Page 41 of Beltane

The ridges of his scars bubbled against the rest of his smooth skin, and I caressed them, remembering the night they’d been made. How his eyes had shimmered in the Midsummer twilight sky, how he’d tasted like shame and devotion, how much I had envied him for getting to marry Ivy while being jealous of Ivy for getting to have him as well. I dug my thumbnail into those jagged lines.

Until the end.

The end hadn’t come yet. I still needed him.

“Wake up, DC.”

He grimaced, trying to pull his hand away from mine, and when I wouldn’t let him, he attempted to smack my cheek. I gripped his wrist millimeters away from my face to stop him, digging my nails into that skin, too.

“Ow, fuck!” Lex groaned and attempted to yank away from me again, but I pressed my thumb harder into his scars, my nail almost breaking the flesh.

“Come back to me, Alexei Fairfax. You promised me until the end, and I mean to hold you to that.” My voice grew darker as it went on, seeming to come from some despicable part of my soul. “Come back to me.”

Lex blinked, his jaw falling open, and he let out a sharp gasp.

“Fuck,” he said, looking around. “Fuck, how long have we been out?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But we need to get the others and get out of here. Now.”

16

Miri

Icame back to reality with a start, homing in on a bright indigo stare.

“There she is,” Carter said, holding me to his chest. “There’s my Juliet.”

Tears streaked down my cheeks as I clenched my eyes shut and gripped Carter tighter, praying that this was a nightmare, that I’d wake up back at our cabin on Solstice and remember none of this was real. When I opened them again, I focused on a woman and a man clawing at each other in a desperate frenzy, their nails dripping with each other’s blood.

“Oh, God,” I cried, closing my eyes again. “What the bloody hell is happening?”

“It’s okay,” Carter said, holding me tighter while Ivy tried to wake Siobhan by smacking her.

“Are they tearing each other to pieces?” I tried to keep my voice stable, but it trembled anyway.

“Yeah,” Carter said. “Just…don’t look.”

Instead, I watched Ivy put her hands on Siobhan’s head to enter her mind. A few moments later, the fairy blinked back to reality and Donnelly soon followed. The weight of the magic in the air pressed in on me from all directions, coaxing me under its spell. I wanted to let it. I wanted to fall under and let it consume me, never to wake up again. I assumed that had to do with the fairy magic as well. Ambrosia had been designed by the Gods to make a person never want to leave Olympus.

I had to stay strong. My beloveds needed me. I had to see this through.

“Fuck,” Siobhan groaned, clutching at her head. “What day is it?”

“Beltane,” Ivy told her. “We need to move.”

“Two days!” Donnelly groaned. “We lost two days?”

“This isn’t normal magic,” Siobhan said, glancing around. “It’s been corrupted.” Her stern brown gaze found Ivy’s. “How did it go? Did you fix my lady?”

Ivy nodded, but ran a hand over her neck when she focused on Finn arguing with Diana in the distance. “She’s back, but I wouldn’t say she’s on our side.”

Siobhan and Donnelly turned in time to see Finn walking back with the queen, her hair as wild as the rest of the party, sticking out at all ends. She looked feral, as much a beast as anyone else here.

“I’m unable to break the spell,” Diana said, gesturing around. “This is powerful magic, ancient. We best let it be.”

“We have to help them.” I swallowed down my disgust at the carnage, at how what had once been festive and joyous had turned so wretchedly violent and horrendous. Groans of ecstasy mixed with screams of pain, the sounds of tearing muscle and cracking bone mixing with the first stirrings of summer wildlife. “We can’t let them destroy themselves.”

“Help us,”the trees called again, stealing my attention from the queen’s response. I glanced behind me, branches rustling in the wind, just barely audible over the crowd.“He is coming. He is coming.”

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