Page 8 of Beltane

While we walked upstairs, Ivy filled me in on everything that had happened since I last saw her, including the meeting with the fairy who had given us the gift, Siobhan, and the subsequent attack by the fairy king. She had told me most of this already via voicemails over the last few weeks. Then, she explained what happened at the wedding. After suspecting Poppy knew where the queen was, Lex had called his uncle to look for her. Dmitri found the queen roaming his property and captured her to bring her to Lex. That was before the king crashed their party and took Ivy’s siblings.

“I don’t know how I did it,” Ivy said, walking down the hallway to the room at the back. “I told him to leave and he did.”

“You claimed the city,” Lex said, reaching the closed door that led into Ivy’s office.

“I don’t think the rules work like that.” Ivy shook her head. “Either way, now that he has our family, we need to create a game plan.”

“And we need to figure out what to do with her.” Lex opened the door to reveal the queen sitting on Ivy’s desk, leaning back on her arms with her legs crossed. Her long blond hair hung around her shoulders, just as beautiful as the last time I saw it, but she’d lost that vibrance that once made me wilt in her presence. Dressed in Ivy’s powder-blue silk evening gown, she looked like a ghost of her former self, her cheeks sunken, her skin a pale, translucent gray.

What had that monster done to her?

Two guards stood sentry on either side of the desk, their hands behind their backs, stern expressions between their brows. I took a step forward, but the one closest to me straightened.

The queen uncrossed her legs and stood, putting a hand on the guard’s shoulder and muttering something in a language I didn’t understand. He backed down, and the queen smiled, moving toward me. She cupped my cheeks and leaned in, pressing our foreheads together, muttering more confusing syllables.

“Right.” I turned to Ivy. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Alberich did something to her after we took off with Poppy at Samhain.” Ivy rubbed her neck, a neurotic habit she’d had as long as I’d known her. “He blew some kind of ruby dust in her face, whatever that is. Now, she speaks in tongues and touches us like we’re her best friends.”

The queen twirled over to Lex, the skirt of her dress spiraling out around her, and brushed a piece behind his ear. He jerked his head away and gave her a look, but she didn’t react to him, just danced over to Carter and grabbed his hands. She lifted them above her head and ducked under them, giving him a dreamy smile.

“Siobhan and her commander, Finn, told us it was a powerful spell,” Carter said. “But this is…”

“Duneh aburgus!” The queen giggled before twirling around again to face me. She stopped and eyed me like I was a naughty child, tsking through her teeth as she walked closer and mumbled. When she touched me, I froze. My gut clenched and my heart ached, the electrifying reaction so sudden and overwhelming, I nearly folded in on myself.

I had experienced something similar to this before with dying plants, but never this intense. The diseased energy latched on to me like a prisoner reaching out from between iron bars, attempting to yank me into the cell with them. Perhaps, if I let it, I could help her. I’d never heard of ruby dust before, but there had to be a reason why Lex and Ivy couldn’t sense this about her and I could.

The queen stared into my eyes, squeezing my wrist tighter until it pinched. There was something there, and if I focused hard enough, if I stared deep enough, I could access it. It felt likeher—the way she was the last time I’d seen her.

“Miri!” Ivy grabbed the queen’s fingers to tug them away, but when she connected with the queen, intelligence sparked behind those mesmerizing eyes—there for a heartbeat and gone as soon as my connection broke, but I saw it.

Diana spun away, continuing her song as she pranced over to the guards and coaxed one into holding her hand.

“What was that?” Ivy asked, furrowing her brows.

“I don’t know.” I took a deep breath and shook my head, rubbing the nail imprints on my arm. The rest of my energy seeped out of me, that moment with the queen stealing it away. My head pounded, my eyelids weighed a ton, and my knees almost buckled.

“Did she hurt you?” Carter stepped closer, glancing down at the marks, but they weren’t anything serious.

“No, it’s just…” I hesitated because I didn’t trust myself anymore, not with this. I hadn’t been able to keep the thistles up. I couldn’t keep the king out of my memories. I didn’t know what I was talking about anymore.

“I felt it,” Ivy said. “It was like”—she shook her head as she struggled to put it into words—“her.”

“Her?” Lex raised his eyebrows. “The queen?”

Ivy nodded.

“Fuck, do it again.” Lex nudged me forward, but I stopped. Those few milliseconds were draining enough. I didn’t have the strength. I needed to sleep for about a month and eat for another six before I’d try to take her on. There was no time for that.

“We need to take a second to regroup,” Ivy said. “Think through our options.”

“Burgh a come jurgan!” the queen said, giggling and falling back on the couch, kicking her feet up in the air. Clearly, she found herself hilarious.

“Exactly,” I added. “I’ve missed a lot, and I’d like a bath to freshen up.”

“Me too.” Ivy nodded toward the door to the bathroom.

“Oh.” I cleared my throat and glanced at Lex and Carter before dropping my gaze to the ground. “I meant a-a-alone.” I couldn’t let them see me naked, not anymore. If they did, they’d know what I’d done. If they did, they’d guess at the sickness lurking deep inside me.

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