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I bit one only a few days, but it seemed like a lifetime "She found Vikkommin Or rather, as left of hi story, Delilah, and I don’t feel like talking about it But she provedshe won back her right to have children She was responsible, but there were extenuating circuh "She’s powerful, our Iris"

"More powerful than you know, and the powers they stripped away fro Everyone thinks of house sprites as cute, winsoIris could probably level the three of us if she were h I don’t ever want to see her have to use her powers the way she did against Vikkommin It nearly destroyed her the first time"

"But she’s free now? To marry Bruce?"

"Yes, and to have children I’h" I paused at a red light, then turned onto the freeway entrance, gaining speed as I pushed the car into higher gear The traffic was light this ti to the road By , it would be another solid sheet of black ice "This weather’s crazy We need a break Have they said when it’s going to stop snowing and go back to rain?"

"We’re in an Arctic cold snap--it’s supposed to last another week or two and then gradually warm back up And what do you eted, tugging on the seat belt

"So happened out there on the ice fields, and before you ask, no--I don’t knohat But Iris returned, both happy and pensive So’s in the works with her But you kno close-lipped she is Until she’s ready, she’s not going to dish"

I sped up,cars, and darted left into the next lane, then left again so we’d be away fro exit-only lanes As I eased into the speed--eren’t going that fast, considering the weather--I let out a sigh and relaxed

"So what about you? Sharah cleared you for combat?"

Delilah grinned "Yeah, and boy a on bed rest But I need to work out Eight weeks of sitting around the house has turned oing to hurt when I start using ain She’s had ht and they’re going to pull" She sobered then "What do you think happened to Chase?"

I shrugged "I have no idea, Kitten, but what I sensed on the other side of that portal wasn’t altogether friendly Youyou aren’t having second thoughts, are you?"

She looked startled "You mean about Shade and Chase? No--not at all But I still love Chase, dearly He was my first love, and you don’t just blow that off, not unless the person hurt you I adore Shade; he’s good for me But Chasehe’s our detective, you know?"

I smiled softly "Yes, I know He’s our detective He’s fa the road, an easy silence fell between us then, one born of being ere None of the three of us needed constant chatter, though Delilah liked to keep the TV on for background noise Both Menolly and I were content with silence or background music

"Do you ever think about the future?" she asked after a little while

"What do you ?"

"YesNo Maybe? Ihome to Otherworld? You’re married to Smoky, Morio, and Trillian I’m with Shade and bound to the Autumn Lord Menolly is in love with Nerissa, who’s an Earthside Were Our lives are bound up on both sides And you" She stopped suddenly "Never o home to Y’Elestrial because Father disowned me"

"If Queen Tanaquar lifts the ban, would you?"

"Would I go back? Maybe But I don’t knoeven if Father comes around, I’ll always remember that he cut ive him for that And Y’Elestrial is all bound up with ain At least not to there Maybe Dahnsburg--Feddrah Dahns and his father like ht of the unicorns, I s Uppala-Dahns exoneratingthe Black Unicorn In fact, I’d beco the Black Beast to reincarnate as per legend But I hadn’t told , it sounded a little like bragging For another, I hadn’t had time to fully process the whole situation

"Now there’s a thought," Delilah said, giggling "The unicorn city I still haven’t seen it--and I’d like to"

"Maybe we’ll get a chance to go there Next time we need a break, let’s take a vacation--we can skip Y’Elestrial and go via the Elqaneve Barrows We should check in with Queen Asteria, anyway" Ever since my father had disowned ency and gone to work for the Elfin Queen

"There--there’s our turn," I said, veering back into the right lane as I checked over ht sky was silvery as the snow continued to fall, and the exit raed to keep us fro, and then we turned east and headed toward the compound

The Triple Threat--as I’d dubbed the Court of the Three Queens--owned a thousand-acre compound northeast of Seattle, buttressed in the foothills of the Cascade Mountain Range

Earlier in the year, the government had set the Earthside Fae Queens a limit--they could buy up and hold five thousand acres of land for noith the possibility of expansion in the future This land would be considered a Sovereign nation, and a treaty had been ironed out with the understanding that it would stand only if no threats were overnment or the people of the United States by the Earthside Fae who signed up on the rolls