A blinding light swallowed the town whole.
Everything—people, buildings, even the distant hum of life—vanished in an instant. The restless crowd fell silent, their voices cut off mid-breath as they turned skyward in awe. And then—nothing.
Not destruction. Not distortion.
Just... absence.
The town didn't feel abandoned. It felt as if it had never existed at all.
Only four of us remained: me, Scarlette, and the two Love Fairies—Eris and Lucien—trapped in the unnatural stillness.
The brilliance of the light seared into my vision, an unbearable agony drilling into my skull. My dark magic recoiled violently, writhing against the overwhelming radiance as if it were trying to escape my body entirely. I gasped, my breath catching, my limbs locking under the crushing weight of an unseen force.
Then—Scarlette's hand found mine. A grounding touch amid the chaos.
"Charlotte?" My voice came out strangled, barely a whisper against the suffocating light. Pain twisted through me, sharp and relentless, making it nearly impossible to focus.
No immediate answer—just her steady grip. Then, in a voice too composed for the situation, she murmured, "It's me. Relax."
And that was when I felt it. A warm mist forming behind me, dulling the light's oppressive grip. Her magic. No question.
A voice rang out, detached and cold. "What's with him?"
Scarlette—Charlotte—responded instantly, too smoothly. "My boyfriend is blind,"
Boyfriend? Blind?
She'd used that excuse before, but something about the way she said it this time made me pause. I knew it was just a cover. A necessary lie. But why did hearing it send an unfamiliar warmth through me? A strange sort of comfort, like a part of me wanted it to be true.
No. Not me. Ravos liked it. The part of me that had to wear this disguise, to play the part of a Love Fairy.
I stiffened slightly, barely suppressing my reaction. Right—we were pretending to be a mixed fairy couple. But there was something unsettling about how effortlessly she had said it.
Had I influenced her? Or... was she serious?
I squeezed her hand, testing her reaction.
"Charlotte," I started, but before I could say more, a voice cut through the suffocating light.
"What do you want, and why are you in my kingdom?"
It wasn't just powerful—it was absolute.
The weight of it reverberated through my bones, locking me in place despite the torment gnawing at my senses. Scarlette's grip on my arm tightened—just slightly, a silent warning, or perhaps a reassurance.
Then, in a mockingly sweet tone, she leaned in, her breath brushing my ear. "Ravos, dear, the Light Fairy King, King Luxeron, is asking you a question."
I swallowed hard, forcing my breath to steady. The pain was relentless, seeping into my very core. Was this why so few Dark Fairies had ever stood before him? Because his mere presence was suffocating—like inhaling sulfur, like drowning in radiance too pure for creatures like me?
And I had to answer. Carefully.
"We are a mixed fairy couple seeking refuge in a land where we would not be rejected, Your Majesty," I said, my voice steady despite the crushing weight against my chest.
The light pulsed again—heavier this time, searing through the air like judgment itself. It was more than mere illumination. It was scrutiny. It was dissection. Measuring the truth in my words, waiting for the crack in my resolve.
I couldn't see King Luxeron directly, but I felt him.
Looming. Omnipresent. An unseen force pressing down on us, a presence that demanded reverence through sheer existence alone.
Then, his voice cut through the silence, sharp and cold.
"And why would you cause a disturbance in my town's marketplace?"
Each syllable dripped with authority, with the unshakable confidence of someone who knew he could end us with a flick of his wrist.
I forced my breath to remain even. One wrong word. One misstep.
And everything we had built could unravel.
"Fellow Love Fairies have been casting spells on the townsfolk, Your Majesty," I said carefully, measuring each syllable. The words tasted heavy, laced with unease.
Beside me, the two other Love Fairies, Eris and Lucien, trembled. I didn't need to look at them to sense their fear. The arrogance they once carried had crumbled, stripped away by the king's suffocating presence.
A long, unbearable silence stretched between us.
Then—finally—
"Very well." A beat. "And your name?"
I hesitated only briefly before replying. "Ravos, Your Majesty."
The king's unseen gaze lingered, weighing, dissecting. Then, he shifted.
"And yours?"
"Charlotte," Scarlette answered smoothly, her voice unreadable, effortless.
I saw the flicker of confusion in Eris and Lucien's eyes. They weren't expecting those names. I shot them a warning glare. Maybe Scarlette did too. I couldn't really see.
They looked away.
They better not blow our cover.
King Luxeron's presence seemed to deepen, stretching toward us like an unseen tide. "Ravos and Charlotte—are these the other two Love Fairies causing trouble in my kingdom?"
Scarlette nodded without hesitation.
"Yes, Your Majesty," I confirmed.
The Light Fairy King turned, his shadow stretching over Eris and Lucien, who remained bowed, trembling. His voice, thick with authority, thundered through the empty void.
"Love Fairies, what do you say about these accusations?"
Eris flinched. "It… It was for a good reason, Your Majesty," she stammered.
Lucien lifted his head slightly, his voice thick with desperation. "We only sought to ensure the survival of Light Fairies, Your Majesty. Without our magic, they would vanish."
A bold claim. A dangerous one.
Would the king believe them? Or had they just sealed their fate?
"You must know—lying to the king is a punishable offense."
His voice carried no anger, no impatience. Only a quiet, undeniable certainty.
The room seemed to hold its breath.
A hum of consideration followed, stretching into another agonizing pause. Then, with the casual cruelty of a ruler who expected nothing but obedience, he declared—
"You will all remain here until a desirable outcome is reached. If you wish to make a request, you must offer payment. What will you sacrifice?"
The weight of his words settled over us like a death sentence.
I heard him step closer—slow, deliberate. Though my vision remained clouded by the suffocating light, I felt his attention shift.
It landed on the object in my grasp.
"I see you carry an emerald," King Luxeron mused, voice lighter now, almost amused. "A fitting prize for a request."
Beside me, Scarlette tensed.
She was still holding my hand—I could feel the change. The faint shift in her breathing. The way her fingers tightened ever so slightly.
She didn't like where this was going.
Neither did I.
The Light Fairy King smiled, thin and knowing. His tone, though playful, was edged with absolute finality.
"Did you know... I can make your dreams come true? Or erase you from existence entirely? Of course, everything is negotiable… if you simply hand it over."
A chill curled in my gut.
He wasn't asking. He was demanding.
"Your Majesty!"
Eris and Lucien's voices rang out from the other side of the chamber, urgent.
"Is this scroll important to you?"
The king turned toward them, his blinding aura shifting with him.
And then—I saw it.
The ancient scroll.
Just meters away. So close. Yet impossibly far.
I signaled Scarlette. When her gaze landed on it, I saw the exact moment realization struck.
Her face fell.
If the Light Fairy King had both the ancient scroll and the Baltimorean Emerald, he would just need the Light Guardian to activate it.
The best part? This so-called noble King Luxeron turned out to be nothing more than a corrupt charlatan, seeking bribes instead of truth. Nothing good could come from this.
And yet, no matter how deceitful he was, I could never hope to fight him. A royal fairy's power was beyond question—untouchable.
"That settles it," the king declared, almost cheerful, as he plucked the scroll from its resting place.
With a flick of his wrist, he uttered, "Forget everything and return to the town."
Before I could react, Eris and Lucien vanished—gone in an instant, as if they had never been here at all.
The king turned to us, stepping forward, his presence suffocating.
I couldn't meet his gaze directly, but the scroll in his hands was clear now, clutched with an air of casual possession. Was he really going to alter reality once he had everything in his grasp?
He never intended to stop the chaos.
He was far more interested in what he could take from it—erasing not the horrors, but the inconveniences.
"Now, the emerald?" he prompted, a glint of expectation in his eyes. He inched closer, his glow pressing against me like a physical force.
"If you wish to leave, of course. Like the other two."
His voice darkened, the cheerful pretense slipping away.
"Or… I can make you disappear just as easily."
"No."
Scarlette's voice was like steel snapping shut.
The king's glow flared, his aura sharpening like the edge of a blade. "What do you mean, no?" His voice was eerily calm, but the threat beneath it coiled like a storm ready to strike. "You dare refuse the Light Fairy King?"
I stepped between them before the tension could snap. "Your Majesty, the emerald—it's just a trinket, a forgotten stone. Surely, we can negotiate something else—"
But Scarlette wasn't listening.
"Hypocrites in ivory towers," she muttered under her breath. Then, louder, "I've killed one king before. I can do the same to another. Easily."
My stomach plummeted.
What did she mean by that? She took on a royal?
The Love Fairy King—was dead? King Baltimore? That was her doing?
Was that why the Love Fairy armies were hunting her?
Scarlette, no.
The king's gaze sharpened, curiosity flickering beneath his simmering anger.
"Dark Fairy," he said slowly, his voice laced with intrigue. "You do not seem affected by my light."
But Scarlette was no Dark Fairy. It had been me, all along.
Then his eyes shifted—to me.
A cold weight settled in my chest.
"Your boyfriend, on the other hand…"
Before I could react, the world erupted in searing white.
Pain.
Pure light energy tore through me, merciless and unforgiving. Not like a wound—this was deeper, rawer. My magic convulsed, twisting and writhing, trying to resist. But the light was too strong. It burned through every fiber of my being, unraveling me from the inside out.
I gasped, choking on nothing, on everything.
"Just as I thought, you are Veravos," King Luxeron mused, satisfaction thick in his voice. "Of course, you are the Dark Fairy."
I couldn't breathe. His light was erasing me.
I should have trusted my instincts. Never should I have set foot on this land. If I had known this would be my fate, I wouldn't have been so arrogant, hiding behind the mask of Ravos, thinking it could shield me. King Luxeron sensed my dark presence, and now, I was being eradicated. So this is it, then? Darkness fading into light, a tale as old as time.
Then—a roar.
Not mine.
Scarlette.
A violent force slammed into me, knocking me back—but before I could collapse, arms caught me.
Her arms.
The agony didn't stop, but it dulled. Scarlette's magic curled around me, dark and unyielding, pushing back against the king's assault.
"Enough!" she snarled.
The blinding light wavered. The crushing heat withdrew, just enough for me to suck in a ragged breath.
Scarlette's grip on me was ironclad, unrelenting.
Her fury burned through the chamber like a storm ready to break.
And for the first time…
King Luxeron hesitated.
I was still trembling, vision scorched white, pain pulsing in waves—but I could breathe.
Scarlette's fingers clenched around my wrist, her fury a living, breathing thing.
"You dare attack him?"
Her voice was lethal, each word dripping with barely restrained rage. "I will burn your kingdom to the ground."
Her power surged, responding to her wrath. Terrifying. And yet—terrifyingly beautiful.
Red mist coiled from the ground, writhing like living tendrils. My own dark magic, bleeding from my wounds, seeped into hers, merging—twisting into something raw, something unstoppable.
King Luxeron's glow faltered.
Through my half-blurred vision, I saw what happened next.
He was writhing. Choking.
Scarlette forced a crimson orb into his throat, the red and black mist surging in, devouring the light. The radiance around him flickered, twisting in protest, but her magic dug deeper, suffocating the brilliance—dimming it.
"I will not be your puppet. You will not hurt my Dark Fairy!" she roared.
My heart clenched.
"Scarlette... no..." My voice was weak, barely a breath.
Did she really say my Dark Fairy?
The red mists swallowed me before I could find out.