Solair spiraled in a diagonal fashion and landed crouched. Like before, she still wore the leather despite the transformation. Her body trembled. Wyrn still flew high above. The moment he landed on the ground, Solair shot from where she crouched, took to the skies then unfolded into a dragon yet again while letting out a harrowing cry.

Fanli watched on. She didn't dare move, not with knowing as much as she did. There was nowhere to go—not if she wanted to escape the hunchback. She was certain, he'd find her even in hell.

Wyrn, once again in his human form, secured the metal shield on his back. The metal of that shield trapped his power, holding him in human form much like pain did for Bati. Above it, Wyrn dragged on his shirt.

Fanli swallowed hard. Terror wasn't a word to do her panic justice. Then he approached her.

Her heart threatened to leap up out of her mouth. She fought to remind herself of who he'd been all this time. Nothing was different about him. He was still the gentle man who'd helped her countless times. He wasn't.... He wasn't....

"I hadn't meant for anyone to see," he said. The dragon above circled once then flew away. "She's gotten too wild to tame."

Eyes cast downward in record time, Fanli kept her back bowed in respect. "Sir...."

She waited on the opposite side of the fence, but he dragged himself atop it and sat down.

"Join me," he ordered.

At first unsure how, Fanli decided to follow his action.

And there they sat. Wyrn was quiet but Fanli fantasized about all the ways he could do away with her to keep his secret intact.

"I won't tell anyone," Fanli promised. What else could she do? "I'd wish the knowledge away but—"

"Is it wrong to lie to keep the people you love safe?"

That question sounded so familiar. This time she was ready.

"That's just an excuse."

When his head turned to her, she remembered who she was talking to and adjusted her tone in kind.

"Sir."

He didn't seem to mind the late amendment.

"Explain."

Fanli hesitated. He could kill her with the flick of his fingers.

She let out a haggard breath, her voice trembling when she complied. "People can make up all the excuses they want, but in the end, a lie is only a lie. And I don't trust it if it keeps the liar safe—even if the lie-ee benefits for but a moment."

They sat there in silence for some time until she risked asking, "You don't want them to know your true form? You don't want anyone to know—?"

"My wife knows."

She assumed the princess was the only one beyond the dragons. That assumption was wrong.

"Pest's parents know."

Slowly, the gears in Fanli's head turned and everything was falling into place. It wasn't the fairies why they'd remained by Pest's side. Certainly, the fairy law was strong but there were ways around it with enough cunning and gifts. But not around the hunchback. Absolutely no one could escape his clutches and decrees.

At her silence, he glanced at her. "Even you are frightened."

Fanli must have managed the nod she commanded her body to give.

"But...can you blame me, sir?"

"Stop calling me sir." When her mouth snapped shut, he stared at the ground. "People'll take notice."

Panic and fear. It had been some time since she'd felt it in earnest.

"I don't want my children to fear me." In a whisper, he muttered, "Because I fear myself."

She didn't know much about Wyrn beyond the superficial. They'd never shared a conversation, but this whole situation weighed heavily on him.

"You wish things were back to the way they were? When your family was perfect."

He took his time in answering. "Nothing was perfect." He scoffed and admitted, "But we were close." After a long while, he shook his head. "It wouldn't have lasted. Sooner or later a dragon would have come for one of them. And sooner or later, Wen would have gone to that mountain to make that foolish wish in an effort to rescue me, never realizing...."

"That you chose to live this way for them."

After he let out a weak sigh, he sat up. "I'm out here because they don't want to be around me right now. They could be angry about my choice seventeen years ago, but I'd tried to hold on to something that was impossible to maintain—the idea that I could watch them live and die old in their mortal form, never knowing." He turned his head to focus on her. "They'll keep trying to go up that mountain, and I need for you to grant me one favor."

Fanli didn't like where this was going. For one, she'd decided not to go, but for two, this wasn't a person she could ever refuse.

"Don't let Wen suffer the disappointment on her own. Be a friend to her. An efreet will have no access to outward magic. She won't be allowed that wish."

Wen was the efreet?

"I hadn't been sure until she burned Pest's house." Wyrn stared forward again, defeated. "She's too stubborn to listen. She'll go, and when she cannot gain the wish, she'll come back but she won't be the same. No one will. It's all gone now, but I cherished it. This was all something impossible for someone like me."

He slipped from the fence and, despite his short stature, used one hand to hoist himself up and over with ease. After that, he lumbered away. Fanli didn't dare follow him with her eyes.

Wyrn had chosen this. Living this way was his choice. Arguably one of the most powerful, arrogant beings in the world, taking on this form for his family.

And now Wen threatened that. All for pride's sake.

Fanli took little comfort in knowing Wen wouldn't be able to get her wish. Unleashing that much power would be foolish.

Despite all that, her father's worry lay at her feeling disappointment. Fanli scoffed.

That should be the last thing on anyone's mind.

She supposed that answered her question—she was going.

Armed with a new steely resolve, Fanli marched to the main house. She readied herself for perhaps a fight between the twins and their parents, but there was quiet.

Both Wyrn and the princess stared off toward Pyer's Peak.

Fanli let her presence known with a cough.

The princess took note of her, tears in her eyes. "Oh, Fanli," she said in a woeful whisper, "you've come too late. All three of them have already left. They're gone. Pest ran away."

A numbness came over Fanli. She wasn't sure why. Somehow, she found herself staring after that mountain as well. Would she have to go on her own? And after they left her behind.

Loyalty meant nothing to anyone, apparently.

Fanli took one step towards that mountain and the princess grabbed her hand.

"Not you, too. Please."

The tears in her eyes convinced Fanli that at least one person would care if she risked her neck or not.

Wyrn took the news the hardest. "It's done then."

His wife watched the ground. "You could catch up to them. If you fly—"

"That is not in my nature." He turned his head to meet eyes with her, daring her to say otherwise. "There's a flow to magic. The magic that forged me, the magic that trapped me, the magic that trapped you, and the magic that gifted us a family. And it's been rejected, and I cannot challenge fate itself. Not when our very children defy these gifts. You and I can cherish them, but we must accept the end to all beginnings. We still have one another and should you cast off that gift in search of taming two wild children that we can no more control than the sunrise itself, what you and I have will end as well."

Sometime in his scolding, she lowered her gaze. Her grip on Fanli's arm loosened but remained a constant. Perhaps she needed it to keep her from collapsing to the ground.

Despite Wyrn's stern words, the woe etched in his scowl spoke of defeat.

"Let them go. And this time, we give no rescue to Pest."