"You want feet on your house?" Goldie asked.

"No. It's an enchantment that I can use on any door to enter my house. I can do the enchantment on the door, but the house would take months of magical energy to properly layer it. Which means it'll be expensive."

"That's all?" Charming concluded.

"It's worth it. But you also have to decree that all pract.i.tioners of magic are welcome in your kingdom and will have citizen rights." I continued, a smile falling on my lips.

"You can't be serious. That is not a decreed that would be possible! The faeries would come down with brimstone!" He gasped, his eyes were wide.

I just waved him off. "Charming, you leave the faeries to me. If I don't do something about them, I'd be dead quickly anyway. I'll let you know when you can make the declaration. Got it?"

A frown overtook his face, but he nodded. "Is that all?"

"Do I need to start breaking things here?" Gabbi stepped up, holding the circlet between her fingers and pressing it against her thigh.

"Yes, that's it." I sighed before turning a hidden eyebrow to Gabbi. "Well?"

"Oh, yes. Hmmm..." Gabbi tapped a finger to her chin in thought.

"Seriously?" My face grew placid as I groaned. "You had twenty heart-gus.h.i.+ng minutes to think."

"I want immunity to your magic."

"No such thing."

"Of course there is. I've seen it before." Gabbi growled and took up the circlet with both hands again before pulling on it lightly.

I started grinding my teeth again. "I can ward you against my magic but it will only buy you maybe two or three bypa.s.ses on magical spells only from me. And other magic could erode it slightly."

"What about those entire cities protected by barriers!"

"They use amplifying artifacts, and constantly at least one mage is in contact and concentrating all the time. And that is for a stationary area, you can't imagine the work involved in a moving object, let alone a living person!"

"Fine..." She gave in. "A ward will have to do then."

"Give me the circlet then." I held my hand out again.

"Not until I am warded." She tossed a completely fake innocent smile.

"Give it to Goldie, then I'll ward you." I sighed. I had done enough of these give and take negotiations over the years as a Bounty Hunter.

Gabbi pondered for a moment, before tossing the circlet to Goldie. I cringed as the golden-haired thief stumbled with catching it.

"Now, ward me."

"Say please." I smiled, my teeth filled with sarcasm while I opened my hand toward Gabbi. My fingers snapped before I pointed to her in the same manner I had done when changing Goldie's outfit.

A spark of rainbow shot from my finger and swirled around her, tightening closer around her until it was practically a second outfit. It s.h.i.+mmered once it had settled then faded entirely from sight.

"That's it?" Gabbi asked, sounding surprised. She hadn't really ever been on the receiving end of my beneficial spells. Well except for the one before she became the wolf.

"That's it." I concluded before rus.h.i.+ng to Goldie to s.n.a.t.c.h up the crown. I held it for not more than a second before turning and chucking the thing at Gabbi's head.

She caught it with a toothy smile on her lips. "Careful, that's expensive."

"This is why I never understand you, Gabs. You rage at me for lying but then just lied yourself!" I bellowed through my teeth and threw my b.l.o.o.d.y arms through the air.

"You said you wanted the circlet." She shrugged.

"It's not even magical. How could you have Ashe contained in that?" I growled more fiercely.

"Oh, did I say she was in that? You must have misheard me. Or maybe you just jumped to conclusions because I touched it when talking about her?" Her fangs grew through her smile as she tilted her head just barely.

"You set me up." I said in disbelief.

"Oh, come now, Gnidori. I may not have a magic nose but I could hear you the moment you two were bouncing around on the beams. You should have known I am more aware than most. I'm disappointed in you." Gabbi's smile overturned into a deep pout-like frown.

I threw all my energy into my speed and yanked an axe from my belt as I shot toward her. She slipped the swipe of my hatchet and grabbed my throat, followed by my wrist. Her hand squeezed until the axe was clanking on the floor as she stared into my eyes, while her own swirled between at least twelve different colors.

"Not so tough when I know you have magic and strength." She gave me that condescending smile, like she was sorry for me.

I gasped for air before swirling my remaining hand around to punch her in the face. She just opened her mouth and bit down hard on my fist as it came at her.

Quick tears and even quicker cries gushed from me. I could tell she was only enjoying this even more, so my lips shut tight.

She spit my hand out before pulling my face close to hers. Her sharps fangs were jutting out from her frown. "If that is all you have become while I was away, you aren't even worth my time."

She then dropped her hand from my wrist and tossed me by the neck across the throne room till I landed on my back. I blocked the pain pouring through my body and pushed myself up from the ground as she turned to just leave like that.

"You aren't leaving here without giving me Ashe!" I roared, trying to copy Bonny's voice.

"Oh, shut it, Red Riding Hood." Gabbi turned to glance back at me, her face in a snarl. "Your precious Cinderella is locked up in the cellar below here. A deal is a deal. I gave her back, not entirely whole of course. Go get her, Kurt."

I half-stood stunned. She never used my t.i.tle, not once. It was like my grandmamma using my full name.

Charming didn't even pause for a moment. He was gone out the ma.s.sive chamber door as quickly as he could with Goldie right alongside him.

"Don't think she is really yours though. She's her own person, Gnidori. She's strong, stronger than you to let her be captive so that you would be safer. She's not property; she's not even a child anymore. And she would do anything for you. A lot of people would. And sometimes you forget that."

My eyes fell away from Gabbi as I dragged myself to the table she had been flicking food off of earlier. I tore some of the tablecloth before wrapping it around the wounds on my hand and arms to stop up the bleeding.

I mumbled while I did all of this, "I know. Thank you."

She forced a deep breath out and glanced over me with a lack of the interest she usually had, and then turned toward the door once more.

"Wait... Gabbi." I s.h.i.+fted toward her and sighed. My eyes flew up from the wraps on my hand.

She turned just her head back at me with a look of genuine curiosity.

"I have to know." I flexed my fingers into a fist to make sure they still felt fine after the bite they took. "How did you survive your death?"

She glanced back to the ma.s.sive open doors and the hallway beyond before lowering her head. "I didn't, Gnidori. I really didn't."

Then she just walked off to leave me in the chamber, alone.

Twenty.

Feigned Innocence "Oh he is absolutely adorable!" Ashe exclaimed with her normal chipper self. She didn't even act like she had just been locked in a castle cellar, or had every last strand of her hair chopped down to the stub.

"Yeah, don't mind me, I'm just his transportation."

Ashe looked up from cuddling the tiny fox she had taken from me when she came das.h.i.+ng into the chamber. She smiled softly. "We all know you are adorable, Gnidori."

My face grew hot. "W-what?"

The short-haired brunette let off a giggle before turning her attention back to the fox, whom was snuggled into her arms. She was completely oblivious to the conversation I had with Gabbi. But it was the only thing really swarming my mind.

Was she right? Of course she had been. Ashe was a person; an adult at that. Even if she had been hardly sixteen when I first met her as a Faerie G.o.dmother and told her I would make everything better for her. I hadn't been lying then. But did I really make things better?

"Gnidori?" Ashe asked as Reynard popped up right in front of my face. I jumped away from the fox and crouched, afraid he was going to p.i.s.s on me again. Ashe followed my actions with amus.e.m.e.nt as she lowered the fox back into her arms and glanced to me. "What are you doing?"

"N-nothing... you just surprised me." I concluded as I stood erect again and attempted a smile back to her. "What did you want?"

"Did you want me coming with you? I could stay here, make sure your house gets that spell started on it, you know." She seemed almost sheepish as she continued, her eyes even averting from me.

Did I want her to come with me? Really? Thinking of the image of her on the other side of the wall of fire just had me wanting to yell no. But I let it linger for a moment, and realized... She knew the dangers of traveling with me. I shouldn't be giving her permission. If she wanted to come I couldn't really stop her without using magic.

So I stepped forward and brought my fingers up to her chin. I lifted her head so her eyes were facing me and I smiled softly. "It's your choice, Ashe. But I'd feel better and like it if you came with me."

The pure shock and amazement on that girl's face would stay with me forever. It was even better than the first time I had ever told her I could make all her dreams come true. Maybe because it wasn't just words this time, I was in a way making her dream come true. At least by Gabbi's admittance.

Her eyes grew watery as she jumped and wrapped her arms around me, while the fox squirmed from her hand to claw up my back.

My arms instinctively slipped around her body. And it was the first time I was really noticing that she wasn't a child anymore. Her curves pressed to mine, her height exceeded me, and although her face had stayed mostly the same it had grown with some more prominent smile lines that enhanced her dimples further. Even the short crop of hair gave notice to how much older she had gotten.

She pulled back from me, her face ridden with the color red as she squeaked, "I'd like to."

"Good." My smile widened while I lifted my hands to peel off the fox clinging to my back by the scruff of his neck and brought him around to stare at him. "I can tell you are already going to be so much trouble, Reynard."

He looked at me with his slit eyes and yawned right in my face, which made Ashe bust into a fit of giggles. I ground my teeth but stroked his head then let my new travel companion take him up into her arms again. She seemed to coo him back to sleep almost immediately.

"So, we should probably get going. The longer we stay the more danger we're in." I clapped my hands together, before turning to the throne room's ma.s.sive open doors. My attention drew to Ashe. "Where is Goldie and Charming?"

Her face intensified with color as she averted her gaze again. "Uh... well they are busy right now. I thought maybe we could spend some time playing with Reynard and catching up. It has been months since I've seen you."

"We can do that while we travel. Trust me, we'll have plenty of time to talk. We need to leave, where are they?" I turned completely to the side to face her.

Her lip quivered briefly before she looked up with new determination. "Okay, I'll tell you. But first you have to answer one question for me."

I sighed. "Ashe..."

She stared at me with a strong intent, her smile fading back into her dimples with a pout of her lips. "Why haven't you said anything about my hair?"

I went stiff and locked my jaw. What do I say?

"I like it. Maybe a little too short, but it makes you seem your age and regal in a way."

"Too short..." She said while deep in thought. Then she looked back at me and stepped forward to grab my hand and hold it to her hair. "Then make it longer for me?"

I blinked. Her lips were still pouting and her dimples sagged into a frown as I tried to understand. "What?"

"You have your magic back, don't you? Can't you make my hair longer?"

"How did... how do..." I stumbled for some words at all to say.

"How do I know? I'm not sure." Her face contorted into a thoughtful expression before she added. "I can just feel it. You hum with so much energy, not at all like before."

I let out a soft laugh and gently gripped on to her hair. "How long?"

She shrugged, "I trust you."

I nodded and closed my eyes.

Hair was an interesting conduit for magic, it was in the same vein as blood, technically any spell that calls for blood could have hair used in its place, but by much larger quant.i.ties. This made magic that messed with hair more frustrating. The slightest touch of magic and I could cast an entirely different spell rather than just grow her hair.

So instead of grabbing a hold of her hair, I started to stroke it gently, letting the waves of energy ripple off my hand as it slowly grew her hair. It was past her ears before I even opened my eyes. As her hair reached the traces of her shoulders I knew it was a perfect fit for her, especially since I had a future version of her to compare to.

The rainbow color illuminating from my hand faded as I smiled to her. She touched one of the ends then smiled back.

Of course it was then that Charming and Goldie came around the corner into the main hallway. My hand quickly pulled away from the back of Ashe's head but Charming was already smirking.

"Are we interrupting anything? We can come back." He crossed his arms as he reached the door way. Goldie was coming up behind him, adjusting her tights one last time before leaving them be.

My face was burning up, and looking to Ashe I could see the same was true for her. Why did I feel guilty when they had just come back from sleeping with each other? I hadn't done a thing. We should be the ones smirking and giggling about their little escapade.

"No. Nothing. We need to get going." I concluded quickly and stepped closer to the other two.

"Right, then let's go." Goldie added while we started to walk down the hall.

"Wait." I stopped and turned to glance at the Tsar with the disheveled hair. "I need to know where Captain Bonny might be currently, Charming."

"Bonny? Why?" He looked actually confused for once.