Page 85 of Solstice

Then the line had gone dead.

I’d gasped and stared at my phone. That had to have been her. She must have heard me; her desperate breathing gave her away. I’d tried to call the number again, but it had gone straight to voicemail, as if the phone had been turned off or gone dead.

For any other person, this would have softened their resolve and maybe they would have gotten a clue by now. But it only poked the wild beast stirring inside me.

Once upon a time, I’d made a promise to her I wouldn’t let her get away from me again. Something so fucking trivial, like the paparazzi making up rumors about us, shouldn’t have been enough to tear us apart. We were stronger than this. We’d made vows. We’d been through worse.

Whatever this was, it wasn’t Miri, and I was willing to bet everything on that. It was that secret I sensed the last time I’d seen her, the one that had been hidden from even her. It was whatever lived inside of her that she didn’t know about. Carter called every night from his tour, and when he met with Miri tomorrow, we’d have our answers.

In the weeks since the scandal broke, I’d reached out to Miri’s grandmother, thinking if I could talk some sense into that woman, maybe she’d let my wife off the hook. Now, at my rehearsal dinner, I finally had an answer. I looked down at my phone and pulled up the formal response from the royal family.

“Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth of England, regrets to formally decline your request for an audience. The queen’s intensive schedule does not allow for diplomatic affairs outside of what has been previously arranged with the United States embassy. The queen has supplied this comment: ‘If my granddaughter has ended your friendship, best leave it be. All my love to my dear friends, your mother and future father-in-law. Best wishes on your upcoming nuptials.’The queen has donated a generous sum to the charity listed on your registry as a gesture of solidarity and goodwill.”

I closed my phone and took a sip of wine, feeling more helpless than an abandoned kitten. I didn’t know how I would pull this off. I mean, how in the hell could I defeat a king of fairies when I couldn’t even keep my own family together?

Looking around at this menagerie of collected power figures made me even more disheartened. Dmitri and most of Lex’s family had flown in for the festivities. Since this was the biggest occasion since the last royal wedding, everyone who was anyone in the world’s aristocracy was here. Mount Vernon overflowed with old money, and every room at my family’s ancestral mansion had been filled by relatives. Most of them, I’d never met before, or if I had, it had been a long time since I’d seen them—cousins, aunts, uncles, people with the Washington last name or ties to it but had the good fortune of not beingtheWashington family, the firstborn of the firstborn going all the way back.

I stood in the parlor, watching my mother flit from guest to guest—politician smile wide, arms out in greeting. Like this was the most joyous thing to ever happen: her eldest daughter, finally sold off to the neighbor. I finished my pinot in one gulp.

“Slow down,” Lex murmured, coming to stand next to me. My attention caught on Kit talking to a Kennedy in the corner. I wasn’t sure which one—Hugh, Lexington, another John. It didn’t matter. She’d be next on the chopping block, no matter what I tried to do to stop it. I grabbed a glass off the tray of a passing server, handing him my empty one in exchange.

“Only two days before the end, Lucifer.” I smirked. “You can still run.”

He chuckled. “I’d never run from you, X.”

I stared at him, echoes of our game in his gaze. What would this crowd of rich old farts think if they knew that only a few days ago, he and our husband had held me down and spit roasted me like a kabob? I snorted at the image.

They thought what I did with Miri was bad?Good fucking Lord.

“Ma’am.” Reagan cut across the room and headed right toward me, standing close so they could whisper in my ear. “We’ve been given the heads-up that your bill is unlikely to pass through the Senate.”

I sighed, my lungs turning to lead as they sank into my stomach. Just another goddamned thing. When it rains, it’s a hurricane.

“I forwarded the email to you. But…it’s not good news.”

“Okay.” I pulled back to nod. “Thank you, Reagan.”

Their brown eyes met mine with sympathy as they squeezed my hand.

“You’ll get through this,” they said. “Just focus on the wedding for now. Giana’s got everything else covered.”

I had no doubt she did. Reagan kissed me on the cheek and turned to walk away. I’d failed in every way. I couldn’t figure out a way to destroy the fairy king or find the fairy queen. I hadn’t heard from Siobhan since she left, and we were supposed to capture the king in two days. I couldn’t stop this marriage from happening or get my wife back. I couldn’t even do my one fucking job in Congress.

My evening gown tightened, suddenly suffocating me. I couldn’t breathe. “I’ll be right back, Lucifer.”

“You okay, X?”

I nodded, pursed my lips, and casually walked to the balcony, looking out over the gardens and the Potomac River in the distance. I’d stood in this exact spot thousands of times, contemplating my life and what to do with it. I couldn’t decide which failure hurt worse, for there had been plenty since then.

“Hey,” came the deep voice from behind me. My father walked closer, one hand in his pocket, a glass of whiskey in his other, the typical accessory for him these days.

I straightened and turned to face him, plastering on a fake smile as I tried to bottle up my emotions. “Hello.”

“How are you doing?”

I shrugged. “Living the dream.”

He laughed and held up his glass for me to cheers.

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