Page 38 of Beltane

“Wait!” Ivy rushed to catch up with her, and Carter, of course, went after Ivy, leaving me alone with my prince of darkness, who at this moment fit that role entirely too well. His eyebrows furrowed together in a brooding mix of concern and hesitation, and I desperately wished I had Ivy’s gift so I could hop behind those big hazel eyes and figure out what had him so perplexed.

“What did she say?” I asked.

Lex blinked and smirked, hiding away his displeasure as he threw an arm over my shoulder, pulling me in close so he could whisper in my ear. “She wanted to have a good fuck before she went back to her husband.”

I narrowed my eyes and looked up at him, a jealous heat licking its way down my chest despite how much I didn’t believe him.He’s screwing with me.

“But I told her I’m a married man.” Lex smiled against my ear and gave me a tender kiss. “And I wouldn’t betray my princess like that.”

Of course, the queen wouldn’t want Lex, of all people, certainly not after the way he disrespected her twice. But he’d lied, and that intrigued me. What exactly was he covering for? I thought we were all on the same page now, no more hiding secrets from each other. What happened to that?

Siobhan’s warning rattled around in my mind. We’d have to make a sacrifice. We still didn’t know what that meant, but a sickening idea dripped down into my gut, souring and twisting until I didn’t want to keep going. Lex would only lie to protect me…to protect us. If he thought he was doing that, then perhaps the sacrifice was more personal than we anticipated.

“Alexei,” I murmured, turning to face him. “Please don’t keep this from us. If there’s something we need to know, something we need to plan for?—”

He cut me off with a quick kiss. “C’mon, Princess. We’ve run out of time and we need to catch up.” Lex grabbed my hand and tugged me along behind him, my mind spinning while we raced through the woods.

“Help us,”the trees hissed. “Help, help, help.”

I shook that off, grimacing at their pain while I tried not to trip over the undergrowth. Drums roared in the distance, louder and more intimidating than I’d ever heard them before. Memories of a hot Midsummer night drifted up from the depths of my mind, when a twenty-two-year-old version of me had wandered this same path with Lex. Trepidation had lanced my heart, then, too, but for very different reasons.

We had once thought all of this was over after we graduated from college, that we would go our separate ways and never see each other again. We had been such idiots.

My father used to say history didn’t repeat itself, it rhymed, and I laughed to myself at the irony of that statement as we crested the hill and joined Ivy and Carter on top. Staring down into that valley, I went back to that first night at Midsummer. How long ago that seemed from today, despite only being four years. We had lived for ages since then, no longer the wide-eyed twenty-two-year-old versions of ourselves, so innocent and naive to the trials that lay ahead of us. If I could go back to that day and tell myself to run, would I?

For as much suffering as we’d been through, for all the terrible things I’d survived, I didn’t think I would. I’d do it again if it meant I got to have my beloveds at the end. I knew then that I wouldn’t leave them when this was over. I had to stay, Reginald and my grandparents and the royal family be damned. I wasn’t the first or even the second to abdicate my title, and I likely wouldn’t be the last.

I gripped the ruby dust harder in my pocket, making sure it was still there, and took a deep breath as my eyes adjusted to the sight in the valley. Four huge bonfires flickered in either corner, their flames licking into the night while crowds of people danced around them. A giant maypole stood in the center, bodies weaving back and forth while they screamed with laughter. Maybe a hundred people had filled the small space four years ago, but now the entire town participated in the festival. They had abandoned their lives for this. How long had they been here?

Bodies crammed the tiny area, moving like a sea of flesh, hypnotizing and horrifying at the same time. A tremble skated down my spine, matching the churning anxiety in my gut. I felt like an intruder, like we’d stumbled onto something ancient, sacred, and overpowering, something we barely understood and had no business trifling with.

When the queen nodded at the party with a giant smile, I glanced to Ivy and Lex to make sure I understood what she meant.

“What? Go down there?” I blinked back my incredulity.

“We need to find Siobhan, Finn, and the others.” She looked at Lex before shifting her gaze to Ivy. “But beware of the magic. It is very…intoxicating…this time of year.”

I sighed and tried to ignore the thrill in her piercing stare.

15

Carter

Cool spring air nipped at my cheeks while we walked through the crowd, contrasting the sharp bite of flames as they licked off the nearby fire. Bodies surrounded me, dancing and writhing on either side. Most had painted their faces in various shades of pinks and purples, and I narrowed my gaze on someone who had an epic snake twisting down their cheek and around their neck.

It reminded me of Midsummer on steroids, everyone so deeply entrenched in the party that they seemingly forgot about the rest of the world. The heavy stink of fairy magic coated my tongue in thick, euphoric waves, rushing down my throat every time I inhaled. Diana said to beware of that sensation, and Good Lord, she was right. It went straight to my brain, making me dizzy and hyper in all the right ways.

Clenching my eyes shut, I shook my head for a moment, hoping for a reprieve when I opened them again, but the revelry remained. Half-naked people surrounded me, laughing and roaring with joy. Drums beat loudly into the night, matching my pounding heart, and when a cool hand slipped into mine, I was thankful for the jolt back to reality.

“You okay?” Weeds asked, smiling at me.

I nodded and leaned down to kiss her, relishing in the soft feel of her mouth opening up to me. I could have stayed there and devoured her for the rest of my life, but we had a banshee, a lieutenant, and a commander to find.

“You think they already went ahead to Faerie?” I winced at the thought and continued to move through the crowd, meeting eyes with Lex and Miri a few yards away as they continued their search.

“No.” Ivy took a deep breath and ran a hand over her face. “They wouldn’t have left us behind. They would have come back for us.” She held up the ivy ring Siobhan had given her. “At the very least, she would have contacted me to let me know. They have to still be here.”

“If they came through the party, I can see why they would have gotten stuck.” Another wave of tantric power rushed through me, zinging my molecules awake. I suddenly wanted to grab Lex, Ivy, and Miri, find a private corner, and lick every inch of their skin until I had my fill. “It’s uh…overwhelming.”

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