"Come in," a feminine yet commanding voice instructed. Nick looked past Terry and Jennifer to see the much-mentioned Queen Bernice.
He was surprised with what he saw. He hadn't really had an image in his mind of the fairy queen. Jennifer had told him that Terry was her consort, so he had an idea of her age. The only queen that Nick knew of was the one on the five-dollar bill. But Queen Bernice looked nothing like Queen Elizabeth II. This queen was not the dignified, icy lady he'd thought of. Queen Bernice was a bit plump and looked extremely warm and friendly. She was short—shorter than Jennifer, even—and blonde and had a similar golden tone to her skin that Jennifer had to hers. Her wings, from what Nick could see, were enormous and shaped similarly to Jen's. But while Jennifer had golden shimmery wings, the queen's were a translucent indigo blue.
What surprised Nick more than anything, actually, was what Queen Bernice was wearing. He'd seen Jennifer in her flowing pastel floral dresses and some of the other guards and Terry wearing earthy tones; he'd assumed that all fairies wore clothes like that. But not the queen. She had a long flowing dress in a bright, deep red. When Nick was a child, his mother had geraniums in the garden that were precisely that color. It was certainly quite regal.
"I'll leave you to it, shall I?" Terry asked.
The queen nodded. "Thank you, Terry."
"You know where I'll be if you need me," he said before closing the doors behind him.
After they were alone, just the three of them in the throne room, Queen Bernice waved them over. "You must be Nick Buchanan," she said in greeting.
Nick did not know if he was supposed to. Bow? Call her Your Majesty? He'd just wing it and hopefully not make too much of a mess of it all. "Yes, ma'am," he replied. "It's an honor to be here."
She smiled gently. "You're the first human to be here in a very long time."
"How long?" Jennifer asked, interrupting the pleasantries.
"Longer than I've been queen," she said. "And that's actually what I wanted to talk to you both about."
Jen's brow was furrowed in consternation, but she didn't say anything further.
"I think we should have a nice sit-down by the fire, eh?" the queen suggested. "Jennifer, would you mind?"
With a very casual wave of Jen's hand, three comfortable chairs appeared beside the back wall. And with a sharp point, a fireplace and crackling fire appeared inside the wall. She glanced over to Nick and saw his eyes practically bugging out of his head. "I told you, Nick," she said, "there's nothing that magic can't do."
Bernice looked at the two of them with piqued interest. "Let's sit," she told them.
Nick moved to one of the chairs in a slight daze. Jen led him to a chair by the fire. He seemed reluctant to believe it was real till he sat down and felt the cushion underneath him and the warmth of the flames beside him. But all through it, he did not complain or question at all. He just quietly accepted it, despite the worries that he perhaps still held. Jen was strangely proud of him for that. She wanted Bernice to see this side of him. That he could be trusted. Regardless of what Bernice wanted to talk to them about, Jen needed her to know that he could be trusted. She believed that more than anything.
Once they were all settled, Bernice launched into the purpose of this meeting. "Nick, Terry tells me you know Dane Majors."
Both Nick and Jen were surprised at that. "Yes," he answered. "I was a junior detective on the case ten years ago when he killed his wife. I found the murder weapon and I testified in court and helped put him in prison."
"He's in prison?" Bernice asked.
Nick wondered if prison was something like coffee in the fairy realm, a concept they did not have. "He's locked up and guarded and kept away from the rest of the world. He'll be in there for the rest of his life for what he did to Tahnee."
Bernice felt herself exhale in relief. "So we're safe."
"Why do I know his name? When Nick mentioned it, I thought it was familiar. Terry said we needed to talk to you," Jen asked curiously.
It had been a long time since Bernice had told this story. She avoided it as much as she could. Terry knew, of course. He'd been there when it happened. There weren't many fairies left who were. But Jennifer deserved to know. And now this Nick of hers was involved. He should know, too. Perhaps this was why Jermuth the death watcher had led him to Jennifer. Perhaps Nick's connection to Dane Majors was what had brought him to the fairies. Whatever it was, Bernice had to tell her story now. "Well, I think it starts with the way fairies are born," she began.
Jen frowned. That was an odd way to start out.
Nick was similarly confused. "Jen told me she was born in a giant tulip under a full moon. But some fairies are born the normal—er—born the human sort of way."
Bernice nodded. "I was bloomed, like Jennifer was. So was Terry. And bloomed fairies are all raised together as children. Sometimes childless fairies will choose a bloomed child to raise as their own," she explained.
Jennifer immediately felt a chill. She'd been bloomed, yes, but she'd been chosen. Her mother—the fairy who had taken her from the group—had died a few years ago. Jen was not sorry to see her go. But she had not told Nick that part.
The queen continued, "When I was much younger, even younger than Jennifer, I was already chosen for my purpose to be the next leader of our people. But the old fairy king had not died, so I was training. And I wanted a family. I wanted to love a child and know what it was to care for someone else. I knew that the rest of my life would be loving all fairies like my own, and my purpose was to care for all of them. And the old king thought it was a good idea for me to practice with a child. If I had waited just two more years, I could have chosen Jennifer." She smiled at that. "But at that time, one of the newborns was a beautiful little boy. His name was Joshua. I called him Josh. And I loved him."
It was hard to think about Josh. It so long ago when all this had happened. There were days, weeks, when she didn't think about him at all. But whenever she did, the heaviness in her heart and the aching grief all came flooding back.
This was news to Jennifer. She had no idea that Bernice had ever been a mother. She hadn't had a child as far as Jen knew. She'd never known about any of this. And if Josh had only been two years older than Jen herself, what had happened to him?
"I lived here in the palace, training to be the next queen. I had Josh. I raised him on my own. He was the sweetest boy. Very athletic, always wanting to play and do energetic things. He had these piercing dark eyes and pale skin with freckles on his nose. His wings, I'll never forget, were like four green leaves on his back. They grew very large very quickly. Used to throw him off balance when he was little," she chuckled, lost in the happy memory.
Nick watched the two women as the queen told her story. Jennifer had a look of concern on her face that let him know that she had never known any of this before. And the queen's expression told Nick without a doubt that this was not going to be happy story.
She continued, "Back in those days, fairies traveled through the portal all the time. We spend time in the human world, usually just in the woods, and we did not have to hide. Humans tend not to believe in us, even when they see us. We are just a strange story about their time in the woods. And so I didn't have any problem with Josh exploring as much as he wanted to. I took him through the portal plenty of times when he was little. And when he got older, he went out on his own. When he was about twelve, he met a human boy about his age. His name was Dane Majors."
Now it was all coming together. Nick felt a little sick.
"Dane Majors and my Josh were fast friends. They were together almost every day. Dane had no trouble believing in fairies. Josh thought he was charming and smart and fun. He taught Josh human games. There was one with a ball and a wood plank that they loved to play, I forget the name of it."
"Cricket," Nick supplied knowingly.
"Yes, that was it. Dane and Josh played cricket together in the woods. And there was nothing wrong with it until…until there was."
Jennifer's heart was constricting in her chest. She knew what was coming. She didn't know how it happened, but she knew it had. "What happened?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Dane wanted to come to the fairy realm. Josh didn't think it was a good idea. He knew that humans didn't come to the realm. He told Dane no. And Dane got upset. Josh flew home and told me that his friend had scared him, that he didn't know what Dane might do when he was mad. I told Josh not to go to the human world for a while. But Dane was his friend. And he didn't want Dane to be mad at him. So Josh snuck out. And he found Dane. And…"
Bernice felt her heart racing. Her chest was tight. She could hardly breathe. She wished Terry was here. In fact… Bernice closed her eyes and pushed her magic out around her, calling to her consort.
Less than two seconds later, Terry burst through the doors. "What do you need?" he asked.
She knew she couldn't say the rest of the story. She needed his help. She stood up and reached out to him, and Terry did not hesitate to pull her into his arms and hold her tight.
Jennifer had never seen this before. She knew they loved each other and were quite affectionate. But the way he comforted her, the way she was vulnerable with him, that was very new. It was so intimate, she almost felt as though they were intruding.
Terry stroked Bernice's hair and kissed her temple. "Shh, it's alright. I can finish it if you want," he offered.
Bernice stepped back from him, taking his hand. "No, I can do it. I just wanted you here." She waved her hand and conjured another chair for him to take.
Nick watched the whole scene in a mixture of awe and confusion. There was so much history here, between all of these people. The dynamics were things he recognized, but very rarely, even in his work, did Nick become privy to such things with strangers.
With a deep breath, Bernice steeled herself. "Josh found Dane. Dane was even more upset after Josh had kept away from him for so long. We don't really know what happened after that. Best we could tell, he hit Josh over the head with something to knock him out and tied him to a tree just outside the portal. Dane couldn't see the portal or go through it, but he knew where it was. A fairy has to take a human through the portal, as you might have guessed, Nick," Bernice said.
Terry took Bernice's hand in both of his, squeezing it comfortingly, hoping she'd be alright telling what happened after.
"Josh had been missing, so I asked Terry, who was just a guard assigned to my protection at the time, to help me find him. We went out of the portal and found him immediately. Josh was tied with rope to a tree. His arms were around the tree, like he was hugging it. His face was pressed up against the bark and scratched to bits from where he must have struggled. And…and his wings were gone."
"What!?" Jen exclaimed in shock.
Tears welled up in Bernice's eyes, but she tried her best to blink them way and to speak through the lump in her throat. "We never found Dane Majors, but we all knew it was him. He'd wanted to find the realm. He knew that fairies' magic is in their wings. And he took Josh's."
"But how?" Jennifer was utterly horrified at the very prospect of it. Her wings were as much a part of body as her legs and arms and the nose on her face. To take them off must have been violent and more painful than she could even imagine.
"We don't know how," Terry said quietly, answering on Bernice's behalf. "The boy's back was bleeding. He'd died sometime in the night. Didn't last long after the wings were cut off. Pulled off. We didn't look too close."
Bernice's eyes were pressed close, her whole face willing the memories to be shut out once again. It broke the heart to see. Terry remembered the way Bernice had screamed and cried upon finding Josh's body. That sound was the embodiment of every nightmare he ever had. Seeing Bernice in pain like that, the worst and most visceral pain imaginable, was the worst thing Terry had ever experienced. He devoted his life, his job, and his whole heart to protecting her from anything close to that ever happening ever again.
"I'm so sorry," Nick said softly. "I cannot imagine the pain of losing a child. And…Christ, knowing it was Dane…"
"You're sure he's locked away? He won't ever come after us?" Bernice asked somewhat desperately.
Nick shook his head. "He's locked away and he won't ever get out. I promise, you're all safe."
"Thank you," she answered. All the energy had been sapped from Bernice through having to relive that story.
Terry noticed her slight weakness. "Jane, you take your bloke back to where he came from for now. Bernice needs to rest."
Jennifer nodded. She did not want to burden Bernice any longer. She stood up and reached for Nick's hand.
"I'll want to see you later," Bernice said to Jen.
"Okay," she replied. "I'll take Nick back to the human world and come back."
"Good," Bernice answered.
Jen led Nick through the palace, back the way they'd come, very quickly. They did not speak. They were both too shocked by the story they'd just heart to say anything.
For his part, Nick was horrified that Dane Majors had been capable of something so brutal at such a young age. He'd always assumed that Dane had developed his ego and his violent nature when he'd gotten fame, when he'd gotten to the level when he thought his talent on the cricket pitch was enough to make up for any sins, enough to let him get away with whatever he wanted. But in a sick way, it made sense that Dane had been like that as a boy. Nick had a million questions, but at the moment, he didn't really want answers to any of them. Really, he wished he could forget anything he'd just heard.
For Jen, the things she'd learned about Bernice, the things her dearest friend had never told her, were just a little too much. Bernice knew absolutely everything about Jennifer. And to know that this thing, this enormously important thing about Bernice's life and past and heart had been kept from Jennifer…it hurt Jen doubly that Bernice had experienced such pain and had never shared it with her before now.
Soon enough, the pair of them arrived at the portal. "You should be able to leave on your own, I think," Jen said. "You can see the portal, right?"
Nick nodded. It was right there in front of him. The arched tree branches with the shimmering and shifting light. That would take Nick back home. He'd collect the picnic hamper they'd left by that tree and he'd go to his car and he'd drive home. It was just before midday on Sunday. Tomorrow he'd have to go back to work. And he'd need a bit of time to recover before that, before trying to return to the real world. Well, his real world, at any rate.
But before he had to let go of her hand and leave her, Nick turned and took Jennifer in his arms. He just wanted to hold her one more time. The both of them were processing all they'd learned, Jennifer about her friend the queen and Nick about his nemesis Dane Majors.
Jen was grateful for his embrace. She felt safe with him. In his arms. He was strong and steady. He was smart and kind. And though she'd only met him recently, Jennifer had already come to rely on his presence so much. It was almost strange to think of having been without him.
"Thank you," she murmured.
"What for?" he asked softly.
She pulled back just enough to smile up at him. "For being the one that Jerry found for us. Especially."
Nick did not know what to say to that, though he would have to thank that bird next time he saw him. He bent his neck down to kiss Jen gently. "When will I see you again?" he asked against her lips.
"Soon," she said. "I'll come to you." That was a promise she felt sure she could make. It was one she wanted to keep.
And as Nick released her and went through that portal back to his own world, he was comforted in his belief in her words.