Puck: Ugh! When am I added?

Shannon: Keep your pants on Robbie! Soon!

Ash: Maybe Goodfellow thinks he will begin to fade if you don't add him soon. *coughs* Not that I wouldn't mind.

Meghan: Ash! I can't believe you. I can't decide if you're best friends or enemies.

Ash: I didn't realise you were there Meghan.

Meghan: Well I am and I don't know if I should punish you or not. *smirks*

Ash: *smirks back* Will I like my punishment?

Meghan: Maybe.

Shannon: I'd say get a room but I'm afraid I'd never see you two again.

I stumbled up the steps and pushed the door open. Sam and Rena were hid at the sides of the door waiting for me to come in. I braced myself incase they jumped out and gave me my second heart attack today. Obviously, I didn't brace myself enough.

"SURPRISE!" They said together as soon as I set foot in the house and I leapt about 3 feet into the air.

"Happy Birthday Talia." Rena said and gave me a hug. I flinched but I let her hug me. I've not told them that I have a phobia of hugs because I don't want them to think I'm neglecting them. I hugged her back.

"Thanks mum." I said.

"Happy birthday Tal." Sam said and I had to hug him too.

"Thanks dad." I said and he gave me a big smile.

"I want to give your present now instead of after tea, ok?" I could detect a hint of sorrow in his words and I wondered what it was about.

"Um, ok." I had no idea where this was going. He handed me a small green box with a white bow that held it together. I carefully pulled the bow off and opened the lid. "Oh my God." I whispered. "It's beautiful. Thank you both." Inside, there was a see through rose on a thin silver chain. Come to think of it, it looked like an identical copy of Finns one except his was ice blue. "Please can you help me put it on mum?" I asked, holding it out to her.

"Of corse." She replied and I could tell she felt honoured. She took it off me and asked me to hold my hair up. There's one problem with my hair, and that's the length of it. My hair flows down to my waist when it's not in a ponytail or a bun and it gets extremely annoying when it gets in the way of everything. Luckily today, it was In a ponytail and easier to move. The second she fastened the hatch on it and let it go so it rested on my chest, it turned violet. I gave a yelp and took a step back.

"What just happened?" I asked feeling pretty weirded out.

"I think it changes colour depending on your skin temperature." Sam said but I knew he wasn't telling me something.

"What aren't you telling me?" I asked looking from Rena to Sam.

"I think it's better if you sit down for this." Rena suggested and guided me to our black leather couch. "Um, where do we start?" She glanced towards Sam. "Sam?"

"Don't look at me, she asked you to do it." He said back.

"Who asked you to do what?" I asked and I was clearly missing something here.

"Well, you see Talia, that necklace was given to you by your real mum," my breath caught in my throat at the mention of my real mum. "She asked me to give it to you on your 16th birthday as soon as possible. We tried to give it to you this morning but you were already out the house by the time we woke up. You look like a spitting image of her apart from the blond In your hair. You have her face and the blue of her eyes. Your hair is even the same length as hers." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "She said to give you your sword as soon as you could walk. She said that it was specially made for you and you are tied to it. You always loved that sword and I remember when you first held it, you instantly fell in love with it and you wouldn't put it down. You used to run around the house swinging it around. She said it was perfectly safe because it wouldn't hurt humans until you became of age, which is now. I know that you practise in your room everyday with sword drills from that class you went to. You were made for each other." Rena looked over at Sam and he nodded. "It's time you knew who your real mother is Talia." My stomach was doing flips. "She's...Queen Mab."

I choked on the air. "Queen Mab? Are you serious?" I asked in disbelief.

"I'm as serious as serious gets." Rena said.

"But, but, but that's impossible. I'm half fey?" I think I was going to be sick.

"Yes. She said that the necklace with transport you to the Nevernever on your 16th birthday. She also said that the necklace will go the colour of the glamour you posses. Since yours went purple, I don't know what that means. Apparently, depending on the colour of your necklace, depends on which court you will be transported to." I'd had enough of this.

"I get it, it's just a dream. I'm going to go upstairs now and lie down. When I wake up, it'll be the morning of my birthday and everything's going back to normal. Goodnight." I said and with that, I went upstairs and into my room.

I slammed the door behind me and changed into black skinny jeans, a dark blue teeshirt and my dark blue trainers. I rummaged through my wardrobe and found my sword. I hadn't practised in 2 days and I needed familiarity. I started practising my sword drills and within 10 minutes, I started to feel really sleepy. I sheathed my sword into its case and then put it in my belt. I led back on my bed and slowly, my eyes began to shut. The last thing I remembered was a flash of white light before I was pulled into dreamland.

I woke up in the middle of what looked like a city made from stone, glass and iron. The houses were so big that they looked as if they were made by a race of giants. In the distance, I could see a massive castle or tower rising up higher than all the other buildings. But something wasn't right. I wasn't alright. I felt dizzy and sick and about ready to throw up. My insides were feeling ready to burst again and I collapsed onto the floor. My skin looked really pale and my eyesight was shifting in and out of focus.

"Are you feeling alright?" A voice said from somewhere. I wanted to answer no, I not alright, you have to get me out of here. But I was too sick to move anything. All of a sudden, this figure was standing in front of me. He had silver hair that finished just above his shoulders and he had these intense ice blue eyes. He could tell I wasn't feeling very well and picked me up like I was a feather. Actually, I was only 5 stone so I guess I was light. I wasn't anorexic or anything like that. I wasn't even small. I was 5 foot 5 inches with shoes on. He carried me to the edge of the town until all that was left in my sight was purple trees. What? Purple trees? So I was dreaming.

"Are you going to be ok?" He asked and I started feeling better. "What type of fey are you? Let me see your necklace." He reached down and pulled my necklace out from under my shirt.

"I...don't...know." I managed to get out.

"Take it easy, you're probably iron sick." He looked at my necklace and his eyes widened. "But I thought I was the only one with a purple necklace. But there is a difference. Mine has a metallic dark purple colour and yours is violet which means that your not from the Iron Court."

Iron Court? So I'm in...the Nevernever? Oh God! "Iron sick? I can fix that." If it was a sickness, I could fix it with my healing magic. I took a breath and hovered my hand over my skin. I ran it from head to toe and instantly felt better. I jumped to my feet. "Who are you?" I said, my voice sounding a lot stronger.

"My name is Prince Kierran of the Iron Court. Who are you and how did you do that?" He asked. A prince? Well aren't I lucky?

"I'm Talia and I think I'm the princess of the Winter Court. It was my 16th birthday today and my foster parents told me that my real mum was Queen Mab so I guess that makes me a princess, right?" He was staring at me in disbelief. "Nice city. Is it ok that I go in or do I have to have a special passport?"

Kierran laughed at me. "No you don't need a passport. I'll take you to my mum, the Iron Queen. She's ever so nice but you'll have to watch out for my dad, Ash, former Prince of the Winter Court, because he has a temper but I think you two will get along just fine. Wait a second. I thought you were iron sick."

"I was iron sick. Was. As in not anymore."

"But even the best healers in the Nevernever can't cure iron sickness. It's deadly to all fey except the Iron fey and half breeds. Which means that you're not a half breed other wise you'd have been fine in the city. Are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm better than ok." I said drawing my sword and giving it an twirl like I'd seen Percy Jackson do in a film. Kierran raised his eyebrows. "What? Can't a girl know how to fight?" I asked with a grin.

"You can fight?" He asked and I nodded, "You any good?"

"Understatement." I said. "Why? You want a match? First to draw blood wins?" I challenged.

"You're on." He said and drew his sword. "I won't go full whack because I'm the second best after my dad and he's the best fighter in the Nevernever. I doubt you'd be as good as me." Well I was offended.

"You'll be sorry when I beat your ass." I said and he laughed again.

We circled each other and he swung his sword at me. I was a lazy swing and I could tell he was underestimating me. I took this opportunity to block his sword and swing for his knees. A flicker of amusement crosses his face along with surprise and he jumped in the air just as I had expected him. When he landed, I kicked his shin with speed and pushed him to the ground. He fell and I took his sword out of his hands. I now had my sword in my right hand and his in my left hand. He caught his fall and spun around quickly but I had his sword behind his head and my sword pointed at his throat before he could blink. I quickly brought my sword down on his arm and drew blood. I won.

"A warning as to how good you are next time Talia." He said and winced as he touched his arm.

"I did warn you but you underestimated me because I was a girl." I gave him his sword back and he grinned at me before turning his gaze back to his arm. "Sorry, I'll fix it." I said and took a step forward. He took a step back. "What? You think I'm going to cut of your head? I just want to fix your wound." He looked at me funny. "Fine, you want my word? Ok. I Talia promise that I only want to heal Kierran the Iron Prince and not cut off his head or do any more damage to his body. I swear it on my life. Happy?" He gave a satisfied smile and a nod.

I pulled up his sleeve and winced at how deep his gash was. I gave him an apologetic smile and hovered my hand over his arm. I closed my eyes and imagined the wound all fixed up and not there anymore. I heard Kierran gasp which made me smile and I opened my eyes.

"Thank you." He said and I winced once again.

"Don't mention it. I don't want anything in return." He looked at me strangely again.

"But surely you must want something? You healed me completely, there's not even a scar."

"Ok then. I only ask of you to take me to the Queen and we can figure out why I'm here. Sound fair?"

"You're not like the other fey. Anyone would've used that to their advantage." He asked still looking at his skin where the gash was before looking at me.

"I don't like deals or promises or contracts so I try not to make them. Now, you might want to warn your guards how good I am because if they try anything, I won't hesitate to cut their heads off. I've been training since the day I could walk and I've been to a lot of fighting classes and I have mastered every type of fight style known to man so if they do happen to disarm me, which I highly doubt they will, then I can use my hands." I said and gave him an innocent smile.

"They won't try anything because you'll be with me and I can beat the guards and I think you can too so I think we'll be fine."

"Ok then, let's go."

Kieran led me through the city which he said was called Mag Turedh and it was In fact home to a race of giants. He told me that he is the only fey in the Nevernever to be able to harness Summer, Winter and Iron glamour. I said that was cool and I told him about myself and how I got stuck up in this mess. He told me how he's an expert at sneaking around and getting out of places. He told me about all the times that he'd snuck out of the castle and had Glitch, who was their first lieutenant, running around after him. We pretty much knew a lot about each other by the time we had reached the castle. In fact, castle was an understatement. It looked like a freaking skyscraper.

"Kierran!" A voice called out.

"And here comes Glitch." He said and rolled his eyes.

A robot like fey came around the corner and glared at Kierran. You could tell that he was an Iron fey because his joints were more or less metal and wires but the rest of him was covered in human skin. If it wasn't for the metal and his black hair that sparked what looked like lightning bolts every time they touched, then you would think that he was human. He was wearing black, denim jeans and a dark blue top that had rips through it as if a claw had snagged his shirt, kind of like a gothic attire. He started walking over to us.

Kierran waved. "S'up Glitch?" He said and I bit back a laugh.

"Prince Kierran, you have some serious explaining to do! Where were you today? We told you to stay within the castle grounds." I felt a guilty conscience come over me.

"Well it's a good thing I was out. Otherwise we would have a dead fey on the premises." He stated and pointed to me. "She was transported here by her necklace and she was iron sick. I don't know how she did it but she cured herself from the iron sickness and we had a battle - first to draw blood. You may be surprised to hear this but she won and I didn't let her. As it turns out, she's really good with a sword and she said that if you try anything on her, then she won't hesitate to cut your head off. Just warning you."

Glitch looked a bit sick until he looked over to me and his expression softened. "This girl beat you?" He said with a laugh and pointed to me. Did I mention that I don't take mockery well? No? Well I don't and this robot is about to find out for himself. "You mean to tell me that this small girl was good at fighting?" And he laughed again.

"Kierran!" I said through gritted teeth. "Unless your robot friend wants to be armless then i suggest you stop him now." I kept drawing in the glamour from all the surroundings and the ground started to shake.

"Um, Glitch, I think you'd better stop now, she's getting angry and she's powerful like mum. I can feel the thickness of the glamour surrounding us and I've only ever felt this much when mum was angry." At that Glitch stopped and I could tell he was tasting the thickness of glamour in the air.

"Make one more sexist comment about me and I will seriously hurt you. I'm only a little bit mad now. Think about how much glamour I can draw when I'm really angry." And with that Glitch apologised and I got an impressed smile from Kierran. All of a sudden, I let go of the glamour and the air went back to normal.

"Told you." Kierran said and received a glare from Glitch.

"Now then, hello Glitch. I'm Talia but you can call me Tal if you want. I have no idea what I'm doing here and I've never set foot into the Nevernever before so I think I'm taking it considerably well. Unfortunately, I'm not very good with first impressions and neither are you. I apologise if I make you feel uncomfortable but we must get going. Come on Kierran." I said and he led me to the castle doors.

"That was impressive. How did you do that? Glitch almost wet himself."

"I don't know. I've never drawn that much glamour before. So who is the Iron Queen? I know she's your mum but what's her name? I remember Ethan telling me about her but that was ages ago and I've forgotten." I asked. We can to some glass panelled doors.

"Ethan? As in Ethan Chase?." He asked and I took a step back.

"How do you know Ethan Chase?" I asked cautiously.

"He's my uncle." He simply stated and my eyes widened in disbelief.

"But he only had one sister and that was Meghan but she's been gone for years and-" I stopped and looked at him. He resembled her in so many ways. He caught me staring and smiled at me.

"You're her son? But if your the prince then-" I looked at him again and his smile grew even wider. "No way, Meghan's the Iron Queen?" I asked and he nodded.

"Mum will be happy to see you then?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen her in 11 years."

He opened the doors. "Then let me take you to her." And with that we entered the throne room.