Лорел Гамильтон - A Kiss Of Shadows

He took the ring tentatively between two fingers and laid it in his opposite hand. The heavy octagonal ring sat in his palm gleaming softly.

We sat and stared at the ring for a few seconds. Nothing happened. "Is it warm?" I asked.

Galen looked up at me, eyebrows raised. "Warm? No, is it supposed to be?"

"Not for you, apparently."

He wrapped the ring in the bit of silk and slipped it into the small velvet bag. It fit perfectly, but there was no room for the heavy cord. He looked at me. "I don't think the queen did the spell. I think she put this ring in here for you as a gift, just like the note says."

"Then someone else added the spell," I said.

He nodded. "It was a very subtle spell, Merry. We almost didn't notice it."

"Yes, I almost thought it was me making up my mind. If it had been some outrageous lust spell we'd have noticed something wrong much sooner." There weren't that many people in the Unseelie Court who were capable of such a sophisticated love spell. Love wasn't our specialty; lust was.

Galen echoed my thoughts. "There are only three, maybe five people in the entire court that could do such a spell. If you'd asked me, I'd have said none of them would willingly hurt you. They may not all like you, but they aren't your enemies."

"Or they weren't three years ago," I said. "People change their minds, new alliances form."

"I haven't noticed anything that different," Galen said.

I had to smile. "You say that like it's a big surprise that you wouldn't notice political wheeling and dealing behind the scenes."

"All right, all right, I'm not a political animal, but Barinthus is, and he never mentioned any change of heart this severe among the neutral parties at court."

I held my hand out for the ring. Galen handed me the bag. I took the ring out and laid it on my palm. Even before the ring touched my skin I could feel the small warmth. I wrapped my hand around the ring, squeezing it in my fist, and the warmth grew. The ring, my aunt's ring, the queen's ring, answered to my flesh. Would that please our queen or anger her? If she didn't want the ring to acknowledge me, why would she have given it to me?

"You look pleased," Galen said. "Why? You've just been the victim of an assassination attempt—you do remember that part, right?" He was studying my face, as if trying to read my expression.

"The ring is warm to my touch, Galen. It's a relic of power and it knows me." The seat underneath me twitched. It made me jump. "Did you feel that?"

Galen nodded. "Yes."

The overhead light flashed on, and I jumped again. "Did you do that?" I asked.

"No."

"Me, either," I said.

This time I watched the leather seat push out the object. It was like watching something alive twitching. It was tiny, silver, a piece of jewelry. I was almost afraid to touch it, but the seat kept moving until the item lay bare to the light, and I could see at a glance that it was a cufflink.

Galen picked it up. His face darkened, and he held it out to me. The cufflink had the letter "C" in lovely flowing lines. "The queen had cuff links made for all the guards about a year ago. They have our first initials on them."

"So you're saying a guard put the spell in the car and tried to bury the letter and the bag in the seats."

Galen nodded. "And the car kept the cuff link until it showed it to you."

"Th… thanks, car," I whispered. Thankfully, the car didn't seem to acknowledge the greeting. My nerves were grateful for that. But I knew that it had heard me. I could feel it watching me, like the sensation of eyes staring at the back of your head, and when you turn around there is someone watching.

"When you said all the guards, did you mean the prince's guards, too?" I asked.

Galen nodded. "She liked the look of the female guards in men's shirts, said it was stylish."

"That adds what, five, six more to the list of possible suspects?"

"Six."

"How long has it been known that the queen was going to send the Black Coach to meet me at the airport?"

"Barinthus and I only found out two hours ago."

"They had to act quickly. Maybe the love spell wasn't intended for me. Maybe it was just something they had lying about for some other purpose."

"We're lucky it wasn't meant especially for us. We might not have come to our senses in time if it had been."

I put the ring back in the velvet bag and picked up my turtleneck from the floor. For some reason I couldn't define, I wanted to be dressed before I put the ring on. I looked up at the car's black ceiling. "Is that all you have to show me, car?"

The overhead light went out.

I jumped, even though I'd hoped it would happen.

"Shit," Galen said. He backed away from me, or from the darkened light. He stared at me, eyes very wide. "I've never ridden in the car with the queen, but I've heard…"

"That if it answers to anyone," I said, "it answers to her."

"And now you," he said softly.

I shook my head. "The Black Coach is wild magic; I am not so presumptuous as to assume I have control over it. The car hears my voice. If there is more to it than that… " I shrugged. "Time will tell."

"You haven't been on the ground in Saint Louis an hour, Merry, and there's been one attempt on your life. It's worse than when you left."

"When did you become a pessimist, Galen?"

"When you left the court," he replied.

There was a sorrowful look on his face. I touched his cheek. "Oh, Galen, I have missed you."

"But you've missed the court more." He pressed my hand against his cheek. "I can see it in your eyes, Merry. The old ambition rising."

I drew my hand away from him. "I'm not ambitious in the way that Cel is. I just want to be able to walk the court in relative safety, and unfortunately that is going to take some political maneuvering." I laid the velvet bag in my lap and slipped on the turtleneck. I scrambled into my pants, fitting the gun and the knives back in place. I slipped the suit jacket over everything.

"Your lipstick is gone," Galen said.

"Actually you seem to be wearing most of it," I said.

We used the mirror in my purse to reapply my lipstick, and wipe it off of his mouth with a Kleenex. I ran a brush through my hair, and I was dressed. I couldn't put it off any longer.

I held the ring up in the dimness. It was too large for my ring finger, so I slipped the ring on my first finger. I'd put it on my right hand without thinking about it. The ring was warm against my skin like a comforting touch, a reminder that it was there, waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. Or, maybe, for it to figure out what to do with me. But I trusted my own magic sense. The ring wasn't actively evil, though that didn't mean that accidents couldn't happen. Magic is like any tool: it has to be treated with respect, or it can turn on you. Most magic isn't overtly harmful any more than a buzz saw is harmful, but they can both kill you.

I tried to take the ring off, and it wouldn't come off. My heart beat a little faster; my breath caught in my throat. I started pulling at it sort of desperately, then stopped myself. I took a few deep calming breaths. The ring was a gift from the queen—just seeing it on my hand would make some people treat me with more respect. The ring, like the car, had its own agenda. It wanted to stay on my finger, and there it would stay until it wanted to leave, or until I figured out how to take it off. It wasn't hurting me. There was no need to panic.

I held my hand out to Galen. "It won't come off."

"It was the same on the queen's hand once," he said, and I knew he meant that to be comforting. He brought my hand to his face and kissed it lightly. When his hands brushed the ring, there was a shock of something like electricity, but it wasn't that. It was magic.