Matax flew forward but countered that action yet again. "Doing that brings back his curse on those women, Magus."

"Yes," said the fairy, Magus, smirking, "I know. But then we'll hand him over to the humans to let them do as they please with him."

Fanli waited, certain Matax would point out the hypocrisy. If the curse was why he was punished, then why bring it back? And if the dragons were the ones slighted, why turn Pest over to the humans? In that moment, Fanli understood.

That was the point.

Fairies didn't truly care what happened to humans or dragons, or each other for that matter. What Pest did to those women was humorous to them. And punishable, making it funny yet again. Much like the cantankerous bastards they were, they'd be no sport in solutions.

Matax no longer spoke with verbose. He didn't even look up from the ground.

"But he's no longer a fairy. Everything is resolved."

That, too—their suffering, was a form of sport.

Fanli looked from her parents to the fairies and saw some truths. Ogres weren't fair, or dainty, or pretty. But at least they had compassion. Even now, when she scanned the tree line, she could see some faces still remaining. Perhaps some remained for gossip's sake but not all.

For the first time in her life, Fanli could say with certainty she was proud to be an ogre. She was proud of her size, her looks, and her people's customs of helping one another. They didn't hunt in packs to be fearsome, they did so to make sure fellow ogres would sustain less injury.

They sat down with each other and lamented. They certainly didn't seek out the suffering of others.

"You need not kill him at this moment," Magus said, "but you will return him to his previous state. As you are responsible for his existing."

Matax didn't move. Fanli struggled to understand his response. She was even more stunned when Pest's mother flew past her husband, fluttered before her son and waved her hand.

Pest let out a cry. The first cracking of his skin happened in his forehead. Pest's mother's hand remained raised. When she chopped the air downward, the crack split Pest right down the middle. His ogre form broke in two, became brittle, then crumbled and blew away in the night air.

He was restored.

Pest extended his hands, awed. Then just as quickly, he let out a laugh and focused on his mother. His laughter grew when his body extended, his muscles rippled, and his skin turned green once more.

When he crumbled to his hands and knees, he was an ogre once again.

"What. In. The...?" Matax extended his hand before his wife and ushered her back.

Pest grinned, smug. The fairies were all horrified. Even Fanli fought back her disgust.

The only ones unimpressed were Fanli's parents.

"It's not so simple as that," Mother explained. "Ogre treasure is immune to other magic."

Fanli prayed they'd all shut up and say nothing more, but her father had no solidarity to give.

"But it can be reversed...if you know the original wish. Which we happen to know and will give. For a price. Safety. Let us all walk away from this with our heads on our bodies."

Matax sighed. "Fools."

He said it to himself, but the fairies at his back began to grin. Magus informed Fanli's parents. "Yeah. That's not how this works. We don't make deals with ogres."

A glance at Pest's mother had her lowering her gaze. A flick of her wrist stole the world from Fanli.

Everything went black, went cold, then still. An instant later, all sensations returned. But she no longer felt the ground. Beyond that, now instead of looking at the fairies, she floated by Pest's mother's side, looking at Pest and her parents, utterly helpless.

Father's lips parted. Mother tried to step forward but changed her mind.

Panic came from the tree and bushes but throughout it all, only Pest remained calm. Even Lowgli ran from his hiding place, shouting in an effort to draw their focus. No one fell for it.

"See now," Magus said, "he's guilty so she's guilty and we need not bargain with you, ogre. Give us the wish and the secret of how to counteract it." He extended his hand and something sharp pierced Fanli's throat. She didn't dare try to find out what.

Mother gave in quickly. "He said he wished to be an ogre."

"Specifically, he wished to be strong enough to protect her," Father added.

Fanli's face warmed as she focused on Pest. It was better than acknowledging how she was held up in the air as if something pulled her by the waist.

Pest's mother let out a gasp, but the other fairy didn't seem convinced.

"To protect an ogre? An ogre needs no protection." Magus nodded at Pest's mother and she waved her hand at her son without hesitation. Nothing happened. "Do it again."

She complied.

Two more attempts had the night Fae growling. Even he tried but failed. "Then it is the wrong wish!"

Lowgli reached them, huffing and puffing as he offered, "Ogre treasure used to harm an ogre will turn the wielder into an ogre as well. Perhaps he wished her dead."

Fanli felt relieved when they went through all the possible intentional malicious wishes with little success. The fairies' mounting rage, however, was of concern.

After that, it was the indirect wishes, for riches, success, glory, fame, even women—a fact that Pest picked his head up to.

Once all options were exhausted, Magus demanded, "Human child, confess and spare your wench!"

But Pest had nothing to offer in that vein. Instead, he said, "I love her, and if you hurt her, that is a direct injury to me. I may not look like a Fae, but I will use my dying breath to make certain I kill you for it one day."

For a long minute, Magus said nothing. Then he announced, "Then you can both die together."

In the huffing and posturing, one fairy bobbed forward and came to a stop on Pest's shoulder.

"Matax!" Pest's mother nearly fell out of the air. "What are you doing?"

"Seventeen years. Seventeen, nearly eighteen, wasted on this human child only for him to find his death in such a stupid way? No." Matax glanced at his son's face then told the fairies at large, "I cannot defend a fairy son, but I can defend an ogre one. And anyone who says otherwise, it's a bare-faced liar."

Magus's silver eyes darted from Matax to Pest then back again, unamused. "Very well," he said, casting up both hands. "Then die together!"

Fanli shot into the sky. Something grabbed her arm, yanking her down. Her feet touched solid ground yet again. An ardent body slammed into hers and she buried her face against it, eyes shut tight.

"Let her go."

The guttural voice was unmistakable and Fanli risked opening her eyes. Ved greeted her with a half-smile. "Told you I'd save you."

"Let her go!" Pest repeated.

Fanli wasn't sure where Ved came from but, now with feet firmly on the ground, she turned to see the rest of the hunchback, Wyrn, march from the woods.

Wyrn came to a stop between the standoff. He looked up at the fairy then at Fanli's parents and Pest.

It took him some time to blink.

Pest blinked back.

"This will never end well," Wyrn muttered.

"Jaffo!" Matax appeared out of nowhere, landing naked as he hurried to shout, "They're trying to murder them without just cause. Use your authority. Stop all this."

Wyrn looked Pest over, annoyed. "He's no longer a fairy. The matter is at an end." He could not see the fairies as he scanned the air. "That is The Living Goddess's ruling. That is law."

Fanli closed her eyes and let out a sigh. She made the mistake of allowing her head to rest on the firm chest pressed against her. Pest's growl reminded her of her situation. She tried to step back but Ved still held her.

"Look what it's come to. Reconsider. I wasn't just intimate with you for nothing. My intentions are pure." Ved's eyes held sincerity.

But Fanli looked away.

"Let her go," Pest commanded, teeth gritted. "Now."

Ved ignored him. His gaze squarely on Fanli, he said, "Then what was all that? Sharing—"

"Sharing?" Pest's once clenched fists fell away. He could barely find the strength to point at Ved. "You—wait, you and he? You two really...?"

Fanli scrambled for an answer. She lost her chance when someone let out a scream, "Wait!"

A force yanked Matax back and he vanished. The hunchback scanned the night's sky for him. Fanli did as well.

"There," a voice whispered, "with his wife."

Sure enough, Fanli focused on Jeze, the yellow Fae holding a night Fae captive. There was less concern about her blank expression and more so about the string she now held around Matax's throat.

Something occurred to Fanli and she focused on Ved, awed. He could see fairies. No human could do that, not even Pest who was in essence a fairy himself. But...Ved could.

He wasn't human. And when their eyes met, he knew that she knew.

"Please don't tell anyone," he begged.

The genuine and raw need of his voice resonated. But a bigger problem presented itself.

"I cannot see them or hear them," the hunchback called. "Explain to me what has happened!"

Fanli thought to open her mouth and do just that but Pest, who now could, stared at his parents with a blank expression on his face.

"Mother has him."

Wyrn turned his head toward Pest slowly. "Then she's going to attack you. Fall behind me."

Pest didn't move.

The hunchback called to Fanli's family, "Everyone get behind me."

Matax still struggled with the thing tightening around his throat.

"What's happening to him?" Fanli asked. "That string's choking him."

Right hand raised, the hunchback soothed, "He cannot die in fairy form easily. And like ogres, the Fae like to toy with their prey. Whatever it is, he has time. And we can negotiate."

"There's no negotiation," Matax said, struggling fully. "There's no negotiation! You horses' asses! I'm not killing him. Seventeen years for nothing? I'm not killing him. And it's my spawn, and I'm the one to decide. I won't kill him. And it is my right. His mother brought him into life; I have the fairies right of the exit and I won't—!"

His sudden intake of air came with a cry. The rope tightened.

"Tell me what is happening!" the hunchback demanded.

Pest opened his mouth, but it closed again without anything coming from it.

Fairies upon fairies popped out of nowhere. The numbers doubled.

'There are certain laws to fulfil," Magus bellowed. "And the first law of the Fae...? You all know it!"

The fairies in attendance nodded in agreement.

"Fan," the hunchback called.

Fanli understood. "They've got Pest's father by the throat."

"Who has?"

Ved's strong arms tightened around Fanli and she felt safe enough to answer. A glance at Pest made the admission difficult but she had to. "His...his wife. Pest's mother."

Wyrn scoffed, "Why? He's no longer a fairy, which The Living Goddess already foresaw. And I will solve the matter with the dragon, so why would they capture him?"

"The matter with the dragon?" Magus asked. "That is not nearly resolved, Jaffo. Look to the skies, you fool!"

But as he couldn't hear, Fanli looked up. Wyrn followed suit. It was true, a second dragon of yellow joined the first red one and they began circling the village.

Everyone was alarmed. Everyone but the hunchback who asked Fanli, "Why have they captured him? Have they said? This is important if I'm to rescue him."

"Rescue?" Pest trembled. Out of everyone, even those who had observed the dragons, Pest hadn't looked away from his parents. His voice broke when he said, "He's not going to die. What rescue?"

Instead of answering, Wyrn met eyes with Fanli and she confessed, "They say he's broken some law. Some...the first law of the Fae."

Wyrn's lips parted as he stood to his full height. "No rescue."

"Right," Pest muttered, not at all convinced, "he doesn't need rescue."

"No." Wyrn shook his head. "No. That's the first law of the fairies. And he's violated it." There was admiration in his voice when he told Pest, "And he's done it to save you."

His words took air from Pest's lungs to the point that he could barely whisper, "At what cost?"

The dragon's cries tore through the night. Magus wore a pleased smile when he said to Pest's mother, "Jeze...."

"I am a fairy of gold now," she argued, though her grip on the rope never loosened. "This is a red's job."

The night Fae's smile grew. "Your bedfellow, your offspring, your responsibility."

Jeze still stared forward but for a split second, she focused on Wyrn. It was simply a split second when she moved.

Flung up, Matax sailed into the sky. Jeze landed on his back, helping his fall. She ripped out one of his four gossamer wings. A wail followed and he was fully grown when he slammed into the dirt. She didn't look at him when she whipped her left hand midair and his throat tore open.

Blood gushed out of him despite his efforts to hold it closed.

Matax collapsed to the ground.

"Father...." Pest stared on, panic and disbelief freezing him to the spot.

Jeze still did not focus on either of them, only Wyrn, the hunchback.

"Brilliant," Magus cheered. "You've even made the cut shallow to ensure he suffers for some time. Very good." After fluttering down to get a better view of Matax, he boasted, "That would be for my 'puppet.'"

In this mortal form, Matax shouldn't have perceived him but his eyes stayed fixed on Magus long enough to convince Fanli that perhaps striding the planes of life and death gave him the power to see beyond the physical. Whatever the reason, he he'd heard.

Satisfied, Magus flew up then turned to his fairies and announced, "The rest we leave to chance. That is law. Return to the forest." He shifted his satisfied smile in Jeze's direction. "And I will, of course, remain here to ensure you do not break the law by saving him either."

Jeze met his gaze, finally. "The law of chance has no such stipulation."

"No. But I ever do so love to answer a slight. And he has more than slighted the night Fae—slighted me." He went into a sitting position, taking great joy in Matax's suffering as the injured fairy continued to writhe in the dirt. "He turned into a night Fae as a means of escaping punishment." His silver eyes focused on Matax and his smile grew. "I should relish this death with his bedfellow."

Lightning landed some distance away, slicing into the dirt on its path through the streets.

"And now this along with it." Magus clapped. "Oh, what an eventful night—"

Jeze vanished then reappeared at his back.

Fanli thought it to be an attack but instead, she fluttered in place, arms extended to shield Magus. "No."

Pest, a little ring treasure spiked and aimed at the unsuspecting night Fae, resisted at first but, in time, lowered his hand.

Fanli hated seeing this. She hated it even more because she sighed with relief at Jeze stopping Pest from attacking, or possibly killing Magus.

"Matax's given you his life," Jeze said. Her voice vibrated. "And he's given it for your safety. Do you throw it away now? Should you kill this miserable Fae, you are back to where you started—burdening others with dying on your behalf!"

Pest took a step back.

His mother's chest heaved as her anger grew. Fanli took little comfort in knowing this wasn't as easy for her as she was leading others to believe.

At her back, Magus chuckled. "Wise choice."

Once again, Jeze's gaze settled on the hunchback. She looked ready to say something. Hell, so did he.

"You're as useless now as you ever were!" she screamed at Wyn, turned and flew away.