"Thanks so much, Jen," Matt said. His voice was quiet and sad, as she'd expected. His eyes were a bit red and puffy, proof he'd been crying. She had sat with him while he'd cried more times than she could count after Emma died.
Jen let him hug her tight, knowing it would help comfort him a bit. There had been a time when she was the one who had gone to him for comfort, when they were young and working side by side. That had been before he met Emma, before the children, before everything changed. Now, it was Jennifer who always took care of Matt. Kayla and Joey needed their dad to be alright, and Jen knew that Matt didn't have anyone else. So she was there for all of them as much as she could be.
She was relieved to take the children back and then quickly leave Matt's house without going inside. She did not want to wallow in all of it. Thankfully the somber day for the family was over now, and they could spend some time together and find their happiness again. Jen was always pleased to volunteer to take the children so she wouldn't have to be part of the memorials. She never enjoyed that way of marking time, of living in the sadness. Her own losses were with her every day, and no particular day made them hurt more or less; carving out specific markers of grief had never helped her.
But even more than escaping the sadness, Jen knew it was time to deal with her new problem. Well, perhaps not a problem. But she did have to address what to do about Nick.
She walked along the path that would lead her to her own home where she could allow herself to think for a while. She didn't have to walk, but there was something about it that always helped her think better. Walking was simple, though others she knew certainly disagreed. For Jen, flying took much more concentration.
Just for the sake of it, Jen fluttered her wings behind her. Every fairy's wings were different and completely unique to the individual. Joey's were pointed, Kayla's had an iridescent pink sheen, Matt's were silvery and a bit small. Jennifer's wings were by far her favorite physical feature. Her wings were much larger than most and clear like glass, but when she moved, her wings would glint and shimmer with pure gold. It was pure luck of magic that she'd grow up to have wings like this, and she did not take lightly the advantages they afforded her. Her wings were strong and extremely powerful, allowing her to fly with immense speed and agility. Perhaps that was why she preferred walking. Flying was not something she did very casually. Others might flit from place to place, but not Jen. Matt seemed to always be flying. He was tall and built rather bulky, so being airborne just meant everyone always looked up at him, which annoyed her. But thanks to the relative size of his wings and body, he could not manage to fly too far or too high or too fast. When she wanted to, Jen could fly circles around him with very little effort. But showing off had never really been of much interest to her. She knew what she could do and she was proud to do it, and that's all there was to it.
The fairy realm was a vast place, though much smaller than the human world in population. And the magic of the realm gave each fairy their wings and their abilities and whispered to them their purpose. For Jennifer, her purpose was to help. She'd known that from the time she was very small. How she was supposed to help had been a mystery for quite some time. But thanks to her powerful wings and her calm, clever mind, she had been allowed the unique position of warrior maiden to the queen. It was a true honor, one she'd not expected, but she loved it. She served the fairy queen faithfully not only due to the respect the position commanded but because Queen Bernice was a queen very deserving of reverence. Jen had been trained as her guard and had earned her place as a trusted confidante.
Matt, whose purpose was to protect, was also in the Royal Guard. He had been the first person in the legion to be kind to her, and they'd become fast friends. He had much more experience and showed her the ropes when she was placed in that elite troop just out of guard training. It had been fun for a while, to do their important work side by side as friends. And then when Jennifer was chosen as a maiden to the queen, she and Matt had remained friends. He'd met Emma and they'd had their children, and Jennifer had gotten to become Auntie Jen. It seemed that's all she'd ever be. Auntie Jen, Jennifer the warrior maiden to the queen.
The position had become less vital than it had been before, now that Queen Bernice had taken the head of the Royal Guard as her consort. But Jen liked seeing the queen so happy, particularly with Jen's own superior. It was a strange little family, the way the palace worked. There were rules and boundaries between everyone, but with that came the secure knowledge of each and every fairy knowing their place. Jennifer's place was beside Queen Bernice.
Now that there was a good, strong, loving man to be by the queen's side, Jennifer's duties had been slightly altered. She was not needed with the queen at all times anymore. And Jennifer's skills with flying and, even more importantly her skills with magic, had caused her to be assigned to perimeter patrols. Much of the patrols were within the realm, which she could do by flying high overhead and keeping an eye out for anything of note. But Jen was also required to do patrols outside the fairy realm near its hidden portal entrance from the human world. It was vitally important that the fairies knew what was going on outside their door and could prepare for any changes that might bring the danger of discovery their way. Jen's magic helped her be more adept than some at concealing her fairy identity and going out into the woods amongst the humans unnoticed.
That's where she'd been when Nick found her the first time. For as long as Jen could remember, the fairy realm had been wary of discovery. Before Queen Bernice, fairies were free to explore the human world and to interact with humans. But letting humans get too close had risked the very existence of fairies. Jen remembered the whispers of terror when a human had followed a fairy to the portal. She had been very young then, but she remembered how things changed after that. There were still hushed conversations where fairies were worried that a human would know the truth of them and do something drastic. What such drastic things might be, she was not sure. But the amorphous threat lurked out there still.
Fairies had to be very careful now, especially when venturing outside the fairy realm. Jen had failed to be careful when she'd gotten herself caught in that net. Bloody Jerry!
That bird was unusually attached to her, something she felt proud of and plagued by in equal measure. Jermuth was a death watcher, and only one of his kind could exist at a time. This one had been around for Jen's whole life. Possibly for Queen Bernice's whole life, too. Death watchers were revered oracles to the fairies, helping to protect and guide the future of their race. Jen often wondered why he seemed to spend time around her more than others. There was a gilded perch and ample food and comfort for him in the palace, and he did converse with Queen Bernice quite a bit, but Jerry was free to come and go as he pleased. Often he would accompany Jen on her patrols in the human world. On that particular afternoon, he'd been talking in riddles, as usual, and she was watching him fly above her, trying to figure out what he was going on about when she'd stupidly stepped in that trap. And when she'd asked Jerry to get help, she assumed he would bring someone from the fairy realm. But instead, it was Nick.
That was the most troubling part. It was not just that Nick had found her and she had felt a glimmer of magic in him—something that should not have been possible in a human—it was that Jerry had been the one to lead him to her. Twice!
Upon reflection, Jen knew she could not wait another moment before she confided in someone about this. She turned left down another path, abandoning the one that would have led her home. And with a small hop, she beat her wings and took off flying through the trees toward the palace.