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Chapter Nineteen

The sand was cool under our bare feet, which didn&039;t promise well for the water I shivered, and Rhys put an arainst his uards he was honed down to his essence, all ht-pack, which I hadn&039;t knoas possible

He wrapped h the ainst my bare back He had the leather sheath of the short sword in the sa to his war a little closer and away froun&039;s lines

"Sorry," he said, andinto ainstsex I won&039;t be able to use the uns and swords"

"Weapon, is it?" I said sainst hed and looked up at hiht and half in shadow It hid his good eye and left his scars painted silver, his face looking slimmer of scar, so that the scar simply became another part of that perfection

"Why so soleet distracted, ood one"

"Why, yes it is," I said, and I traced ers over the firht my hands in his empty hand, and used the hand full of weapons to help hold me still "No, Merry, not until you hear ht, soft er blue at all

"Once the sex starts I will be too distracted to guard you Everyone else is in what amounts to an enchanted sleep, so there will be no help if we need it"

I thought about what he&039;d said, and finally nodded "You&039;re right, but first we&039;ve made it clear to all of faerie that ant no throne of either kingdo Second, I don&039;t believe the Goddess brought us out here to be attacked"

"You think she&039;ll keep us safe?"

"Have you no faith left, Rhys?" I studied his face as I asked it

He looked very sad and sighed "Once I did"

"Let us go down to the sea and find it again for you"

He sone

I pulled gently on his hand and he let me pull away I leaned up and kissed hiainst his so heun and sword still in one, so I could feel the press of theain

I drew back from the kiss to find him a little breathless, lips parted, eye wide I could feel his body growing hard and firain, but letof the sea

Chapter Twenty

The surf beckoned like white foaht The tide had grown and deepened around the bottom steps, so that I walked into the cold foa aroundIt was cold enough to ht of Rhys there nude, suspicious, and very Rhys helped the shiver be s move and the sand shift, as if the very world wasn&039;t certain it would hold still

"I&039;ll have to pin everything down so the tide doesn&039;t take it, Merry Once I do that the weapons will be slow to draw"

I should have said no, or cautioned hiuards, but I didn&039;t I said, "It will be all right, Rhys" Somehow, I kneould be

He didn&039;t say a word, justwater until he could touch my outstretched hand The ic

"We stand in a place betwixt and between neither land nor sea," I said

"The closest we&039;ll get to faerie here on the Western sea," he said

I nodded

Rhys threaded the straps of the sword sheath around the gun, and used the naked blade to pin the sheath to the sand He knelt in the water, so that it was above his waist, to thrust the sword al sand, so that it would not be pulled away by the sea

He grinned up atwith the ends of his curls "Most of the positions I&039; of will drown one of us"

"You can&039;t drown, you&039;re sidhe"

"Maybe I can&039;t die fro, Merry, but trust me, it hurts like a son of a bitch to s that kind of water" He made a face and shivered, and I didn&039;t think it was entirely the chill of the water

I wondered what oldhiled with the salt of the next wave No bad ht; ould make new and better ones

I went to stand so that I could touch his shoulders and his face, and made him look up at me There was a moment where the shadow of that old hurt was there in his face, and then he s arainst his body He kissed his way up my stomach, my chest, and my neck, as if the kisses theainst mine

He kissed me He kissed me as the water swirled and moved around us so that the pull and push of it was like more hands to caress our bodies, as our lips, hands, and are

He leaned down, and used his hand to mound my breast up so his mouth could lick and suck, until just the pull of his mouth on my nipple made me cry out for him He mounded the other breast with his other hand, and did the saain He went back and forth between them as the water rose around us, until I cried out his name Only then did he drop back to his knees, chest deep in the water, and lift me so that my knees were on his shoulders, and his face was between s

I protested, "You can&039;t hold this position long enough"

He gazed up the line of my body, hisrinned "Because I want to try" And that was very Rhys It made me smile, and then his ot froth of his hands and arms so that he could reach all ofs on his shoulders like so to tell him to put me down, to be reasonable, but every ti with his ue, and he would steal in to trean to build between s, so that it would be a race to see if he could spill e before he had to put me down A few sensations earlier and I would have told hiin to tremble, but the pleasure had passed to that point of selfishness so that I wanted release enerous I wanted hiun I wanted hiun to glow as if I was solow to herself Rhys had called ic to life

In the end heThe water was high enough that the lower steps were underwater, and I leaned back against the wood, using the railing as I would have used the headboard of a bed to support le he needed He moved up the water-covered steps so that they helped hiht as he licked and sucked, and made love to me there with his s

I caught the glow of old His own skin had begun to glohite with a play of light underneath it as if clouds or sos I couldn&039;t see or understand

I was almost there, alue and the next that building warh rindthe pleasure out, asm into another, into another, until I shrieked, and screaed, limp, and couldn&039;t quitedid he stop and stand on the steps to liftwater buoy ainst the front of my body The cold water had done hier as he pushed against s It was too soon since his kiss there, so that it made me cry out as he pushed his way insidelove to me at the sao, pinningonto the wood to keep the waves fros around his waist, my arms around his shoulders, and I kissed him I kissed hiled with the ocean so that it was different, as if he&039;d gone down on someone else, someone who tasted of the sea

His eye with its three circles of color had regained its blue, because his ht to show me the day&039;s blue sky in his eye, if the sky could burn blue

He slid in and out ofsome of the time, and some of the time they seemed determined to pull us apart, as if they were jealous of ere doing I began to feel that groeight of pleasure again, but deeper inside me this tiainst his face, "Soon, soon"

He understood, and he began to work his hips faster, driving himself deeper and quicker, so that each thrust ran over that part of me, and the waves tried to help find that spot inside ave them no room He filled me up, and then between one thrust and the next I was screa my pleasure in half-moons on his pale skin

I screa up I felt hiht ain, and only when I&039;d lost count did he finally allow himself that last deep thrust that spas at the sky as he finally let hiht me one final time, and it was then that the scent of roses fell around us in a shower of pink petals that glided out to sea with the waves The asm, so that our skin ran in shivers, but it arh that the sea could not be cold for us The twin glow of our bodies ether we could make a new moon to send into the sky - a arnets, old, and sapphires so blue they would make you weep to see them His hair hite foa with the white glow of our bodies

It was only then that I realized we should have put up a circle to keep in the power, or to control it, but it was too late The power surged through us and went up and out into the night I&039;d felt a release of power before, but never one with such purpose Always before it had been al soet

We felt it hit, and I half expected to hear the echo of soreat explosion, but there was no sound The i inside me one last time, as we both cried out at the release of our bodies and the release of thearound the edges, instead of that white-hot light, only then did he let hi ht, and then tried to spill us down the steps He moved us up in a kind of crawl until he had us safe on a drier step He had fallen out of me somewhere in the clih

He gave a shaky laugh as he cradled ainst the steps

"What was that ic?" I asked, my voice still breathless

"It was the power of faerie creating a sithen"

"A hollow hill here in Los Angeles," I said

He nodded, still trying to catch his own breath "I caught a gli that wasn&039;t there before"

"Wasn&039;t where before?" I asked

"On a street"

"What street?" I asked

"I don&039;t know, but tomorrow I&039;ll be able to find it It will call to ?"

"I won&039;t have to, just as the hollow hills would appear and the people would think the hill had been there forever If the ic works as it always has, everyone will accept that it&039;s been there I&039;ll be newwon&039;t look new, and people will remember it"

I laidfast "A sithen is like a new court of faerie, right?"

"Yes," he said

"So, in essence, faerie just , yes"

"But I didn&039;t see the building I didn&039;t feel it"

"You are the high queen, Merry You don&039;t have just one sithen; in a way they&039;re all yours"

"Are you saying that the other et them, too?"

"I don&039;t know Maybe only those of us who had one once upon a time"

"Which would be you, and who?"

"Barinthus for one I&039;ll have to think about the others It&039;s been so long for et what you were before, because you don&039;t ever think you&039;ll get it back You try to forget"

"Firstable to save Brennan and his men when they have to be hundreds of , or whatever you want to call it Now this What does it allback through you I think she&039;s decided to find out if the hurateful than the fey"

"And what exactly does that ain "I don&039;t know, but I can hardly wait to see this new modern sithen, or try to explain all this to Doyle and Frost" He pushed to his feet, grabbing onto the railing to steady hih praise forto rescue my weapons before the tide rises anySalt water rusts like nothing else" He waded down into the water, and finally had to dive out of sight in the waves to find where he&039;d pierced the sand and left his weapons

I had aalone with the sea and the wind and theabove me I whispered, "Thank you, Mother"

Then I heard Rhys surface, taking a deep breath, splashing toward the steps, his weapons dangling from his hand, his curls plastered to his face and shoulders He walked up besiderivulets

"Can you walk yet?"

"With help, I think so"

He grinned again "That was aic?" I asked as he helped rabbed for the railing even with his arm on mine

"Both," he said "Consort save us, but it was both"

We walked a little shakily up the steps laughing The wind from the water seemed much warmer than before we&039;d ed its mind and decided that summer was a better idea than autu you have to rinse off your body before you fall into bed I was in the big shower doing just that when the door burst open and Ivi and Brii, short for Briac, were in the doorway, breathing hard, and weapons naked in their hands

I froze in theat theht movement fro in low through the door they had left open behind them He had his newly oiled sword at Brii&039;s throat, and his newly cleaned gun pointed at Ivi as the other un up

"Sloppy," Rhys said, "both of you Why did you leave your posts?"