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LEROY TOOK US BACK to our base where Rudy, Harley and Pru were gathered in the living room. Pru’s eyes were red and she clutched a tissue in her hand. “Where’s Asha?” Leroy asked, looking around for her.
“She’s in her room,” Harley replied in a subdued tone. “She’s packing her things,” he added.
Hearing light footsteps descending the stairs, I turned to the hallway to wait for the dryad. Instead of carrying a duffle bag, her hands were empty. “There’s no point taking any of my things with me,” Asha said dully when I raised my eyebrows in enquiry. “They’ll just be stripped away from me when I’m taken to the Unseelie palace.”
“She’s probably right,” Emelia agreed. “If Asha is to become their queen, she won’t need her human clothing or belongings.”
“So, she’s just going to leave here with nothing?” Leroy asked indignantly, throwing his hands up in disgust.
“I won’t be leaving with nothing,” Asha said fiercely. “I had nothing when I was held prisoner by Dr. Parry for ten years. When I leave here, it will be with something I’ve never had before. Something that can never be taken from me.” Her amber, green and brown eyes showed a hint of silver, but she didn’t let her goblin side take over. “I know what it’s like to be loved and to love others in return now,” she added, refusing to let her tears well up.
“We’re going to miss you, girly,” Rudy said gruffly, then stomped over to her. She went down to her knees so he could give her a long hug. He smacked a kiss on her cheek, then stepped back. Pru was the next to embrace the girl. The witch started sobbing quietly and Emelia gently pulled her away after putting her hand on the dryad’s shoulder in support.
Leroy took his turn next. He manifested enough to embrace the girl he’d protected and called his sister. Harley took his turn and hugged her tightly. He didn’t see her close her eyes in pain. He would never know the depth of her feelings for him, which was probably for the best.
“Let’s go,” Asha said to me. I looked at Leroy and he took us to another doorway that led to the Unseelie realms. It was the one near where we’d killed the elemental hounds that had shot electricity from their bodies.
The dryad turned to me and I saw her terror that she was about to face her destiny. My heart felt like it was being torn in half, but I was hit with a vision that took my pain away. “You’ll go through hell after you step through that portal, but everything will be all right in the end, darlin’,” I told her. I also knew we couldn’t go with her. She was meant to travel to the Unseelie realm on her own, but she wouldn’t be alone for long.
“You can’t know that,” she said, dashing away a tear that escaped her control.
“Yeah, I can. I’m a fairy you know. I just had a vision and I know for a fact that you’ll know love again.”
“There is no love in the Unseelie realm,” she said dully. “Every being that lives there is evil to the core.”
“You’re not,” I reminded her. “You’ll bring the calm. That’s what you were born to do, Asha Trinity.”
“I’m a monster,” she whispered brokenly. “I’m half goblin. They’re the worst of the creatures that live in the dark realm.”
I took her by the shoulders and waited for her to tip her head back to look at me before I spoke. “You’re also half dryad and you grew up among humans. You have the capacity to change things. The Unseelie realm will never become like the Seelie lands, but it doesn’t have to be all bad all the time. It’s your job to restore the balance, darlin’. I’ve already seen it and I know you’ll succeed. You just have to believe in yourself.”
She uttered a harsh laugh, then took a shuddering breath. “I’m just a nobody,” she said plaintively. “How could I ever become a queen?”
“It’s your destiny, little sis,” Leroy reminded her proudly. I saw ghostly tracks of tears on his face that he pretended weren’t there. “Once you’ve whipped that nasty place into shape, Jake, Rudy, Emelia and I will come and visit you,” he added.
It was the right thing to say and she smiled a little. “Do you promise?” she asked.
“Damn straight,” he replied.
“Remember what Queen Wysterial said to you,” I told her. The fairy monarch had also had a vision of the dryad when we’d visited the Seelie Court.
“I remember,” Asha said. “‘Surrendering to the inevitable is my only option if I wish to survive and if I wish to restore calm in the midst of the raging storm,’” she quoted from memory.
Right now, there were endless storms raging through the Unseelie lands. I didn’t know how she was going to pull it off, but my vision had shown her sitting on a black crystal throne. She’d had a husband at her side and the Unseelie Court was bowing to them both.
I bent to give Asha a long hug, then she stepped away from me. “Thank you for everything,” she said. “I love you all.”
“We love you, too, darlin’,” I said. My heart constricted when she took a deep breath then walked over to the doorway. Hesitating for a moment, she looked back over her shoulder. She lifted her hand in a wave that we returned, then she stepped through and vanished.
“Damn it,” Leroy said as more ghostly tears began to fall. “I really am misty eyed this time.”
I knew how he felt and I was trying hard not to succumb to my own tears. “Take us home, Leroy,” I requested. “I have a story to tell you all about the adventures Asha is going to embark on.”
Perking up that the dryad would somehow prevail in the end, he used the veil to transport us back to our base.
Emelia smiled when she saw us and held her hand out to me. I crossed to her and hugged her to my side. I’d fought hard against being controlled, but had finally succumbed to the inevitable. Now I was bound to the fairy I’d fallen for almost from the first moment we’d met and I was surrounded by the team who had become my family. We might return to the Seelie lands every now and then so Emelia could visit her kin, but our home was here.
We’d saved our world and now it was Asha’s turn to save the fae realms. My vision had shown me that she wouldn’t be facing her ordeals alone. The man she would end up with was the last person I would have chosen for her, yet the pair were meant to be together. I would miss Asha, but she was going to the place where she belonged, even if it wouldn’t seem like it to her at first. No one could fight their destiny, but sometimes it led us exactly where we were meant to be.
