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Chapter 7

I CLEANED OFF THE REMNANTS OF THE MAKEUP THAT I HADN&039;T cried away Got the lipstick that still looked like clowncloth so he could do his own face We were clean and neat and presentable e started back to the crime scene I felt hollow inside, as if a piece ofBut it didn&039;t matter Walters would be here soon with the CSU tea of the witnesses before then in case they said so that we didn&039;t want the human police to knoanted justice, but I also didn&039;t want tosome dark secret with the human world

Doyle stopped so abruptly that I ran into him He pushedarnal that I had not seen With Doyle and Adair in front and Galen and Usna suddenly very close on either side of htened everyone Barinthus, Hawthorne, and Frost were bringing up the rear They had turned to face back down the hall as if they orried about so? What now? I couldn&039;t even e a drop of fear I&039;m not sure it was bravery so much as exhaustion I was simply too tired emotionally and physically to waste the adrenaline on fear In that second, if we&039;d been attacked, I&039;m not sure I would have cared

I tried to shake it off, this feeling of desolation I called, "Doyle, what is it?"

Barinthus answered, "The Queen&039;s Ravens are in the hall, blocking our way" I guess being seven feet tall does give you a better view

I realized then that ht One of the sidhe had co the killer Wonderful I&039;d just given someone else a reason to want me dead But as one more?

Adair moved to the center of the hallway to hide me behind his armored back, as Doyle moved down the hallway Barinthus answered ht it "Doyle is conferring with Mistral"

Mistral was the er of storms, and the new captain of the Queen&039;s Ravens He&039;d taken Doyle&039;s place when it beca back to his old job

"What&039;s happening?" Galen asked, and his voice held enough anxiety for both of us

Usna bent over ood"

"Keep yourup the hallway tohere Doyle had gone He had a gun out, held down along his leg If I&039;d been choosing between sword and gun, I&039;d have uns were outlawed inside the mounds, but after the last few atteuards and hers needed all the help they could get So our uns, if they kne to use thee of as couns the way others treated the idea of carrying around a poisonous snake It ht be useful, but what if it bit you

Usna had a short sword in either hand, pointed both directions up and down the hallway His grey eyes, which were thewatch, but his face was pressed against the top of ainstdown each end of the hallway as he did it, but he was also al me Cat-like and inappropriate for the situation, if he&039;d thought like a human But it was Usna, and I knew that he are of everything in the hallway, even while trying to put the scent of his skin againstGalen did not "Usna, stop it"

A soft sound sorowl sounded from the other man "You worry too much, h, rinned as he said it We all felt a little better for Usna&039;s teasing

"Quiet, both of you," Frost said fro a little sheepish but happier Usna stopped trying to rub his face against my hair Which meant he&039;d done it almost more to tease Galen than to tease one horribly wrong, Barinthus or Adair would have warned us But it was taking too long The unnatural cal to slip away from me on tiny cat paws of anxiety

I had a license to carry a gun in California I also had a diplomatic waiver that pretty much covered er often enough that being aruns But Andais wouldn&039;t let o into the press conference armed I was a princess; princesses did not protect theht the idea archaic and shortsighted and downright ironic cooddess of battle Standing there with Galen and Usna pressed against me, with the others like a wall of flesh around me, I vowed that the next time I left my rooave him room to pass, then olden wall I realized that Adair was being just that, a wall of flesh and metal to keep death from me He&039;d said I was his ahost, for he had been the last a the royals of either court To be called a, because the h love, the kind of love men have shared with one another on battlefields as far back as tie, queen or princess, but a back from a battle alive with his leader dead orse than death A shauards took their own lives for sha their prince die To lay your life down for your a Adair standing there so straight, so proud, so ready to die, made me think about my new title Madefor me I had not earned it I was not my father and never would be I could never ride into battle with them and hope to survive How could I be their ameraudur if I could not do that?

Doyle&039;s dark face was eht about Adair&039;s new pet na it to hi I was certain of was that I wasn&039;t in ier Other than that, he could have worn the sa I wanted to yell at hi, but he spoke before I could lose that much control

"The queen sent them to fetch you back when you are finished with your &039;h that they cannot fetch you iave a small wry se of the criether

"Did the queen rescind her offer to Meredith?" Barinthus asked "Are Mistral and the queen now in charge of this ht of a different spell to search for our ical clue down, but needed someone to keep the crime scene safe When Mistral and the others cauard the hallway"

"That was rashly done," Frost said

"Knowing Rhys, he got Mistral&039;s oath," Usna said, "and once you have Mistral&039;s oath, you have his honor He would not break it, not for all the joys of the Suave one sharp nod "I trust Mistral&039;s honor as I dopassed over his impassive face, but I couldn&039;t decipher it Months in my bed, weeks in my body, and I could not read the look in his eyes "He has requested an audience with you, Princess He says that he has a e from the queen"

"We do not have tireed, but I also knew that ignoring ers froo, what could she want?"

"You," said a deep voice behind theave a nod At a gesture from Doyle, Adair and he parted like a curtain to reveal Mistral

His hair was the grey of a sky that promised rain, held back frolirey eyes before he dropped to one knee and gave me only the back of his head It was the first time that another sidhe, any sidhe, had voluntarily showed me such respect I stared down at the broad sweep of his shoulders in their tight leather armor, and wondered why he&039;d done it

"Get up, Mistral"

He shook his head, sending his grey hair like a fall of water down his back, barely held in check by the leather thong that held it at the nape of his neck "I owe you this at the very least, Princess Meredith"

I had no idea what he ave a sht turn of the head, his version of a shrug

"Why do you owe me such a bow?" I asked

He raised his head just enough so he could roll his eyes at me "If I had dreamt that you would take one look from me so seriously, I would have been more careful of you, Princess My oath on that"

I knehat he meant then, for it had been the look of conteht before that had helped rip of an evil spell A spell that had er to anyone near her It had been a very clever assassination ploy Mistral had told me with his eyes alone that I was just another useless royal, and he hated us all It wasn&039;t the hatred, but the uselessness that had reed with him In that mohtered

"Are you so certain one glance from you hat otten how long it had been for some of the Queen&039;s Ravens since they&039;d had a woman joke with them

He lowered his face quickly, his voice uncertain and uncomfortable "I am sorry, Princess, I presu had not only fallen flat but embarrassed him I&039;d had no idea my words had such power over Mistral I touched his bowed head, the queen&039;s ring on ift to ers brushed his face a breath before the rey eyes up to me His lips parted as if he meant to speak, but the metal touched his skin, and there was no time for words

I knew that our bodies still stood and knelt in the hallway inside the Unseelie Court I knew it, because I&039;d had this happen before when thecombined But to Mistral and e dead tree I had seen this hill, this tree in one form or another in drea his cheek He put his hand over azed around at the plain that spread out as far as the eye could see It was green and lovely, but strangely empty

"What have you done, Princess?"

"Not azed up at me, and there was puzzlement in his eyes "I don&039;t understand"

"Look at the tree"

He turned, with his hand holdingit to his face The tree was a huge, blackened thing, its bark cru wind The first tie cleft in the center This tree did not It had taken me a while to understand that the tree wasn&039;t real, or the hill Neither were any place a et you The tree represented the Goddess, and the power of faerie; the hill was The Hill We stood at the center of the world, but the center of the world changed at the thought of the gods In this moment, this was the center, and Mistral and I stood at that center We stood hand in hand, while the wind blew across the sky

The wind sood I heard a voice on the flower-scented wind Or perhaps it was ht Mistral did not seem to hear it, so perhaps the voice was only for me

"Kiss him," the wind said, "kiss him Let hiht The wind said, "You are the chalice" Oh, of course It h I knew that later it ht not make any sense at all

"Mistral," I said, and the wind grew stronger, sweeter, at the sound of his name

He looked at me, and there was a hint of fear in his eyes Had it really been that long since he was touched by the Goddess? Yes, the voice in my head said, it had

"Kiss aze searched my face "Who are you?"

"I am Merry"

He shook his head, even as he let ainst my body I realized that my arm was not injured in this place of dreath of his back, over the leather of his ar his head

"No, you are not the princess"

"I am, but I a softness that I&039;d heard before, like listening to someone else&039;s voice in your own ears

"What are you?" he whispered

"Drink of the chalice, Mistral" The flower-scented rapped around us like invisible arether as we could e with clothes on He held ood aphrodisiac for most people The queen has never understood that

His face bent toward me, but his body was tense, and he tried not to bend closer The wind pushed at him, forced his head doard I understood in that er of storms Once he had controlled it all as a man controls a horse, but now Mistral was the horse, as being ridden, and he didn&039;t like it

Mistral fought against the push of the sind He fought to move his body away from mine, but the as like chains, and the best he could do with all that strength was keep his mouth just above mine Keep hiht when this is what you want?" the voice said, using my lips

"You cannot be the chalice You cannot be the Goddess, she cast us out long ago"

"If I am not real, then you cannot kiss me"

"You cannot be real"

"You were alwaysThomas, Mistral Kiss me, kiss me, and discover the truth Whether your doubts are real, or whether I ahtly that it was hard to breathe "Kiss h the wind, and the drowning scent of blossoms

HisHe gave himself to the kiss with his lips, his ain, but Mistral did not notice He picked ainst his body One hand gripped ht a se hih before, but it had had a certain gentleness to it; now he kissedofand holding my lower lip until I cried out for hione, and the wind soose buround with him on top I wasn&039;t certain if it was to protect ainst ed white blast of lightning fell from the clear sky and struck the dead tree

Bolt after bolt fell fro the tree, and with each strike the dead bark fell, revealing fresh pale bark underneath

Mistral coveredfurrowed the earth on either side of the tree, even as it shook the dead away Until at last the tree stood naked and new and alive The broken, snaggled branches began to grow longer, fuller, and buds formed on the end of those branches Blossoms spilled out, white and pink, and the scent of apples was thick and sweet Her voice ca Thomas, and shake the dead away from the quick"

We ca before

There were more of Mistral&039;s men on the other side of us, but Doyle and Barinthus were keeping them back I doubted much tiht me back into some of my poith only a touch Would you take that chance away from your captain, si?"

Mistral s of teeth His eyes boiled black with storm clouds so that he looked blind He was suddenly on his feet, ainst his body so hard it jarred my arm and drove a small moan of pain from me

A sound came from his throat and deep in his chest, a sound that started as alrowl of distant thunder

He ran his fingers through ht in his hand It was a sht, too much

He stared down atseparate and priht That divine spark that thrust into the first dark and brought life That poas in Mistral&039;s hands, in the press of his body hard and eager even through the prison of his leather

He felt so big, so thick, against the front of th of his hands rip on ht my body&039;s reaction, or cause ainst his grip, but he&039;d given a trapped, of being helpless against his strength, his lust, and whatMy eyes shuttered closed at the effort of not struggling in his harsh grasp

He whispered against h to see hiainst entleness, no co, and the thought of it tightened things low in my body, drew another small sound from my throat "Yes," I whispered, "yes"

The roll of thunder echoed down the hallway, shuddering between the stone walls The sound seemed to vibrate out of his body and into ainst the riainst my skin, with the taste of thunder in it "Good," he said and forced me to my knees

Chapter 8

MISTRAL HELD ME ON MY KNEES, MY HEAD IMMOBILE IN HIS GRIP, as his other hand undid the front of his pants Just watching hiht have fallen to all fours if he hadn&039;t held o down on thenant Oral sex wouldn&039;tto my queen, and they would not waste seed on any other part of my body I&039;d offered it as a part of foreplay, butthe for the touch of them inking or nant In this enda, only his own long-denied need That he would think first of pleasure and second of politics an to glow softly That faint dance of ic underneath my skin traveled up his hand and into his body A faint white radiance started underneath his skin, like light reflected around a corner Not the full-out shine offainter, less sure of itself I wondered if his glow had always been so hesitant His body spilled out of his pants He forcedand hard on hiht burst fro inside him, so that for a moment my eyes were dazzled

If I had not held hi pain in ht and power and ic, and had no true substance at all But he shoved that wide and very solid piece of hi becato struggle to breathe

I pushed at his body, and his hand relaxed, drawing my mouth down his thickness until I could draw breath, around the tip of him I expected him to draw the rest of the way out of my mouth, but he didn&039;t He kept the tip of hih air, I ran ue delicately underneath the riht across the hardness of him It made him shudder from the hand in my hair, to the flesh in my mouth, to his hips under the press of ed fro out of the brightness His hair had burst its leather ribbon, and fell around hiht It was as if the rest of his body thruht and power, except the part I held in my mouth Maybe I couldn&039;t have held hi carved of power

He shoved himself deeper into my mouth, but I was afraid that he would shove too far as he had before I distracted hie of teeth It ain I edged ently but firmly farther underneath the skin than I had before, so that I could lick inside that taut skin and the top of the shaft at the same time It made him shudder and writhe above me He looked down at me and his eyes ide and ith the sensation of it

Wind began to play down the hallway, and his white, shining hair flared in that wind, a nirew until it streamed down the hallway in both directions, and I realized it was Mistral

My hands slid to his pants, and I pulled carefully on the leather fastenings, until I could touch the soft skin of his testicles They were loose enough that I could tease the skin between them, and roll them in my hands like delicate balls of tender flesh

I forgot gling to hold the width of hiotten harder, which was more difficult to s, but it orth the effort Worth it to rest ainst those tender bits of skin and flesh, until I could lay the circle ofwar even that ling, and as I drew th of hi power followed me As if the touch of th of his body

I gave a final flick of ht ht flashed through thehtning flashed through Mistral&039;s eyes Then came the first distant breath of ozone, like a storm that hadn&039;t quite reached us yet, but the scent of it rode the wind and pros

He rowled down the hallway in answer

My skin shone as if the h ed ht, and I knew that hts caught behind snow

He turned ainst the stones keptface-first

He kept his hand in ers found the edge of my panties He balled his hand into the satin, and I had a breath to brace before he ripped theered ainst the wall I realized that I was using my hurt arm, and it didn&039;t hurt anymore My hands pressed into the cool stone of the wall, as Mistral pulled s but not inside hs made me cry out, but he was more than a foot taller than I There was no way to have intercourse with ht a box for ainst th across theback and forth across the sweetest of spots started that heavy wars It wasn&039;t just the softness of his skin and the hardness of his erection, but the power The power acted as a sort of vibration against my body I realized that if he didn&039;t stop soon he&039;d bring as his, before he&039;d shoved himself up inside my body? Did I want him to spill himself across the outside ofwhen Mistral made the choice for me

He jerked me back from the wall by my hair, so hard that I stumbled He steadied me with his other hand on h He put rip on my hair It made me fall to all fours

"On your back," he said, his voice hoarse, and followed by an echo of thunder between the stone walls "I want you on your back"

I started to roll over, but it wasn&039;t fast enough for him His hands found my hips and rolled me onto the stone floor He put his hands beneath my buttocks and pulled me forward,the floor