Maeve held out her hand. Liah stared at it until I nudged her arm. “You grab her hand and shake it. It’s a human thing.”
“How odd.” But Liah swung her bow onto her back and shook Maeve’s hand. “I accept your bargain, High Priestess. The fae shall return. We shall care for the wild places and the ghosts of trees.”
Daigh burst out laughing. Blood bubbled out of the wound in his side. Red blood. Human blood. “You can’t… they’ll never accept you…”
“I have achieved the prize you long boasted of,” Liah said, kicking him in the side until his laughter turned to a slow wheeze. “The fae will return to earth, Tir Na Nog will be destroyed, and we shall have no more bloodshed.”
“I like her chances,” Maeve grinned.
“Yes.” Liah stood back from Daigh. She nodded at the knife in Maeve’s chest. “I am sorry about that.”
An apology from Liah? Wow, this was a day of miracles. I gathered Maeve in my arms, my heart bursting.
Corbin pointed to the crown at his feet. The knife stuck out of the central skull, whose eyes flashed erratically. “What do we do with this?”
“Throw it into the flames,” Maeve said.
“No!” Aline showed past me, striding up to Corbin. She bent down and picked up the crown. “If you destroy it completely, you’ll bring down this whole place, and then the dead won’t have anywhere to go. It must have a master.”
“Then what do you suggest? Corbin demanded.
Aline’s face broke into a beautiful smile, a mirror of Maeve. She held up the crown and placed it on her head.
“I will wear it,” she said. “It’s time the underworld had a queen.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
THIRTY-SEVEN: ARTHUR
The void closed up with a shudder and a great rush of darkness, leaving behind a pile of slumped bodies. I stared at the blank spots on the circle where Blake and Isadora had stood.
“What happened?” I demanded, stamping my foot down on the ground where the void had been. My boot narrowly missed kicking Blake’s limp hand. “How did we lose two extra people?”
“Liah broke through the circle and leapt into the void,” Flynn said, his voice uneven. “Blake followed her. And Isadora followed Blake.”
“Why would Blake do something so completely fucked up?”
“We don’t have time to consider it.” Clara shoved her way to the centre of the circle, a black bag slung over her shoulder. “Quickly now, we’ve got a lot of work to do to prepare the next part of the ritual. Bring all the bodies.”
Flynn grabbed Blake’s wrists and dragged him in front of the sidhe. Isadora was already slumped there, her arm shrunk away from me. As Flynn rolled Blake over, his glassy eyes met mine, and a chill ran down my spine.
“We can bring him back too, right?” I asked Clara.
“We’re going to try,” she said. “If he even wants to return.”
A dark rage flared inside me. She had a point. After everything I’d accused Blake of, and the way we’d all refused to trust him even though Maeve did, he might’ve decided it was time to switch loyalties. I thought we’d made our peace, but maybe I underestimated just how much he’d been hurting. Guilt gnawed at my gut, and my bandaged arm flared with pain.
“I’ll get the others.” I spun around and headed to the tree. I didn’t want to think about Blake anymore.
We’d wrapped Maeve’s body in a sheet, which was just as well because if I had to look at her glassy eyes or touch her clammy skin I’d probably end up immolating her on the spot, and then we’d never get her back. I shoved my hands underneath her and gingerly picked up the stiff body, the way I’d always carried her up to bed when we’d lived at Briarwood.
“I’ll bring Corbin,” Jane said, reaching for the box. My chest heaved as I noticed again how small it was. I hadn’t looked inside, but there was no way it housed Corbin’s body intact. Could we even restore him if he was in pieces?
We’re going to find out.
Goose pimples prickled across my shoulders. I glanced behind me, scanning the trees for movement. But there was nothing.
I shook my head.You’re being stupid. You’ve got goose pimples because you’re carrying around your lover’s body.
