Page 19 of Beltane

“Siobhan said it was the four of us that ended this, right?” Miri asked.

“In the end, it’s the four of us,” I confirmed.

No one said anything for a long moment while we processed that. Could we bring him down? Could four measly humans do what had taken a powerful fairy to accomplish ages ago? Based on what we’d done thus far, we’d have better luck landing on the moon.

“Us being back together again means something, definitely,” I said, “but if we’re going to get rid of the king, we should start with the queen.”

“I’ve tried to use my magic on her. So did Ivy. It doesn’t work.” Lex shook his head.

“I felt something when I touched her yesterday,” Miri explained.

Ivy raised her eyebrows. “Felt what?”

Miri shrugged. “I don’t quite know. But I got a glimpse…a hint of something. Should we try?” Miri glanced between us. “Should we go upstairs and put our hands on the queen to see what happens?”

As if summoned by talking about her, Diana coasted down the stairs with one hand on the banister, giving her an angelic ambiance. Power and decadence radiated off her in powerful waves, but nowhere near as strong as it had once been.

She smiled and asked us something in her strange language before twirling around the table and opening the fridge to retrieve a juice box we kept there for Poppy. She opened the straw and slammed it into the hole, glancing up when she noticed all of us staring. Inquisitive, she made a bright sound and walked over to the table. “Dune-shatcha-thee?”

Diana put a hand on Lex’s shoulder, giving him a tender look that reminded me of the incredulous one she’d given us in Faerie the first time we met her. She’d mentioned cutting off his pretty head to hang on a spike in her tent if he tried to use his magic on her again. Even as she said the words, her eyes echoed with amusement and fascination. That same expression lingered there now, the one that was curious about Lex and wanted to know more.

“Are we doing this?” Ivy asked.

Lex answered that by giving the queen a gentle grin and taking her hand to bring her knuckles to his lips for a respectful kiss. I moved closer, putting my hand over his. Ivy and Miri did the same, and we stood in a circle next to the queen, all of us linked with her.

“Tell me the truth,”Lex said. “Are you still in there?”

Tightness squirmed in my chest, creeping up my spine and over my scalp. It was the same kind of tingling that coated my skin anytime we crossed over into Faerie.Magic.It pulsed between us like an electric current, bright and sharp and potent. My knees almost buckled as the shock hit me in the gut.

“Fuck.” I leaned over the table to hold myself up. A thunderous vibration shot down my legs, churning in my stomach, almost like when I let myself play poker, like luck was literally on my side, effervescent and overwhelming. I drank it in, pulling whatever it was over us, washing us with its majesty. We’d need it. We’d need all the help we could get. The bond between us burst open, pumping power through my veins and all around us like a hurricane. The queen moaned and tried to pull away, but Lex held her tighter.

“Let me in,” Ivy said. “Just let me in.”

“I can feel it,” Miri said. “The sickness. The evil. Whatever he did to her, it’s gripping her tight.”

“Tell me,”Lex bellowed again. “Are you in there?”

Diana shouted out in anguish and ripped her hand away, clutching it with her other fingers. Her guards rushed down the stairs at the sound of her scream. Where once they had worked for Lex, protecting her because his Uncle Dmitri had ordered them to, now they seemed like she had transfixed them. She spoke to them in her strange language, and they did her bidding, which suited us fine as long as they didn’t turn on us.

Diana didn’t say anything, just glanced between the four of us with narrowed eyes and pursed lips. She didn’t seem mad, at least not now that she realized she was safe. She was more confused, her eyebrows furrowed and her lips slightly parted. Then, she turned on her heels and marched upstairs, muttering something low under her breath.

“Did it work?” I hissed, glancing at the other three, arguably the most powerful out of the four of us. “Did we fix her?”

Ivy grimaced and ran a hand over her neck. “I don’t think so.”

“Fuck,” Lex snapped, rubbing his face.

“She’s better,” Miri said with a small nod. “We helped.”

“How can you tell?” I didn’t feel any different, and the queen hadn’t suddenly returned to her old self.

Miri shrugged and said, “I can see it,” before heading outside to the porch.

I looked at Ivy, who gave me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before following our princess. Lex met my gaze with a cynical one of his own. It was true that Miri had some connection to their realm that we didn’t understand. When we were in Faerie, she could tell who was fairy and who was human. She said the trees talked to her, told her things about her life that turned out to be true.

If she said we’d helped the queen, I believed her. But I also worried about our princess. I didn’t know what strain this was putting on her, and I didn’t want to lose her. Never again.

* * *

---