Megaera’s face was a mask of malice as they approached. No hesitation, no fear, no room for error.
“She’s going to kill us all,” I whispered to Millie. “Unless I can figure out how to use the Queen’s magic.”
Millie reached over and squeezed my hand. It was nothing but a show of solidarity. There were no words to express any last thoughts. I was only grateful that in this moment, I had no room for fear. Such an immense love for this land and the people who belonged to it overflowed through my veins, leaving no room for sorrow.
I refused to die filled with fear. I would choose to die filled with love.
“Doc,” Millie said quietly, urgently. “Your ring.”
“What?”
“Your ring!” Millie turned my hand around to display my fingers prominently.
Indeed, my ring was glowing. The cerulean crystals blazed in a dazzle of light, as if the magic encapsulated in those gemstones was trying to escape.
“May I?” Even as Millie spoke, she pulled the ring from my finger.
Magic burst from the tiny diadem in Millie’s hands like a mesmerizing display of the northern lights. Power that had been contained in my ring for possibly centuries was finallyfree.
Millie placed the ring in my palm. Before my eyes, the thin band morphed and distorted like it was hot metal.The circlet expanded and grew until the tiny ring that had fit perfectly on my finger for so many years turned into a true crown.
A glittering, simple circlet with azure gems inlaid on its spires. Gems that matched the waters of this court. A crown that could lay across the head of a queen.A Fae Queen.
The Queen of Isles.
Millie shivered as she surveyed it. Goosebumps streaked her arms as she stared at the crown in my palms. Then she turned those huge eyes on me before falling to her knees.
“You have returned.” Millie’s voice hitched. “My Queen.”
My mouth was dry, speechless. I couldn’t comprehend. The Furies were bearing down on us, seconds away from encircling us with their hatred. Seconds before we were all due to die.
“It cannot be,” I whispered.
“Fates,” Silas said. “Itisyou.”
Silas pulled himself, bloodied and weak, toward me. He took the crown from my hands. I offered it willingly.
The man I loved raised the crown. My fated mate, my other half—placed the coveted piece of jewelry gently on my head. Then he, too, knelt before me.
“My Queen.” Reverence lined his words.
The screeches of the Furies bore down on us. A terrible soundtrack behind a wonderous discovery.
“Do not ever kneel before me,” I told Silas and Millie. “Please.”
I pulled Silas to his feet. Millie rose beside him. The three of us faced the Furies as they circled around us.
“Die!” Megaera shouted. “Kill her first, and the rest will fall.”
“You will not kill me,” I said. “These are my lands, and you are not welcome here.”
“No.” Megaera’s eyes widened as she slowed her sky serpent, as if deciding to backtrack. “It cannot be.”
“You will not destroy my people.” I unsheathed my dagger. “I have returned to my court.”
Then I pressed my dagger to the wooden boards between my feet. The bridge that linked darkness and light. The divide between east and west sides of the island. I felt the power begin to radiate from the crown through my body, down my blade, across the bridge—and into the lands that had been sucked dry and left parched, devoid of its queen’s magic for so, so long.
My crown sparkled and danced on my head, radiating light in every direction. The gems in my crown matched the gems in my dagger—a blade that had belonged to my ancestors, the Fae Queens whose duty it had been to protect these lands long before it had become mine.
