Page 71 of The Unseelie Wish

“I am still right here,” Valroy said through gritted teeth.

“Trust me, we cannot forget.” Abigial smiled wryly at her husband.

Yeah, Alex liked the Queen. Probably more than she should. Alex shut her eyes. “Take my magic away.”

“Do you wish to surrender it, truly, in your heart of hearts?”

Did she? No. She didn’t. Wiping her nose on her sleeve, she looked up at the array of rusted and abandoned weaponry embedded into the tree beside her. “And if I don’t?”

“The act of removing it would sunder you. You would die. Or go mad.”

“Great. So. I die either way.” She looked back down at Izael’s body and stroked his hair again.

“How were you planning on doing it?” Abigail’s tone was gentle. “I can do it for you, if you like. I will make it fast. The Gle’Golun work quickly and painlessly.”

“Poison.” Alex held up her hand with the ring on it.

“Leave it to the Unseelie to gift you a deadly engagement ring.” Abigail rolled her eyes. “Melodramatic, the lot of them.”

“I am still right here.” Valroy had finally managed to get to his feet. He took a step toward them.

“Fuck you,” Alex swore at Valroy. “Just fuck you and don’t come a step closer.” She could barely see through her tears. “Or I don’t give a shit how much you two love each other, I’ll turn this whole place into the surface of the fucking moon!”

Valroy stopped his approach and held up his hands in a show of harmlessness. Yeah, right.

Looking down at the ring on her hand, she took a deep breath, held it, and let it out. “I think I’ll go by poison. Seems right, having loved a snake.” Sure, Izael had been a constrictor—but she wasn’t going to sweat the details as she stood on the precipice of death.

“Your power was a gift from the Unseelie, and so it is mine to wield,” Valroy argued. “You by rights belong to me.”

“It is over, Valroy.” Abigail turned her attention back to her husband, her expression growing steely and hard. “You have lost. Yet another one of your bloodthirsty campaigns has ended only in the death and suffering of you and yours. You have succeeded in nothing.”

Valroy bared his teeth, snarling at his Queen, before storming away to the edge of the stone ring, clearly fuming.

Alex couldn’t give a single, flying fuck. She sniffled, wiping her nose again, as she looked down at Izael’s body. Kissing him one last time, she almost choked when she felt how cool his lips had already become.

Flicking open the small, hidden compartment in her ring, she braced herself. It wouldn’t hurt, he had promised. It would just be like going to sleep. It was definitely a better way to go than he had.

“The worst part is,” she said partly to Abigail, partly to herself, but mostly to Izael. “I finally have my wish.” Tipping the powder into her mouth, it tasted oddly sweet. She swallowed it before letting out a breath.

It was done.

She was going to die.

“I finally have my wish, Iz…” Smiling down at Izael brokenheartedly, she stroked his cheek. She would die here, holding him, at his side. “I wish…”

She felt a warmth spread over her body as her vision blurred just a little. The poison was going to work. He wasn’t kidding—it was fast. And he hadn’t lied about it being painless.

Taking in a wavering breath, she heard her own song shift to its conclusion. She had only a measure of music to live. Perhaps two.

Finally, at long last, she closed the contract with her snake.

“Izael, Duke of Bones, you win our game.” Her tears finally dried as the world began to go black. Alex spoke her final words.

“I wish we could be together.”

Someone was kissing her. Gently. She woke as if from a dream. Not a dream—a nightmare. All she knew was that she was warm. She was comfortable. And she felt as though she had crawled beneath a weighted blanket. She didn’t want to move.

Murmuring, she curled closer to the source of the warmth.

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