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“Oberon?” Bellicent frowned a different pair of lips and gazed around us. “What have you done?”

“I brought you back,” I said, my voice rough.

She frowned and clawed at her throat. “This body, this voice. It’s wrong. I hate how close the hair is to mine. It feels like me, but it’s not. I don’t like this. You shouldn’t have done it.”

It turned out the god had gifted Bellicent with more than just life. She’d given her knowledge, so that she understood at once what I’d done. At first, she was angry with me. The gods are dangerous, she said. I’d cheated death, she argued. She could never again see her son, she cried. She spent a long time alone, stewing in her dark thoughts.

Eventually, she softened against the new reality of her situation. At least she was alive, she finally told me. The years blurred by in happiness, though she rarely spoke unless she had to. The one thing she could never accept was how different her voice sounded in her foreign ears. At first, no one in the castle suspected a thing, but over time, the rumors spread.

And then her mind began to break. Bellicent forgot who she was and even how to speak. Soon, she could not get out of bed without help. Over time, her eyes changed color, from brown to deep purple and now to white.

“It seems the mortal body cannot withstand this kind of magic for long,” the god eventually told me. “Even with my power running through her veins, her mind is destroying itself. She will continue to live on like this, but she will become nothing but a vacant shell.”

“You have to fix this,” I hissed at her. “I took you out of the vault so that you could save her life, so that she could be by my side for centuries. It’s only been seventy-five years.”

“There is nothing I can do without access to my full power. The mortal body is not strong enough. Now if you would reunite me with my other half, I could put her soul into a fae body. That would withstand the test of time.”

The god’s essence had done her damndest to tempt me over the years, offering me so much in exchange for her release. She’d sworn to banish the mists beyond our border. To destroy Kalen Denare. She’d even offered to restore the fae women of Albyria with the ability to bear children. And now this.

“Nice try,” I said with a bitter laugh. “I will never do it, no matter what you dangle in front of me. You’re never getting out of that onyx stone as long as I’m alive.”

“Very well,” she said with a tsk. “The only other option is to transfer her into another mortal body. And then you’ll likely need to continue doing it every seventy-five years or so.”

I sagged against the wall. “What becomes of the mortals when we do this to them?”

She laughed. “You should have asked that before the first time you did it. What do you think, Oberon?”

I winced.

“Their little mortal souls die. All so you can save the love of your life. So, what will it be? Say goodbye to Bellicent once and for all? Or shall we do the transfer?”

“Because of the war, there are fewer humans in Aesir now,” I said. “Only a hundred or so down in Teine. They’ll notice if one goes missing.”

“You are the king,” she replied. “You can do whatever you want.” Then she went quiet for a moment. “Of course, you could promise them something in exchange. Your territory here is so small. Small enough that I could spread my power across it. You could offer them protection from death until they reach old age. In exchange, they give you one of their humans to become your Mortal Queen. Every seventy-five years. You can call it theOidhe.”

I closed my eyes. It was wrong. I knew it, and yet I could not bring myself to choose goodbye. The god had trapped me in an impossible situation, and the poison of her power already seeped into my soul. If I’d known seventy-five years ago what would happen, I might have said no.

But now I couldn’t. I was a different man.

And so I spoke the words that would condemn me forever. “A mortal’s life does not matter compared to hers. I will choose another to die.”

Twenty-Four

Kalen

“Tessa!” I gently shook her shoulders. “Tessa, please wake up.”

Panic tore at my throat and my lungs, making it hard to breathe. Golden strands of hair escaped from her braid, and I pushed them back, helplessly staring down into her vacant eyes. Her chest still moved, but she looked dead inside, as if the crone had infected her with Oberon’s curse.

I jerked up my head as the four of them stumbled closer. “Stay away from her. I won’t let you lay a fucking hand on her again. I don’t care who you are. I will blast my full power on you if you do not take a step back.”

They seemed to hear me. The crones paused, and then stumbled back, their milky eyes trained on Tessa.

“What have you done to her?” I demanded. “Undo it. Now!”

No answer. They clearly couldn’t speak, and shouting at them would not wake Tessa from this coma. I had to get her out of here. Our mission had failed. Oberon was nowhere to be found, and even if he was, I would not fight him with Tessa in this condition. He would see her weakness, and he would try to take her.

I slid my arms beneath her body and lifted her from the floor. Her head rolled against my chest, and her eyes finally slid closed. The beating of my heart was almost painful. I’d fought many enemies through the centuries but none quite like this—helpless women trapped in a burning city by a fae who had used them for his own gain.