Fey/Fae is the original word. Fairy is a term derived from it that's often used in the context of stories for kids from the Victorian era because it makes them sound more cutesy and gentle.
You've basically got it the wrong way around. I use Fey in my comic because that's the original term, and in making my comic, I wanted to feel some connection to my ancestors (which many English don't, a lot of our ancient culture was wiped away by the Angles, Saxons and Normans.) I'm not trying to "make fairies sexy", I'm simply ignoring the fact that the Victorians sanitised Fey and reduced them to cute little things that don't do anything.
My Celtic and Norse ancestors believed in powerful otherworldly spirits called Fey/Fae, or Alfs/Elves. Not necessarily strictly good or evil beings, who could bring wisdom or just ruin your day, especially if you did inadvisable crap like wandering into the forest alone, or messing with toadstools. Sometimes the Fey would steal children and replace them with their own; these were called "Changelings", and it was often how people of that era would explain stuff like Neurodiversity. You need to keep in mind, that to those ancient people a "fairy" wasn't necessarily some little tinkerbell style thing, they were often almost like angels; think of the fairies in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" who are human-sized, mischeivous and sexy and have politics and stuff.
King Arthur's sister, Morgana, was part fey, and helped him against the wicked cambion, Merlin, and raised one of his best knights, Lancelot. Arthur also got his legendary sword Excalibur from a fairy queen called Nimue. This is key stuff I used for the basis of my comic's plot, and I chose to use "Fey" because if I used "Fairy" people would think more "Tinkerbell" when I'm thinking more... I dunno, David Bowie in Labyrinth (Goblins are a type of fey in Celtic mythology) and because it's.... you know... what they're called?