Xade, Cosette, and Allura go to the carnival for a fun day only to find the ringmaster is using real fae magic to run his show. He captures the three Faeries and forces them to perform in his show but they're not about to bat their wings and toss fa...
The crowd screamed and ran, tripping over each other to escape. Fully formed. Xade's snake form took up the entirety of the stage pushing the magician back, they lifted their head and imagined they were grinning but could a snake even grin?
Their scales heated and Xade struck surrounding the magican until he was completely enclosed in their coils. They squeezed, the satisfying pop of bone as his shoulder dislocated. His scream filled the tent and above all else, Xade could hear only three wings. Not three sets but three. As if one had been... Xade grip snapped and the snake coiled back up. The magician gasped as the snake's tail flung him away and he smacked into the the ground. Xade shrank back to their regular self. Their scales still reaching up to their elbow and the faery magic muted by the iron around them.
"No..." fear crawled up Xade's spine as the magician lifted himself back to his feet, his left leg carrying a limp, his shoulder sagging at an odd angle as he came toward her, he drew a long knife from his belt hidden under his coat.
"I have no use for something like you." He raised the knife. Xade's magic coiled tight inside of them. Their Fae magic too weak to help them. Iron would cut them, would kill them. The steady flutter of only three wings still present in their ears. They had failed. Cosette lost their wing. They hadn't been able to save her.
"Nothing like you should exist." The magician struck but Xade never felt the blade.
Allura lunged and tackled the magician away from Xade. Cosette flew passed her wings fully intact and they both pinned the magician down. The large men from before were in a pile exactly where they had been holding Cosette hostage.
"That's our little sister," Allura growled one wing fluttered behind her.
"It's a demon." He spat fighting their grip. They struggled to hold him and Allura winced with every move.
"And you're a monster." Cosette gripped the magicain's hand but sweat beaded along her brow. They couldn't last and Allura was in pain.
Finish it Xade order red themself. Now.
Pain radiated through Xade's body from the transformation but they forced themself to sit up and meet the magician's eyes. Their magic had rarely worked but something in them felt a pull to the magician.
"I granted you an enchantment before."
"You never gave me anything." He snapped. Xade's mind flashed back to his hand grabbing them before they blacked out. They willed their magic to enchant him before, it was weak but it was something. Allura may have caught him but Xade had been certain their enchantment would save him. Allura hadn't heard them so much as felt Xade's magic because Allura had been his only hope at that moment.
"You owe me a favor." Owing any kind of fae a favor could be as simple as retrieving them a snack, delivering a letter, or taking a life.
"I don't owe you anything." He spat ripping a hand free from Allura. She gasped and scrambled for it but his knife swiped at Cosette slicing across the air above her shoulder. Cosette cried out and released his other hand.
"Forget." Xade's voice resonated exactly as it should when calling on a favor. "Everything you know." The magicain's hand flew to his neck and then his chest, his eyes glazed over as he scrambled away from Cosette and Allura and then he stopped. No breath, no heartbeat. Xade collapsed forward her body aching in a way they hadn't thought possible.
Allura stood first, pulling Cosette with her as they limped over to Xade. "Come on." She ordered dragging Xade to their feet. "Let's go."
"Where?" Her eyes fluttered and as the three limped toward the exist the strange darkness lifted. A few other fae stepped out and looked at the three faeries in the middle of the stage. They each bowed and whispered a thanks before they flew away. One of the faeries grabbed the siren from the top and carried her out. The siren offered a silent nod and then they were gone.
"So much for gratitude." Allura snorted and then nudged Xade. "Can you walk?"
"A little better than you." Xade joked.
Cosette shook her head. "Jokes now?"
"Duh." Allura met Xade's eyes. "No better time than after a bit of trauma."
The three limped out together, past the rows of seats they had just sat in the night before and passed all the games Allura had won the day before and out the front entrance.
"Hey guys." Xade panted. "Next time I say I'm getting a bad feeling—"
"I will never doubt you again." Cosette said first, squeezing Xade to her side.
Allura ruffled their hair. "Not so little anymore huh?"
Xade's eyes drifted to Allura's remaining wing and even that one was bent at an odd angle. The other wing was completely gone.
"What's another battle scar?" Allura smiled but Xade could see the sorrow in her eyes.
"A collection?" Xade offered. Allura threw her head back and laughed Cosette winced at the insensitive joke but when had Allura ever been sensitive?
The Echidna blood hummed in Xade's veins. They hadn't been able to burn them alive. Nither their faery magic nor the blood of their ancestor had been ready to use like that. Both Xade and Cosette relied on Allura too much. Never again. Next time they would be ready, next time they would burn them alive.
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