Rowan knelt beside her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “My grandmother, and the other members of my family, would never let me come permanently into your world, and renounce them and the Fairy Realm. They know I’d never do that. By consecrating the ground of your forest, as a protected place, my family would have somewhere safe, away from prying human eyes, to enter into your world on special occasions. Midsummer Night’s Eve, Samhain, solstices and equinoxes, for example. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to keep them from seeing a new baby in the family, would it?”

“A-all that can be done?” Sky shakily asked.

“As easily as the snap of two fingers. But lately, there hasn’t been much of an excuse for an excursion into your world. In our case, a child breaching both realities would be the reason. It has been done in centuries past.”

“Rowan, exactly how old are you?”

“I’ve seen the passing of thirty-three winters.”

“Will you age the same as me, if you stay in this reality? Will any child we have be healthy if it’s half-human, half-Faun? If your people have access to this world, will there be problems? I mean…what if…”

He pressed two fingers to her lips. “As to my aging, I’ll grow old naturally, as any human would. The child would age the same way. When pairings of our people and yours took place in the past, the lifespan of any infant born of such unions was quite similar to any human child. They laughed, they loved, they grew old.” He shrugged. “Obviously, it will carry half my blood and half yours. In the distant past, whenever this kind of mating took place and produced offspring, legend has it that the children were always linked to both worlds. It was said The Lady of The Lake and Merlin were two such children, and they were very powerful indeed. I expect our child will be equally endowed, and it will be a significant challenge to teach our little one to hide its magical prowess as you hide yours. I can’t say whether our child will be able to shapeshift as I do. If it can do so from birth, extra care will be needed to watch over its upbringing. That would mean that the child would also be required to spend some time of the year with my family, and the philosophers and teachers of my world. You and I would be expected to accompany the child to the Fairy Realm in that case, but we would return here together. And that brings me to speak of further desires my grandmother will expect to be fulfilled.”

“Go ahead,” Sky tremulously encouraged. “I’m already having your baby!” she sarcastically blurted. He apparently ignored any other concerns and kept babbling on.

“My grandmother has longed for a granddaughter. As a witch, you may be able to help conjure the child her heart would greatly love. She has sons, grandsons, great- grandsons and nephews. But no little girl babies have been gifted to the women of my family. Not as yet. If you could cast some white magic and give her a girl grandchild, that would be wonderful. If the baby should be a boy, however, I want you to know that it won’t make one bit of difference. Not to me or Grandmother. We’ll all love the child just the same.”

“Rowan, what effect will us passing back and forth between this world and the Fairy Realm have on us? Exactly how long would you, me, and our baby have to stay…for it to learn its heritage?”

“There is no known effect to traversing the boundaries of either world. As to staying, perhaps we’d be in the other realm no more than a few short weeks each summer, or in the early fall. But you can see that our mixed blood will make it difficult for the child to grow without support from both worlds. Such a youngster will need to be trained in my ways, just as someone trained you to be a witch.”

“I understand all that, but what about my aunts?”

“Sky, you have to learn to trust in their abilities. They will get by. Brilliantly, I think!”

She thought for a very long moment, and was aware that Rowan stood patiently, waiting for her final response. She only had one to give, knowing her life had to include him. “What’s your grandmother’s name?” she asked.

“Ariana.”

“Well, naming a boy Ariana wouldn’t do.”

He grinned. “If it’s a boy, we’ll call him Arius.”

“Is that all we have to do?” Sky quietly asked. “Is there anything else we’d have to promise?”

He snorted with mirth. “Isn’t that enough?”

Sky wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. “When can we get started?”

Exhaling in apparent relief, he held her close.

“Tonight,” he stated. “We can start tonight, if you’re ready.”

“I know I love you. You’re my heart’s desire. I’m ready.”

When he would have pulled her into his arms for a long kiss, Sky put one hand on his mouth.

“Wait. There are some things I’d like to get from my room. I need to cast some spells for hope and happiness. And, for the request of Nature for a healthy baby. Hopefully a girl. But healthy, no matter what.” She sighed. “I haven’t used such powerful magic before. So, I’ll have to check my supplies. My aunts will have anything that I need in their storage boxes. At least, I think they will.”

“Will it take long?”

“Only a few minutes. You wait here, I’ll go to the cottage, and come right back.”

* * *

Rowan did as she asked, and happily watched her hurry back into the cottage.

He felt as though he should be shouting, singing, and dancing. Everything was working out splendidly.

Tonight would be the first night of the rest of their lives. Together.

The thought of the future thrilled and emboldened him. He knew that problems concerning a child of mixed blood could be solved. The same problems had been addressed many centuries before, it could be tackled again. Especially since they’d have the help of Sky’s family and his own, from two different sides of the Fairy Realm.

As he stood there contemplating how wonderful their life would be together, he was so deeply immersed in his own thoughts that he didn’t hear the high-pitched, almost inaudible warning bugle sounding from beyond the Fairy Realm. When dozens of Pixies flew by him, and pointed toward the woods, Rowan finally pulled himself away from his imaginings, into the present. He slowly turned to where the Pixies now pointed.

Striding purposely through the woods toward him, was one of his realm’s denizens; one he knew well.

The look on her face went beyond rage. He clearly gleaned, from her furrowed brow and unrelenting frown, that she was furious. Still, if he hadn’t known she was unhappy, the fiery red aura surrounding her told that story easily enough.

Now standing at nearly six feet tall, Glacia was in her true form.

In traditional Pixie guise, Glacia and her ilk could wield powers that were uncomfortable, but not magically deadly. In this other persona, Pixies were quite lethal. It was this form that he’d really warned Sky about. If Glacia had been angered enough, she could have shapeshifted earlier, and destroyed the love of his life in an instant. Sky would have had no way to defend herself. He was reasonably sure that his lover didn’t know a Pixie could shapeshift in the first place.

He had always likened the small, beloved form of Glacia’s race to that of a mosquito. Annoying, but not much more impressive.

The larger form was more like a vindictive Banshee. That humans didn’t know about a Pixie’s shapeshifting capabilities was for good reason. This little fact had never found its way into any of the Fairytales that children heard from parents.

There was one very good reason for this secret.

If humans ever magically or scientifically found their way into the Fairy Realm—if humans ever tried to attack or take magic that didn’t belong in humanity’s plane of existence—they’d find themselves hard-pressed to defeat what they did not understand. And they’d never understand that Pixies could shapeshift into warriors.

“Glacia, why are you back? I thought that, since I chased you off once tonight, you’d take the hint. And why have you shapeshifted into your larger form?”

“Press my ass between the pages of a book, will you?” She growled between clenched teeth, then spoke harshly. “I heard every word you told that little human, and I’m not a bit amused. If I’d known you’d be plotting to breed with that…that thing, I’d have shapeshifted to this size, and stopped your little scheme earlier.”

Rowan watched the aura around her deepen to a burnt red color. Her hair snapped around her nude body like angry flames. “Go back to the Fairy Realm before my grandmother has you hauled off in chains. I’m sure she never gave you permission to be here this long.”

“On the contrary, my dearest fool. She gave her approval.”

Rowan glanced toward the woods, and heard no cavalry of pursuing Fairy guards. They would surely have been sent if what Glacia said was true. He quickly glanced over his shoulder, hoping Sky wouldn’t come out of the cottage, right into the presence of Glacia’s wrathful magic.

“Out with it,” he demanded as he faced her squarely. “What do you want?”

“Let’s just say that I’ve been keeping a close eye on you.” She flipped her fiery hair back and glared at him. “You’re a prince of the blood royal. I’m a princess of my people. I have a prior claim to you since I am a minor ruler within the Fairy Realm.”

“What are you talking about?” he furiously responded. “What claim?”

Glacia moved closer to him. “Your human is considered a commoner. As such, any princess of royal blood, be they Fairy, Pixie or Nymph, may make a claim on you first. I’m making such a claim now.”

“Damn you, you little tart! That rule hasn’t been dredged up in centuries. I’m not a wedge of cheese to be fought over. You’re just doing this out of spite!”

“Nevertheless, I’m taking a lawful stand.”

“I don’t suppose it matters that I’m in love with Sky.”

“You barely know her!”

“I know her! I know her heart and her character. I know she loves her family and that she’s good to the core. In fact, I know more about her than I ever knew about you, and you and I have known each other since we were children. I have never seen this kind of vindictiveness before. Where is this coming from?”

“Your insignificant human will have to step aside.”

“Why are you doing this?” he angrily countered. “You don’t care about me.”

“That isn’t true,” she told him as she softened her tone. “In my own way, I want you.”

“The only thing we’ve ever had in common, as adults, were the times you tried to seduce me. You’ve tried to seduce every man in the Fairy Realm. Why am I so different?”

“You are more a man than any of my other consorts.”

Rowan withheld his enraged response, and turned away from the Pixie when he heard footsteps approaching. He sensed Sky was almost there. Without facing Glacia again, he gazed at the path from the cottage.

Glacia snorted. “Something tells me your grandmother is probably sitting on the throne laughing her exalted butt of. She won’t interfere because I’ve got the law of the Fairy Realm on my side. There’s only one way for your pale little Sky to have you.”

“And that is?” he furiously bit out.

“She’ll have to fight me.”

He rounded on her. “In your larger form you would destroy her!”

Glacia let out a slow, cruel laugh. “That’s the plan, lover.”

Too late for him to warn her, Sky walked into the little clearing where he and Glacia stood. Rowan saw Sky drop the bag she was carrying and stare fixedly at the other woman.

* * *

Sky looked at the fire-enclosed figure standing nude before Rowan. The woman’s breasts were the size of large grapefruit, bouncing with every move she made. “Who the hell is she?”

“Sky, this is what Glacia looks like when she shifts to human size,” Rowan explained. “I didn’t tell you she could shapeshift before because I thought she was gone. Her shapeshifting ability wouldn’t have mattered if she’d scuttled back to the Fairy Realm where she belongs!”

Glacia pushed her way past him. “I’m here to collect my prince and take him to his rightful home. Any questions?”

Stupefied, Sky glanced from Rowan to the once-miniscule little pest she’d shooed off his body.

“Glacia thinks she can claim me by right of combat. Under a very ancient law,” he angrily stated, while pointedly staring at the Pixie, “she can do so.”

Sky gasped. “Combat?” She lifted a finger and pointed at the fiery woman standing before her. “Are you actually saying I’ll have to fight her…for you?”

“If you love him, you will,” Glacia smugly stated.

“Sky…can I have a word?” Rowan asked.

Sky walked a few steps away, when Rowan motioned for her to follow. She patiently listened, though it was quite difficult to do so under the insane circumstances.

“Go back to the cottage right now,’ he instructed. “I’ll take Glacia to the Fairy Realm and get this mess straightened out. She’s using a very old law to try and stop us from being together.”

“What if you don’t come back? Or what if the queen agrees with what that overgrown firefly says?” Sky angrily glanced at the red woman pacing up and down the garden path. “Why does she think she has any claim to you? Aside from whatever law it is you’re talking about, what is she to you?”

“We grew up together. I think she’s just jealous. In a month or two, she’ll be off chasing some other man. That’s the way she is. She doesn’t really care for me. She just wants to cause trouble.”

“Well, she just bought herself a shitload,” Sky muttered, and walked toward the Pixie who was now as tall as Rowan.

“What’s it to be?” Glacia asked. “Are you going to fight me for him or not? If not, then he has to go back to the Fairy Realm tonight.”

Rowan blurted out a warning. “Sky, don’t let her goad you into…”

“I don’t like being confronted on my own property. Not by anyone,” Sky announced while ignoring Rowan’s warning. “Particularly not by a woman whose red ass is shooting flames and who, in her other life, likes to crawl all over men while they’re asleep. You just bought yourself a one-way, lonely ticket back to wherever you came from.”

“So it’s a fight you want?”

“No,” Sky told her. “That’s what you want. I’m just not backing down.”

Rowan stepped between the two women. “That’s enough! Glacia, go back to the Fairy Realm. I’m not going to repeat the command again.”

Glacia snarled. “You’d better stand aside and tell your human to get ready. The challenge has been accepted.”

“Sky hasn’t got access to the kind of magic you do. Witches like her won’t use their skills to harm others. It’s against their beliefs. Besides, we’re in her world now, not ours. The law you’re trying to use isn’t applicable here.”

Sky pushed him aside. “That’s all right. If she’s a coward and has to hide behind some cheap parlor tricks, she can bring it on. From what I’ve seen, the only things she’s good at are bitching and molesting!”

Glacia curled her hands into fists. “That does it!”

“Merlin’s nuts! Will the two of you just calm down?” Rowan urged, while pushing the two women apart.

“Restrain him!” Glacia loudly commanded.

With a wave of Glacia’s hand, dozens and dozens of Pixies flew forward and literally pushed Rowan against a tree, pinning him there.

“Glacia, I’ll never forgive you for this,” he growled.

“You’ll come around, when I’ve taken care of this little witchy annoyance, and I escort you back to the Fairy Realm where you belong. If there’s a child to be born to you, it will be carried by me. Not this common ape-seed,” she smugly said as she nodded toward Sky.

Sky backed away from the other woman. Glancing at Rowan, she clearly saw the expression of outraged fury plastered all over his face. His eyes glowed with anger. Every muscle in his powerful body strained to fight off the Pixies holding him, but there were far too many, and they seemed to emit a blue glow that helped pin Rowan where he was. Even in such numbers, they had to use some kind of magic to restrain him. There were silvery sparks shooting from his body everywhere the creatures’ tiny hands gripped.

“Sky, don’t fight her,” he commanded. “In her current form, she has powers you can’t possibly defend against.”

She shook her head in denial, but kept her gaze on the Pixie, who was about ten feet away now and circling. “Why don’t you fight me without magic? Or are you afraid? What kind of consort would you make to the queen’s grandson when everyone in the Fairy Realm will be whispering that you cheated to win?”

Glacia tossed her hair back over one shoulder. “Using my skills isn’t cheating.”

“You’re a jealous bitch and a coward,” Sky continued to taunt her.

“Fine. I’ll fight you without magic. And when I win, you’ll accept the law and tell Rowan to leave. Agreed?”

“Agreed. But yours is a one-way promise. You have to agree that if I win, you go back to the Fairy Realm, and cause no further trouble to Rowan, me, my family or my property,” Sky countered. “That promise lasts forever!”

“Agreed, human!”

Vaguely aware of Rowan’s struggles, Sky faced Glacia squarely, and watched her hands. There were all kinds of warnings she’d always heard about watching an attacker’s eyes, but she’d never heard of anyone’s eyes doing a person harm. It was the other woman’s hands she was most interested in.

Glacia shot her what was meant to be a wickedly gruesome smile.

She wasn’t impressed.

In a sudden move meant to knock her off her feet, Glacia lunged.

Sky sidestepped Glacia’s forward motion, and simply kicked her in the butt as she fell forward. The insulting contact had the effect of infuriating Glacia so much that she was actually curling her lips back like a rabid dog. That was when she knew that Glacia wasn’t used to defending herself without magic. As a woman traveling alone in populated cities, however, Sky made ample use of every opportunity to learn self-defense.

Quickly picking herself up off the ground, Glacia struck out with her right hand.

Sky easily blocked the badly aimed blow, and landed a punch right in Glacia’s left eye. Without magic, Glacia’s fight was quite feeble.

Stunned by the blow to her face, Glacia picked up a large rock and threw it at Sky’s head. The poorly aimed projectile glanced off Sky’s shoulder with little damage.

To retaliate, Sky picked up a large limb and struck Glacia in the torso. Hard. The force of that blow knocked Glacia sideways, and the sound of bones cracking filled the air. For a second, Sky felt sorry about breaking the Pixie’s left ribs.

“I-I am bleeding!” Glacia muttered, as if it was the first time she’d seen her own blood.

Whatever sympathy Sky had for the Pixie fled. She almost sensed what was coming. Glacia wouldn’t hold to her promise of a non-magical battle.

The enraged Pixie pointed her fingertips right at Sky’s body.

“Glacia! You promised!” Rowan shouted.

The force of some invisible energy hit Sky in the chest, and she felt her heart actually change rhythm. She slumped to the ground, trying to catch her breath, but there was simply no air in her lungs. It felt as though they were being relentlessly squeezed, along with every other major organ in her body. The pain was so bad that she couldn’t even cry out.

* * *

Rowan watched as Sky fell forward, unconscious. At the same time that the witch made full contact with the ground, the Pixies let him go.

He ran forward, knelt by his would-be mate’s side, and lifted her against him. He felt no pulse, her skin was beginning to pale.

He raised his head and stared at Glacia, simultaneously willing his strength into Sky. He used energy drawn from his own body and the earth, to heal her, but more was necessary.

“She was using her powers,” Glacia asserted.

“She was fighting you fairly,” he mechanically responded, then slowly stood when he felt Sky’s pulse come back and grow stronger. He walked toward Glacia, taking one slow, deliberate step at a time.

“W-what are you going to do?” the Pixie asked.

“You broke your promise,” he muttered as he shifted into his full Faun form.

Glacia backed away. “I only meant for you to come back. Where you belong,” she defended.

“You had no right to interfere with our lives. Your jealousy is unworthy of our kind, and you’ve caused harm to another through deceit. There’s only one penalty for what you’ve done,” he stoically told her as he drew strength from the planet itself. It was one of his magical qualities he disliked using, because it disrupted the natural flow of his surroundings. But do it he would.

Never resorting to such power on his own behalf, he’d do so willingly to keep Sky safe; from this moment on.

“Rowan…don’t,” Glacia softly begged. She waved a hand toward her underlings, hoping to summon help.

They slowly flew backward, turned, and deserted her by retreating into the woods.

“They know you deserve what’s to come.” He glared at her. “As a prince of the Fairy Realm, and rightful enforcer of the queen’s laws, I pronounce you guilty of using our sacred rules to your own ends, and lying to harm another sentient being,” Rowan furiously growled. He began to draw energy from Glacia and absorb it into his own body. It was his last recourse. Sky needed him, but he dared not leave her until Glacia’s sentence was complete.

Glacia raised her hands over her face. She screamed. It was an unearthly sound that diminished by increments, over minutes. It was like someone was fading away as they cried out in horror. Glacia’s body slowly sank to the ground.

Rowan then knelt beside Rowan. She was coming back to consciousness, then her eyes rolled back in her head as she blacked out once more.

Rowan held Sky tightly against his body until he was sure she was breathing normally. Then, he gently carried her to the cottage, calling for Eartha and Windy as he did. Only when he placed her safely down on her bed, and explained the situation to the two older women, did he release the last of the terrible power he’d absorbed. It was gone from him in an instant.

“Will she be all right?” Eartha asked as she stared at Sky’s slumbering form.

Rowan nodded. “Yes, though I wasn’t sure for a few minutes after the attack was over. All I could think about was holding her. But I dared not take my attention from Glacia until it was safe to do so.”

Windy stepped forward and gazed at his face. “Y-you’re so pale.”

He glanced at the two women standing on the other side of Sky’s bed and sighed. “I had to draw a lot of energy from Glacia, to save Sky. It still wasn’t enough, so I used some of my own.” He paused, then told them the rest. “Taking another being’s energy is a horrifying thing to do, but Glacia would never have left us alone. Sky would have always been in danger. I-I had to sap all of Glacia’s life force.”

The two older women nodded.

He ran a weary hand across his jaw.

“There, there, dear. It’s over,” Windy comforted and patted his shoulder.

“Why don’t you climb into bed, and let us take care of the both of you?” Eartha softly suggested. “I’m sure Sky wouldn’t mind you being with her.”

Having explained most of the situation to Eartha and Windy, he still didn’t know if they really understood what he’d done to Glacia. He opened his mouth to tell them the Pixie was dead, not just banished to some other reality. But Sky took that moment to draw a deep breath and open her eyes.

“Rowan?” she weakly muttered.

“I’m here, my love. Right here,” he said as he leaned over her until his lips were only a fraction away from hers.

“W-what happened?”

“Glacia cheated, just as I thought she might.”

Sky tried to sit up, but Rowan carefully held her down where she could continue resting against the soft pillows. “She won’t be a problem any longer.”

“What does that mean?”

Eartha placed a hand on Windy’s shoulder and motioned toward the door of the room. “Perhaps they’d like to be alone,” she quietly suggested.

“Yes,” Windy readily agreed, then raised her voice a little to address Rowan. “We’ll be down the hallway, if you need anything.”

He was barely aware of their leaving, but glad to have a few moments alone with Sky.

“You’re in Faun form and don’t l-look so well. There are dark circles under your eyes,” Sky said as she gazed up into his face.

“Glacia and I are creatures of the elements. She drew powers from the earth and air to summon energy to use in the fight. I used those same elements to draw energy from her and give it back to you. I held you while you recovered, but I don’t guess you remember,” he explained. “Eventually, most of your life force was restored. At first, I thought you were dead. Even I can’t restore life to the dead. No entity can.”

She smiled. “Obviously, I’m nowhere near dead. I feel fine. Just a little tired.”

He kissed her. After the kiss was done, he kept his lips close to hers. “It’ll take some days, but you’ll recover. I, on the other hand, need to seek rest in the Fairy Realm, and pull energy from those of my kind who will bestow it. There’s no one in your world who can tap enough of the elemental powers to aid me. I’ll continue to weaken otherwise.”

For a very long moment she stared into his eyes. “You’re really going back?”

He nodded. “I have to, but just for a time.”

She raised her hands, and looped them around her neck. “Will you be back later tonight or tomorrow?”

He slowly shook his head. “No, Sky. I don’t know when I’ll be able to return.”

She blinked, then slowly nodded. “I…I understand. What happened to Glacia? After you drained her of her powers, I mean.”

“She’s gone.”

“You mean…she’s dead!”

“I have to go back to my grandmother and explain what happened, though I’m sure she knows it all by now. She can see into this world, just as I have been able to. Still, I must tell our side of the story, in person. So that the Pixies’ word isn’t the only version of what occurred.”

“Rowan…”

“Listen, there’s not much time. Minions of the queen are awaiting me in the woods. I feel them near. I must take Glacia’s remains back to the Fairy Realm and state our case. But I will return, Sky. You promised to have my child, and that’s a bargain I mean to keep.”

“What if your grandmother decides this was all a terrible mistake, and she won’t let you return? Then what?”

Rowan stroked her hair back, kissed each cheek. When he broke that contact, he confirmed his promise. “I’ll come back to you. Look for me to come from the woods at sunset. Go on with your plans to build a business from your home. When I return, all will be well. I promise!”

“When!” she persistently blurted.

“As soon as I can make this right with the queen and the Pixies. Most of them are ashamed of Glacia’s behavior, and wouldn’t help her hurt you. Not after she lied and used her powers. As to any other impediments…I’ll deal with them.”

Sky held onto him, but he eventually pulled away from her embrace with a final farewell.

A deep dread filled him as he turned at her bedroom door and sadly smiled one final time.