CHAPTER TWENTY
The pilgrimage, as Basil dubbed it in a tone of exaggerated reverence, was arranged for the following weekend. It started out perfectly normal: the doorbell rang in the late afternoon and Sabrina opened the door to Puck, dressed in jeans and a hoodie - a typical teenage boy arriving to pick up his date.
After that, however, bizarre took over.
Puck held out a weird screen thing to Sabrina. "Check this out - Mordred made this for me."
"What is it?" Basil asked, coming up behind Sabrina, his eyes like saucers (he could never resist a gadget, but a Mordred LeFay-made gadget just about blew everything else out of the water).
"Screensaver!" Puck gloated.
"That's not a screensaver," Basil said, disappointed. "Do you even know what a screensaver is, Puck?"
Puck grinned confidently at him and the rest of the family who'd come to witness the commotion. "Course! That's the lame photo you have on your computer, like the ribbons that change color while you watch and your brain dies. This isn't that kind of screensaver, duh. This is a screen! It shields you from mortal eyes so you can do magic things!"
"Oh!" Basil exclaimed, safely restored to happiness."And saves you from having to use forgetful dust! I get it!"
"Bingo!"
"Why'd you need it? Are you gonna wrangle magic?"
"Kinda. I'm gonna turn into a dragon on your roof. Wanna watch?"
Basil's eyes swallowed his face. "Yeah!"
"This I gotta see," Henry said, while Veronica muttered doubtfully, "is it decent?"
"Pfft, yeah." Puck waved dismissively. "I finally figured out how to change and keep my clothes on - no doubt a huge letdown for the neighbors, though. And even if I didn't, it's really only an issue when I shift back. Let's go already! Oh, hey, Grimm, you're gonna lose those shades up in the air."
Sabrina pulled her sunglasses off her face. "Okay, I won't wear them," she said, "and I'll . . . keep my eyes shut the whole time or something."
Puck tsk-tasked. "And miss the scenery? Humans! You lot don't know the first thing about improvising. Look, you got. . . I dunno, swimming goggles or something?"
"Hey! I've never had to fly long-haul on a dragon before! Why don't -" Sabrina began, but Daphne, seeing yet another fight about to blow up, grabbed her arm and pulled her deeper into their apartment. "I'll help Sabrina find something. Come on, Sis."
Once they were alone, Daphne turned to her sister with a knowing look. "So you're seeing the in-laws, and you're nervous. Understandable - there's a lot riding on this. Because you know what they say: you can tell it's serious when he takes you home to meet his Mom."
"We've all met his Mom," Sabrina snorted. "Even you. And we all almost died. Oh, just go ahead and say it, Daph. You know you want to."
"Say what? You mean 'I told you so?'" Daphne's face was all innocence. "Oh, no. Why would I say 'I told you so'? I would never say 'I told you so'. Saying 'I told you so' would be mean."
Sabrina elbowed her, and Daphne shoved her back, laughing.
After much digging in closets, they found a scuba mask, and then the family marched up the access stairway to the roof. Puck fiddled with a dial on his gadget and the air shimmered around them.
"Screen in place," he announced. "It'll move with us until we're clear of prying eyes. Okay - ready?"
Without waiting for a response, he rolled his shoulders and became a dragon.
"He wasn't kidding," Henry said in grudging awe as the family craned their necks to peer up at him. Basil and Daphne were speechless, staring with open mouths.
At last Veronica recovered enough to help Sabrina climb atop Puck's back. She secured the straps of her backpack around her waist and positioned the scuba mask on her face.
"I look like an idiot," she remarked grumpily.
Puck swung his head around to stare at her and cackled, the sound emerging as a hideous choking rumble. "That's because you are one. It's what I've been saying all along."
He didn't even flinch when Sabrina, looking mutinous, drove her heels into his sides.
Henry narrowed his eyes at them. "Should I be worried that you two are going off alone into dragon territory?"
Puck's scaly lips turned up in a wicked grin, which looked ten times worse with his sharp dragon teeth. "You should be worried that we two are going off alone, period."
Sabrina huffed as Henry's face turned slightly purple.
"We'll be fine, Dad. Anyway, you know the coordinates of Dragon Land -"
"That's not its name!" Puck barked, deeply offended.
" - so you can set the Seeing Eye to find us if we're not back in, say, a week," Sabrina pointedly ignored him. "And if the weather holds, we might swing by Granny's on our way home. Puck wants to show off his new dragon trick to Granny and Mr. Canis. We'll call when we get there. See you all Sunday- or Monday!"
"Bring me home a dragon souvenir!" Daphne yelled, waving.
"Take pictures!" Veronica added, stepping back and pulling her remaining children with her.
Then, with a mighty whir of wings and wind and flying hair, they took off into the sky, rising out of sight above the clouds and through a rippling forcefield that zapped them from Sabrina's world into Puck's. Even with his warning, she'd hardly had enough time to brace herself for the transition before it hit her. For a few uncomfortable seconds, all her hair stood painfully on end and her insides felt like they'd been stapled together, and then they shot out with a sudden release.
"Sorry," Puck called back, the wind stealing most of his words. ". . . forgot. . . you. . . through . . . tr. . . safe now."
"Whatever," Sabrina thought, coaxing her stomach not to divest itself of her lunch.
They flew all the rest of that day without incident. Sabrina, sitting on Puck's back without a harness or any kind of restraining device, was in a state of constant tension for the first hour, even though it wasn't the first time they'd flown together in his dragon form. But as time went on and she didn't slip off, she began to relax and let the rhythmic whump whump whump of his wings beating the air lull her into a drowsy stupor. Twilight came with a wash of grey and pink across the sky and then night fell like a velvet curtain around them. Still they flew, between the luminous clouds and stars so brilliant and unreal that Sabrina had to clutch at the plates on Puck's back to keep vertigo at bay. It was just as well that their travel arrangement discouraged talking; Sabrina was struck speechless by the grandeur of it all.
Long past dinner time, they finally stopped in a valley, not that Sabrina could tell what it was in the pitch darkness. Puck suddenly dived, while Sabrina flattened herself against his back, squeezed her eyes shut and rode out the bone-crunching descent in numb terror. They hit the ground more gently than she'd expected and she rolled off Puck's back in utter relief, just before her legs gave way beneath her. In the pale moonlight, Sabrina saw that they were in a sheltered lowland between craggy hills, and there was soft grass underfoot and the noise of water nearby. Puck morphed back into a boy, grabbed Sabrina's hand and pulled her to a small waterfall emptying into a pool near the foot of one of the cliffs. He dunked his head and drank deeply before shaking water out of his hair and all over Sabrina. She gasped, but joined him beside the pool, scooping palmfuls of the sweet, cold water to quench her own thirst.
They ate quickly out of her backpack and then, without even waiting for Sabrina to unpack a groundsheet, Puck stretched out on the grass and fell fast asleep, completely exhausted. She laid out the bedding, tried unsuccessfully to roll Puck onto it, and eventually gave up and threw the camping blanket over him instead. He didn't even stir.
With far more grace than Puck had displayed, she lay down beside him, feeling her muscles ache from the flight, although her mind was still alert as she stared up at the constellations. It was still early enough in the fall to be comfortable sleeping in the open, and she snuggled deeper into her sleeping bag, sighing contentedly. Beside her, Puck had begun to snore gently.
"Camping after all, and carried off by a dragon, no less. Back where we started." She laughed quietly to herself, then grinned even more widely when she realized that there was probably no one for miles around to hear her. She turned to look at Puck's face, his expression soft and relaxed in sleep, and for a moment simply gazed, appreciating the freedom to linger without the fear that he might catch her staring, and make her pay for it. They'd fallen back into their old patterns of bicker-and-banter in the days following his return, although she'd noticed a kindness that had been absent before, a sort of unspoken pax. The first phone call after she'd left Faerie, for instance, had gone on for a good twenty minutes without a single insult, but she hadn't realized what it was that'd felt so off, until Puck had stiffly murmured, "I er. . . look, I'm trying to be nice to you, but I'm just about dying here, so for the love of all things disgusting, can I please say something offensive right now?"
She'd thrown her head back in a guffaw, feeling the world click back into place, and they'd fired off a volley of inappropriate monikers until they were both holding their sides with laughter. And when they had finally recovered, it'd been on the tip of her tongue to tell him she was falling in love with him all over again, but she'd been terrified of ruining the moment and hadn't quite managed to get the words out.
She'd wished she had, though, because while they were slowly but surely discovering how much they liked being together now, it still felt as if they were tiptoeing around the idea of what they were becoming, of the future that was shoved in their faces at eleven and had been calling alluringly to them in the six years since. Turbulent were the waters they treaded these incipient days, dizzying eddies in which each smile was a bait, each touch a brand, and every kiss an ill-defined invitation to want more, to blur a boundary, to never stop.
So she'd reverted to surreptitious glances and the heady tension that used to drive them both to madness. When they were together, they surrendered desperately to it; when they were apart, she still tried for a semblance of sobriety - if nothing else, so she might feel she hadn't lost her mind completely.
But when he wasn't looking, well, then it was fair game, and one she played as often as she could. Like now: lying inches apart and watching the moonlight paint his face silver, hearing the soft puffs of breath between his lips.
So achingly beautiful. And so gloriously harmless.
She wiggled an arm out of the warm layers of her bedding and sifted his hair through her fingers. Just yesterday, she remembered, smiling, this had mud in it, and worms, too. And now . . .
"Puck the Magic Dragon lived by the sea," she sang in her head the song from her childhood. "That makes me Jackie Paper, I guess. Except that you didn't get left behind, did you? You grew up with me. Happy ending for us - and here we are now, alone in some deserted valley in the middle of nowhere, spending quality time together. Well. . . " she yawned, feeling sleep finally reach for her, "once we're no longer unconscious, I guess."
She allowed her eyes to finish their slow journey down to his feet, peeking out from the end of the blanket, and blinked at the thoughts that had suddenly come, unbidden, and caused her heart to race and her cheeks to flame.
"You'll be the death of me, Stinker," she murmured as she turned her back on him and assiduously repented of every single one.
Early the next morning when the sun was stealing over the horizon,, Puck woke refreshed. He stretched, turning to see Sabrina in her sleeping bag beside him, and poked her awake.
"Rise and shine! I'd kiss you good morning except (a) I'm not that kind of boyfriend and (b) you're gonna give me crap for not brushing my teeth first, so just get up already and let's get going. I need food. Where's the backpack?"
Sabrina sat up in her sleeping bag and watched Puck stand and loosen his muscles with a shake of his limbs.
"How are you not aching all over?" She grumbled, feeling her tongue stick to the roof of her mouth. "I feel like I've been hit by a truck."
"I'd answer that but you'll accuse me of boasting, so let's just skip it. Gimme food! I'm starving. Shifting and flying make me even hungrier than puberty." Spying the backpack under the blanket, he made a dart for it and plundered its depths.
They ate, then drank more from the pool. Sabrina stared around her in wonder - the dark, featureless valley from the night before had been transformed by the daylight into a beautiful vale of green grass, shady trees and flowers. Puck noticed, and nodded at the scenic view.
"Nice pitstop, huh? Restrooms are yonder -" he thumbed a copse of bushes off to the side, then pointed in various other directions. "Or there yonder. Or there. Or there. Or anywhere, really. Take your pick. I'm off to take advantage of the facilities. Meet you back here."
Sabrina grimaced. She remembered now why she hated camping.
But they were soon on their way once more. They flew over baking dessert and wild country, and also pasturelands dotted with animals. Then small coastal towns and strange hinterlands of twisted trees and barren waste. Sabrina wished she had a map or at least been able to ask Puck the names of the places they'd passed but the wind made conversation hard. Plus she wasn't exactly near his ears. Uh, where were his ears exactly?
Flying on the back of a dragon, Sabrina realized, was not as fabulous as she'd initially thought. Sure, it was exhilarating to feel the wind in her hair, but hours of crouching in the downwash of the wind stream left it snarled, even curtailed by the strap of her mask. And in spite of being covered from head to toe and slathered in sunscreen, her skin felt ravaged by the sun. By the time they'd humped over a range of mountains and begun their final descent into a valley land which Puck had pointed out to her was "home sweet home", she was more than ready to be done.
The springy turf underfoot, though it took her five minute before she could walk on it, was the most glorious thing she'd ever felt. She went down on her belly and kissed it, earning her a barrage of scornful invective from Puck about royalty and the honor of being borne aloft by His Esteemed Lordliness.
"Shut up," she scolded him. "I'll be lucky if I get any feeling back in my legs at all. I'm not moving from this spot until I'm good and ready."
And she would've stayed all through the night had it not been for the children that quickly descended upon the pair from out of nowhere. Still pounding the circulation back into her calves, Sabrina watched them climb all over Puck and chatter away in high voices, clearly excited to see him. He let himself sink to the ground under their weight before rising in a sudden movement and throwing them all off. Then, before they could latch on to him once more, he morphed into multiple creatures in rapid succession, and the children clapped and screamed in delight. For a moment, Sabrina forgot her aching limbs and watched, spellbound.
Then the children turned expectantly to Sabrina, blinking their solemn, beautiful eyes at her.
"What do they want?" She asked Puck, thinking they could only speak the guttural tongue in which she'd heard them converse with him earlier.
"What can you shift into?" The tallest child asked her.
"Oh! You can speak my language!" She exclaimed, surprised and relieved. "Well," she bent to look them in the eye, "once I became a dog named Toto. Another time, I turned into a goose."
The children looked impressed.
"We can only become dragons," another child told her sadly.
"Dragons are awesome," Sabrina assured them. "Way better than geese."
"Okay, git," Puck shooed them away. "Go bug someone else or play with knives or something."
Sabrina frowned at him as the children scattered. "Why'da do that? They were just being friendly!"
He snorted. "And they'll keep being friendly until it drives you nuts. You've gotta keep telling them to scram or they'll be in your face 24/7. Don't believe me? Watch. They'll be back in five minutes."
Puck was right. Before they'd walked a hundred paces, the children returned, dancing around the two teenagers once more. Puck's head morphed into a bat's and let loose a horrendous shriek that sent the little ones screaming and fleeing.
Sabrina's ears were still ringing when Puck morphed back into himself, looking very satisfied. "I had to try out half the animal kingdom before I found that one," he explained smugly. "There aren't many creatures dragons are afraid of, but that one works every time. Now let's go find Mother before they come back again."
They found Titania in the house that Puck said used to be Niall's.
"Wow," Sabrina remarked under her breath. "Talk about claiming the spoils of battle. Doesn't she find it weird, though, living there when she'd murdered him in cold blood?"
Puck shrugged. "I think she's doing it to punish herself. She says she can hear his ghost whispering to her at night."
"That's creepy!"
"That's not even the half of it. She also says she still loves him. After everything he did."
Sabrina recoiled, then paused as she was suddenly overcome with empathy. Titania had had so little say in how her life turned out and when she could finally be with the lover she should've had, she had to slay him in order to save her son. She filed the thought away for another time - it would not do for Titania to see the pity in her eyes; the Queen would have her head for her such condescension.
"Mother," Puck called, pushing the door open.
Titania rose from her chair in a room whose only character was its contrast to the opulent grandeur of Faerie's. Gone also were the stylish suits Titania favored when she was still its monarch; now she stood in cotton and leather and the steel accoutrements of a warrior. The only familiar thing was her face - still breathtakingly beautiful, and just as sad as when Sabrina had last seen her. Then, her mourning had been for Oberon, but if one didn't know better, one might be tempted to think her pinched, troubled expression was typical, as was her misfortune with lovers who met untimely deaths.
"Sabrina Grimm, welcome. Will you join us for the evening meal?"
Titania's greeting was gracious as she held out her hands, but all Sabrina could think of as the Queen's fingers closed around her own was how those hands had ripped out the heart of her soulmate.
Stop it, she told herself. You were never afraid of Titania, so don't start now. She's just your boyfriend's mom, not a serial psychopath.
Uh, yeah, the logical side of her brain pointed out, she kind of is. Great. Now I'm having conversations with myself.
Fortunately, Puck was already pulling a chair up to the table and declaring that he was hungry enough to eat an entire herd of wild horses, plus their saddles.
"I worked it out -" he said skittishly to Sabrina, " - you know that bet I made with Arthenus the World-Smasher back in the day? The one where he said I couldn't eat an entire horse and I said heck, yeah, I could? Well, I finally figured it out: the saddle didn't count because it was leather, and leather is cow, and cow is beef, and that's a different meat altogether."
Sabrina stared at him in amazement. As long as I live, she thought, I will never understand how his brain works. Or doesn't work.
Dinner was surprisingly civil, and it wasn't until they were halfway through the meal that Sabrina realized there were no servants, and that Titania must have cooked it herself. Her surprise deepened when the Queen rose and began collecting the dishes and walking them over to the sink.
"Uh . . . I'll help wash," she offered awkwardly as she left her seat. Then, noticing Puck rocking on the back legs of his chair and crossing his feet comfortably on the table, she added, "and Puck can dry."
Puck choked. "What? No way! I'm King! I don't do dishes!"
"Well, she's Queen, and she cooked dinner." Sabrina argued, pointing at his mother.
"That's because you're females. Duh! It's wha -" Puck's churlish rant was effectively cut off by a wet rag in the face.
"Get over here this instant, Your Lazybutt Majesty!" Sabrina ordered as she dunked her hands into the soapy water, adding under her breath, "troll".
"Harpy." Puck scowled bitterly as he joined her at the sink.
From Sabrina's other side, Titania watched them with an unfathomable expression.
Cleanup after a dinner for three took hardly any time, especially with everyone's (forced) help. Puck yawned as he finished the last dish and tossed the rag back in the sink.
"I'm beat," he announced, then grinned at Sabrina. "All that flying was one thing, but carrying a load like Grimm here all day can put a guy in the ground, let me tell you. Someone needs to lay off the hotdogs, I think."
"More like someone needs to pump more iron, wimp." Sabrina shot back. "Or do more dishes. You could barely lift those bowls and plates!"
Puck glared, but it was half-hearted and dissolved into another yawn. "It's too early for bed; think I'll get some fresh air, maybe find some entertainment. Wanna come terrorize the teenagers and kids?"
"I'm sure Sabrina's had enough of you for one evening," Titania cut in. "And I'd like to visit awhile with her."
Sabrina stifled a gulp.
But Puck was already outside the house, calling back some careless, unintelligible remark.
Steady, Sabrina reminded herself. It's just talking. Words can't kill.
The Queen brought a coffee pot over to the table and poured out two steaming mugs.
"He's right, you know -" she began, "- the King does not wash dishes."
Sabrina calculated how fast could she dive for the knife in the drying rack - probably not as fast as Titania could gut her with her bare hands for disrespecting her idiot son. Stupid Fae monarchy.
But Titania had continued speaking. "I find it very interesting that you have such little regard for his station. Others would have pandered unquestioningly to his whims."
"I don't have the patience to pander," Sabrina replied incautiously, her eyes darting around the room for a means of escape. The door is too far away, curse it.
"What's even more interesting is that he obeyed you. The King . . . obeying the order of a human girl. Why is that?"
Sabrina shrugged, sensing that, at least for the moment, she'd bought herself some time. "He was just asking for it; he's so full of himself."
"What an unusual way to win his favor," Titania remarked, and Sabrina's defense kicked in.
"I'm not trying to win his favor! Look, in your world, he's a hotshot. He gets to boss people around and they have to wait on him hand and foot. I get it. But where I come from, he's just like everybody else. When he was living with my grandmother, she let him get away with murder but if it'd been me, I'd have made him pull his weight around the place, King or no. And tonight, you'd just made us a nice meal. The least he could do was help clean up, especially in his mother's house. In my world, it's called being decent."
She paused, suddenly remembering whom she was speaking to. She swallowed and added, "Your Majesty."
"Ah," Titania responded, "but we're not in your world now."
Sabrina said nothing. She was nervous, and that made her jumpy, made her shoot off her mouth; she wondered if having her foot in it now was about to cost her big time.
"It's refreshing, actually, that you speak to him this way, without the fawning and flattery the other girls prefer." Titania's response was unexpectedly agreeable. "They seem to believe that is the way to catch his eye, so they can rule Faerie alongside him. I have my doubts that it is working, however."
Other girls?
"Because, for some unfathomable reason, it appears that he's picked you."
Sabrina's mouth gaped, but the Queen sighed, seemingly unaware. "I fear I might have been too indulgent with him. I think I favored him because he was Niall's. . . and also I felt guilty for what I'd done. Not that I had a lover - all the kings and queens of Faerie have had dalliances at one time or another - it is inescapable, after all, when you live this long married to the same person. No, my conscience was pricked only for the secret I kept from my sons - that they were not true brothers, that the younger should rule Faerie in the bloodline of his father instead of the elder. But I lived the lie because I loved Puck more than Mustardseed. I refused to admit it, of course - how could any mother have favorites among her children?"
Titania was silent for long enough that Sabrina realized she might have been expected to respond. Unfortunately, her own mind was stuck on the kings and queens of Faerie engaging in side affairs after being married for centuries to the same spouse.
"Um, I can't speak from personal experience since I . . . I've never been a mother, and . . . but. . . I don't think my mom does. . . has favorites among us, I mean. But we're all Dad's . . . uh. . . I mean we all have the same father. . . um. . ."
Titania didn't seem to notice her sputtering and kicking herself; she was looking through Sabrina as if lost in thought.
"Do you love him?" The Queen asked suddenly.
"Who - my Dad?"
Titania turned her intense gaze on Sabrina. "My son."
Wow, Sabrina thought, she sure cuts to the chase, doesn't she?
"Oh - um. I'm only seventeen," she hedged, "I think it's a bit soon to know for sure, and it's very complicated. He's the King and -"
"I heard what you did for my kingdom," Titania interrupted. "Mustardseed told me of the abandoned children, how you and the warlock created opportunities for them to attend schools in your world, for my people to have new jobs, the training strategies for the soldiers, and the ambassador program that Feylinn is so happy about. It was very good work, and I am grateful. Others before you had tried to do the same, you know, to win our favor, but they gave up when neither of my sons showed any interest in wooing them. I thought you were the same - a human girl weary of her commonness, harboring dreams to rule an Everafter kingdom. And yet, Mustardseed tells me that you continued working for Faerie even after you received the news that Puck had died in that battle. Tell me - why is that? You owed nothing to us, and you certainly had nothing to gain from a dead King."
Sabrina bristled at the implication behind the Queen's words.
"First of all, I'm a Grimm and I am not common. And even if I weren't a Grimm, I'm human, and humans, even without magic, are pretty darn amazing. And second, all that stuff I did for Faerie? It needed to be done, period. Sure, part of it was for Puck, because it was what he's always wanted for Faerie, but also because I want to help Everafters. I think they're just like everyone else and deserve a chance in the world they've been put in without those more powerful than them setting roadblocks in their way. When I - and my sister - lost our parents, and had nowhere to go, my grandmother hunted us down and took us in. Sure, she's family, but she took Puck in, too, when he was exiled. It's what Grimms do - we help people who can't help themselves: mortals, Everafters, everyone. Like the orphans in Faerie, or the people who couldn't go to school. And just because Puck was out of the picture didn't mean the work would get done by itself. No offense, Your Majesty, but your kingdom needed a lot of work, and not only in flattening other kingdoms just to get stronger. I'm not a warrior like you or Puck but sometimes. . . maybe you don't need wars and fighting and conquering to build a kingdom."
She paused, adrenaline coursing through her veins as she defended herself to the Queen, and pondered how to say the next bit.
"I know what being with Puck means, Your Majesty; I know where it'll end up if we keep going. But I don't belong on a throne. Heck, I don't even belong in your world. So I can't tell you what we are now because it'll mean I'll have - I might have to be - "
She couldn't continue, not without sounding presumptuous, arrogant, ungrateful and condescending all at once.
"Someone in your court," Sabrina caught her breath and began again, "- someone very wise - once told me she wanted to heal nations with just words. And she was right - words can do things that wars can't. So I'm going to keep helping the people of Faerie, and other Everafters, too, but my way, from the outside, in my world. I'm only seventeen now but someday, I'm going to Law School so I can fight for Everafters with my words, not swords or guns or magic or whatever. And if that means I don't have a choice about Puck because he has to have a queen or . . . or . . . I guess. . . "
She looked down, torn between what she truly wanted and what she believed in, and realizing to her horror that she'd talked herself into a corner. Stupid!
Titania watched her for a long time before taking her turn. "Traditions - never have I been as aware of them as when we began to coexist with your world. And Faerie's traditions are perhaps the most binding of all. But is it not true that traditions shape a people, make them who they are? We are nothing without them."
Sabrina blinked at this sudden change of tack.
"We have traditions too," she replied uncertainly, more out of obligation to defend the human race than to engage the Queen in what must surely be a doomed conversation. But Titania surprised her with her next words.
"But not as we have. Yours is still a young world, and you are willing to change - yes, even your traditions - while we are not. It makes you stronger because you allow yourselves to become what is needed to thrive. We hold on to our ways because they are all we've ever known, and that is our weakness. Do not be ashamed of being a young world. Or of being mortal. Your short lives make you passionate - you dare great things, attempt bold ventures, love fiercely. Immortals take their years for granted - next to you, we are bland and unevolving, eschewing risk and forfeiting the greater rewards they sometimes bring. But not Puck. He is like you. He lives as if he is a flame that might go out at any minute, and it makes him burn all the brighter, and fill entire worlds with his light."
Sabrina would not have described Puck's exhausting personality in such poetic terms but yes, she could see what his mother meant, shamelessly biased though she was.
"Your Majesty," Sabrina decided to take one of those risks for which the Queen had just praised her race, "what are you saying?"
Titania did not break eye contact as she elaborated, "Do you realize that Puck is the first King in the long history of Faerie to be allowed a choice? Every ruler before him was wed to someone decided upon by their elders. Royal weddings were never about love; they were political transactions - either they were peace treaties, or victory celebrations after wars, or some formality to be fulfilled so that the crown could be passed from a dying king to his son. All of them decided by others, all of them chosen because of some benefit for the kingdom. Except you. You are here, in the company of my son, Faerie's King, solely because he chose you. He chose you. Not I, not Oberon; he."
"I have lived a long life and learned many things," she continued. "But the most valuable was that, no matter how it might look to the contrary, there is always a choice. When I was betrothed to Oberon, my father knew about Niall, that we were intending to wed. Still, I was his only child, and he chose what was important for our kingdoms. To say I was livid was an understatement - after all, my life was being taken from me and I was to be sent far, far away from the one I loved. But I, too, made my choice - I chose not to let it break me, and I chose to see Niall again. Then, when I found out about Puck, I chose to keep him, and to bear Oberon's wrath when I could no longer hide it from him. And even then, I chose to keep it a secret from everyone else - the fact that he was not Oberon's."
She took a breath and her eyes drifted, but not before Sabrina caught the pain that filled them suddenly.
"And when Niall threatened my son's life, I chose between them. If I hadn't, someone else would've chosen their fate, and we might not be sitting here now, exchanging pleasantries over coffee, while Puck frolics outside with the hatchlings and juveniles."
Sabrina pressed her lips together to suppress a cynical chuckle. Pleasantries? Hardly.
"And I've chosen that my people will never retaliate on another land for revenge. On that, you and I are in agreement: sometimes, there are indeed better ways to build a kingdom than war and death. So," Titania returned her gaze to Sabrina's, "there is always a choice, if you will take it. But sometimes, the fates are kind and the choice is allowed us. You would be wise to recognize it as the gift it is, and not waste it."
The tension in the room was suffocating.
"And so I ask you again, Sabrina Grimm - do you love my son?"
Sabrina exhaled. Once more, her eyes drifted to the Queen's hands benignly cradling her coffee mug. She thought of the two dates she'd had with Puck, the countless fights over the years that had weaned them of their childhood, of her unmitigated frustration at his capriciousness, of her unease about her place in his world. Then she remembered his loyalty, his strength, the way his hands had felt on her face, the taste of his lips, and the shattering devastation when she thought she'd never see him again. She leveled her gaze at Titania.
"I don't want to be Queen of Faerie," she carefully returned, "but yes - I love him."
Titania sat back in her chair, as if by the force of Sabrina's admission.
"That," she remarked with finality, "is a very good answer."
A/N: This update took a while because I had to rewrite chunks of it that were hopelessly awkward. Also I had to google "airflow around dragon" because I had no idea how a person would take to flying on a dragon. Is it like riding in a convertible with the top down? Is it like riding a horse? Should Sabrina have had a helmet? Seatbelt? Once I thought about the safety practicalities, dragon flying lost all its romance.
Next chapter is the last! I feel a bit sad. But also happy because I love last lines of stories and I get to deliver mine!
Here are some responses to guest reviews - I will PM the rest of you guys back soon!
dingbat: thank you so much! Yes, I live for the feels. And I try to write for the feels. I'm so glad you like this!
Liz: I am SO glad you like Mordred, too!