Page 34 of Beltane

“You may ask one question each, and then I shall consider your request fulfilled.” Diana shifted in her seat, sitting up higher, making herself appear bigger and more refined. “Ivette, you may start.”

Ivy looked flabbergasted, her cheeks red, a blush illuminating the X on her neck. “How do we get Alberich out of our realm?”

The queen pursed her lips, seeming to contemplate Ivy’s answer for longer than I would have imagined necessary. Finally, she sighed and narrowed her eyes. “You will need ancient magic to cast him back into Faerie and keep him there.”

“Yes, I know that,” Ivy said. “What’s the spell? Who can cast it?”

Diana sucked in air through her teeth again, a chiding headmistress disciplining the naughty ginger who couldn’t follow rules. “One question per person. Carter, what is it you want to know?”

Carter sighed and shook his head, his eyes darting back and forth. I could almost see the wheels grinding gears as he thought through the most important questions to ask. “Who cast the spell to keep the king out the first time?”

The queen’s cool facade finally cracked at that, her lips curling into a big grin, a high-pitched tinkling sound pouring out of her throat.Is she…is she laughing?Sweet heavens, Romeo had made the queen of fairies burst into hysterics.

“Why, my dear boy.” She shook her head. “You have not figured it out by now?” Her brilliant gaze came to me milliseconds before she said it. “That, I’m afraid, was me.”

My heart dropped into my gut at the realization.

Of course!

It could have only been her. The only one powerful enough to stand up to the king was his equal, the one person who had stood by him through the eternal expanse of time. They could not exist without the other, and in cursing him to his realm, Diana had made the ultimate sacrifice. She didn’t have the same animosity toward humans that her husband did, and in protecting them, she had cast herself from our realm for all of eternity.

“Miriam.” The queen turned her gaze to me, and I gulped. “What question do you have for me?”

Up until now, I had remained as quiet as I could. The queen frightened me, and I suspected she could pulverize all four of us with nothing but a wave of her hand. I should have asked about the upcoming battle and how we could defeat him, but a faint glint in Diana’s gaze spoke to a more mischievous side. Even this deep inside her mind, I sensed the trees calling out to guide me.

In that moment, I empathized with the queen in a way I hadn’t before. The king had screwed with both of our minds, hers more so than mine, but in that similarity, I found an ally. He had made me forget what was likely the worst night of my life. Twice. He’d been messing with Ivy for the whole year, tormenting and taunting her. But for Diana, he had wiped her entire existence. We were victims in his sick game, and based on that look in her eyes, I knew she’d help us no matter what.

She wanted to have a private conversation with Lex for some purpose, but regardless of what came from that, she’d deal with the king because it was her fate to do so. He was hers, and she was his, and whatever he’d done to her would not change that. Therefore, asking about how to stop it was a wasted effort. Whatever would happen would happen.

When I opened my mouth, out poured, “What should I do?”

About Reginald. About my spouses. About how I didn’t know where to go once this was all over, once the king had been returned to his realm and our fairy curses had been broken. The conflict churned so deep inside me that I sensed myself being split in two. I wanted to stay with them, to have my cake and devour it whole, in every sense of that idiom. I wanted to have the Stuart fortune and live contentedly with my spouses. I wanted it all, but had no idea how to get it, and it was tearing me apart.

At that, the queen’s calm demeanor broke, and she sucked in a quick pitying noise before rising from her bed and gliding toward me. She dropped to her knees so close they touched mine, and she cupped my jaw, leaning in so our foreheads touched.

“You will know when the time is right.” Diana kissed the space between my eyebrows, making my skin tingle, both in my mind and in my physical body back at the pub. “Trust yourself and trust your beloveds.”

My heart cracked, forcing a hot wave of desperation up my throat, straight to my eyes. I clenched them shut as tears slid down my cheeks, and when I opened them again, I was back in that dark, decrepit bar, with Carter and Ivy gasping beside me.

Lex, however, still held on to Diana with his eyes glazed over in white.

13

Lex

The last time I’d seen the queen at her full power, she’d threatened to tear my head off my shoulders and put it on a spike so she could kiss my pretty lips every morning. Of course, I’d tried to use my power on her, so maybe I deserved it. The Diana in the abandoned pub with us barely qualified as the same person, but the mental image in this tent? This was the queen of fairies I remembered. She damn near shimmered with subdued might, primed to make good on her previous threat.

When she asked to speak with me privately, I wanted to tell her to fuck right the hell off. Whatever she wanted to say to me would get relayed to my spouses no matter what, so it made no difference whether they were here or not. If the queen of fairies wanted to play chess, I would try my hand. I was older and smarter than the young man she’d met at Samhain. I wouldn’t be so naive as to think I could take her down on my own. So I agreed.

But now that I was facing the error of my hubris, I would admit I had no fucking idea what I was doing. If Diana felt threatened, she’d get defensive, and then I’d never get her back. Hell, she could keep me trapped in her mind for days, weeks, long enough for my body to decay like that fucking town. I had to be careful. Strategic. I had to figure out what she wanted from me and utilize it to my advantage.

“Well, well, well,” I said with a smirk, stepping over the pillows to move closer to her. “Alone at last.”

She pursed her lips and eyed me from head to toe, seemingly unamused by whatever she found.

“What did you have in mind?” I raised my eyebrows and shoved one hand in my pocket. “Do I get a question, too? Or was that my question?” I feigned a gasp and put a finger to my lips. “Don’t want to get cheated.” The queen continued to stare, perhaps waiting for me to dig my grave deeper. “Why are we alone, Diana?”

She hissed in an insulted breath at her given name. Ivy had referred to her asYour Majesty,and Siobhan had always called herMy Lady.Perhaps she had expected the same level of pomp and circumstance from me, but I’d had enough of this charade. In Faerie, she may be the queen, but in the human realm, I was Lex Fucking Fairfax, and that carried more weight.

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