The next morning Isabelle was at the book store before it opened, waiting to accost Bernie before he could get wrapped up in anything and try to dodge her questions.
"Isabelle," he greeted her warmly. "Did everything go well last night?"
"Sort of." She stood up from the bench that was just outside the front door of the store. "I need to talk to you."
He unlocked the door and ushered her ahead of him. "Is something wrong?"
"I'm not sure yet. I have to go see my doctor first."
"Doctor?" He smiled and moved to take her hands. "So it's true then?"
She shrugged absentmindedly, still in a daze from the queen's revelation. "Wait." Her hands tightened on his. "Did she tell you?"
"Lock the door dear. We should talk."
"I'll say." She flipped the deadbolt and then followed him to the back office. "Bernie, what's going on?"
"Have you figured out how to open it?" He waved at the chair in front of the desk. She sat down quickly.
"I didn't get a chance to look at it. I was a little busy," she murmured.
"Yes, I suppose you would have been." He patted her shoulder.
She watched him walk around the desk. "How do you know the queen?"
He smiled and looked at her for a moment. "I suppose you do have a right to the whole story." She sat quietly as he took off his jacket. "I'm sorry I've had to lie to you but not many humans can be trusted with the truth."
"The truth about what?" Her eyes went wide as he seemed to expand in front of her. "What the hell?" His posture straightened, he seemed to grow six inches taller and twenty years younger.
His hands moved to the buttons on his shirt, he shrugged it off his shoulders and let it fall to his waist. He turned in the cramped little room to show her what he'd been hiding.
Silvery gray wings were folded and tucked against his back.
"Holy shit! You're one of them," she breathed.
"Not quite," he said while pulling his shirt back into place. "I'm half faerie." He turned back to her buttoning up his shirt. "My father was human."
She breathed a little sigh of relief. "So it is possible to have a healthy baby."
Bernie transformed back into the form she was used to and took a seat at the desk. "From what I've been told there aren't many of us, kind of a rarity, but yes."
"I don't understand." She sat forward in her seat. "Alasdair got the witches daughter pregnant and now possibly me. Who know how many more women he was successful with."
"You're the only one that the queen is aware of and you can trust that she would know how many grandchildren she has out there." He shook his head. "That girl was already pregnant when she met Alasdair. Are you alright?" She'd gone pale as he spoke.
"You said grandchildren," she whispered.
"He didn't tell you?"
"That he's a prince? Uh no. I'm pretty sure I would remember if he had." She ran her hands through her hair. "Will you please tell me what's going on?"
"I assume he told you how he came to be trapped in the book?" She nodded. "Well the truth was, like I said, that girl was already pregnant. She was probably looking for a way to trap the poor boy into something but he'd already gone before she could put any plans in motion. Before anyone could get to her mother and explain what had happened it was too late. She wouldn't listen to reason, the book was gone, sold to a lord passing through the village. He, after discovering the true contents, gave it to a rival lord as a gift." His hands waved back and forth as he spoke. "We did manage to get the amulet though. The queen has had it all this time. You brought it with you?"
"Of course." She nodded at her backpack where she had set it on the floor next to the desk. "So the book disappeared?"
"Yes, passed from owner to owner till I tracked it down in Germany a few hundred years ago. I've been holding onto it for safe keeping ever since."
"Until you sold it to me. Clearly that wasn't an accident." He smiled. "So what was it then?"
"No one has found a way to open the amulet so it's been suggested that it might require something more."
"Something more?" She tilted her head. He tapped his chest softly. She stood up quickly. "What's wrong with you people? You can't just put a book in front of someone and expect them to fall in love."
Except that they had and you did. She thought with a little shake of her head.
"We didn't expect anything. But I sure as hell hoped," Bernie said.
"Why?" She wiped at her eyes. "So I can end up alone again? That's just cruel."
He came around the desk to take her shoulders in his hands. "That was never my intention." He rubbed gently, bending his knees to look at her straight on. "How long have you known me?"
"Six years."
"And have you ever known me to be cruel to anyone?"
"No," she mumbled. "But it looks like I haven't really known you after all."
"I'm still the same person I was yesterday, just with a more interesting heritage." She snorted softly. "The only thing I was hoping for was that you'd find some happiness. I saw what losing John did to you." He pulled her into his arms.
"But what am I supposed to do now? I may be pregnant and if I can free him I wouldn't expect him to stay with me. I'll be alone again, with a baby."
"Hey." His hands rubbed her back. "Even if that does happen, which I doubt, you'll never be alone."
"Thank you." She sniffed softly.
"Do you want to have a look at the amulet with me?"
She nodded and bent to grab her backpack off the floor. She pulled the silver disc out of the front pocket. "Can you read it?"
He took it from her outstretched hand. "I can but I memorized it years ago." He turned it over in his hand. "It says 'That which has been torn asunder by death once reborn is the key.' Do you have the book?" She pulled it out of the bag and laid it next to him on the desk.
"It's literally the square peg in a round hole except the exact opposite," she said quietly. "Do you have any idea how to make it work?"
"We've never found a mechanism to open it. It must need something else, something mystical."
"An incantation?"
"Possibly. We've never found the right one though." He handed the amulet back to her.
"So we're no closer to finding a solution." She slid the book back into the backpack and set the amulet in with it. "I should get going. I have an appointment with the doctor."
"I hope it's good news." He patted her shoulder. "A child is a blessing my dear."
She looked up at him. "Can you do me a favor?" He tilted his head in question. "I've been thinking about it all morning. I want to wait to tell him. If I can figure out that damned amulet and get him out of there I don't want him to feel that he has to stay with me for her."
"Isabelle—"
"He deserves a chance to choose. I won't free him from one prison to force him into another." He opened his mouth to say something. "Please? And can you ask the queen to keep it to herself?"
"Alright." He answered softly. "Will you let me know how it goes?"
