Free

Sky

A strangled sound, something between a laugh and a sob, escapes my lips as I watch Cressida's lashes flutter back to life. I reach shakily for her wrist and tears slide down my face as I feel her pulse, beating rhythmically below my fingertips. Slow, unsteady, but still there.

"You're... You're alive," whispers Iris, trembling.

Cressida moans again, and her eyes open fully. She releases a long, slow breath, as though she's been holding it in for the past lifetime. A slow smile spreads across her face as her gaze focuses on us.

"Well, I wasn't really in the mood to die," she says weakly. "Not today, anyway."

I laugh, tears pouring down my cheeks. I lean towards my friends, wrapping my arms around both of them to pull them into a messy, three-way hug. A memory hits me hard as I do so- The three of us a couple of days ago, hugging in the forest after I managed to flood an entire village. I feel like I've grown into a whole new person since then. Changed from a ruthless villain who used her magic to create monsters out of fire into... Well, I'm not exactly sure who I am right now, but I think I'm close to finding out.

"You do know that you were never a villain, right?" Iris, reading my thoughts, whispers into my ear. I grin into Cressida's shoulder, squeezing Iris tighter. Then I realise something else that's changed in the past few days. The wall inside my mind, the one that blocked Iris from reading my thoughts and kept my darkest secrets pushed away, has been knocked down. My mind is completely open, as easy for Iris to read as a book.

I feel like that means something special, but I don't exactly know what yet.

"I meant to ask," says Cressida at last. "How did you two get wings?"

I blink. I had forgotten all about Lila's gift. I pull away and stare over my shoulder, at the glittering shapes that rest lightly on my shoulders. Weightless, but they somehow feel as heavy they were made of stone. I open my palm slowly, letting Magus's magic spark to life and summon a warm breeze that whisks through Iris and Cressida's damp hair and sends the snow dancing happily around us. The action makes my shoulders feel ten times heavier. I had forgotten about my new magic, my new wings, and I'm suddenly aware of how cold it is, kneeling in the ice while snowflakes spiral round us.

"You have your wings back!" Iris says encouragingly. "And you have magic even more powerful than it was before! That's what you wanted, isn't it?"

I stare at my palm, hesitating. Power... Wasn't that what I set out to achieve from the very beginning? Back when I was a fairy, I wanted more and more of it, stretching from limit to limit, crossing every line I could in a crazy quest for magic. Even when it stole away the most important thing in my life, even as it sapped away my hopes and dreams, my childhood; I clung to it like a lifeline in a deadly ocean. Magic made me who I was.

But I'm not that person any more. And the person I was isn't the person I want to be.

Was magic my lifeline, or was it the thing that pushed me into the ocean in the first place?

I make a decision. Standing up slowly, I raise my palm outward in front of me, closing my eyes as I feel magic coursing through my fingers.

"Sky?" Cressida's voice is strengthening. "What are you doing?"

I grin. "Something I'll probably regret... But for the first time in a while, I know it's the right thing to do."

I finish the spell, opening my eyes just in time to see the grey, misty glow fade away. I jump as I hear a voice, cool and clipped.

"So. We meet again."

Standing in front of me is a fairy, one I recognise all too well. Her huge wings are golden, like her sweeping locks of hair and narrowed eyes, and jewellery sparkles proudly at her neck and wrists. The fairy leader, Adelaide, never scared me like she used to scare Lila, but she's a very intimidating person. I wince as I remember the last time we met, when she and the other leaders had banished me from their realm and taken away my wings. I swallow my resentment and lower myself into a grudging bow.