The pain had almost faded now, just a dull, ragged throbbing around the edges of my mind. Wearied by the battle and the cold and the shock of being torn apart, my head dropped to my chest, and I felt myself drifting….
“There you are,” Ariel a said, smiling at me in my dreams. “I knew you had to fall asleep sooner or later. You were exhausted.” I blinked, stepping beneath the boughs of a huge, snowcovered cypress, every leaf outlined in frost. “Is this something I should expect every time I fall asleep?” I asked the figure sitting beneath the trunk.
Ariel a stood and walked forward, brushing away glittering curtains of leaves. “No,” she said, taking my hand and drawing me forward. “My time as the seer is coming to an end. Soon, I won’t be able to dreamwalk anymore, so bear with me for a little while. I want to show you something.”
As she spoke, the scene around us changed. It blew away, like dust in a storm, until we were standing on a long gravel driveway, gazing up at an old green house.
“Do you recognize this?”
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I nodded. “Meghan’s old house,” I said, gazing at the weathered, faded structure. “Where her family lives.” A bark interrupted me. The front door creaked open, and Meghan emerged, followed by a small child of about four or five, an enormous German shepherd trailing them both.
I drew in a breath and stepped forward, but Ariel a put a hand on my arm.
“She cannot see us,” she warned. “Not this time. This is more a latent memory than a true dream. Meghan’s consciousness is not here—you would not be able to speak to her.” I turned back, watching Meghan and Ethan sit on the old porch swing, swaying gently back and forth. Ethan’s feet dangled over the edge, kicking sporadically, as Meghan passed him a small blue box with a straw sticking out of it. Beau, the German shepherd, put his huge paws on the swing and tried scrambling up as well, causing Ethan to shriek with laughter and Meghan to yell at him to get down.
“She dreams of them often,” Ariel a said. “Her family. Especially him, the small one.”
“Her brother,” I murmured, unable to take my eyes from her. Having successfully ordered Beau off the swing, she patted her lap and scratched the big dog behind the ears, kissing his muzzle as he came up. Ariel a nodded.
“Yes. The child who started it all, in a way. When he was kidnapped by the Iron King and taken into the Nevernever, she didn’t hesitate to go after him. And she didn’t stop there. When her magic was sealed by Mab, leaving her defenseless in the Winter Court, she somehow managed to survive, even when she thought you had turned on her. When 255/387
the Scepter of the Seasons was stolen by the Iron fey, she went after it, despite having no magic and no weapon with which to defend herself.
And when the courts asked her to destroy the false king, she accepted, even though the Summer and Iron glamours within her were making her sick, and she couldn’t use either of them effectively. She still went into the Iron Kingdom to face a tyrant she didn’t know if she could overcome.
“Now,” Ariel a finished, turning toward me, “do you still believe humans are weak?”
Before I could answer, the scene faded. Darkness fell, Meghan and her brother vanished before me, and everything went black. I opened my eyes to find myself alone in my room, sitting on the bed with my back to the wall.
Do you still believe humans are weak?
I smiled ruefully. The half-blood daughter of Oberon was one of the strongest human beings I’d ever encountered. Even when her magic was sealed, or when it was making her horribly sick, she’d managed to defeat everything Faery threw at her through sheer stubborn determination. She had brought an end to two faery wars, and when it was all over, she had become a queen.
No, I told myself. Humans weren’t weak. Meghan Chase had proven that, many times over. And it didn’t matter if I had no magic, or if I wasn’t as strong as before. My vow to the Iron Queen, the one I’d sworn when I became her knight, still stood.
From this day forth, I vow to protect Meghan Chase, daughter of the Summer King, with my sword, my honor and my life. Should even the world stand against her, my blade will be at her side. And should it fail to protect her, let my own existence be forfeit.
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I couldn’t protect her in the Iron Realm, not as Ash the Winter prince.
All the glamour in the world couldn’t help her if I wasn’t there. I had to become human to stand beside her. For a moment, I’d lost sight of that.
That wouldn’t happen again. The loss of my glamour wouldn’t deter me. I was still a knight, her knight. And I’d return to the girl I’d sworn to protect.
I rose, prepared to find Puck and Ariel a and tell them I was fine, that I was prepared to continue the trials. But before I could move, a dark shaped appeared in the corner of my eye, and the Guardian stood beside me. No warning, no ripple of power or magic to announce its arrival. It was just there.
“It is time,” the hooded figure stated as I stif led the urge to step out of its cold, dark shadow. “You have made your decision, so let us continue.”