"And you just go around controlling people like puppets to get them to do things for you? Why didn't you just take Kit from the mirror if you needed the dragon to show up?" I growled and she let out a soft laugh that made her neck dangerously clash against Roberts' sword.

"Isn't that obvious? The dragon must have mentioned it. The magic that falls around a keeper and producer of the legends in this world. The magic that protects those Legend Keepers?" She narrowed her eyes.

"The blessing then tragedy that befalls all those who take a Legend Keeper from their home?" I tried repeating what the dragon had said, but I could hardly remember since it had been so long ago.

"Precisely. Why kill ourselves for a dragon, when you could take the curse?" She smiled as her neck s.h.i.+fted and she looked toward the portal in front of her again.

"And yet you wonder why we are attacking you?"

"I simply want to go home, Gnidori. I had no care about the dragon or your life being caught by a Legend Keeper curse." She explained while lifting a hand up to point toward the portal.

I gasped sarcastically, "Oh, well, now that you put it like that, I'd love to just let you go."

"You don't have to get like that."

There was the smallest of pauses where we both sighed.

"You used me so you could go home. And capture a dragon. And I don't know how many other things. Maybe you had been expecting me to kill Nera and Fioravante too, since that was what I normally would have done."

"Actually we were."

I ground my teeth together while gripping my hands in to fists.

I charged the rest of the way up to her, pus.h.i.+ng everyone away before I spun her around and glared in to her magically explosive eyes. "I'll ask one last time..."

She grinned with such amus.e.m.e.nt lingering while I finished. "...What are you?"

"Exactly as you have known me. Only that I came from the world where that portal goes. The same world Alice, Dorothy, Carter, and many others from your legends have come from."

"The magic? And controlling time?" I thought for a moment about what Kit had said about my case of time travel. "Are you related to Van Winkle?"

She chuckled out a half-laugh before replying. "You could say that. Though, I am more a relative of time, specifically. I'm surprised you would even think to connect me to him."

I was about to continue pressing Bonny. But I think it had finally clicked with Roberts that whoever would have created Reynard also would have killed his lover, since he interrupted me just as I opened my mouth to speak.

"It was you! All this time I was looking up to you when you had been the one to kill him!?" Tears were in his eyes but they wouldn't drip down.

"I am sorry, Alonso. If he didn't die you wouldn't be here now. You still have a destiny ahead of you, and never getting your revenge, never saying goodbye to that man will bring forth that amazing destiny in you."

"Never getting my revenge? I'll have it now!" He cried his words of justice as he sliced toward both Bonny and me. I let go of her as we both jumped back in different directions so the slash would miss us. When he prepared another, his body slowed down to the same speed Nera had before I had sent her away. I looked around to see everyone else slowing down as well.

"We might see each other again, Gnidori." She smiled and turned to the portal. I shot my hand out to grab her by the wrist with as much strength as I could push out.

She looked back at me with such surprise. "You can't exactly hold me here. And someone needs to go through that portal or you won't be able to touch your precious cloak."

"Someone will. Just not you. You messed with my life and you really think I'm just going to let it all go? Let you go?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"I'm sorry to do this then, Gnidori. You give me no choice." She explained as she spun to look over me and flicked her head and eyes.

Suddenly, she was faster than me. I couldn't explain it with any tangible words.

Her hand pulled from me and she was waving at me all in a single moment. But I smiled and reached up to point behind her.

She turned quicker than I had finished pointing, to see Reynard sitting behind her. He was moving at her speed as his tail wagged.

"Reynard says if I want to help Gnidori and see a great new world all I have to do is leave him. He says I was lied to, that I am a special spirit like him and I do not need a body to inhabit." I heard Kit mention while Bonny stood there, stunned.

Then the fox exploded in colors and a soul s.h.i.+mmering with thousands of subtle changes in texture and hue, pulled out of Reynard. The fox crouched low and was not moving at their speed any more, while the spirit floated just above.

"He said I could take hold of my life here, like I always wanted. So that's what I'm doing." Kit smiled with an ethereal face toward me. Bonny must have instantly realized what the shed spirit was going to do, since she dashed forward. But the floaty, spectral form of Kit swooshed faster than Bonny could dart and dived in the portal with ease, ahead of her.

The strange portal closed just as the Pirate King launched her body to it. She landed stomach first along the b.l.o.o.d.y ground and skidded to a stop as my cloak and the hat dropped to the floor and the energy in the room all faded to leave the eerie vibe the b.l.o.o.d.y room probably naturally had from so much death in it.

Her crackling eyes turned to me, with an extreme lack of rage I had been expecting. "You have no idea what you let happen. You changed everything in the future, and in that world."

"That's what the future is for, to be changed."

She shook her head as she stood up and patted her body down. "You have no idea. Now your cloak is useless without the rest of them. The work you have forced the Templars and me to do won't make you liked."

I tried to say something as time seemed to speed up to a normal pace for everyone. "What do I care? You said it yourself. I might as well already be dead."

She backed up just as Roberts pulled himself together and turned toward her again. She just started to fade though, like she was slowly being erased from existence. The smile on her face and those brilliant purple eyes were the last thing any of us saw before she was completely absent from the room.

We all stood stunned for a few minutes, soaking in what happened and handling our wounds.

My eyes fell to Reynard, before I scooped him up from my feet. "You are the best fox I've ever known."

My smile didn't last from praising the Kitsune as I glanced to where Bonny had disappeared, seeing Roberts sc.r.a.pe at the ground there.

The Templars? That must have been the group of people she was connected to. But why had I never heard of them?

I really hate when people use me like a puppet. It was even worse to think of people I didn't know, understanding me well enough to do such a thing.

Ashe stepped up in front of me, holding the hat and cloak. She must have noticed my frustration. "You stopped her from using the portal. You saved everyone. You beat Bluebeard without killing him, and you sent The Blue Faerie somewhere. You did good, Gnidori."

Then why didn't it feel like I had?

"The Faerie Academy, that's where I sent her." I sighed.

"Then you are stopping the faeries too, and saving so many people from their oppression!" Ashe exclaimed as she jumped me with a hug.

"And condemning millions more to magical maladies." I added as Ashe lifted her hand up to my chin and pulled on it till my eyes were looking right at her.

"Gnidori Hodder, you saved people who could have died today. You changed people's lives. You're a hero, don't you ever think differently." Ashe finished as her eyes glared in to me with such strength; a strength that had been hidden deep down in her for so long.

She had an inner strength in her now that gripped me better than her hands could.

"Maybe you're right." I smiled softly and held Reynard up between us so he would lick Ashe's face.

"Of course I'm right." Ashe squeaked while drawing away from the licking.

We laughed.

Laughing was good. At that time, laughing or crying were my only options.

And honestly?

I'd rather have more laughter in my life.

Thirty-Three.

The Blue Period My knuckles fired across Hue's face, before he stumbled away from me and tossed a glare back.

"You brought her back didn't you?" I accused.

He blinked, which only made me want to punch him again.

"Don't give me that look. You found a way to bring Gabbi back. A pirate who suggested a time spell, maybe?" I continued, turning to pace in Hue's chamber room.

Ashe was holding my cloak and his hat still, near the entrance. She looked like she realized why Ettie and Han had stayed in the common room to wait for me to come back out.

"You knew. How long?" Hue finally said when he was sure I wouldn't strike him for yet another time.

How long? I had weeks to think before I had enough energy to transport everyone with the falling star spell, even Bonny's broken s.h.i.+p. Of course Bonny was no longer the owner or captain of it. Neither was Roberts though. The pirates voted for some mousy little brown-haired girl with big gla.s.ses to lead them. Roberts decided to stay with them, knowing if he did it was more likely he would run across the Pirate King, wherever she had gone.

"Weeks." I finally replied. "What were the terms and what did she do?"

"Magic. Where you killed Gabbi. The terms are not discussable." He explained and I reached forward to grip Hue by the collar before thrusting him to a dresser.

"And why not?"

"Because..." He started and I glared. "It is sensitive information, Gnidori."

"I'd wager it is as sensitive as the knowledge about Prince Hue making a deal with a mage to bring back his dead wife." I ground my teeth and he gulped.

"I had a deal with her to spy on Charming." He continued as his dark blue eyes drew to me.

"You got military information. She got?"

"Access to my port." He nodded. So that was how she had gotten the port to obtain the Pirate King t.i.tle.

"Then one day she told you, what? Hey, I can use magic to bring your dead wife back, how about it?"

"Something like that." He grinned then added, "I just had to give Gertrude to you."

"That doesn't add up. I came because Gabbi was already alive."

He gave me a look like I was the idiot here. "She did it before you showed up."

"You idiot." I mumbled and shook my head.

"You would have done it too." He said with such a placid expression.

I slammed the blue prince against the dresser then ripped away from him, my head still shaking as my eyes drew to Ashe.

"No, I wouldn't have." I lied, while crossing the room to slip the hat from my roommate's head. I attempted a smile to comfort her, a soft one. Her hazel doe eyes beamed back at me with such watery sparkles like I had just saved her from being eaten by a wild beast.

I wanted to say something, but I had no idea what.

I half-turned back to Hue and tossed his hat to him. "Did you know your hat could be used to make a portal of some kind?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"You don't remember?"

"No." I ground my teeth as I thought about it.

"Oh." He pulled his hat on his head. "I guess not."

I really hate when he does that. As if our conversations weren't long enough already. I turned back to Ashe and saw her eyes still s.h.i.+mmering with color, which made my frustrations evaporate quickly.

My hand slipped around her waist and I pulled her close. "Sorry." I whispered at her ear.

She smiled and lowered her head with a soft giggle from my breath over her ear. "It's okay."

"Oh...Gnidori." Hue said as I glanced over Ashe's shoulder to look at him with my returned annoyance.

I had to separate from Ashe completely to catch whatever was flying toward me. I didn't even have to uncoil my fingers from around the object after I caught it to recognize the smell. A brimstone pendant sat in my palm. Pure magic crystallized with such a radiant golden color.

"What's this for?" My eyebrows rose as I looked up from it.

"An early wedding present." He stated so calmly.

My face shot red and my entire body was burning up immediately. I couldn't even face Ashe. At least until Hue started chuckling. Then I just had the urge to punch him again for teasing me.

"It was in the crates. You have more use for it." He shrugged it off and turned back to a collection of papers and a few maps on the desk in his chamber.

"The crates?" I asked before remembering the cargo we had left behind from Bonny's s.h.i.+pment. It had to be those ones, but what was this pendant doing in there?

And were there more?