"Have we met before?"

She paused. "Matax told you?"

That bastard. But my hesitation was a failing because she struggled with something to say.

"Do you know me?" I demanded.

When her eyes met mine, they were sincere and true. "No. I do not."

A part of me caved in and crumbled inside my chest.

"Not the way—"

"Very well." I ignored the rest of her useless words and stood to my feet. "But apparently, I know you. I—"

A hand caught mine. It was cold to the touch. She looked up at me, earnest and weak. "But I want to. The fairy queen and king—"

"Are enemies," I reminded her.

What she said next stole my very breath.

"We don't have to be."

It was the way she said it. Such certainty, such tangible longing. I nearly forgot myself.

One thought brought me back to my senses. "You're a married woman."

She gasped.

The way she cast her eyes downward took me by surprise.

"I hadn't thought fairies cared much about that. You least of all."

I did not appreciate her tone. "Explain yourself," I demanded.

But instead of paying me proper respects, she looked up and around at our meager lodgings. The fur coat above caught her eye and she considered how to retrieve it.

"I'm talking to you," I reminded her.

Still looking up, she propped her hands on her hips and muttered, "Yes, I suppose you were."

Her first jump was pitiful. How could she call herself a fairy much less the queen of all Fae?

Pity it wasn't a title she could earn rather than one gifted to her. As she gripped the snow and began to climb, I watched her, defeated.

She was born human, she'd said, but the fact that she was the fairy queen was no prize. It sounded grand. And yes, we wielded immense power. But it wasn't for our own doing. It was in servitude of Manoj.

Human royalty served their people in name only. Creatures of magic given a title did so as a marker of our power. Few foolish humans knew that it also indicated a prisoner.

I was bound to Manoj, to serve him for ever more. At the time of our covenant, I feared death and I feared life and ran from all in between. This servitude was mutually beneficial.

But the fairy queen was something else. She was Manoj's creation and so she had no freedom. Ever.

So how did a human not only become fairy queen but one that was such unskilled?

Someone sold her—gave her as payment. And that meant one thing.

"You're cursed," I whispered.

A small yelp proceeded a thud as she fell from her climb. Seconds later, the fur coat landed above her.

This was certainly going to be a long night.

Rather than fight her way free, she sat in the coat in quiet contemplation. The way she periodically looked high above at the night sky answered as to why.

In sport, I glanced up, and said, "Perhaps the night Fae will find us and snatch you away before the light of day."

She did not like that idea and chose to ignore it. "Are we safe for the time being?"

I shook off her foolish words and grumbled, "We were safer before and after and forever more. And certainly, none are safer than with a fairy army at our disposal. Now they want our heads thanks to me."

If only I hadn't slighted them or hadn't left that blasted throne room.

If we were to stay here tonight, we needed more snow. Night Fae did not get their name by chance. As they excelled in the dark, daylight would do us better.

So I jumped up and around. My plan was to will the snow to spread out further from us while coming overhead. The efforts yielded...nothing. That was why I chose to do everything by hand. Once I was satisfied and turned to look at her, I found her watching me. There was a sadness in her gaze, though I could not say why. Perhaps in our brief encounter in the time of my rebirth, I'd slighted her. That was a possibility.

Like before, my thoughts landed on the broken shield. It was so large and cumbersome that it took up most of this space. And yet, I could not convince myself to abandon it. It was unheard of and strange but part of my anger here and now stemmed from this feeling of longing for that shield—the fear that I might lose it.

And I did not know why.

Calling the new fairy queen by such a title would disrespect all Fae so I settled on the one word that described her without question. Princess.

She wasn't authoritative and wise like a queen. Nor was she resourceful. In all that she did, she was dainty as she was naïve. Digging in the right area afforded me my reward. A glow stone. To any mortal, it looked like a mere pebble. But to the Fae, it could hold the light of the sun. There was no sense in alerting anyone to our presence, so I picked it up with both hands and brought it deeper into the snow enclave. It glowed white, filling our world with a gentle hue.

That was done. But at my back, the princess was busy. I turned to witness her miserable undertaking as she dragged the last of her fur coat into the center of our new structure, pulling it this way and that. Despite a fairy's small size, they wielded immense strength. She did not know how to tap into that. Perhaps I should have told her but instead, I allowed her to continue in her efforts.

She was making a house of sorts, determined to stave off the biting cold. It would not work—it did not work. After the structure's third collapse, she finally threw the fur down and wrapped it around herself.

A nicer kidnapper would have explained to her that a Fae's body aligned with nature, not immediate factors. As the land warmed in summer, so did our bodies. And as it cooled in winter, we, too, followed suit, and so on.

Much like nature which sustained us, we needed to use things of nature to regulate our comforts. Meaning...that without her wings to keep her warm, although she would not perish, she would suffer.

That became apparent as she awoke and dragged on yet another layer of her human clothes atop her. By the third, she gave in and sought out slumber.

It would no doubt be a long way off.

From below the fur, the gold of her skin dulled until it was near purple. She was cold.

I went against my better judgement and approached her sleeping form. The reason for my distance was simple—temptations. I did not want to fall back into old, pathetic habits. Once upon a time, I'd tried all manner of trickery to gain the fairy queen's approval. We were two beings in contrast but my admiration for her drove me to try again and again until I could do no more.

The princess's restless sleep came with a plea, "Wyrn...."

Moving rather slowly, I pulled the fur back, revealing her wings. As she slept on her stomach, that was easy enough. Activating her wings would not be difficult. The moment I touched her skin, however, she sat up and stared at me.

Our eyes met.

What did she see there? Because she appeared possessed.

"I will awaken your wings." I waited and when she gave no opposition, I leaned to the right and reached around her.

"Do not go behind me," she begged.

Though she did not look it, she was smart.

"I'm not going to rip out your wings," I insisted.

She gave no answer.

Doubtful she'd appreciate the alternative, I waited. As stubborn as ever; she did not move.

So, I extended both hands and reached behind her. No, I did not mind feeling her bare bosom pressed against me. I certainly did not mind how her breath caught when I stroked the base of her wings. Any stimuli would do, and I could have stroked downward which would only affect her powers.

Instead, I stroked up, an action that sent her entire body into vivid response. Her chest heaved and she sucked in a deep breath.

On a regular fairy, this would bring about a need. A fairy queen such as this would be immune for the blind lust of it. Still, my body's response to her response sent my own wings tingling.

She smelled of flowers. How, this late into winter, I did not know. The warmth of her breath brushing against my face and ear as I continued with my efforts made me curse myself. Instead of this bringing about her torture, it brought my own.

Both hands on her back, I pushed her wings upward again. She let out a sound. It took everything in me not to try and answer this need.

On the third long stroke, her wings ignited and glowed bright yellow.

Finally. Because my body burned from the exertion and while she was no doubt unaffected, everything in me stood at attention. From the hairs on the back of my neck, to my very groin which ached for her.

"There," I said, clearing my throat. "Keep lying on your stomach and they won't dull."

Her big eyes stared into me. I didn't need to, but I stroked her bare waist then upward. She caught my hand. I froze.

The way her gaze bore into me made me shiver.

"What?" I asked her.

And there it was, that hesitation again. "You're a good person. Despite what everyone says. I think I misjudged you."

Everyone. "Despite what your husband's said?"

Her eyes drifted to my chest to give her something else to direct her focus. "Not just him. But everyone." Knees pulled to her chest, she allowed her wings to slowly slide against one another.

I did not like how they were dulling. I also did not like her attempts at deception.

"You're not at all as I'd expected," she said, "but rather thoughtful."

A laugh died in the back of my throat. Though I did not move away, I decided to match her posture. "And why do you say that?"

The princess took her time in answering. "Well, you're very quiet. As a princess, I'd heard stories of what might happen to us if we were ever abducted." Our snow encased prison took up her attention and she shrugged. "If not for the immediate danger of being killed by night Fae as we slept, this has been rather pleasant."

It was the way she said it, as if this was some lark.

"And you don't say much," she was quick to add, "but you never speak to me with disrespect. And just now, when I needed help with my wings. You were rather forthcoming."

I left her to suffer for hours before telling her how to warm. And as for my speaking.

"Everything's been said between us, my queen. It's been two thousand years."

A look of woe robbed all signs of cheer. "Please. I don't want to be your enemy—"

"But we are enemies."

"Must that be automatic?" she challenged.

Yes. It had to be. Because till now, it had always been.

"Then why did you align yourself with a powerful being?" I challenged. "You knew of my rebirth; yet did not wait for me."

It was the first time she looked bold. "I did not know about you. I did not even know about me. I knew nothing. I was born human." She sighed under her breath, grumbling, "And I didn't marry to attack you. I—I had no say in the matter."

This was new.

Warmth filled me, but I could not say why. She told me of her past, and how she'd grown to adulthood never knowing her function. And then of the curse put upon her to force her transformation. But it what she said next that truly shocked me.

I had to repeat it of my own volition. "You did not agree to this marriage?"

She didn't meet eyes with me when she shook her head. "No. Nothing about my life was ever in my hands. Not my upbringing, not my marriage, and certainly not my transformation." After letting out a deep breath, she hugged her knees to her tighter. "And not being kidnapped."

So it was true. She was of Manoj's creation. But he'd done it differently. He'd created a fairy...able to masquerade as human at birth. Why? To what end?

No one could understand my obsession with seeking the fairy queens out—to be fair, sometimes I couldn't either. I just always had. After the first one died, everything after that came in a blur.

"Have we—have we always been enemies?" she asked me. "Every single incarnation of us?"

We had, so I nodded.

"Why?"

Such a simple word. And yet...I could not answer it simply.

I needed a moment to be honest with myself. "We hurt one another, I suppose."

"Always?" This was the first time she pulled away from me. "Is it because you enjoy the fight as everyone's said?"

I scoffed. "No."

"Then why?"

The way she spoke in challenges got me thinking.

If not for the soft touch on the back of my hand, I might have sat there in deep contemplation forever more.

"You're cold," she affirmed. "Do you need me to activate your wings as well? I think I remember what you'd done."

Now it was I shifting to avoid having her at my back. I regretted that action for she realized my hesitation.

"I suppose you don't trust me," she muttered. Once her previous posture was set, she asked, "Might I ask you why? Why we are enemies? Has there never been a shift?"

Why we were enemies? "Because of you." I hadn't meant to say it aloud but once the words met the frigid night air, they lingered between us.

I did not remember anything past this rebirth, but I remembered everything before it.

After I disposed of the second fairy king, the first fairy queen...went into a madness. By then, I'd hated her so thoroughly that I reveled in all the foes she gathered to fight me.

"You are unworthy!" she'd screamed at me.

I? I took it in stride, laughing off the insult. "Untrue. I am worthy now. As worthy as ever. Stand down or find out the hard way how well you've trained this killer."

She did everything to end me. Aligned herself with kings—creatures of magic, even the dark arts.

Something was happening to her in that rage. While my powers fed from it, becoming stronger with each attempt she made on my life, hers waned. We needed no reminder that she was created from a tree, because her hate for me intensified so bitterly that like a plant, her body began to shrink, it started to lose shape.

When I defeated her final army, cultivating hundreds of souls to sustain Manoj, I'd changed, too.

She literally took root in the dirt on the hill where she'd found her slain lover years ago, her toes now vines, and she began to wilt.

And as she cried there, ironically, I came back to myself, too. On her final day of life, I flew down to her and held her hand.

Much like this new fairy queen sometimes cried out for her husband in deep sleep, that queen—her eyes closed—called for the fallen soldier.

I found that ironic because he was no gentle being. But neither was she. And in the end, neither was I.

But where she found her first taste of grief, I found mine as well. Her fingers were like smooth paper in my grip by the time she mustered up the strength to open her eyes.

The hate there. The utter palpable hate there faded with the blowing of the wind, with one word on her lips, "Suffer...."

And then she was gone. A little stalk hung limp in her place. She was returned to Manoj.

No one would know that I cried for her. I also vowed to change. To stop being this killer. But while I grieved, deep within me, Manoj raged and celebrated. He was the happiest I'd ever felt him.

And so he revived her. It was fifty years before the new queen was reborn, a seed falling out of the tree of life. Within days she was fully grown. She was vibrant and cheerful...until she set eyes on me.

The hate there—the bitter battles after that was one for the ages.

So destructive was our fights that it started to poison the land. I did not kill the second fairy queen or cause her demise. One day she was simply gone. I assumed Manoj called her back.

Unlike the second fairy queen, others to follow came with no memories of me. And yet...nothing. We could find no peace with one another. I'd try to get close, and on some occasions, I had bed one or two, but in the end, they all attempted to behead me.

"That's because of the first queen," the princess said, shocking me into silence. "She poisoned the soil so that any fairy queen born from it would eventually grow to despise you. It's a curse, but it starts with a betrayal. And after that, we never recover."

I picked my head up and stared at her. "How do you know this?"

After drawing in a deep breath, she confessed, "I did not know I was the fairy queen, or you the fairy king, but after I did, I wanted to understand it. So—so I went to the magistrate that documents the rules of all magic. And he found that curse. It was put there by the fairy queen, so it is time immemorial. Any fairy queen married will betray that bond for a strong lover. Refusing to return to her husband's side."

The shock from her words rendered me voiceless. I could only open my mouth again and again.

When no words came from me, she said, "This is the first time a queen's been married before meeting the fairy king."