Page 35 of Beltane

I bowed to no one, not anymore.

“I wanted to speak to you about what’s to come.”

“Hmm.” I glanced around, noticing some of the pillows had disappeared while we’d been talking. Her bed no longer looked as opulent, and the plush surroundings had started fading away to reveal the wooden planks underneath.

She held her head higher, her back straighter. “If I were to help you defeat the king, it would require a sacrifice.”

“Yes, I know.” I ran a finger over my eyebrow, another slice of uneasiness slithering down the center of my chest. “Siobhan told us we would need to give something up, something significant.”

Fuck that.

But the scared look in Diana’s eye told me she wasn’t screwing around. If whatever she had to say terrified someone as powerful and fearsome as her, then it would be in my best interests to be at least hesitant about that same thing. This upcoming battle with the king would come with a hefty price, and until now, I hadn’t truly considered what that might be.

Now, though…now, she had my attention.

“Cursing him to Faerie cost me that which I loved the most, my connection to the human realm.” Her voice cracked, and she blinked back a single shimmering tear. I stood frozen because it was a miraculous sight to see. Spending the last few days with her rarest form had convinced me that, deep down, she was just another soul like everyone else. But now that I saw that glimpse of emotion from her powerful alter ego, I almost felt sorry for her.

Almost.

Let us not forgetshewas the one who shoved Poppy into Carter’s arms. She was the one who had caused the rift with the king in the first place. This was all because she couldn’t sort out her shit with her husband. Apparently, marriage was a fucking trap ineveryrealm of existence.

“Are you prepared to make such a decision?” Diana raised her eyebrows higher on her head, circling me while she spoke, like a snake preparing to strike. “When it comes to your life or that of Ivette, or Miriam, or Carter…which choice will you make?”

That was easy. I would die a thousand times for any of them. To save my spouses from whatever the king might have tucked away in his magical hat of horrors, I would do a hell of a lot worse.

“What if you had to choose between them? What if you could only save Ivette, or Miriam, or Carter?” Diana’s calculating gaze narrowed as she came to stand in front of me again.

My heartbeat sped up, but I took a deep breath to hide my reaction. If I could only save one of them, I would sacrifice myself to save them all. But then I thought back to what Carter had said yesterday. If they were like us, we were like them. We could not survive without each other.

“That wouldn’t happen.” I was so sure of it, the rightness settled in my gut as I said it. “The gift can’t survive without us all. If one of us were to die, we would all die.”

She pursed her lips. “Is that what you believe?”

“That’s what Ashley and Siobhan told us.”

“Hmm.” Diana made a small laughing sound deep in her chest. “And yet you want to gut my husband alive and watch him bleed to death.”

Yep. Sure did. “He abducted our family. He’s been haunting Ivy for months. He did something to Miri.” Likely raped her, or worse. He had erased it from her memory, wielding it over her like blackmail, as if she didn’t have the right to her own sovereignty. “He’s fucking with their minds.”

She nodded. “Yes, he is.”

“He deserves to pay for that.”

“Yes, he does.”

Confused, I furrowed my brows and shrugged. “I don’t see what the problem is.”

“If you kill him, you will kill me, too.”

“And you speak ofmysacrifice?” I let out an incredulous whistle. “Your Majesty, your worshipfulness, all due respect, but if it takes putting you down to get rid of him, that’s what I’ll fucking do.”

She hissed again at my language, shaking her head as she eyed me. “You are lucky we are alone. If any in my court heard you say such things to me, they would have your tongue as an ornament.”

“I was curious why you wanted to speak with me privately.”

“Because you are the epicenter,” she said. “You are my contrast. Just as Ivette is to Alberich. It’s why he’s taken such an interest in her. Miriam, too, of course. And I would be remiss if I did not mention how beautiful Carter has become. I suspect Alberich and I would fight over him, if it came down to it.” She sighed and shook her head, obviously frustrated with how little we had figured out on our own. “But you…Oh, Alexei. I have been watching you for such a long time.”

That made me pause and straighten my shoulders. What did she mean by that?

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