The Fae Princess (The Pacific Princesses Book 2) Ektaa Bali (free ebook reader txt) 📖

a good example to Mahiya? As her older sister, as the Queen of her people, she was supposed to be showing the other kids what was right. And none of this was right!

How could she have missed that? The Bunyips now flying around—they were creatures of the world just like her. And just like her, made bitter and angry by a threat made to their community. She sighed and lowered her bow. She had faced more dark creatures in the last two days than she had in her entire lifetime. How could she have not understood what it meant to be Fae? Willow had been right this whole time. The Fae see all things as one. All things as themselves. As Fae Queen, she should have known that. Her parents and Nani had been teaching her the way of the Fae since she was a baby. How had everything gone so wrong? She felt like she had been struck by every arrow she had shot from her own bow tonight. Her bones ached, her wings ached. Her brain ached.

“Why are we here, Bunyip King?” she asked tiredly.

The Bunyip King bared his teeth at her.

“I seek revenge for what was done to me by the Fae. I am owed! I demand your Kingdom as my compensation.”

Vidya blinked away her tears. “I understand why you want it, but—”

She was interrupted by an unexpected cry as a dozen arrows flew through the air. Two caught the Bunyip King on each leg, and he stumbled in the air. Willow broke free and shot more arrows. Bunyips fell from the sky, their wings torn, limbs punctured as Lobey and five other Fae kids had sneakily shot at them from below.

The sky-high meeting was disbanded as everyone scattered in different directions. Vidya waved at Willow, and the two of them shot down into the palace grounds, some of the other Fae kids following. The Fae kids were outmatched in the air, the Bunyip’s wings were too strong, it was much better if they faced them on the ground.

They touched down upon the grass with a thud, and Vidya turned to look behind them.

No less than twenty Bunyips were running toward them.

“Run!” cried Vidya.

The group split into two. Vidya, Lobey, Willow, Lily, and few others shot down the greenhouse paths, while the other group went down into the Fae city.

Nani’s triple locked greenhouse was close by.

“Let us in!” cried Lobey, banging on the door. “Let us in!”

The tree locks clicked, and the door swung open. The group rushed in, a Devil’s Fingers’ plant locking the door behind them.

The greenhouse seemed much bigger now that it was mostly empty. Two Devil’s Fingers’ trees paced up and down the greenhouse, the other two were down at the end with Nani.

“How long will it hold?” asked Lily.

“This place is a fortress,” panted Vidya, wiping her forehead on her sleeve. “It was made to keep the Devil’s Fingers’ inside. I don’t care how strong they are, it’ll take them ages to get in.”

“We’re outmatched Vidya,” said Willow. “I don’t know how we’re going to get out of this.”

“How many do you think are left?” asked Lily.

But Vidya was barely listening. She walked down the path to see Nani, sleeping soundly on her tree hammock.

She took Nani’s hand in hers, sniffing softly.

“I’m sorry, Nani,” she whispered. “I think I failed us all. I made the wrong choice. But at the time, I really thought I was doing the right thing. How was I supposed to save the Fae without hurting the Bunyips? All they want is us gone altogether.”

Vidya thought about the days leading up to this moment. What would the adults have done differently? Probably a lot of things, she thought glumly. Probably everything. She wondered what Nani would tell her if she were here, but she just couldn’t imagine it. What was she to do? Perhaps they could all just go and hide with the children, stay safe in there while the Bunyips took over their palace. Just give it to them? She thought. No, she could never just give away her home to these dark creatures. The Fae Queen’s job was to protect the balance, and the Bunyips winning was no balance at all.

Vidya’s fingers tightened around Nani’s, and something rough brushed against her fingers. Frowning, she turned Nani’s hand over and unravelled her fingers. In it was a scrunched piece of paper. Vidya frowned and opened it up, reading the lines of text. The paper had been torn from a book.

Deep in the core of the earth lies a roaring fire. The Fae are made of the earth, but in their hearts, just like the earth, burns a fire-bright light.

On the top of the page, Nani had written:

Mahiya.

Vidya’s mind raced.

Nani had been thinking that baby Mahiya’s power did come from the earth. Just the deepest part, the core of molten fire. Earth-fire.

Then it struck her like a bolt of lightening down her spine. The image of the Flower of Awakening flashed into her mind.

“Oh, my earth!” she exclaimed, wheeling around to face the others. “It didn’t work because it was the wrong type of fire!”

The others walked to toward her, confused frowns on their faces.

“What are you on about, Vidya?” asked Lobey.

“The Fae are of the earth.” Vidya said. “Baby Mahiya is producing fire. Earth fire. Fire that comes from deep within the earth’s core. That’s what she is! She’s a fire Fae. That’s where her power came from! Something in the earth recognised that the Flower of Awakening needed re-charging again. And so, the new princess was born with the ability to heal her. She has exactly what we need. Earth fire!”

Willow stepped forward, excitement glowing on his face. “That was what the Wollemi Pine King was trying to tell us! He didn’t know about baby Mahiya, of course, so he couldn’t tell us exactly!”

“I’ll be needing that second arrow, Will,” said Vidya. “I’m going to get baby Mahiya.”

“We’re going back out there?” groaned Lily.

“Yes,” nodded