Seven Black Diamonds (Seven Black Diamonds #1)(75)

Shock, blood loss, and birth proved too much. Endellion couldn’t cling to consciousness.

When Endellion woke, she was on the shore of her island. The survivors of the crash were surrounding her.

“Where is she?”

“Who? There weren’t any other women,” a sailor near her said.

“My baby.” Endellion’s hands fell to her stomach, as if she could touch the skin and find that she was wrong.

The truth was in the blood and pain that she remembered. The truth was in her empty womb.

She pushed to her feet and looked around the beach. “Where is my daughter?”

Another sailor reached out to touch her, as if there was consolation to be found in his murderous hands. “There was no baby.”

Endellion looked to the oil-slicked sea where her child had been born and ran until she could dive under the surface. She dove into those toxic waters, again and again. She cried out to the sea creatures, begging for help. She swam until her body screamed in pain. She searched until her lungs burned.

There was nothing. No sign of the life she’d carried and lost. Her child was gone.

When she reached the shore again, her subjects had arrived and stood behind the sailors. Every mortal and faery on the shore watched her as she stepped onto the land. Blood and oil streaked her skin. Her entire body shook.

Silently, the Unseelie Queen walked up to her son, Rhys, and held out a hand. Words seemed too heavy to speak.

Rhys frowned in confusion.

“Blade,” Endellion managed to say. “I need your blade.”

Once she had it in her hands, she turned to face the survivors of the wreck and her subjects and announced, “My daughter is dead.” She paused to let her words settle on the assembled crowd. “You killed my daughter, my hope . . . my people’s savior.”

And then there were no more words. She turned her blade against the murderers and slaughtered every human who’d dared to destroy her heart and her sea. Given time, she would destroy every last one of them. She would eradicate the plague that had taken everything from her.

When Zephyr finished reading, he looked at Lilywhite. “As you told me when I woke, this changes nothing. Not for me. I understand what the queen lost, and I understand her anger . . .”

“My mother wasn’t killed,” Lilywhite pointed out.

“It doesn’t matter,” Zephyr said. “We need to do as the queen orders. Surely, you can understand that. Please, Lilywhite.”

Lilywhite said nothing.

Creed walked out of her bedroom and said, “I prefer Abernathy Commandment #17: Love is a risk, so if you embark upon it, do it with no reservations. Never halfway.” He clamped a hand on Zephyr’s shoulder. “No bargains. No compromises. If we all stick together, maybe we can have a future we want.”

“I’m not attacking humans, Zeph. I’m not giving up Lily either. We just need a plan. Either we work to put Lily on the throne or—”

“I don’t want the throne,” Lilywhite interjected.

“Fine,” Creed continued with a shrug. “Then we try to reason with the queen. Her granddaughter is alive. She has a grandson.” Creed nodded at him. “There are no reasons to keep on this path of war with humanity. With Rhys and Eilidh on our side, we stand a chance at being done with the things she wants of us.”

For a glimmer of a moment, Zephyr considered it. He wanted to believe the pretty fantasies Creed and Lilywhite spun. Reality was different.

“I won’t be a part of any treason, Creed. Not even if my father is a part of it. I won’t tell our queen, but that’s the most I can offer you. If she orders me to wed Lilywhite, I will. If she orders me to die, I will.”

“And if she orders you to kill?” Creed prompted.

“I obey our queen,” Zephyr said.

“You’d kill us? The people you’ve been trying to protect?” Creed didn’t sound angry. His voice was twisted with challenge and doubt as he pushed harder. “Can you truly say that? Without lying, Zephyr, can you say you’d kill us?”

Alkamy looked up at him with nothing but trust in her eyes, and both Lilywhite and Creed stared at him expectantly. Then Alkamy said in a clear, strong voice, “I wouldn’t fight against the blade if you had to do it. I will stand at your side no matter what.”

He swallowed against words he wanted to say, promises he couldn’t make. Then he met Creed’s eyes and said, “I will obey our queen.”





thirty


LILY

Lily couldn’t say that she was surprised by Zephyr’s choices. She suspected he wasn’t truly surprised by hers. They’d both been raised to believe certain truths. For him, that meant unerring loyalty to the faery queen; for her, it meant that she would fight for her own beliefs and choices.

The unavoidable fact, though, was that she and Zephr were still at odds. The queen had ordered Zephyr to bring Lily to the Hidden Lands. She could run, of course, but doing so was sentencing the rest of the Sleepers to punishment. Going, on the other hand, meant that maybe she would be able to convince the queen that there was no need for war. She’d started it over her daughter’s death at sea, but Iana had survived. Lily was proof of that. Maybe the queen wasn’t as terrifying as everyone thought. Maybe the stories Lily’s mother had left behind were reason for hope.