22. end of the ice war

The sun shone brightly.

"It'll take a week or two for all the snow to melt," Abitha reckoned, kicking some snow with her foot. "Since these spikes are made of stone, we can morph it right back into the castle it used to be." She motioned to the other earth fae standing near her.

Alastair nodded. "Good, I want Nikolaus' castle to be back to the way it was."

Abitha nodded and stepped closer to the fire fae. "Say, Al. I was just thinking... what if Eira comes back?"

Alastair's jaw clenched. "She will be alone, so we have nothing to be afraid of. No one is powerful when they're alone." She smiled at Abitha who mirrored the grin.

It had been a couple days since the battle. They took some time to recover from the injuries and the losses they took from the battle, and also to celebrate a victory. No one knew if Eira was dead or not. Some earth fae tracked her trail of blood until it mysteriously stopped, but they could not find a body. No one got a close enough look at the damage Erlin did to her leg to reckon if she would have bled out or not, but Alastair almost preferred that she didn't. She wanted Eira to be alone in the woods the way she had been, the way almost everyone had been for months and years after she had invaded the Kingdom.

They returned to the battlefield to see if they could find any more lingering ice fae, and they discovered that Eira's dungeons had not been harmed by the fire and collapse. There were several ice peasants who had been thrown in for thievery or mere disrespect of the throne, but when Caspian arose from the dungeons with two creatures who were definitely not ice, her eyes widened.

For a moment, she swore that she saw Edlen and her mother rising from that dungeon, but she realized her eyes deceived her when she blinked and saw two unfamiliar fae who were definitely not her mother and sister.

One of them was a young girl with long, matted red hair. Her brown eyes squinted in the sun, probably not having been outside in a while. They both wore white cloaks, but the girl's wings were brown.

The other fae Caspian was bringing towards them caught her attention. It was an older man with raven hair and wings pitch black. Even his eyes were black, and Alastair had trouble assessing what kind of fae he might be.

Caspian brought the two over to Alastair. "They were in the very depths of the dungeon," he informed the fire fae.

She looked at the scared young girl first. "What is your name?"

The redhead avoided her intimidating stare. "F-Flannery."

Alastair nodded and looked at her brown wings. "Are you an earth fae, Flannery?"

She shook her head. "Shifter," she whispered almost shamefully.

Alastair's eyes widened in surprised. She turned and looked over to Erlin who was back to his human form, frolicking around with his little earth fae girlfriend. She noticed Catori approaching her. "Catori, we have another shifter on our hands! I really thought Erlin was the last—"

"Who is he?" Catori solemnly questioned, her eyes trained on the man who returned her stare with a smirk. Al looked at the strange fae.

He grinned and spoke in a thick accent, "My name is Mabuz. I am like you." He nodded towards Catori's colorful wings. "Spirit."

Caspian looked at the man in surprise. "Certainly could not tell by looking at you."

Catori's jaw clenched as she gulped. "That's because he is a dark spirit."

"Dark spirit?" Al questioned, to which Catori ignored her and continued shooting a death glare at the dark spirit fae who only smirked at her.

Caspian looked between them awkwardly and shared Al's curious stare. "Well... Flannery, Mabuz, let us get you to camp to get you washed up. Hardly doubt the dungeons offered consistent baths."

Caspian led the two away towards the woods, and Catori watched the dark spirit fae the entire way.

"What do you mean he's a dark spirit?" Al asked Catori who stared at the fae as Caspian led him and the girl towards camp.

"There are normal spirits, like me. I can only conjure benevolent spirits who mean well. But he... he is a dark spirit. There has not been a known dark spirit fae for centuries." She finally turned to look at Al. "He is made to conjure evil."

Al nodded, seeing the seriousness in Catori's eyes. "We will be keeping close watch of all the ice fae, as well as him and the girl. There's no telling what Eira has made them believe over the years, dark spirit or not."

"Keep an extra eye on that one, Alastair." She looked up at the fire fae with fear in her eyes. "I'm serious."

Catori left her side, and Alastair watched the spirit fae walk away with a raised eyebrow. She began walking towards Nyx who was talking to Abitha when she stepped on something hard. Hissing, she retracted her foot and looked down at what it was.

Eira's crown.

Nyx, seeing Alastair coming towards her, waved bye to Abitha and walked towards her. She watched as Al stopped and bent down, picking something up from the snow. She approached her as Al stood back up with what turned out to be Eira's silver crown in her hands.

Al wiped the snow off of it and looked at it for a moment. "I saw the moment that Eira put this crown on." She remembered the day in the dungeons, and the spot at the back of her wing ached. "It was your father's." She looked up to Nyx and her golden brown eyes before slowly holding the crown out to her. "It's yours," she whispered.

Nyx looked between her and the crown. "What? No."

Al sighed in annoyance, expecting the girl's refusal. "You knew this from the very beginning. We told you that you are the heiress to the throne, whether you were human or fae. Well, now we know that you do have fae in you, which means you deserve it even more."

"I healed someone one time," Nyx argued. "And it was an accident. What if I never do it again?"

"You will do it again, I know you will. Fae aren't born with the ability to control their powers. They have to be trained to access them, harness them, and use them. Once you are trained—"

"Alastair," Nyx cut her off, reaching forward and placing her hands on her face. "I understand that you want to restore what once was, but I am not the person to do that. It doesn't matter that I turned out to have it in my blood. It doesn't matter that I am Nikolaus' daughter."

Al stared down at her, her eyebrows creasing.

"There is only one person I know who could actually be a true leader—and it's you."

"No."

"Al—"

"No! I don't want to be responsible anymore. I can't have any more death on my hands." The fae's eyes fell to the ground.

Nyx looked at the fae sadly. "Alastair, certainly you don't blame yourself for all that's happened. This has all been Eira's doing, not yours. I wasn't even around for it, but I know you well enough to know that you tried your best to prevent something that was out of your control. Lives lost are at the hands of Eira, not you." She pushed the crown back to the fae. "A leader is not responsible for life or death. They are responsible for guiding a people to the greater good, which is what you have always done."

Alastair pursed her lips and stared at the crown, Nyx's words mulling over in her head. She thought about Nikolaus, how he always said that if it weren't for tradition, he would have given Alastair the crown instead. He had always remarked on her ability to lead, on her ways of making up for the strength he always felt he lacked.

"I have made him proud," Nyx whispered. "Now it's your turn." She placed her hands on the crown and lifted it up, placing it slowly on the top of Alastair's brown and red-tinted hair. As soon as the crown touched her head, the silver morphed into a reddish copper, all the diamonds and sapphires burning in their place and turning into rubies and garnets. Nyx removed her hands when she felt the heat of the stones burning, and she watched as the enchanted crown morphed to match the powers of its wearer.

Alastair looked at Nyx who looked at her in awe for a few moments before she pulled the crown off of her head, to which Nyx rolled her eyes.

"You ruined the moment," the girl huffed.

"I'll be your damn Queen, but I'm not wearing this tacky thing all the time," the fae snapped, swinging the crown around on her finger as if it were nothing.

Nyx just laughed and embraced her fire fae. "I didn't expect you to. Besides, you were always my Queen with or without the crown."

The fire fae smiled, her red lips parting to show her pearly teeth. She leaned down and kissed the girl, twirling her around in her arms.

Spring was coming for the first time in a while. The ice was going to melt, and the fae could finally reconstruct their lives as they once were.

But it would never be exactly the same. They would always feel that trauma in their bones, and winters would always bring fits of horrific memories.

It would take a while for the ice fae to comfortably integrate, and some of them would never be comfortable with it.

Nonetheless, Alastair was the Fire Queen now, and she would rebuild Nikolaus' Kingdom as it once were.

And this time, she would have her Healer Princess beside her.