Granting a Thief's Wishes

"PETA would so kill her for this," Nicholas whispered. It was hard not to laugh at his serious tone but in a way or another I managed not to anyway. In front of me – and more specifically, on Beth Teague's arm – was a beautiful phoenix-like creature with round blue eyes and bright red and orange flames as its' feathers. The flames appeared to be as if an illusion, as Teague's arm wasn't even affected by it.

"This lady here is called Fiona. I think she'd like to speak to you."

I had a feeling that I've seen that bird before. I just couldn't remember…

With a loud screech and a blinding, yellow light, the creature turned into a woman with long light brown hair, wearing a knee-length black and orange dress. Her legs were long and her feet were bare. When she finally stopped floating and opened her eyes – revealing a pair of beautiful blues – she smiled almost bitterly towards me.

"I'm Fiona," she said, her voice reminded me of bells. But even with the soft and gentle voice and a very beautiful appearance, she made me feel uncomfortable. Almost intimidated. "And I wish to…apologize," she said, spitting out the word 'apologize' as if it was drenched in venom.

"Fiona is a cursed shapeshifter," Ethan explained when Fiona remained stubborn and quiet, looking at me as if I wanted to eat me. No kidding.

"That's weird. I thought shapeshifters were already cursed by nature."

"Technically, they are. I guess this makes Fiona double-cursed?" Ethan joked (epic fail, if I must add) and guffawed. "She was in line to be the princess of Elves until your father cursed her to be a shapeshifter. Not only that, but she's also cursed to be a…parasite, you can say."

"Wait! Hold on! My dad? He was a kind and a gentle man! How…what—"

"Your dad's ancestors are powerful witches and warlocks, Suze. That explains Kylie's limited abilities. Yes, she can summon a large amount of liquid and manipulate it however she wants, but as you realize it's only lasts for a couple of minutes on a large scale. Then she'll be drained. You guys aren't pure fairies."

"Your father…" Madam Teague trailed off, "was indeed a kind man. He was forced to jinx Fiona because Fiona was a naughty elf. She tried to kill your father while she was in the middle of stealing his goods. She was a thief."

I felt the urge to cry in bitter laughter when I caught Nicholas' eyes.

"Oh great! So, then what?" I said, my words were accompanied by almost-deranged-laughter.

"You broke the stupid jar!" Fiona said shrilly. "You were just a tiny…thing when you broke it. The jar that contained my spirit and soul. The jar that YOUR father decided to imprison me in! That bastard."

I glared at her. "Say that again and I swear to god I'll beat you up so hard that you'd wish you were back in that damn jar."

Ethan sighed, walking over and sitting on the chair. He crossed his legs and looked at Fiona and me, an amused grin spread shamelessly on his face. "So Fiona took over you. Your dad was a rookie when he first cursed Fiona. He managed to make her into some kind of a shapeshifting parasite. Fiona needs to feed on someone else's energy or else she'll end up dying."

Then, everything clicked in place.

"Wait, so does that means…?"

"Fiona is an elf with elemental magic, just like fairies are. As it happens, fire is Fiona's element. Fire…is also yours," Madam Teague said, a small wry smile tugging her thin lips. "Fiona's fire was miles stronger than yours. And it became stronger as it feeds on your own fire. It restricted your growth as a fairy. Thus, you can't fly. You do not have wings and your elemental powers were running out."

"A fairy's power is like human blood," Ethan said, grinning. "Without it, you're basically dead. As a fairy, at the least. Heh. I just found out that the bracelet you had with you is limiting your energy so Fiona can't feed off of it. Basically, it converts your fire into…well. Wishes. It's kind of a cursed bracelet, if you ask me."

"You guys just love to curse things around in your world, huh?" Nicholas said. Ethan chuckled.

"We're awesome that way."

"Fiona was the cause of the fire," I said slowly, placing a finger on my lips.

"In a way or another," Ethan continued. "Something inside you snapped though. Something more powerful than Fiona's own powers. So for some reason, it released Fiona from you. And a raging Fiona equals to…"

"The bracelet is cursed," I said, after understanding that piece of information. "Or somewhat. I mean, when I don't have it with me, bad things started to happen! We had rats in our apartment. And that's saying something since they are the size of Chihuahuas."

"Seriously?" Nicholas said, looking sincerely interested.

"Yeah, I thought they were going to eat me alive," I mumbled.

"Could've been a coincidence. You don't have it on you and you're not dead right now, right?" Ethan said, looking at Madam Teague for confirmation. She nodded slightly.

I almost did.

"Let's just see how it goes for a few days. And if you do have some sort of bad luck, we'll find what's up with you," Ethan said, his hands moving animatedly. "I'm telling you, it might just be coincidences."

"So…what now…?" I asked, looking from Ethan to Fiona to Madam Teague.

"Now, my dear...you're a fairy."