Page 32

Zoey

Fear floods my system as I roll toward Devilshea.

I know I should run, but in this moment it’s like my Dev is hurt. It’s pure instinct, and I can’t think straight. All I see is my husband with an arrow in his shoulder and a rasping sound coming from his chest.

“Dev.”

I kneel over him.

“Zandra,”

he says between gritted teeth. “Run. You must run.”

Now he sounds like my Dev. I glance around and the servants are fleeing, but I don’t see where the archer is.

I reach for a knife. It’s small, but I need some kind of weapon. “We need to get that arrow out of you. If they’re smart, it’s cold iron, and the longer it’s in, the more likelihood it kills you. It’s going to have to go out the back, I think.”

“You have to run.”

His hands grip my arms, and I see a bit of desperation there. “Go. Can’t live through your death again.”

“I’m going to kill her,”

a deep voice says.

Eoin is walking toward us, and he is not alone. He has several of the king’s guard with him, and he’s dressed for battle.

Confusion sets on the king’s face. “What is going on? Eoin? Why aren’t you chasing whoever shot me?”

I know the reason. “Because he’s the one who shot you.”

“I will admit you are far smarter than the you who lived on this plane,”

he says with a smirk my way. “Zandra was an idiot. She truly believed he would come around and marry her one day. He never would have.”

The king tries to push himself up.

Two other guards draw down on him.

“Don’t fight, Dev,”

Eoin says with a tsk. “They’re out of your spell now so they’re a little angry about spending the last couple of years as your mindless zombies. Thanks for not doing that to me, by the way. I know. We were childhood friends. The best of friends. But I’m weary of you always chasing after this one woman when you could have had them all. And the wizard pays more.”

“Bastard,”

the king hisses.

Eoin shrugs. “Certainly, but at least I’m not so bespelled by a woman I would chase her across planes of existence and ruin my soul for love.”

“No, you did it for money,”

I point out. My fear has ramped up, and I have to force myself not to put a hand over my belly where my daughter lies. Them not knowing about Harriet might be the only thing keeping her alive.

Though the wizard knows, and apparently that’s who this asshole is working for.

He nods, no shame at all in his expression. “Yes, a much better reason to sell one’s soul, if you ask me. Now because you have no one to defend you, let’s get you ready to pay your bill to the wizard.”

I stand, putting myself between the king and his guard. I’m pretty damn good at defending myself. Though it’s been a while.

“What are you doing?”

The king struggles to get the question out.

I pick up the decorative sword he placed on the blanket when he sat down. “Giving this asshole a hard time.”

“I will go with you if you allow her safe passage.”

The king struggles to his feet. “I will do what the wizard wants if you only spare her.”

I’m shocked because I’ve seen nothing but selfishness from this version of Dev. It’s like someone took all the empathy out of him and this is the shell we are left with. But now, facing pain and death, he finds something of the soul I’ve known for years.

He takes the sword from my hand even though he winces at the weight. His left arm is useless and he tosses the sword away with his right. He stands in front of me. “Go. Find your real husband. I’m not a fool. You love him. You were placating me. Find him and be happy.”

Tears pierce my eyes because there is still some measure of good in this man.

“I think she’s about to find him.”

Eoin gestures to something behind me, and I realize we’re circled by guards who have no intention of letting me go. “Both of you are needed for this ritual of the wizard’s.”

I have to try logic. “You know what he’s trying to do, right? He’s trying to close the door between the celestial planes and the Earth plane, leaving Hell and Earth alone.”

“Don’t know. Don’t care. It won’t affect us here, so that sounds like an Earth plane problem,”

Eoin says with a smirk. “We’ll be fine on this plane. I’ll take over as king, put down that son of yours and his rebels, and we’ll live like kings. Because we’ll be kings. At least I will.”

“It won’t work that way,”

I argue. “If he closes the door, it won’t simply be for one timeline. That door to Heaven is not ruled by time. It will affect everyone.”

Eoin shrugs. “Not how he explained it to me, and honestly, I don’t care. I’m tired of watching a man I once admired humble himself for a woman. He could have been great, was great. When he slaughtered the creatures he thought murdered his beloved, he had a backbone. He took out his competition, and it was a magnificent thing to see. I had some small hope when he announced his betrothal to Ostara that he might let go of this ridiculous dream that he could get you back. But it was all another plot. You are the only thing he thinks of, and if the wizard didn’t point out that we need you, I would kill you here.”

Well, of course he needs me. I’m sure he wants to kill me himself, but I’m stuck on a couple of words. “Thought killed me? What does that mean?”

Devilshea holds my hand, trying to get me behind him, but it doesn’t matter since we’re surrounded. He’s not thinking straight, likely because of the arrow in his chest. “He is talking about the creatures my brother sent to assassinate Zandra when I refused to marry. He thought to make it look like a random assault by goblins and trolls, but I knew he sent those monsters after her. I knew they had to be taken out. Animals. They aren’t like us. Some can be managed, are necessary, but the wicked had to be removed from our society.”

Ah, but that wasn’t what Eoin said. I’ve found the villain always wants credit in the end. Sometimes it’s their downfall. “It was you.”

Eoin’s smirk widens. “It was me. But I made sure to make it look like goblins tore her apart. It was fun. Such a dumb bitch. All I had to do was pretend I was taking her to you and she followed me. She cried, you know. She called out your name, Devinshea. She truly believed you would come and save her. She believed right up until the moment I slit her throat.”

The king practically vibrates with rage and starts toward Eoin, but he doesn’t get far. He groans as another arrow hits his back, the thud a sickening sound to hear.

“Don’t fucking kill him,”

Eoin complains. “We get nothing if we don’t deliver him.”

He stalks up to us, completely unafraid. “You’re going to do everything the wizard tells you to or we’ll kill her. Am I understood? If you do what he asks, you’ll be allowed to take your bitch to the Earth plane and eek out whatever existence you can find there.”

He’s lying. There’s zero chance Myrddin lets any of us live. Oh, he might have as long as he was certain none of us could get back to the right timeline, but it’s clear to me he wants more than to leave us in prison. He’ll kill me simply to take out the threat Harriet poses, but I’m not about to point that out. I need to stay alive as long as I can because my Devinshea is going to be in trouble, too. Daniel will find a way to come for us. He always does.

I put up a hand to stop Eoin from coming too close. If they kill this Dev, they might not need me. “He’s going to do everything you ask.”

“Is he now?”

Eoin asks, a challenge in his tone.

The king nods. “As long as you don’t harm her. But Eoin, you should know I will be a good boy until I get off this plane and ensure her safety. And then I will find a way to make you pay.”

If that dire threat concerns the guard, he doesn’t show it. “I’m sure you will try. I think I’ll close the doors to this plane for a while. Until I’ve taken power and turned this place around.”

“You won’t be able to do it without a Green Man,”

the king says with a bitter bite. “I should know. I lost this place the day my temple decided I was unworthy. The temple will not open again.”

“It already has.”

Eoin looks like this is a problem he has already solved. “Your bitch here brought along a fully Fae Green Man. A fucking elemental. All we have to do is capture him. We’ll cage him in the temple and his magic will feed our lands. The wizard is going to help us. He says he has a spell that will keep the Green Man in stasis, and he won’t give us any trouble.”

“The temple doesn’t work that way,”

the king argues. “It’s not merely looking for power. It wants a partner. It wants…companionship.”

Oh, I was going to be way nicer to our temple when we finally return to it. I’m going to say hi and everything. And talk to it because it’s a very good temple. Eoin is also being extremely optimistic. “Myrddin is out of here the minute he has what he wants. He won’t bother to track down my son. By the way, he’s going to be harder to deal with than you think. He’s not merely a Green Man or an elemental. He’s a warrior, and he will fight.”

“Then he will lose,”

Eoin concludes. He points his sword. “Get in close. We’re going to meet the wizard and finish this. Tonight we dine in the palace, and it will all belong to us.”

A grand cheer goes up, and I know there will be no talking this man out of his foolish plan. I will have to figure it out once we get to the wizard, though I can try to delay as long as possible. When Danny realizes he can’t find me, he’ll send Neil, and we’re not so far he can’t find us. Neil can track me almost anywhere.

I need time. I need to buy my son time to get Shy somewhere safe, time for Danny to save Dev and then me.

I always need time, and it’s almost always the one thing I don’t get.

“He can’t travel like this.”

I gesture to the king and his wounded torso. “I assume that’s cold iron. If it stays too long in his body, it will kill him, and then Myrddin won’t get what he needs.”

Eoin sighs as though all of this drama is extremely boring. “I suppose you’re right, though I can’t have him healing too soon.”

He nods to one of his guards. “Secure the king.”

One of his men rushes forward with shackles I’m sure are made of cold iron as well. They will make his wrists ache and send pain through his body, but they won’t kill him. Those arrows will. I start forward to try to find the gentlest way to remove them, but his men are at work on that as well.

The king shouts out as one of the men pushes at the arrow. He falls to his knees, the arrow still lodged in his shoulder, but now it’s sticking out the back. The man takes a knife and slices through until he can pull it out the other side.

The king is in a heap on the ground, the contents of his stomach on the grass next to him after they’re done and both arrows are removed in the most savage way imaginable.

I drop to my knees beside him, trying to help him up. He’s covered in blood and pale. I hope my Devinshea is only half as bad.

I hate. I hate that I hate. I hate what Myrddin has done to me because I hate that man. If I were a witch, I would forsake myself to ensure his demise. I would hex and hex and hex him. I would pour my soul into each spell, giving away pieces so the world is safe from him.

I am the worse version of myself because that male exists and thrives.

I try to help the king stand, offering him my shoulder to balance against. He’s pale and unsteady as he gets to his feet, but he forces himself to face Eoin.

“Do not harm her. Let her go, Eoin. We were friends once. She is the only person I have ever loved. Honor our friendship. Let her go,”

he says, his voice shaking.

I can tell him it won’t work. I can certainly tell him that I am not the woman he loved, that he didn’t love her enough. Instead I stand there and wait for the inevitable because there’s nothing else to do. There’s nowhere to run, and I can’t get into a fight because they’ve already shown they don’t mind lodging an arrow in a person. The problem is if they lodge one in me, they might hit my daughter, and I cannot risk that.

Eoin’s head shakes, and he pulls out a sphere. It’s a familiar one. This has to be a gift from Myrddin. Sarah played around with them as transportation spells. A sphaera motus.

“I don’t trust you, and the wizard was specific about who I was supposed to bring.”

He stands close to us and drops the orb.

It hits the ground, and there’s a whirring sound and the world goes fuzzy. I hold on to the king, and in a flash we’re in a completely different place. The bubble around us dissipates and I’m suddenly cold, harsh winds blowing my hair back.

I look up and recognize the mountain. Not this one, but the same in our timeline. This was where we’d once looked for the Blood Stone all those years ago, where Danny had taken on a frost giant and at the end of our successful smash and grab I was sold into sexual slavery to a goddess named Nimue.

Good times. But I doubted this trip to the mountain would end the way that one did.

“You need to run if you get the chance,”

the king whispers. “He won’t need me for long, and I don’t believe he has any intention to honor his word. I was a fool.”

“Yes, you were,”

a familiar voice says. “You were a complete idiot, and it was my pleasure to work with you.”

I turn and Myrddin has a tent set up. He stands in the doorway, completely at ease as though it’s not frigid here.

As though death doesn’t hang over the mountain. Even I can feel the weight of it.

The king groans as the guards haul him toward the tent.

I think seriously about running, but there are two guards at my sides, each taking an elbow.

“Queen Zoey,”

the wizard chides, his dark eyes on me. “You want to leave so soon? I’m afraid I have to insist on you joining our group. I have so much to show and tell you. I recently left a meeting with your brats.”

“You saw my children?”

Fear is so much colder than the wind because there’s a smirk on his face that tells me he knows something I don’t know.

“Yes. Just last night. It’s why I had to leave for a while. They’ve gotten awfully cozy with Lucifer Morningstar and that whore Lilith. I was rather surprised when she showed up.”

Myrddin stands in front of the entryway, blocking us and leaving me to feel the bite of the wind. “Naturally she fucked me over, but what else should I expect from the woman who spat Nimue from her womb.”

Nim’s mom? She never mentioned to me she had a mother. I kind of thought she sprang fully formed from the lake she guarded. I had a hundred questions, but only one mattered, and I couldn’t ask it because he lies.

Are my children alive?

I force down bile because I’m about to be at his mercy and he will have none.

Myrddin studies me for a moment. If he feels the cold, he doesn’t show it. He folds his arms over his chest. “That son of yours outmaneuvered me. Lucifer owed me a boon and I meant to collect Dean since they so thoughtfully brought him to the Hell plane. Unfortunately, Lee is fucking things up in all timelines, and I had to make do with tossing your little girl off a balcony and into the pits of Hell. Demons are probably polishing off her bones right now. Or they’re having a good time with her. I don’t really care as long as she’s dead at the end of it. You take my child, I’ll kill yours, Your Highness.”

He lies. He lies. He fucking lies.

I force the words through my head over and over because if I don’t believe them, I will break utterly. I cannot… Evangeline is not dead. She was there with Kelsey and her brother and Fenrir and Trent and Gray. They would not allow it. Fenrir would give his life for her.

Is he dead, too?

Is Kelsey in mourning?

It’s too much. Far too much. I can’t begin to process.

He lies and lies and lies.

“Nothing to say, my queen?”

He lies. Give him nothing. He’s doing it to get a rise out of me, to put me off. My daughter is not dead. Not dead.

How far could the fall be? She’s on her father’s blood. She can take a lot of damage. Fenrir would follow her. He would defend her. She is alive.

“I think you broke her,”

Eoin says. “Pretty funny.”

Myrddin turns the guard’s way. “Watch what you say. I might hate the bitch but she’s so far above you it’s ridiculous. She’s a damn nexus point. She literally makes fate. Her choices change the world. Which is why I have to get rid of her at some point. Unfortunately, it won’t be today. Come in, Your Highness. See what your choices have cost you this time.”

He steps back, and I suddenly don’t want to know. It’s an instinct. Something terrible has happened. I don’t purport to be psychic. Not even close. I’m also crap when it comes to magic. I am what Myrddin called me. A nexus point. It means I have no particular fate and affect the world around me with my choices. I know we all do, but for me it’s on a world-ending fate level. I’ve had angels betting on whether or not I could change the fate of the world, and here we are again and I don’t want to know. I don’t want to see what he’s brought back.

Is it evidence of my daughter’s fate?

My stomach is in knots as they pull me in. I shrink back, not wanting to allow Myrddin to touch me, but he stops and his hand grips my chin, forcing me to look at him.

“Do not think Daniel is coming for you,”

he says with gravity. “I used a death magic spell earlier today in order to locate someone important. It is much like the one that nearly killed him all those years ago, though I wasn’t close enough to really do the deed. He would need Devinshea and the god attached to Devinshea’s magic in order to get any kind of strength back. I like to think he’s lying on the ground somewhere, half dead and thinking about all of his choices. He’ll know that’s where he was when his precious blood died. You’ll note that I made it impossible for Devinshea to ever do magic again. He’ll be grateful when I put him down.”

He turns my head and I take in what he wants me to witness. The king is in his shackles, his hands over his head, feet barely on the floor. But he’s not alone. At first my eyes… They don’t work because I can’t be seeing what I’m seeing. Devinshea. My faery prince. He’s bound to a pole, chains wrapped around his body, and he’s covered in blood. So much blood. His shirt is off but I can’t see a patch of clean skin.

And that’s when I realize something is wrong with his arms.

They stop in bloody stumps. His hands. Those hands that caressed me, that stroked over my skin and gave me comfort… His hands are gone.

“Do not look, Zoey,”

the king says in an oddly tortured tone. Like he feels my husband’s torment. “He would not wish you to see him this way.”

It’s his words that spark me to movement. Because Devinshea would not want me here in danger, but he will not care if I see him. He did nothing wrong. The wrong was done to him and I promised. I fucking promised nothing would keep me from him. No sickness. No fucking wizard.

I shove at the guards and rush to my husband, tears making the world a watery mess.

“Devinshea?”

Goddess, is he already dead? I don’t know what I’ll do if he’s already gone. And Evan is gone and Fen is…

His eyes open, and I can see the weariness there. “My goddess. How I wish you were not here.”

But he manages a smile. “Have I told…how much I love you? How good it’s been to be your husband?”

Tears stream from my eyes because this sounds like good-bye. “Don’t you dare.”

“My love, I don’t have a choice. He brought you here to force Bris to leave me,”

he whispers. “He knows Bris would stay until the end and give him nothing without some threat.”

In that moment, I don’t care. For all I know Danny’s dead and Neil’s gone. For all I know I’m the last one left and I don’t… I want to be with them. I want to go wherever they go. Please don’t leave me here alone. “Tell Bris to stay. No matter what he does to me. Stay and we can go together. All of us.”

It’s what we planned. To live together. To go into the next turn hand in hand. To spend as little time apart as possible.

Dev’s eyes are a dull green, and I realize how close he is to that next turn, to rounding the corner and fading into something new. “No, my love. You have to stay. On this Bris and I are in full accord. When the time comes, we will sacrifice for our goddess. And our daughter.”

His eyes fill with tears. “You have to stay alive for Harriet.”

I shake my head. “He won’t let me live.”

“I will.”

Myrddin stands mere feet away, and it’s all I can do to not attack him. I only don’t because it won’t do any good. “I made a deal with a Fae royal. Two, really, and Devinshea kept up his end of the first one. It was why he was sitting there waiting for me when I returned to this timeline this morning. After dealing with the situation on the Hell plane, I realized I’m hesitating because I want to meet my son. It’s selfish and all too human of me. No more. I have what I need and I’m going to do what I promised I would. Free us from the celestial planes.”

“What deal?”

I demand, wondering exactly what Devinshea and Bris have offered in exchange for my life.

“If I don’t harm you, Bris will leave the body when I command,”

Myrddin explains. “Once Devinshea is dead, you will be allowed to leave.”

“No.”

Devilshea twists his body on the rack, turning to his counterpart. “You cannot trust him. When you are dead and she is dead, who will call the hunt on him?”

“It’s recorded in Hell,”

Dev replies. “I am not a fool. I would not agree to the deal without a satan present. Myrddin is only half demon, but the rules apply. The satan will check on Zoey and if he cannot find her, he is empowered to call the hunt.”

“Were your hands part of the fucking deal?”

Devilshea asks, his voice tortured.

“He took them before he brought us here,”

my husband replies simply. “But I would have given them up. I would do anything, give anything to ensure my family survives. Zoey, no matter what he says Daniel is out there. Daniel and our children. You must get to them and be with them. They need you.”

“They need you, too,”

I say, all of my emotion rising up like a damn wave. “Harriet needs to meet her father.”

“If only Devinshea was Harriet’s father,”

Myrddin mutters.

“You would give everything for her?”

King Dev asks, staring at my husband. “You gave your magic. You are not full Fae. You must use your hands. Why would you give up your magic?”

“It comes from her.”

Dev speaks to his timeline twin, but his eyes are on me. “That’s what I found out. My magic always came from her. From loving her. From building a family with her and my Daniel. There is no magic without her, so it was an easy choice to make. My goddess, you are the center of my world. Never forget it. Know that if there is any way, we will find it. Bris will try to find a way to come back. I will try to wait. Know that I am somewhere in all the planes and all the timelines loving you, missing you, looking for you.”

I can’t. I put my hands on his cheeks. “Please don’t go.”

I wrap my arms around him. “Please.”

“You have to save Shy,”

he whispers. “She’s in the back. He’s going to either kill her or figure out how to use her. I would have added her in to my deal, but I thought she was with Rhys. Save our daughter-in-law, my goddess. I will do the rest.”

The rest being dying for Myrddin’s plot.

Myrddin’s hand grasps my arm, hauling me away from him. “I think that’s enough. It’s time for the king to make good on his deal. You see I had to find a way to keep the souls in the mountain. It’s sacred in this timeline. The Quinns have preserved it as a holding space for their great treasures and a way to honor their dead. The only way for me to work spells on this land is for the king to open the doors. I already tried using your husband’s blood but apparently the spells know he’s not the real king.”

“So sorry we couldn’t help you,”

I say, turning to look around and trying to figure out where Shy is. Devinshea gave me a gift when he whispered in my ear. He gave me a mission.

Save Shy.

I see a figure on the floor. She’s slumped over. I want to scream at Myrddin, but I pretend I don’t notice.

The guards pull the king off the rack and start to lead him outside.

“Stay with them. Don’t take your eyes off her,”

Myrddin orders as Eoin pushes his king out into the cold again. “I’ll be back for you, Devinshea. Do not forget our bargain.”

The minute the flap closes I run to Shy. Despite what Myrddin said, the guards don’t seem too interested in me.

I drop to my knees and pray my daughter-in-law is alive.