12. Miri
12
Miri
“D iana?” I reached out to pull the canvas aside, but she suddenly appeared through the crack, a tall, statuesque example of power and poise. The queen emanated strength, all of the magic that resided deep inside her presence. Her long blond hair had been braided down the side of her body, decorated with flowers and shrubs, and her bright pale gaze pierced through me, down to my very soul.
“Miriam,” she said before glancing behind me. “Ivette. Carter. Alexei. It is time. I have been waiting for centuries.” She turned and walked inside the tent with a silent invitation for us to follow her.
Glancing over my shoulder, I raised my eyebrows at my spouses before proceeding.
From the outside, the tent looked like nothing more than a ten by ten white rectangle. But once we were inside, I understood it must have been charmed to appear smaller than it was. Decorative pillows and furry plush bedding lined the space on either side with enough room for an entire army to sleep comfortably. Big white rocks created a pathway down the middle, leading to the enormous platform at the back, where Diana sat on a raised mattress covered in stuffed animals, pillows, and cushioned blankets. She had created a nest for herself, tucked this deeply in her mind, and now we might have to drag her out by her fairy wings.
“You’ve been waiting centuries, huh?” Lex stepped in front of me, glancing around as he shoved his hands inside his pockets. “It must feel that way.”
“Your Majesty,” Ivy said, coming to stand next to him before giving Diana a bow. “We needed to reach you.”
The queen tilted her chin up, the very essence of regal propriety and elitism. She stared down her nose while she made a small huff, like we hadn’t done enough, like we hadn’t worked as quickly as she wanted, which was total bollocks. Ivy and Lex had sheltered and clothed her after his uncle discovered her hiding space. We’d done nothing but treat her with respect. Didn’t we deserve the same?
“We are long overdue for a talk.” Diana gestured to the pillows at the end of her bed, indicating we should come and sit with her. I hesitantly took a step forward, pursing my lips as I considered whether she could hurt us in this place. We were mentally linked, and certainly she could do to us whatever the king had done to her. But I didn’t think she would. She seemed just as apprehensive of us as we were of her. Besides, I believed Ivy was powerful enough to yank us back if she needed to.
I took the spot in the middle, followed by Carter and Ivy on either side of me. Lex stayed behind us, seemingly on edge. Not that I blamed him. The queen had always been terrifying.
“You’ve been taking care of Poppy since I gave her to you on Samhain.” The queen narrowed her gaze as she spoke.
Carter nodded. “Yes. She is…remarkable.”
Diana smiled and hummed appreciatively. “Yes. Remarkable.”
That was one way to put it. I might use different adjectives…but to each their own. We just needed to get Diana to the surface again, physically, if necessary. She couldn’t go on as the amnesiac fairy formerly known as the queen. We needed her power on our side.
“Your Highness,” Ivy cut in, “the king is in the human realm. He’s put a curse on you and abducted some of our family members. We need your help?—”
“My help.” Diana cut her off with a raised eyebrow, her spine straightening. “What makes you think I wish to return with you, much less assist you in such an endeavor?”
Ivy opened her mouth, but nothing came out. I had suspected this might be the case. Look at this cozy space. After suffering the embarrassment of being cursed and bewitched by her husband, why would she want to face anyone again? No one stopped him. No one helped her. No one except us.
“Quite arrogant to bust into my mind and make demands, do you not think?” The queen tsked her teeth a few times before zeroing her attention on Lex behind us. “Alexei, what do you have to say for yourself?”
He snorted. “I wanted to string Alberich up and gut him alive on national television, but something tells me you wouldn’t be on board with that idea, either.”
Her puffy ethereal lips quirked, almost pulling into a smile before she recovered her stoic facade. “No, I should think not.”
“We didn’t mean to assume,” Carter said, bowing his head in deference. “We were simply hoping, and perhaps praying, you might answer a few questions. That’s all.”
Oh, sweet heartfelt Carter. He could charm the world into doing whatever he wanted. I truly believed that. Again, the queen hummed, this time in amusement. We must have seemed so insignificant to her, like nothing more than puny humans asking to be squashed like bugs.
“Fine,” Diana finally said, her eyes narrowing on Lex again. “I will answer your questions. But in return, Alexei will answer mine.” A twitch near her right eye sent a small tremor of fear down the center of my chest. “Privately.”
“No bloody way—” I started at the same time Ivy burst out, “Absolutely not.”
“Fine,” Lex agreed with hardly any hesitation. I gasped, looking over my shoulder to get him to take it back, but his gaze was set on the queen, reminding everyone why he was the strongest of us. I remembered the first thing I’d ever learned about fairies—don’t piss them off and don’t make deals with them. What you asked for wasn’t nearly as important as what you didn’t.
“DC,” Carter said, looking at Lex with a shake of his head.
“You want me alone? All you had to do was ask.” Lex winked at the queen, but she showed no response, simply glared harder.
“Lex, knock it off,” Ivy hissed.
“You may ask one question each, and then I shall consider your request fulfilled.” Diana shifted in her seat, sitting up higher, making herself appear bigger and more refined. “Ivette, you may start.”
Ivy looked flabbergasted, her cheeks red, a blush illuminating the X on her neck. “How do we get Alberich out of our realm?”
The queen pursed her lips, seeming to contemplate Ivy’s answer for longer than I would have imagined necessary. Finally, she sighed and narrowed her eyes. “You will need ancient magic to cast him back into Faerie and keep him there.”
“Yes, I know that,” Ivy said. “What’s the spell? Who can cast it?”
Diana sucked in air through her teeth again, a chiding headmistress disciplining the naughty ginger who couldn’t follow rules. “One question per person. Carter, what is it you want to know?”
Carter sighed and shook his head, his eyes darting back and forth. I could almost see the wheels grinding gears as he thought through the most important questions to ask. “Who cast the spell to keep the king out the first time?”
The queen’s cool facade finally cracked at that, her lips curling into a big grin, a high-pitched tinkling sound pouring out of her throat. Is she…is she laughing? Sweet heavens, Romeo had made the queen of fairies burst into hysterics.
“Why, my dear boy.” She shook her head. “You have not figured it out by now?” Her brilliant gaze came to me milliseconds before she said it. “That, I’m afraid, was me.”
My heart dropped into my gut at the realization.
Of course!
It could have only been her. The only one powerful enough to stand up to the king was his equal, the one person who had stood by him through the eternal expanse of time. They could not exist without the other, and in cursing him to his realm, Diana had made the ultimate sacrifice. She didn’t have the same animosity toward humans that her husband did, and in protecting them, she had cast herself from our realm for all of eternity.
“Miriam.” The queen turned her gaze to me, and I gulped. “What question do you have for me?”
Up until now, I had remained as quiet as I could. The queen frightened me, and I suspected she could pulverize all four of us with nothing but a wave of her hand. I should have asked about the upcoming battle and how we could defeat him, but a faint glint in Diana’s gaze spoke to a more mischievous side. Even this deep inside her mind, I sensed the trees calling out to guide me.
In that moment, I empathized with the queen in a way I hadn’t before. The king had screwed with both of our minds, hers more so than mine, but in that similarity, I found an ally. He had made me forget what was likely the worst night of my life. Twice. He’d been messing with Ivy for the whole year, tormenting and taunting her. But for Diana, he had wiped her entire existence. We were victims in his sick game, and based on that look in her eyes, I knew she’d help us no matter what.
She wanted to have a private conversation with Lex for some purpose, but regardless of what came from that, she’d deal with the king because it was her fate to do so. He was hers, and she was his, and whatever he’d done to her would not change that. Therefore, asking about how to stop it was a wasted effort. Whatever would happen would happen.
When I opened my mouth, out poured, “What should I do?”
About Reginald. About my spouses. About how I didn’t know where to go once this was all over, once the king had been returned to his realm and our fairy curses had been broken. The conflict churned so deep inside me that I sensed myself being split in two. I wanted to stay with them, to have my cake and devour it whole, in every sense of that idiom. I wanted to have the Stuart fortune and live contentedly with my spouses. I wanted it all, but had no idea how to get it, and it was tearing me apart.
At that, the queen’s calm demeanor broke, and she sucked in a quick pitying noise before rising from her bed and gliding toward me. She dropped to her knees so close they touched mine, and she cupped my jaw, leaning in so our foreheads touched.
“You will know when the time is right.” Diana kissed the space between my eyebrows, making my skin tingle, both in my mind and in my physical body back at the pub. “Trust yourself and trust your beloveds.”
My heart cracked, forcing a hot wave of desperation up my throat, straight to my eyes. I clenched them shut as tears slid down my cheeks, and when I opened them again, I was back in that dark, decrepit bar, with Carter and Ivy gasping beside me.
Lex, however, still held on to Diana with his eyes glazed over in white.