5

“This was a very hard decision to come to,” I said to those gathered at the press conference I was giving just for Faerie.

It was being broadcast live to all the town squares via the cell towers Faerie now had. Some other screens that were also up in other places like the rest stops. There was more, but those were the big ones that I knew about.

I’d sailed through my last midterms, and I decided to get this done the first day of my last spring break before taking some time to relax. It had been weighing on me for a while now and I trusted my gut on this.

“I want us to focus on the future, but you all need the truth to understand the mistakes that were made so we do not make them again,” I continued. “I’ve said that many times, and too many think that means I’m picking on you or blaming you. I try not to. I truly do. Do I think too many had their heads in the sand and missed what was right in front of them? Yes. But I wasn’t there. I was a baby.

“You all had your own lives and priorities. Too many lived in extreme poverty and simply fought to survive. I’ve said all of this before. I don’t want to repeat it, simply remind you of my feelings before opening this particular Pandora’s box. I’m also keeping my promise to be much more transparent with everyone.

“The fact that you could not know the ordinances of other areas or cities unless you lived there—that’s not normal. That was a huge red flag. I know we’re all nosy, but that’s a normal level of curiosity. It’s checks and balances.” I let out a slow breath. “So I’m going to release them all as they currently are for everyone to see.

“It will not become a bashing session of the previous queens. Everyone blames them for everything, and as I have repeatedly shown you, so much wasn’t their fault. They were not supported the way they should have been. There was vast corruption from the ancients and constant threats. Both were threatened to be forcibly mated or have their children killed.

“So enough with blaming them for everything. This is so we learn from the mistakes made and never blindly trust again. We see the red flags going forward. There should always be this level of transparency. No one is above the law. Certain people not having their thoughts read is a huge red flag.

“I know that sounds like a joke since no one can read mine, but anyone who knows me will tell you that I don’t hide my feelings or thoughts. They wish I did better. I don’t want to. I want to respect you all enough to be honest like I am now. My advisors are split if this is a smart move or it will bring up issues and start problems.

“Or if I won’t pass the last vote of confidence given I’m also publishing the proposed ordinance changes before I’m queen. But I think it’s needed . One of the first things I’m doing when I become queen is making things fair . I’m—there’s no reason there are different ordinances in so many areas. And in the wide range there is.

“Fine, there are some additional ones needed if the city is on the ocean or has something location-specific. But this was corruption. This was ‘grandfathering in’ to old deals and backing queens into corners with threats of not approving them and throwing the realm into chaos. It was everything they tried to do to me, but I had several aces no previous heir had.

“I was the only damn option.” I let out a slow breath and wiped under my eyes. “You have no idea how the threats upset me—terrified me, and I didn’t grow up with all of this normalized. I knew how messed up so much of this was. It breaks my soul to think of all the heirs and queens who have had to accept what was so unacceptable because they had no choice.

“Everyone thinks they had all the power and they did magically, but they were so trapped, and—they were prisoners of this planet and the people—their roles.” I wiped my eyes. “I wish my mother had the choice for so much more. I know my grandmother did something horrible, but I wish she’d lived in a world where she hadn’t felt she had to.

“I wish they both hadn’t been prisoners of this family and responsibilities. I wish they’d had the option to abdicate like other royals had. I wish all of my family hadn’t died so fucking young and been eaten by this damn planet and—” I jumped to my feet and walked away from the table.

“Tams?” Neldor worried as he rushed over.

“I need a minute,” I rasped. “I just need—all of this could have been avoided, Nel. Our moms could be having tea and planning for our future and to see their grandkids. Instead, they’re dead and this is our life. I need a fucking minute!”

He nodded and let me go, but I felt his worry come with me.

Yeah, mine too. I was shocked I’d blown up like that, but as the days counted down to losing my dad because Faerie needed me to become queen, my emotions were all over the place.

Shocker, right?

It took me a few minutes, but then I sat back at the table, mumbling an apology. I let out a slow breath and tried to get back on track, but it took another minute or two.

“We look to the future and do better, but we don’t ignore how badly things went wrong so we don’t do it again,” I said firmly. “So I’m publishing all of the ordinances as they stand. You can all see the corruption I’ve been fighting and which families clearly stuck it to the queens worst as I have had to learn as well.

“From there, you will see the regression to the mean I will institute once I’m queen. The people of one area shouldn’t have higher taxes than another area because the noble didn’t have anything to threaten a queen with. And normally, those were the richer areas, so that’s ridiculous. Everyone pays their fair share. People who make more pay more.

“It’s basic logic. Inspections happen for everything as needed, not because someone has money or not. All of that ends. Or leave Faerie. I don’t care if it lowers my favorability for the last vote of confidence. I want to be able to look at myself in the mirror and pray to the gods without guilt weighing on my soul. If I’m to take this job and shield Faerie, then I will do it fairly.

“We say we’re fair and fight for fairness, then we should start doing as we say and enough with the hypocrisy. No more monsters wearing the pope hats and lying through their teeth that they’re doing this for the people. Neldor and I are killing ourselves and using our personal money for companies on Earth to pay for what Faerie needs and some people pay no taxes here?

“No. Not when I’m queen. The farmers love the new system in place. The merchants at the markets. It’s all fair, and now that all of Faerie is open and running at almost eighty percent, taxes will resume as normal this year. The first half of the year will be what it was. I cannot change that yet, but the second half of the year will be at the new ordinances and laws.

“However, I will be open to actual specific instances that certain ordinances might not work because of a location’s actual needs . I’ve taken into account the ones that I know of and understand, but I have never lived in any of these places. I hope the people of each area take the time to review all of this, see the differences of what others have lived, and what I am proposing.

“From there, I will be holding meetings at the town squares to get feedback and hear concerns. Valid concerns and questions. Let me be clear that I will not be bullied or pushed into anything because of the vote of confidence. The ancients and nobles thought they had me backed into a corner because of the law that they had to approve the queen before her coronation.

“Well, I got around that. So no matter the pressure applied to me, if it’s not good for Faerie or her people, I won’t cave. If it’s good for Faerie and something I don’t understand, I will always listen and do my best to adjust as I’ve shown again and again. We have all been through a lot, and I want the changes when I become queen to go smoothly. I hope you do too.”

I wasn’t sure what else to say, and the whole thing had gone a bit off the rails, so I mumbled a thank-you and left… Much to the shock of Neldor and the commanders. Yeah, well—fuck it.

An hour later, Neldor sat down next to me as I ate my weight in Taco Bell while making diamonds to sell. They’d been selling like hotcakes at the three Veritas Portas stores that now carried them. I worried about flooding the market and seriously throwing off the lab grown diamond economy of Earth if I kept going at the rate I was.

So, we needed something else because it was a few months into the year and we’d already eaten through most of the proposed budget.

Again. Great. We were ahead of schedule for everything and so much was getting done, but there was so much to do. It was never enough.

“Don’t be mad at me,” he said as he sat down and handed me a tablet. “This wasn’t as your mate. I did it as your right hand, I swear.”

I wiped my hands and nodded, taking it from him and hitting play.

“Your Grace, is the princess okay?” someone asked him.

“Princess Tamsin has too much on her shoulders rebuilding both realms and finishing her schooling plus all of the wants and demands the supes of Earth constantly hassle her for plus people of Faerie still treating her too often as if she owes them everything—the list is long,” he answered. “And she will lose both her parents after she becomes queen.

“I know many lost loved ones in the war or know that feeling. I don’t think anyone fully understands how looking down at the exact date is a knife in the gut. I feel her pain constantly echoing as her fated mate even if we are not together. She is literally giving up her father to become your queen, and too many do not appreciate her or her sacrifices.

“It kills those of us who love her. My soul hurts for her all of the time. She never stops. She never rests. She never got—at least I had decades with my parents before I lost them. She never knew her mother who died to save everyone, and so many never even thank Meira for that nor Tamsin for waking them. It makes her want to walk away from Faerie.

“A group the other day blasted her that she doesn’t give enough and hasn’t fixed enough wings yet. It’s a miracle that has never been done before and takes vast magic that can make her bleed from her nose and ears and people yell at her that she’s not doing it enough? Like she sits around and is watching TV instead?

“I wish she would watch TV and relax. No, instead, I would bet my entire family fortune that she is using her magic right now to make money for Faerie while spending her own money to fuel her magic. No one works as hard as she does. No one. My mother did not work as hard as Tamsin does. I’ve never met anyone who gives everything for Faerie the way Tamsin does.

“And she doesn’t even get to live here yet. So it’s—things are better, but people need to be better too. The last few million who woke are not taking the time to understand the progress and how much has happened—how far we’ve come. They’re upset they were woken last and kept frozen longer. None of that was Tamsin.

“They’re upset she’s not doing more, not caring all she’s done and sacrificed. So I hope the people who have been awake and seen how much our beloved princess has already accomplished smack sense into those people before we lose her. Because if I had the chance to keep my father around with me longer, I don’t know I would make the sacrifice she is for all of you.”

“Yes, that would be—I cannot imagine,” the reporter whispered. “Thank you, Your Grace.”

Neldor nodded and wiped under his eyes. “Are there any more questions?”

“I have a few, and I want to be clear that I am not questioning or doubting the princess,” a man asked from off camera. “She is diligent, and—I know these answers without a doubt. I ask them because some in Faerie are not as well informed as I am nor follow the princess as I do because of my job.”

Neldor nodded again. “Of course. Please be thorough. What are the questions?”

“What steps did the princess take to make these decisions? Obviously, she read all of the ordinances before changing them, but—can you explain for everyone in Faerie the princess’s process,” he asked.

“Sure. The princess did much more than read them all. She had a semester study of them and the history of what she could find from both realms including journals and the documentation of how they came about. She went through the filings and changes to reach where they currently are and what they were changed from.

“At one point, all of the laws and ordinances of Faerie were the same across the board. From there, it was certain allowances that had some of the changes, and others were from deals made. Some innocent and a tax break here for development of an area or helping during a problem. But then there was pushback to not revert to the norm.

“Then there was more as Tamsin said. Her instruction was overseen by Professor Sontar but was given mostly by Commanders Morgan and Talila who both have the most experience in regional differences and issues in their respective realms. They were present for many of the instances and knew first-hand to advise the princess how things came about or who could tell her.

“From there, she started picking apart the problems and finding a bit more of an average of where things should be. That’s the starting point where things will be considering what Faerie has been through and the healing we need to have—the progress the princess is pushing for. Taxes specifically will stay at a lower rate for the next few years.

“Well, lower for where they should have been. Others will see an immediate rise because they weren’t paying what they should because of corruption. But the princess was adamant that as long as people were paying towards change with their time and helping as many fairies have been, she wanted to keep the taxes as low as possible even if it meant her own money.”

There were several more questions along those lines including how many hours he thought I put into the project and if I had local advisors from the areas before I made the changes. All were fair and no one was over the line.

“Thanks,” I said as I handed it back. “Really, you did a good job.”

“So are you, baby doll,” he whispered.

“I know.” I let out a slow breath. “I know. Really, I do. And I even know that those people were lashing out—I’m just tired of being the fucking target, Nel. I get they lost so much. I care. Can they fucking care how much I’ve lost? Can they just think of that before they demand more from me or blame me for everything that happened before I was born or while a baby?”

“I know, and I know saying it’s gotten better isn’t enough.”

“Not today,” I agreed and went back to eating. I probably shouldn’t have done the press conference after people had been waiting there shouting at me what they did. It was all crap, but it affected me. It hurt.

I was tired that every time a new group woke and adjusted to their new reality, I was their punching bag. And the last few million didn’t seem to be adjusting the way others had. It had been months since most were woken, and why was so much still my fault? Did they think it was fun for me to be treated this way?

That I’d not woken them sooner on purpose?

They just couldn’t ever understand what I’d been through—all I’d done to wake them all.

But what if they could?

I finished eating and kissed Neldor’s cheek.

“Where are you going?” he worried.

“I’m not sure,” I admitted. I teleported away before he could ask. I went home first, but that wasn’t right and teleported to Katrina’s store. Something was telling me that what I needed was there.

Power crystals. I was standing in front of a delivery of power gauge crystals, and that was when I knew what to do.

It was time to show Faerie what I’d done.

All of them. Any of them who cared. Give them the example and something tangible for the next one who yelled at me that I hadn’t done enough.

I held out my hand and read the energy before teleporting to the portal to Faerie. I went through and teleported to the temple in the neutral zone, thinking that a place no fairy would have an issue with going even if nothing was closed off to any fairy anymore.

I started easy and thought back to the power it took to clear the darkness for a radius of five feet. I focused my magic and made a power crystal that would gauge that level of magic needed.

Then twenty feet.

Fifty feet.

A hundred feet.

And so on.

Then I did the power it took to bring back the sun. The power it took and broke me—that could have killed me if people hadn’t been at my house to immediately help me.

I did one for the power it took to wake Neldor when Faerie realized I’d been about to give up and desperate. The power that had left me wounded in a way we hadn’t known how to heal.

Then I started with the magic it would take to wake one normal, average adult fairy who was no older than fifty. Five of them. Twenty. Fifty.

A hundred.

Two hundred.

Five hundred.

A thousand.

Until the last one of the highest I’d done was half a million. And that didn’t take into account when there were nobles or powerful fairies who took more power. How draining it was to awaken the corrupt ancients who scared and threatened me. Who everyone had originally believed over me and had almost broken me mentally.

Then I had a thought and added how much power it took to heal the wing of a fairy.

“Princess, what’s going on here?” a worried female voice asked me.

I turned to see Leigh, the CEO of the fae media network. “I won’t go back. I won’t let everything backslide to me being—I won’t go back to constantly worrying everyone will eat me. I’m so tired of it, Leigh. It’s never enough.”

“I think you need to cleanse, Your Highness,” she said quietly. “You’ve been pushing and pushing. Things aren’t as bad as—”

“My dad won’t be here soon to protect me from it all,” I cut in. “And when he’s gone, I won’t have the push to keep fighting all of this in my mother’s memory. I’ll just walk away.” I wiped my eyes. “I’ll just walk away and be happy if that’s possible for someone like me.”

“You’re grieving,” she rasped.

“Don’t grieve for me, Daughter,” Lageos said gently before coming and giving me a bear hug. “Things aren’t as they were. I will show you, and then you will show the people what you have done here, okay?”

“I’m tired, Dad,” I whispered.

He leaned away and cupped my cheek. “I know. I know you are and how hard you’ve worked. Constantly. Others have seen it too. I promise you.”

“Every time I think maybe my soul can heal, they hurt it again,” I finally admitted. “I don’t want to live like that.”

“It’s different this time, shorty,” Hudson said from behind me before lifting me up in his arms. “Trust us, okay? People are on your side and fighting the stupid.”

“I’m hungry.”

“Me too. River is starving but wants to see this first.”

“Okay, whatever River wants.”

Which was clearly why he said that.

My dad teleported us to the center of a city—where, I wasn’t sure. I also wasn’t sure the point of that, barely caring and simply wanting to snuggle up to Hudson and just eat.

But then something caught my eye.

Something bright red.

A flag?

I glanced over and saw it was a bright red flag hanging from a window. I was about to ask what that meant when I saw another one. Lifting my head, I saw the whole row of apartments and townhomes along the street had red flags hanging from their windows.

“Dear gods, tell me that’s not how fairies declare war or something?” I whispered, ready to break down sobbing.

“No, apparently, it’s a new idea of how to support their redheaded future queen, Your Highness,” Morgan said as he came into view.

“I don’t…” I glanced all around and tapped Hudson’s arm so he set me on my feet. He did and turned with me as he hugged me to him.

They were everywhere. People had red cloth of all types hanging from their windows with magic. Sheets, towels, shirts, pants—anything they had.

“I don’t understand,” I admitted, my tired brain not able to process it.

“I hung mine to say you’re a good leader and to leave you alone, Your Highness,” a woman said as she joined us but kept a respectful distance.

“I hung mine to say thanks for waking me and my family and for the rest stop,” a man called over. “I haven’t felt this level of community in a while. We eat there and help out too. And I’m not scared of the light fairies I see there. It’s a nice introduction to them because I ain’t ever met any before.”

Dozens of people gave me their reasons ranging from thanks to that they prayed to the gods that they accepted my parents into Paradise and I lived a happy life. It was all so positive and loving that I cried.

Happy tears this time.

And it was all over that city in the dark realm. There was red cloth everywhere I looked and people wearing red clothes even. It was honestly ridiculous if the meaning wasn’t so touching.

“I don’t like red, but I wear for princess,” a little girl announced proudly. People went tense that she said something so brazen to a royal, but I loved it.

I moved closer to her and squatted down in front of her, making magic flowers for her in purple which was her favorite color from her thoughts. “I actually hated red too because people picked on my hair. Until I saw it was the color of my dad’s hair. Then I liked it.”

She giggled and took the flowers with a thank-you.

“It’s not just here, my precious daughter,” Lageos said as he hugged me. “It’s all over both realms. Fairies all over are showing their support of you.”

That was amazing—beyond amazing and meant everything to me. It really did.