“Would you prefer a tyranny? Who would you place in charge?” V’lane demanded.

“Why isn’t it a democracy?” Kat said. “Everyone here is present because they are useful and important. Everyone should have a say.”

Barrons cut her a hard look. “Some of us are more useful and important than others.”

“My ass, you are,” Christian growled.

Barrons folded his arms. “Who let the Unseelie in here?”

Christian lunged for him. Dageus and Cian were on him in an instant, restraining him.

The muscles in the young Highlander’s arms bulged as he shook his uncles off. “I have an idea. Let’s subject Barrons to a little lie-detector test.”

I sighed. “Why don’t we subject everyone to one, Christian? But who’s going to test you? Will you be judge and jury of us all?”

“I could,” he said coldly. “Got a few secrets you don’t want to get out, Mac?”

“Gee, look who’s talking, Prince Christian.”

“Enough,” Drustan said. “No one of us is any better qualified to make the choice alone. Let’s take the bloody vote and be done with it.”

The Fae voted to remove the crimson runes and trust V’lane, naturally. As longtime Druids to the Fae, the Keltar did, too. Ryodan, Lor, Barrons, Fade, and myself voted against it. The sidhe-seers were split down the middle, with Jo for removing them and Kat against. I could barely see the tip of my father’s head between Lor, Fade, and Ryodan, but my parents weighed in on my side. Smart parents.

“They shouldn’t count,” Christian said. “They’re not even part of this.”

‘They’re protecting the queen with their lives,” Barrons said flatly. “They count.”

We still lost.

Drustan placed the Book on the slab. Barrons took the stones from Lor and Fade and placed the first three around it. V’lane laid the final stone in place. As soon as the four were positioned, they began to glow an eerie blue-black and emit a soft, constant chime.

The entire top of the slab was bathed in blue-black light.

“Now, MacKayla,” V’lane said.

I bit my lower lip, hesitating, wondering what would happen if I refused.

“We voted,” Kat reminded.

I sighed. I knew what would happen. We’d still be down here tomorrow and the next day and the next, arguing about what to do.

I had a really bad feeling about this. But I’d had really bad feelings before that had amounted to nothing more than a case of nerves and, after everything I’d been through, I could understand how I might feel dread merely being in the Book’s presence.

I looked at V’lane. He nodded encouragingly.

I looked at Barrons. He was so inhumanly still that I almost missed him. For a moment, he looked like someone else’s shadow in the bright cavern. It was a neat trick. I knew what that kind of stillness meant. He didn’t like it, either, but had come to the same conclusions as me. Ours was a volatile group. It had voted. If I went against that vote, all hell would break lose. We’d turn on one another, and who knew how ugly things might get?

My parents were here. Did I remove the runes and potentially expose them to risk? Or refuse and potentially expose them to risk?

There were no good choices.

I reached into the blue-black light and began to peel the first rune from the spine. As I pried it away, it pulsed like a small angry heartbeat and left a lesion that pooled with black blood before vanishing.

“What am I supposed to do with them?” I held it in the air.

“Velvet will sift them away as you remove them,” V’lane said.

One by one, I tugged them away and they popped out of existence.

When there was only one left, I stopped and pressed both my hands to the cover. It felt inert. Were the runes on the inside of these walls really enough to hold it? I was about to find out.

I tugged the final one from the binding of the book. It came away reluctantly, squirming like a hungry leech, and tried to attach to me once I’d broken the bond.

Velvet sifted it out.

I held my breath as the crimson rune vanished. After about twenty seconds, I heard a small explosion of gusty exhales. I think we all expected it to morph into the Beast and rain down the end of days on us.

“Well?” V’lane said.

I opened my sidhe-seer senses, trying to feel it.

“Is it contained?” Barrons demanded.

I reached with everything I had, stretching, pushing that part of me that could sense OOPs as far as it could go, and for a brief moment I felt the entire interior of the cavern and understood the purposes of the runes.