Page 77 of Beltane

I grimaced, imagining it, but then I shook my head, confused. “I thought the fairy king was immortal.”

“Hmm.” Donnelly nodded. “That doesn’t mean he can’t be hurt. And by that point, he’d been out of Faerie so long, his magic had grown weak. It couldn’t protect him.”

“So what happened?”

“I brought him home, took him to my house on that side of the realm. It wasn’t much, certainly wasn’t fit for the king. Between Siobhan and I, we nursed him back to health.” Donnelly took a long inhale on the smoke before putting his feet back on the ground and sitting upright so he could stab it out in the crystal. “When we brought him back to Faerie, in near-perfect condition, he stood on the platform and proclaimed he owed us his thanks.” Donnelly repeated the same Faero-Gaelic passage that Diana had muttered on the stage the day we’d returned her home safely. A jolt of sheer excitement shot down the center of my chest. “Which essentially means the same thing…except for one tiny detail. The Faero-Gaelic word for thanks has its roots in the same word for favor.” He repeated the sounds, pronouncing each one slowly and phonetically.

I froze, my spine straightening, as I finally understood the point of Donnelly’s story. The queen had stood up in front of her entire population, stared at me, and proudly proclaimed that she owed me a favor. I knew then what I had to do. Donnelly had been right. I couldn’t break the deal…but Diana owed me a favor, and maybe I could persuade her into a new one.

“Fucking hell.” Tears burned at the corners of my eyes before I could blink them back. I cleared my throat and reached across the table to grab his hand, squeezing it in a show of gratitude. “Thank you, Donnelly.”

He snorted. “Don’t you want to know how the story ends?”

I waved my hand in a gesture for him to go on.

“Nearly a hundred years later, I was the one who had been captured on the human side. By this point, the king had gone mad and been cursed to stay in Faerie, but…” He twisted his lips into a curious smile. “With fairy magic, a favor is a favor. A gift is given so that a gift may be received. My magic called to his, despite our distance, despite the different realms, and he sent Finn to find me.”

I struggled to understand the implications of this. What exactly was he trying to say? That I could get out of Faerie? That the queen’s magic would extend across the realms? “But I thought the veil to the human realm was closed. I thought no one could ever back there?”

At that, Donnelly leaned in close and narrowed his brilliant blue eyes. “Aren’t you glad you know someone who can travel through space and time?”

* * *

“MayI have a word with your lady?” I raised an eyebrow at Poppy, who sat outside Diana’s tent like the world’s most unassuming bodyguard, sharpening the blade of her knife on a rock. She’d grown up completely now, her form that of a woman. Sure, she looked about twenty, with big brown eyes and long pale blond hair, but I’d seen her catapult through time and take people to the top of the Sphinx. Poppy may not have lived up to her prophecy in the end, but that didn’t mean she was inconsequential.

“What do you want?” She narrowed her eyes, seemingly both suspicious and disappointed to see me.

“I need to talk to her.”

Poppy put down her weapon with a sigh and stood, crossing her arms over her chest. “The only reason I haven’t gutted you yet is because you risked your life to save Carter.”

“Yeah, and how’d that work out for me?” I raised my eyebrows. “Stuck here for eternity with the likes of you.”

She sneered.

“Who’s there, my child?” came a voice from inside, followed by several giggles in different tones. The white tent flaps pushed aside before the queen emerged, raking her bright eyes over me before curling her mouth into a grin.

“Alexei,” she purred, running the back of her fingers down the side of my face. She looked amazing, her skin radiating the same power and grace I always associated with her, a far cry from the feral, confused woman my uncle had delivered to me before my wedding. “How are you faring in your new circumstances?”

I nodded, stepping back as she pulled her pristine white robes around her shoulders and came closer. Behind her, the king stepped out of the tent, his hair now cropped short to his head and his beard completely shaven. He had a light in his eyes that I’d never seen before, and as his grin grew larger, I realized they were a beautiful shade of dark brown, almost like Miri’s.

“I’m well, thank you.” I glanced between them—their matted hair, their flushed cheeks, their swollen lips. They’d been catching up for days now, and from the looks of it, they hadn’t stopped. Not that I blamed them. Once I got home, I planned to tie all three of my spouses to our bed and take them for a fucking week. “I see you two are reacquainted.”

Alberich’s grin deepened. “He is quite beautiful. How do we know Alexei?”

“That’s a long story, dear.” Diana returned her gaze to me, now much kinder than it had been the last time I’d tried to make a deal with her. Alberich had spent a week learning how to speak multiple languages again, but the queen made no effort to remove the ruby dust from his head. Somewhere deep down inside, that maniacal version of the king still existed. He sat in a tent inside his mind wherever Ivy had locked him away. Instead of retrieving him to heal him, the queen had simply allowed it to continue.

Whether it was retribution for what he’d done to her or that Ivy’s magic was irreversible, I didn’t know. Nor did I care. That motherfucker had raped Miri and tormented Ivy for months. He was lucky amnesia was all he got. If it were up to me, I’d have already sunk a sword into his heart and torn it out to eat it in front of him.

“What can we do for you, Alexei?” Diana’s warm voice brought me back to my request, but something in her eyes made me pause. A playfulness flitted just behind them, making me wonder if she already suspected why I was there.

I continued nonetheless. “When you lost your memory?—”

“You lost your memory?” Alberich gasped and turned to Diana. “You poor thing.”

“It’s okay, love. All over now.” Diana smiled and patted his cheek before returning to me. “Please continue.”

“When you lost your memory, I took care of you. I brought you back to Faerie, back to your right mind.”

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