Hailey looked up to see a little girl walking towards the shimmer, but there wasn’t a fairy in front of her. She began to panic. Was there something else up Lillith’s sleeve? Was this another attack, but the red haired little girl turned and came straight for Hailey.

She was a beautiful child, but she wore a determined look. “I saw fall down,” the little girl said. “Will this make you feel better?”

She held out a glittering sliver scale. Hailey smiled and took the scale, feeling power and energy flow into her again. “Thank you,” she said. “That makes me feel a lot better.”

The little girl grinned and turned to go. “Wait,” said Hailey. She handed the little girl the silver scale that was still in her pocket. “You can keep this one. I don’t think it will help me anymore.”

“Thanks,” said the little girl. “I can see if I can find more.”

“Grace!” A woman shouted. “Grace, where are you?”

“Actually,” the little girl said. “I better go find my mama.” Then she turned and ran back to her mother’s side.

Hailey knew she should rise, should see to the wounded, but she was so tired, she just wanted to sit there. The little girl was right, though. She should pull herself to her feet.

“You ok?” A shadow crossed her vision.

She looked up to see Aaron standing over her. Relief washed over her. The entire battle, she had worried that he might be killed. “Just tired.”

He held out his good hand and helped her to her feet. He had a gash on his shoulder and hundreds of little fairy arrows covered his body. “I’m afraid we’re still going to need you,” he said. Many of the men are still injured and Derrick.” He paused. “Derrick might not make it. Gillian can’t seem to move her legs and there are so many others. I don’t want to see you work yourself ragged like you did before, but…”

She smiled at him. “It’s ok.” She held onto his hand longer than necessary. She held out the scale. “I think I’ll have enough energy left to take care of the soldiers. I’ll see to Derrick first and then, after you pull all of those arrows out of your skin, I’ll need you to come see me. I need someone to organize people so I know who I need to heal and who the healers can take care of.”

He nodded and led the way to Derrick, pulling fairy’s arrows out of his skin. Derrick was close to the shimmer. “He charged one of the wargs when it got too close. The other mage killed the warg, but Derrick…”

She looked down. A large cut crossed Derrick’s stomach and chest. He was bleeding heavily and unconscious. She placed her hand on either side of the wound and sent a trickle of magic into his body so that she could see what was wrong with him. It was only the gash, no broken bones.

“I think he’ll be ok, she said.

Aaron squeezed her shoulder. “Thank you, Hailey. I’m sorry that you are the only one.”

She shook her head. “It’s ok.” She was getting used to that.

Then he turned and started giving soldier’s orders. One of them climbed on top of Derrick’s horse and rode to the castle to get wagons. She was impressed with the way that Aaron handled things. He seemed to always know just what to do.

She focused on Derrick, closing her eyes and sending a healing through him. She knew now that she could heal a person completely, but that would take too much magic and she didn’t know how many people she would need to heal.

As she watched, his wound closed, but he still lay motionless.

Aaron found her again and led her to person after person. Wagons were brought and the injured were taken back to the castle. He paused in front of Gillian, wanting to know if she would be ok.

Hailey grimaced. “This is going to take time, but she’ll be fine” she said. “She must be in massive amounts of pain. Gillian had broken almost as many bones as Hailey had, and without Hailey’s help, she definitely would die. A stone had cut open her leg. Her face was pale. She had lost too much blood. Hailey felt a stab of guilt for just sitting there after the battle. There was still a lot of work to do.

Hailey knelt beside the woman who she had been so jealous of and set to work.

Hailey rose from the last man, her dragon scale almost completely emptied. They had all suffered at least some scrapes and cuts. Some of the soldiers had accidentally hit their comrades when Hailey dropped the night vision spell. Many of the men hadn’t survived.

“You coming?” Aaron helped her to her feet. He looked as exhausted and haggard as she felt.

“I will be there later,” said Hailey. She had some things to think over, and she didn’t want to sleep until she figured out what was bothering her about this whole battle.

He hugged her to him. “You were amazing today.”

“So were you. You took charge when Derrick got hit. I don’t think the men would have stood as well as they did without someone shouting orders at them.”

He gave her a half smile that made his cheek dimple.

“Aaron! We’re leaving!” Christian shouted from aboard the last cart.

“Just promise me that you will get some sleep,” Aaron said.

“I will. I just have a few things to think over and then I might sleep for two days.” She said.

He grinned. “I might hold you to that.” And then he turned and walked away. She watched him go. She was so lucky to have him in her life. She knew that she was a little awkward around people, but he had always believed in her and there was so much she wanted to share with him.

The wagon lurched forward and he waved.

Hailey sat where she and Isabella had battled. The battlefield had been cleared for the most part, but Hailey lingered, sitting on a stone and looking out over the shimmer. The sun was up, but it still did not provide much warmth.

It was so strange that she and the woman that had cursed Aurora had been able to undo the spell. When it came down to it, it was a simple dismissal and it didn’t require any more magic than what Hailey had even without the battery, which meant that Isabella hadn’t really needed Hailey’s help.

She tossed a stone into the shimmer. Someone had been controlling the fairies, she was sure of it. Fairies didn’t behave the way they did, and she had never seen one with a bow and arrow until last night. They had come to the border and died. Usually, they tried to kill people who came into the forest, but Hailey had started to think of that as the fairies defending their territory. If what Isabella said was true, that they couldn’t breed on human lands, then it made sense for them to defend their own land.

She could not even see them behind the shimmer now. Not the fairies nor the wargs. They had all gone, even the ones who had flown deeper into the kingdom. As she had set about healing the soldiers, the fairies had flown back, not even trying to bring people with them, and then they had disappeared into the shimmer.

She was glad of their victory, but thoughts of things that Isabella had told her still battled for attention in her brain. Hailey knew she would have to return soon. She would have to return and sleep. Then she would have to keep watch on the princess.

She thought about the king, the first death of the night, and the way that Isabella had kissed him. She was his sister. Now that she thought about it, she could see the resemblance.

Hailey looked up at the shimmer and gasped. The princess was not the heir, Isabella was and now the heir, the person controlling the border of Taivalon was in the hands of Lillith. Barinon had been right. After everything. Hailey hadn’t woken the princess in time and so the power of the heir had gone to Isabella instead of Aurora.

She began to cry. After all of that, after everything she had fought for, finally freeing the princess and setting things to rights along the shimmer, she had not done enough. Lillith had taken Isabella and even if Aurora ruled, Isabella was the heir, the one with the power to control the border. To keep the fairies out or let them flood back in, and she was in the hands of the enemy. This war wasn’t over, it was only beginning.

She scrubbed at her face. Why hadn’t she seen it before? What Isabella had said about the heir being safe had been true at the time. It all made sense to her now. Isabella had been safe at the time, but now she wasn’t. She didn’t know why Lillith was trying to destroy the kingdom, but as long as she was out there, as long as she lived, Taivalon would fall. Isabella had tried to warn her, about what Lillith had been doing.

Lillith would continue to capture mages and keep them hostage, or maybe she was killing them. Hailey didn’t know, but she suddenly understood why it was so important to protect Aurora. If Lillith had a spy and she killed Isabella, then Aurora’s life would be at risk. She rose and created her portal and then, at long last, Hailey went home.