Лорел Гамильтон - A Lick Of Frost

"Maybe it's not the man-made part, but the metal part that counts," Frost said.

"Until we know, I think only guns with more metal than plastic should be used by the guards," Doyle said.

Everyone just nodded.

"When Doyle fell, the humans started screaming and running," Frost said. "Taranis used his hand of power on the room, but he seemed confused, as if he didn't know what to target."

"When he stopped firing, Galen and I were ordered to get the princess, you, out of the room, and we tried," Abe said. "That's when Taranis decided on me." He shivered a little, his hand tightening on my leg.

I leaned over and laid a kiss on his temple. "I'm sorry you got hurt, Abe."

"I was doing my job."

"Was Abeloec his target?" Aisling asked. "Or did he try for the princess and miss?"

"Frost?" Doyle said.

"I believe he hit what he was aiming at, but when Abeloec fell, Galen picked the princess up, and he moved in a way that I have not seen anyone move except the princess herself inside faerie," Frost said.

"Galen didn't open the door, did he?" I asked.

"No," Frost said.

"Galen carried you through the door?" Usna asked.

"I don't know. One minute we were in the room, the next we were in the hallway. I honestly don't remember what happened at the door."

"You blurred, then vanished at the door," Frost said. "In that first moment, Meredith, I wasn't certain whether Galen had gotten you out or another Seelie trick had stolen you away."

"Then what happened?" I asked.

"The king's own guard jumped him," Abe said.

"Truly?" Aisling asked.

Abe grinned. "Oh, yeah. It was a sweet moment."

"His most trusted nobles attacked the king?" Usna asked, as if he couldn't believe it.

Abe's grin widened, until it crinkled the edges of his face. "Sweet, isn't it?"

"Sweet," Usna agreed.

"Was the king so easily subdued?" Aisling asked.

"No," Frost said, "he used his hand of power three more times. The last time Hugh stepped in front of him, and used his own body to shield the room and the people inside it."

"Hugh the Firelord was able to take Taranis's power at point-blank range?" Aisling asked.

"Yes," Frost said.

"His shirt was scorched, but his skin seemed untouched," I said.

"And how did you see Hugh?" Aisling asked, "if Galen had gotten you outside to safety."

"She came back," Frost said, and his voice was not happy.

"I could not leave you to the Seelie's treachery," I said.

"I ordered Galen to take you to safety," Frost said.

"And I ordered him not to."

Frost glared at me and I glared back.

"You couldn't leave Doyle hurt, maybe dying," Usna said softly.

"Maybe, yes, but also if I am ever to rule, truly rule a court of faerie, I must be able to lead in battle. We aren't humans to keep our leaders in the back. The sidhe lead from the front."

"You are mortal, Merry," Doyle said. "That changes some rules."

"If I am too mortal to rule, then so be it, but I must rule, Doyle."

"Speaking of ruling," Abe said, "tell them what Hugh said about our princess being made queen of the Seelie court."

"That can't be true," Usna said. He was staring at Abe and me.

"I swear it is true," Abe said.

"Has Hugh lost his senses?" Aisling asked. "No offense, Princess, but the Seelie will not allow an Unseelie noble who is part brownie, and part human to sit on the golden throne. Not unless the court has changed a great deal in the two hundred years of my exile."

"What say you, Usna?" Doyle asked, "Are you as shocked as Aisling?"

"Tell me first if Hugh gave reasons for his change of heart."

"He spoke of swans with golden chains, and there is a green faerie dog in the Seelie Court once more," Frost said.

"My mother tells me the Cu Sith had stopped the king from beating a servant," Usna said.

"And you didn't share this with anyone?" Abe asked.

Usna shrugged. "It didn't seem that important."

"Apparently, some of the nobles have taken the dog's disfavor as a sign against Taranis," Doyle said.

"Also, he went buggers, mad as a March fucking hare," Abe said.

"Well, there is that," Doyle said.

Aisling looked at me. "They offered you the throne of the Seelie Court, truly?"

"Hugh said something about a vote among the nobles, and that if it went against Taranis, which he seemed confident it would, he would get them to vote me in as heir apparent."

"What did you say?" Aisling asked.

"I said we'd have to talk to our queen before I could answer their generous offer."

"Will she be pleased, or pissed?" Usna asked.

I think it was a rhetorical question, but I said, "I don't know."

Doyle said, "I do not know."

Frost said, "I wish I knew."

We had a chance of being caught between a ruler of faerie who was crazy and a ruler of faerie who was simply cruel. I had found years ago that the difference between madness and cruelty doesn't matter much to a victim.

DOYLE AND FROST PICKED USNA'S MIND FOR OTHER BITS OF unimportant news from his mother about the Seelie Court. There was a lot of it. Apparently Taranis had been acting erratically for some time. Aisling asked as we pulled into the gates of Maeve Reed's estate, "Why did you request me for this talk? Taranis forbade anyone to speak to me of the Seelie Court on pain of torture, so I have no intelligence to report."

"The Seelie sithen recognized you as king when we arrived in America," Doyle said. "You were exiled because of that."

"I am aware of what cost me my place at court," Aisling said.

"So the princess is in effect being offered your rightful throne," Doyle said.

Aisling's eyes went wide. Even through the veil his astonishment showed. Obviously he had not put two and two together and come up with that.

The door to the limo opened, and Fred held the door. We all stayed sitting while we waited for Aisling to digest this. "Close the door for a moment, Fred," I said.

The door closed.

"Just because the sithen recognized me more than two hundred years ago does not mean that I would still be its choice for king," Aisling said. "And it is not me to whom the nobles are making this offer."

"I wanted you to hear it first, Aisling," Doyle said. "I did not want you to think that we had forgotten what faerie itself offered you once."

Aisling looked at Doyle for a long moment. "That was a very decent thing for you to do, Doyle."

"You sound surprised," I said.

He looked at me. "Doyle has been the queen's Darkness for a very long time, Princess. I am beginning to realize that some of his finer emotions may have been buried under the queen's orders."

"That is the most polite way I've ever heard anyone say that we thought you were a heartless bastard, Doyle," Abe said.

Aisling's eyes crinkled at the edges. I think he was smiling. "I would not have put it quite that way."

Doyle smiled. "I think many of us will find that under the princess' care we are more ourselves than we have been in a very long time."

They all looked at me, and the weight of that look made me want to squirm. I fought it off and sat there trying to be the princess they thought I was. But there were moments, like now, when I felt that I could not possibly be everything they needed. No one could meet so many needs.

I got a whiff of a spring breeze and flowers. A voice that was not a voice, but more something that thrummed through my body, hummed along my skin and whispered, "We will be enough."

I knew it was the old idea that with God, or Goddess, on your side you could not lose. But there were moments when I was no longer certain that winning meant the same thing to me that it did to the Goddess.

WE WERE MET BY A BOIL OF BODIES AT THE DOOR TO THE BIG house. Dogs, faerie hounds, met us with barks, bays, yips, and noises that sounded like they were trying to talk. Since they were supernatural in origin I wouldn't have put it past them.