Page 92 of Queen of Ever

‘Oh,that’sall he’s bitter about?’

‘I don’t know why he wanted her kept alive,’ I muttered.‘Seems like he has even more reason than me to want her dead.’

Her mouth twisted in a strange, sad half smile.‘Maybe it’s because he loved her once.Maybe even after what she did to him, he still does.’

It seemed a far-fetched idea, but as I drank in the sight of Imogen’s face in motion after so many hours of praying she would wake, I started to wonder if she might be right.Because if Imogen betrayed me, even in so gruesome a way, I would still love her.Loving her felt like something physical, inevitable, inescapable.She could ruin me and I would love her.If she tried to carve the heart from my chest, I would storm and ache and grieve and love her through my rage.

‘Where is he now?’she continued, brushing back a lock of hair that had fallen in her face, seeming unaware of the way she held me in her thrall.

I cleared the emotion from my throat.‘Helping the rebels.His presence will be enough to put off any more conflict while they’re waiting for us to leave this room and start making decisions.’

A silence settled over us.I ran my thumb across the back of her hand, staring down at the charcoal silk of the sheets and letting her process everything she’d woken up to.The light falling across the bed had turned thick and honey-coloured, which meant another day was slipping away.There would be more knocks on the door soon.They were getting more frequent as the problems requiring answers stacked higher and higher.

‘So, if I’m the… the Seelie Queen,’ she began, and I returned my focus to her face as she struggled with the words, with the idea of being a fae monarch, ‘and you’re the Unseelie King, how does that work for us?’

I sighed heavily, shoulders slumping.We’d reached the crux of the problem already, then.‘It doesn’t.Not under the laws of the land as they currently stand.’

Her gaze flickered between my eyes, like she was searching for an answer to a question she hadn’t asked.

‘They’re already demanding you be returned to Seelie lands so you can be crowned,’ I continued.‘I made a lot of people very angry by bringing you here.And the amendment is still in place, so we aren’t protected from conflict by the treaty.If the Seelie forces were to rally, they could invade.’

‘And if I go to them, you can’t come with me, can you?’

‘No.’

Her eyes were glistening again.

‘It’s okay,’ I said, chaffing her hand between mine.

‘But it’s not.You’re saying we have to separate.’Her words were coming out thick, her chin quivering.‘I rule the sun court, you the night.And then what, we get to meet on the bridge across the Sunder?Is it just Beltane I’ll be able to see you, or is there another festival that brings the courts together?’She inhaled sharply, almost sobbed.‘Nothing about that is okay, Tarian.’

Rising from the chair, I sat on the bed beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, hugging her close.‘It doesn’t have to be that way.We have choices.’

‘Tell me it’s a choice that doesn’t involve more fighting.’She turned her face up to me, eyes pleading.‘I can’t watch more people die for me.’

Well, we didn’t havechoices.We hadoneother choice.But she wasn’t going to like it.‘We don’t have to figure this out now,’ I said.‘You’ve just woken up.You need rest.The last thing you need to be worrying about is this.’

But she pulled out of my arms, drawing her legs up to sit cross-legged before me.‘What I need is to know I don’t have to say goodbye to you.’

‘Alright,’ I conceded.She clearly wasn’t going to let this go.‘Being gifted Oberon’s magic means you had the right to challenge foreitherthrone.You were able to challenge Solas.It also means you could challenge me.’

If she had any idea what I’d been about to say, it was clear she hadn’t been expecting that.She squinted her eyes, like she wasn’t seeing me right.‘I couldwhat?’

‘Challenge me for the Unseelie throne,’ I reiterated.Her jaw slackened, mouth popping open.‘Wear both crowns.’

She was shaking her head.‘I don’t even want to be queen ofonekingdom.’Her voice came out almost a squeak.A bubble of hysterical laugher escaped her.‘And, what, I’d have tofightyou?’

‘I’d never fight you, Imogen.I’d surrender.’

She sobered up very quickly at that.She studied me long and hard, mouth pressed into a tight line, eyes flicking across my face like she was trying to read my thoughts.

‘Ask me,’ I prompted.

‘Would you really do that?Surrender your throne to me?’

‘Yes.’A simple answer for a simple question.

She inhaled sharply.‘But… what if…’ She trailed off, seeming unable to find the end of her sentence.

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