Page 42 of Beltane

Trembles skated down my spine and up the back of my skull, and I hugged myself tighter, feeling the weight of the ruby dust in my pocket. Pressure sat on my chest, warring emotions bubbling up inside of me. But I sensed it, that dark presence over the crest of the valley. It rattled through me, an icy wind on the worst winter day, freezing my nerve endings.

Run,a part of me hissed.

Fight,cried the other.

The trees were wrong. “He’s already here,” I whispered, more to myself than anyone else, but Carter heard me.

“What?” He ducked down so he could be eye level with me. “Did you just say he’s here?”

“Little Thistle.”Alberich’s voice echoed through the bristling leaves like a monster calling out to its prey.“Have you missed me?”

I grimaced and grabbed my head, shaking it to get him out.

Imagine your fortress. Go to your tower.

I mentally stood inside the stone walls of my safe space, reinforcing the thick walls with my energy. He couldn’t get me here. He couldn’t?—

“Little Thistle,” his deep, wicked voice called from outside the cinderblock walls. “I can smell you. You can’t run from me; you never could. And after we had so much fun together.”

No.

He couldn’t reach me here.

He’s a monster, and I’m the princess who has to save herself.

Hands clamped around my cheeks, dragging me back to reality and forcing my gaze into Ivy’s steel-gray counterparts.

“I hear him, too.” She nodded, imploring me to stay strong. “You’re not alone. Stay with me.”

For one heartbreaking moment, I considered running. She was wrong; we weren’t the same. He had pinpointed me for some reason. He had attackedme.Perhaps it had been because I was easy to attack; perhaps I would always be easy to attack.

“Remember how strong we are together,”Ivy whispered inside my head, suddenly standing next to me in my stone tower. Because we were soul mates, because we’d built this tower together, she could come and go as she pleased. I gave her permission. She wrapped her hand in mine, squeezing my fingers tighter, almost to the point where it hurt. But it was a painful reminder that I simply couldn’t fight him alone. Not anymore. I never could. I needed them.“Remember that I love you.”

She loved me, and I loved her…I loved them all. I would do anything to protect them.

Adding Ivy to my safe space warned him off, and his presence retreated, allowing me to focus on the present.

Diana eyed me warily, a deeper knowledge passing just behind her eyes. I would have given anything to be able to read that expression and know what she knew. Instead of explaining, she gave us a small, almost pitying smile and said, “I have sent Poppy ahead to Faerie, but I believe it’s time we headed home as well.” Then, she took off into the tree line, the same that had once led to the creek we bathed in on Midsummer.

Following the queen into her native realm hardly compared to the first two times we’d done it. At Midsummer, we had been so intoxicated on fairy wine and Siobhan’s gift, we’d stumbled into a different realm without knowing it. At Samhain, we’d heard ghosts in the woods, voices from our dead loved ones that called us to the realm like sirens, beckoning us to what should have been our deaths. This time, Diana floated over the undergrowth, her white robes nearly glowing in the moonlight, her long golden hair alive and electrifying with magic.

The queen held her hands out as she walked, streaks of pale shimmering wisps cascading behind her, coating the forest floor with life and vitality. In response, what remained of the plant life perked to attention, soaking in her wild essence as if the very proximity could heal their wounds.

Perhaps it could. Diana had once called herself the Great Source. Everything and all of it existed within her. Carter’s words then rushed back to me.

If we’re like them, they’re like us.

“My lady,” Siobhan said, interrupting my train of thought as she rushed by me to get to Diana. “The battle maidens and theFiannawill be standing by in Faerie. We are all with you.”

The queen turned to Siobhan and ran a hand down her cheek, tenderness in her eyes. “Thank you, Siobhan. Tell them to prepare. We will need a show of strength. I will need their energy.”

The banshee straightened her spine, shifting her shoulders and nodding as the weight of the queen’s words settled around her.

“He is alone.” The queen kept walking, her magic continuing to pulse and swirl from her palms. It reminded me of the king’s dark tendrils in the way that it moved like mist and engulfed anything it touched. But the king had always terrified me, his magic entrancing people, making them think and believe whatever he wanted.

The white light emanating from the queen’s fingertips soothed me, reaching down inside to find the most rotten part, the piece that believed I shouldn’t be here. It wrapped itself around the shattered remains and stitched it back together, throbbing as if giving me a spiritual hug.

“My dear girl.”Diana’s voice spoke inside my mind, her tone that of a mother soothing a child with a skinned knee. I glanced around, thinking she had said out loud, but she continued to talk to Siobhan like nothing else had happened, her attention remaining on her banshee soldier.“Stay strong. It is almost the end.”

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