G.o.dmothers as well. Her G.o.dmother name, The Blue Faerie, was likely the most renowned out of any, and she has often said that she was the most powerful of any G.o.dmother. But I couldn't be sure of that, since elating her ego was her favorite pastime, even if she wasn't supposed to be able to lie.

"You aren't getting her." I spoke crisply, noticing some of the pixies were more than antsy, wavering about in a swarm.

Is that what you call a group of pixies? Swarm? I'd call it a *dusting' of pixies, instead. Anytime you got a group together they shed so much dust it littered the areas they hovered. That was supposedly where the Pixie Path got its name.

"Whoever said I came for her, my dear?" Nera's Sidhe-feline eyes narrowed.

"Then what do you want with me? As much as I love seeing you again, I've had enough time to reminisce today." I sarcastically brushed her off. My back turned completely to the pixies, to face her. She was far more dangerous than her little minions.

"Your magic. I have been requested to relieve you of it, and if you will not hand it over, well..." Her already thin skin curled over her pointed cheek bones to form a smile that was just pure evil. "...then I am to relieve you of it, without your consent."