AN~ I just ended the chapter on a weird note because it wasn't going anywhere. We're gonna be seeing some other people's POVs later, but for a bit it's just gonna be Allie and Emma.

Axel Treehorn: this one will be pretty intense... at least, that's the plan. Not sure how good I'll be at being intense for a whole fic.

Fangirl26: Thanks so much!

Guest 1: Calm down child.

Guest 2: I did!


Alison looked at herself in the motel mirror. Short, neat blonde hair that curled just a little at the ends, her dad's blue-green shifting eyes, her mom's long, straight nose and high cheekbones, a pointed chin that didn't come from either of her parents, porcelain skin on her tall, thin frame... everything was normal except for the enormous wings sticking out of her back.

Aunt Daphne hadn't been able to figure out how to make them go away, and Allie certainly didn't know what to do with the things, so they were just there. The whole night.

The only upside was that it had meant she got a bed to herself in the hotel room.

Everything else though, was making Allie angry.

Her parents hadn't told her she wasn't human. For fourteen years they'd let her think she was completely normal and kept this huge secret from her. And they'd gotten everyone else in on it, too. She'd recognized a lot of the people at the house yesterday. And then she'd learned that none of them were human.

Her entire life had been a lie.

And her parents didn't even have time to apologize to her.

Granted, they'd been kind of busy saving the world, from what Aunt Daphne said, but still. They should have taken the time to explain all this to her. Preferably before all this crap happened!

There was a knock on the door. "Allie?" Emma's voice filtered through the not-wood of the cheap motel bathroom door. "Aunt Daphne's on the phone with dad. Do you want to talk with him before I do?"

To be honest, no she did not want to talk to either of her parents. She wanted to give them the silent treatment until they realized how wrong they'd been. Or yell at them. But Allie was practical enough to realize that if she didn't want to go through the next who knows how long with a pair of wings getting in her way, she'd better ask her dad what to do about them.

So Allie gave her face a quick wash and headed for her aunt and the old-fashioned landline phone between the two beds (what was this? 2014?), wings streaming behind her. She sat on the bed she'd claimed for herself, making a face as it creaked. This was a really cheap motel.

Aunt Daphne put up a finger, signaling Allie to wait, as Emma laid claim to the bathroom with gusto and the adult kept talking: "-think you should be here. Yeah, I know this is important, but- they're your kids, Puck! They need you! Well, at least they'd die knowing you cared about them! And there's no guarantee things will be safer up here anyway. Huh? Oh, no, I haven't heard from her. I know. I've been trying every way I can. Have you found Bunny yet?"

There was silence on this end of the line, then Aunt Daphne said, "Oh. Oh dear." She gave Allie a tight smile and said, "you want to talk to Allie now? She's having some trouble with her wings."

Apparently, her dad said yes, because Aunt Daphne handed Allie the phone.

"Alleycat?"

Suddenly, Allie found herself close to tears. Hearing her dad's voice calling her by that nickname, no matter how angry she was at him, knowing she might not see him for a very long time, knowing how dangerous things were, gave her a feeling of relief. Here was someone, finally, who might know what to do about her wings. Thank God.

"Hi, Daddy," she said once she'd gotten control of herself, not noticing that this was the first time she'd referred to her father by that title since she was six and decided that only babies like Emma called their parents mommy and daddy.

"Daphne says you can't make your wings go away," he said, and Allie could hear the smile in his voice.

"It's not funny, dad!" Allie wailed. "They're huge and they're gross and they keep getting in the way and I rolled on them last night and it hurt!"

"I'm just so proud you've got them," her dad said. "We didn't know when it would happen, 'cause you're only half-fairy, but I was really excited to have something to do with you again. It's been a while since, we, you know..."

Allie didn't finish his sentence. Her dad wasn't one for emotions, and she and her mom had decided a long time ago that helping him be sweet was enabling. She did understand, but still.

Plus it didn't change the fact that they weren't going to be dealing with this together and he hadn't warned her about it. "Dad. I just want to know how to make them go away."

"What? You're not interested in why you only got them now? Your mom would be ashamed."

Allie wanted to stay mad at him, but she found herself smiling and she admitted, "All right, maybe I'm kind of curious."

"Fairies aren't born with wings," her dad said. "We get them when we're ten or so. It makes things easier for the parents if their kids can only move in two dimensions. You, my little diva, were kind of an experiment. We didn't know when you'd get your wings, or if you'd get any at all. I can't remember the last time any half fairies were born."

That was pretty cool, but it didn't really help. "Great, Dad, thanks, now how do I make them go away?"

"You kind of flex your back," her dad said. "Arch it one way and then another."

Allie tried this. To her utter surprise, after a few times, it worked. Her wings were gone. She could go back to wearing a normal shirt. Thank God.

"Thanks," she said.

"No problem," her dad said. "It gets easier with practice. It's how you get them back out, too."

Allie had absolutely no interest in getting her wings back out, but she didn't want to say that. She wasn't that mad at her dad (and she couldn't get the thought out of her head that she might never see him again if something went bad). So she said, "I don't think I'll use them much until I learn how to fly, but thanks for the tip."

"I wish I could show you, kiddo," her dad said, and she could hear that he meant it. "Sorry all this exploded on you."'

"I can't believe you didn't tell us," Allie muttered.

"Yeah, in hindsight, probably not the best decision," her dad agreed. "And we should have seen it coming. I mean, your grandparents didn't tell your mom, and look how well that turned out."

"How?" Allie asked.

"Ask your aunt to tell you," her dad said. "Listen, my little diva, I've gotta go. Tell your sister I'm really sorry I didn't get to talk to her, but your mom needs me."

"Okay, bye," Allie said. "Love you."

"Love you too, princess."

There was a click on the other end of the line, and Allie put the phone down.

Emma emerged from the bathroom, her long blonde waves hanging down her back and dripping. "Did he hang up already? I wanted to talk!"

"He sounded busy," Allie said with a shrug, trying for nonchalance. He'd actually sounded pretty urgent when he hung up, but she didn't need Emma thinking she was scared.

"All right, girls, we need to go," Aunt Daphne said, standing with a groan. "We've got a long drive ahead of us, and who knows what we'll meet on the way."

That didn't sound good. Allie found herself suddenly very fond of this cruddy little motel room with its creaky beds, peeling wallpaper, and outdated electronics. It at least didn't have mysterious whats coming to attack her.

And yet she piled into the car with her sister, and they continued heading north.


Nothing really seemed different. It was kind of disappointing. Emma had expected to see burning cities and people fighting in the streets. Things were just... quiet, though.

A little too quiet. A few years ago, Emma and her family had taken a trip to Niagara Falls, and they'd gone this way. It had been packed. Now, though, on the same highway, there were almost no cars. It was a little creepy, to be honest.

"Where is everybody?" she asked.

"Hiding, probably," Allie muttered. "Because they're smart."

"Hey, we can't hide!" Emma protested. "We're on an important mission!"

Allie rolled her eyes. "What are you, six?"

Emma stuck her tongue out at her older sister in lieu of answering.

Aunt Daphne laughed from the front seat and said, "Your mom is right- you two are a lot like she and I were at your age."

"I thought you and mom were close," Emma said.

"We were- are," Aunt Daphne said (it was true. They talked on the phone nearly every day), "but that doesn't mean we didn't argue all the time. Especially after we found out about Everafters."

"How come?" Emma asked.

"I thought everything to do with magic was amazing, and your mom didn't like it. She didn't think it was safe. She was right, of course, but so was I." Aunt Daphne smiled at both of them. "It's beautiful, but in the wrong hands it's dangerous."

Allie rolled her eyes. "Power is neither good nor bad, it's the people that use it that determine it. I saw that in like fifteen action movies."

"There's a reason thing like that get parroted a lot," Aunt Daphne said mildly. "It's because they're true. And because people don't listen if they just hear them once."

"I thought it was because movies liked people to think they had a deep meaningful message," Allie muttered.

Emma wondered for the millionth time why her sister had become such a sourpuss. She'd used to be fun. They'd played together all the time, and talked to each other about everything. But then Allie had gone into high school, and suddenly she was too old for all that stuff. Emma, who was only in sixth grade (not even in middle school yet, as Allie's friends had reminded her), had been left behind in childhood.

And now Allie was too old to even get excited about magic.

Even if it was scary dangerous magic that was trying to take over the world.

With a screech, Aunt Daphne turned the car off the highway and onto a thin dirt track, sending them hurtling down about eight feet before they stopped, inches from a sharp curve in the almost-a-road and a particularly solid-looking tree.

"What was that for?" Allie demanded, half-shouting.

"Shh," Aunt Daphne said, holding a hand up.

She sounded so serious that Emma and Allie both froze.

From overhead came a sound that Emma had never heard before, somewhere between and elephant's trumpet and an eagle's cry, and then there was a sound that she did recognize- breaks squealing, shattering glass, and an explosion. Then a whole lot of crackling, and the temperature went up about ten degrees.

Aunt Daphne had tears in her eyes as she started the car forward again, very slowly, down the dirt track.

They rode in silence for a long time, through the deep woods. Emma looked out the back window and saw an orange light flickering through the trees.

"What was that?" Allie asked eventually.

"A dragon," Aunt Daphne said. "A very angry dragon."

"What- what did it do?" Emma asked, not entirely sure she wanted to know.

"I think you can guess," Aunt Daphne said softly.

She could. She'd seen a car accident a few years ago, and it had sounded a lot like that. She knew because she'd had nightmares about it for the next week. And there had been fire. She didn't think those people would make it where they were going.

"But how did you know it was there?" Allie demanded. "You just swerved all of a sudden!"

Emma stared at her sister. People had just- people were probably not alive and all her sister cared about was how Aunt Daphne knew to keep them alive? What was wrong with her sister?

"I saw the shadow," Aunt Daphne said. "I've seen it before. I recognized it."

"When did you see it?" Emma asked.

"In the first Everafter War," Aunt Daphne said. "They attacked our fortress and killed someone I cared about."

"I'm sorry," Emma said.

Aunt Daphne smiled sadly. "It was a long time ago."

Allie looked over at Aunt Daphne and asked, "Tell us about her? Him?"

Aunt Daphne told them about the person- it was a her, their great uncle's fiancee. By the time she was finished, it was lunch time, and they'd pulled over at a little diner (the dirt track had dumped them onto a paved road in a town that reminded Emma of home- small, friendly, and unchanging).

They sat down inside, and Emma noticed for the first time how deserted this whole place looked. Not just the diner, which only had about six customers even though it was the middle of what would be the lunch rush back at the Blue Plate Special, but the whole town. She'd only seen one person outside, and less than ten other cars.

"What can I get for ya?" the waitress asked. She appeared to be the only waitress around. "I'm sorry if things take a little longer than usual, a lot of our staff didn't show up today, so we're a little short on hands."

They ordered, and before the waitress could leave, Aunt Daphne asked, "Could you give me directions to the highway? There was a... a really bad problem, so we had to get off, and I'm not sure where we are anymore."

"You got here from the highway?" the waitress asked, her eyes wide. "That's ages away!"

"We know," Allie muttered.

"Maybe heading a bit more north?" Aunt Daphne steered the conversation back in the right direction with a smile. "We're heading to Canada."

"Is it safe there?" the waitress asked.

Aunt Daphne shook her head. "I don't think it's safe anywhere. But I have a friend up north, and it's important that I check on her."

"I could get there myself," the waitress said apologetically, "but I'm awful at giving directions. I'd tell you things like 'turn left at the blue spruce and drive until the road gets all twisty.' I'll get Eddie in the kitchen to write you down something."

"Thanks very much," Aunt Daphne said with a smile.

"No problem," the waitress said, heading back to the kitchen.

Their food arrived, along with the cook, a shorter time later than they expected.

He smiled at them tightly and said, "You need directions?"

Aunt Daphne nodded. "I wasn't expecting you to come out yourself, though. I just thought I'd get a paper."

The cook dropped his smile and shrugged. "Not like there's much for me to do right now." He gestured at the nearly empty restaurant ruefully.

Allie, who was always hungry, was digging into her food with the single-minded intensity she turned on most tasks that she considered worth her time. Emma continued to listen to the cook's directions, though. Just in case something happened.

Not that, y'know, she'd be able to really get her and Allie anywhere. She was eleven, for crying out loud! What could an eleven-year-old do? Well, read a map better than Allie, for one thing, but it wasn't like she could drive them anywhere or anything.

Allie could probably pass for old enough to drive, but Emma wasn't sure she'd trust her sister behind the wheel of a car. Especially if they'd have to dodge more dragons.

Oh gosh, those dragons. Those people...

Emma couldn't believe she'd pushed it out of her head for this long.

She clenched her fist, and promised herself that no matter what happened, she'd make sure that dragon paid. Even if she was only eleven and had no idea how to fight dragons or anything like that. Maybe she'd have to wait years. But she couldn't live in a world where that was something that happened without a punishment.

So she was going to do something about it. No matter what.