Jen arrived at the palace the next morning still trying to decide how to explain all of this to Bernice and Terry. She was greeted in the entrance hall by Jerry, which provided a nice distraction.
"Push further and never break," he said, making a wide circle and landing on her shoulder.
She chuckled and nuzzled his feathers. "Whatever you say. I've got to tell the queen, don't you think?" she asked him.
He did not answer.
As she climbed the stairs towards the throne room, she was interrupted by someone calling her name. She paused and turned to see Matt hurrying to catch up behind her.
"Hey, Jen. Where have you been? I went by yours the other day to see if you wanted to have dinner with me and Joey and Kayla. You weren't there."
Jennifer remembered she'd agreed to come see them sometime soon and obviously hadn't done that. A twinge of guilt settled in her stomach. "I'm sorry, Matty. I've not been here. There's…well, I don't really know how to explain it."
"See the stars and don't ask why," Jerry chimed in.
Matt's eyes went wide as he stared at the death watcher. "Wow," he breathed in awe.
She remembered Matt saying he'd never seen Jerry speak. She supposed it was sort of incredible to experience. At this point, it was quite a normal occurrence for Jen. "I told you, Jerry's gotten me involved in whatever this is."
"Is it your friend Nick?" he asked.
Jen nodded. "He's back at his home now. And I've got to tell Bernice some things."
"I've never seen him before. Where does he live?"
She hesitated but confessed, "He lives out past the woods. He's human."
"What!?" Matt exclaimed. "You brought a human to the realm!? Jen, what were you thinking!?"
"Terry and Bernice both know," she explained, hoping he'd lower his voice. They were in the middle of a staircase in the palace. Nothing good could come from the news of Nick's human presence in the fairy realm becoming public knowledge. "Jerry led him to me. More than once. I watched him. I spoke to him. I'm helping him with some things that might affect the realm. And that's why I have to go talk to Bernice, alright?"
Matt still did not seem convinced. He regarded her with a mix of hurt and suspicion that Jennifer did not appreciate one single bit. How dare he doubt her, think she'd ever do anything to put the realm at risk! Matt appreciated her and respected her skill, she knew, but she was also painfully aware of his insecurity and jealousy. It made him petty and frustrating and annoying, and right now, she was feeling all that petty jealousy coming off him in waves. And if she wasn't careful, she'd say or do something she'd regret. It was time to put this aside.
"Listen, Matt, I've got to take care of this, but when it's all over, I'll explain the whole thing, alright?"
He shrugged. Petulant. How obnoxious.
"Loss will be revealing," Jerry added.
Well, neither Jen nor Matt knew what to do with that. She tried to give her friend a smile, which she was true came off tight on her face. There was nothing else for it, so she turned and went back up the stairs.
When she arrived at the throne room, she found the doors wide open for Queen Bernice to hold open court. It was a beautiful tradition that Jennifer always enjoyed witnessing. All fairies were given the opportunity to speak to the queen about whatever it was that they might want or need from her. She did her best to hear as many people as possible and to do whatever she could to help. And the fairies loved her for it.
Jen stayed in the back, not wanting to interrupt anything. Jerry took off from her shoulder and flew to the gilded open cage where the death watcher nest was housed. She watched from a distance as he fussed with the nest, making sure it was in good condition to protect the dormant eggs. When Jerry eventually did die, one of those eggs would hatch, and the new bird would have the death watcher responsibility. Until then, Jerry would watch over the nest and the eggs and the whole of the fairy realm.
"Welcome back, Jane."
Sir Terry had crossed the throne room to stand beside her. His wings—slightly smaller than Jennifer's and pointed and a brilliant opaque blue to match his eyes—brushed against hers. The interaction of their magic caused a jolt to the both of them. That did not happen every time two fairies touched like that, but there was some lore about a fairy's magic recognizing a similar type of power in another. Jen didn't usually think much of it.
"Things all worked out with that lad of yours?" Terry asked.
"No, there's been a lot happening. Lots to tell, unfortunately."
"Bad news?"
"Might be," she admitted.
Terry nodded. "We'll clear this lot out in a while and take care of it."
After the crowd of fairies dwindled, the discussions of water flow and sun exposure and a problem of wood rot and worries over fire, Bernice was able to finish the session of open court for the day. There would be more back tomorrow and the next day, as there always were. But that was what her purpose as queen was, to be there to listen and provide whatever help she could. She stood and removed her ceremonial crown—interwoven vines of gold and inlaid with deep-colored gems—and placed it carefully in the decorated wooden box. She took a key from her pocket and locked it up safe and placed the key back in her pocket.
Terry and Jennifer were right there when she turned back. "Lunchtime, I think. Something tells me we'll need some fortification."
Jen only nodded. She followed Terry and Bernice out of the throne room and up to the royal apartments.
Once they were all settled with their meal, Bernice prompted Jen to speak. "What's the latest with your human, Jennifer?" she asked.
Despite having spent so long trying to figure out how to explain it all, Jen had not come up with any sort of plan. So she just came out with it. "The journalist who had a source saying that Dane Majors was innocent of killing his wife and the evidence Nick found all those years ago? She was killed. It was an accident, the man who killed her was trying to get the man who was her source. And after that, Nick was suspended. I was there when she got shot so I was interviewed. I made up a human identity and there hasn't been any problem with it yet. But then Nick and I were looking through the old case files to see if the journalist and the source were right, if Nick had been tricked along with everyone else. And he was. The murder weapon Nick found had been planted by his old mentor who worked on the case. He killed the journalist and he came to talk to Nick and hit him. The next day he wrote out a confession and killed himself. And…then…"
She paused, knowing she still had the most important part to tell. Terry and Bernice were watching her with horrified attention.
Jen swallowed hard and told them. "Dane Majors has been released from prison."
"WHAT!?" Terry bellowed. He stood up, his wings practically vibrating with rage. "That little prick, that bastard, he's not fit to walk the earth!"
"I know," Jen lamented. "We know that, but the human world doesn't. Nick's going to do whatever he can, but he's resigned his job and he's lost. Dane Majors is a monster, but he didn't kill his wife, and that was why the humans sent him to prison."
Bernice had been quiet up till now. She felt as though the wind were knocked out of her. Weak and numb and vaguely nauseous. But she spoke. Softly but with authority. "He spent twenty years free in the human world after what he did to Josh, and we never saw or heard from him after that. Even if he's free now, there's no guarantee he'll come searching for us. This is not necessarily a threat."
"Maybe not," Terry conceded, "but you can't be alright with him being free out there."
"No, Terry, I'm not," she snapped. "The very idea of it gives me the vision of my Josh dead and bleeding in the woods. I'm very much not alright with it. But we have to consider the reality outside of however I might feel about it. And what we need to focus on is keeping the fairies safe. Right now they are."
"Do you want me to watch him?" Jen asked.
Terry answered, "No, it'll drive us all mad having to be concerned with him till we have to be."
"What are you going to do about Nick, Jennifer?" Bernice asked.
Jen frowned. She actually did not know what she was going to do with Nick. This back and forth was not sustainable. She had responsibilities in the realm that she could not shirk in order to spend days at a time in the human world with him. "I don't know. I…I want to be with him." She felt herself blush slightly to be so candid. "But I don't really know what he wants."
Terry nodded. "You'd better figure it out. And keep an eye out for Dane for a little while, see what he's up to. If there's any chance he might end up in the woods, we've gotta be ready."
The rest of lunch was a sobering affair. The three of them were quiet, all thinking. One thing was clear through it all for Jennifer: she had absolutely no idea what was going to happen.