Queen of Blood and Vengeance (Secrets of the Faerie Crown #4)

59. Arran

59

ARRAN

Two days to convince Veyka not to sacrifice her life.

Once, I’d cut off Evander’s arm. Now, I needed his help. I was not so na?ve to believe that every marriage was built on the same foundation as mine. But I’d watched how Evander interacted with Mya, how his eyes tracked her as she interacted with each of us, his body moving in answer to the questions she did not even realize she asked.

I watched Veyka as she tucked the communication crystal away, but I also watched Evander. I looked for any sign that he, too, recognized those two days as the dreaded countdown that they were.

His face was stoic. An elemental by upbringing, if not by choice.

Veyka brought her hands to her hips. “I assume you all heard that. In two days, Guinevere will report back on the strength of the human alliance. Whether or not we gain their alliance, your objective does not change. Together, you will hunt down any succubus who remain in Annwyn or the human realm.”

No. Do not say it. Do not think it. Begging couched in command. But Veyka did not respond to the thoughts, though I knew she must hear them. She was not touching me any longer, either, had carefully withdrawn her hand.

“You are aware of the prophecy—in its entirety?” she asked Mya.

“ Together they must stand, to defeat what once thought dead. Together they must give, if any shall live to the end .” Mya’s voice matched her movements, graceful and liquid as it slid over the syllables.

She knew the prophecy. Every last word.

Evander remained silent at her side.

Veyka nodded once. I reached for her, but she stepped out of my grasp, closer to the Ethereal Queen. “Then you know what we must do.”

She did not want me to touch her, because she knew it would shake her resolve. But I was as stubborn as she.

“We can wait two days,” I said. “The healers need time to do their work.” A thin excuse. If they weren’t already dead, the fae soldiers were already nearly healed.

The look Veyka gave me said she knew it.

“We have not heard from Cyara and Osheen. The Faeries of the Fen could make a considerable difference in this fight.” That was desperation in my voice. The world had narrowed to me and Veyka. I no longer cared what Evander or Mya had sorted out between the two of them. I knew my mate. If she was determined to do this, she’d convince Mya as well. Evander had no hope. And mine was rapidly being smothered.

“What fight, Arran? There does not need to be a fight. If Mya and I fulfill the prophecy, then all of this ends. Everyone gets to live,” Veyka said, nearly choking on the last word. I want to live , she’d told me.

“Cyara searches for the grail to unite the Sacred Trinity. If she is successful, you would not have to fulfill the prophecy.” She did not listen when I begged silently. If going to my knees before the entirety of Annwyn was what it took to convince my mate, I would do it. For her, I would beg. For the future we should have had, I would crawl. “Please, Veyka.”

Mya made a sound in the back of her throat. Evander was at her side in a second. Now I had his attention.

“What is the Sacred Trinity?” he demanded.

Veyka’s eyes darkened. I did not look away, but I did not allow myself to be cowed by their intensity either.

I held her gaze as I explained. “Ancient objects forged by the fae, humans, and witches. Excalibur, Veyka’s scabbards, and the grail—a chalice hidden by Merlin. Even now, Cyara searches for it.”

“Cyara is with Osheen, securing the alliance of the Faeries of the Fen. There is no way she has had time to search for the grail,” Veyka said. Her voice promised all kinds of violence. Normally, my cock would have tightened in response. But I was fighting for her life, and we both knew it.

I did not flinch from Veyka’s ire. “She is not with Osheen,” I said.

“And what power do these objects grant?” Evander asked. Beside him, Mya had gone silent.

“What do you mean, she is not with Osheen?” Veyka’s voice dropped to a dangerous whisper.

But I answered Evander’s question, not hers. “The Sacred Trinity grants the bearer the power to defeat the succubus.”

“Maybe,” Veyka interjected. Her hand was on her dagger.

“There is a chance to stop the prophecy,” Evander repeated, as if he could not believe the words. I knew that if I looked his way, I’d see the cracks in his elemental mask. I’d see the male who’d fallen in love with a doomed queen, and the first flickers of hope stirring to life.

But Veyka’s glare did not let me go. “Where is Cyara?”

Pale blue flashed in my periphery. “We will leave you, now. We have our own wounded to tend to,” Mya said, steering Evander away.

“If there is a way to stop the prophecy—”

“This is a private argument,” Mya said. The quiet strength in her voice told me that she and Evander were about to have one of their own. But that was not my concern. The only thing that truly mattered to me stood three feet away, looking very much like she was contemplating where to fling her dagger first.

Agravayn and Gaheris retreated as well. Lyrena escorted Mordred back the way we’d come. Veyka and I stood alone, on the center of a narrow spit of land at the center of the world.

She stared at me just as she had for the last several minutes, her blue eyes turned dull and fathomless. She stared, but she did not see me. Veyka may as well have been in the void for how far away she felt in that excruciating moment.

We’d once vowed honesty to each other. I was not ready to let her go. I would do anything to save her. That was my honest truth.

“Where is Cyara?” she asked again, the words rough and pained.

“I sent her after the grail,” I said honestly. “She took Percival and Diana with her. They know more about the Sacred Trinity than anyone, having grown up in Avalon. They are searching.”

“And the Faeries of the Fen?”

“I assume that Osheen and Maisri are with them now.” I hoped so, at least. There were not enough communication crystals to go around.

“You assume,” Veyka echoed. “If Cyara had found the grail, she would have called.”

Another truth.

“We can give her two more days.”

“The succubus could return for us. They are drawn to me.”

I held her gaze, but I felt my heart beginning to crack. “Isn’t your life worth waiting a few more days?”

She blinked. And then completely unraveled. As if I’d snapped the bonds holding her in place. “For what? Another disappointment?” She threw out her hand, spinning on the spot, gesturing to the armies encamped in either direction. “What are their lives worth, Arran? Why is my life worth more?”

I grabbed her shoulders. I could not stand another second without touching her, not when the world was determined to steal her away from me. My eyes burned . Burned with tears. I blinked them away, angry that my body dared to blur what might be my last image of her.

I shook her, harder than I should of, because it did not seem possible that she did not understand. “Because you are mine.”

She was still shaking. Not me, but her. Her entire body shook as sobs rolled through her, tears that matched my own streaming down her cheeks. “And you are mine,” Veyka whispered. “But so are they.”

How had I ever called this female selfish? How had I not seen from the first time I met her the beautiful, singular soul that waited beneath her layers of self-crafted armor?

I had, that was the answer. I’d always suspected who she was at her core. What I had not expected was how deeply I would love her. The depth of the love she would give to me. To her friends.

Her friends.

I knew what I had to do, then. The last weapon I could deploy against my mate.

Fuck, she’s going to hate me.

“Will you deny your Knights the chance to say goodbye?” I asked.

Veyka wrenched out of my grip as if I’d struck her. But even that did not stop me. I knew I was hurting her, but I could not stop myself. Not if it gave Cyara a chance to find the grail, to find us, to save Veyka’s life.

I struck the last blow, hard and true. “Haven’t they lost enough already?”

Veyka stumbled back another step.

She was still shaking, but no fresh tears tracked down her cheeks. “Two days. Then we summon Cyara and Gwen and we end this.”

I was not surprised when she disappeared into the void rather than spend one more minute with me.