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Chapter Twenty-eight

Galen hit the corner of wall just to the side of the s The wall cracked with the i around hih walls It wasn&039;t a perfect outline of his body, but as he sagged against the wall, I could see where his ar to take soet up as Barinthus strode toward him I tried to run forward, but Sholto held me back Doyle er man&039;s path Frost went to Galen

"Get out of ainst the glass, spilling across it We were far too high for the sea to reach us without aid

"Would you steal a guard fro to look at ease, but even I could see his body tensed, one foot dug into the floor in preparation for a blow, or some other very physical action

"He insulted me," Barinthus said

"Perhaps, but he is also the best of us at personal glauise, and we need hiic this day"

Barinthus stood in thedown at Doyle He took a deep breath, then let it out in one sharp gust His shoulders lowered visibly, and he shook hih to h no bird I&039;d ever known could boast so many shades of blue on them

He looked across the roo my arm "I am sorry, Meredith That was childish You need hiain so that it was loud in the thick silence of the room

Then he looked past Doyle&039;s still-ready forh he seeht have been unable to stand

"Pixie," Barinthus called out, and the ocean slapped against the s higher and stronger this tiotten the queen&039;s lady-in-waiting pregnant Galen stood a little straighter, the green of his eyes going froed hite His eyes going pale was not a good sign It meant that he ell and truly pissed I had only seen his eyes that pale a handful of times

He shook Frost&039;s hand off, and the other h his face showed clearly that he wasn&039;t sure it was a good idea

"I&039;m as sidhe as you are, Barinthus," Galen said

"Don&039;t ever try to use your pixie wiles on ain, Greenman, or the next time I won&039;t miss the s"

I realized in thatto take on the role of king, because only a king would have been so bold to the father of ed I could not

"It wasn&039;t the pixie in hireat Mannan Mac Lir," I said

Sholto&039;s hand squeezedto tell ood idea It probably wasn&039;t, but I knew I had to say soht as well concede ry eyes on me "What is that supposed to h being one of s He&039;d have never co the ave a srown in power They all have"

"All my lovers," I said

He nodded, wordlessly

"You truly are angry that I have not taken you to my bed at least once, not because you want sex froive you back everything you have lost"

He would not look at ain with that sense of underwater movement "I waited until you came back into the room, Meredith I wanted you to see Galen put in his place" He looked atI could understand on his face My father&039;s best friend and one of the most frequent visitors to the house we had lived in in the human world was not the man before ed hiance and pettiness what he&039;d been like when he first came to the Unseelie Court? Or had he already been diminished in power even then?

"Why would you want me to see that?" I asked

"I wanted you to know that I had enough control not to send him out the here I could use the sea to drown him I wanted you to see that I chose to spare hiainst his body so that I wrapped my arms around hi to protect me or just to coh touch is more comfort to the lesser fey than to the sidhe Orme about what?

"I wouldn&039;t drown," Galen said

We all looked at hi of the natural world can kill me You could shove me under the sea but you couldn&039;t drown es either Your ocean can&039;t killfor death, Greenman Trapped forever in the blackest depths, the water made near solid around you as secure as any prison, and more torturous The rest of the sidhe cannot drown, but it still hurts to have the water go down your lungs Your body still craves air and tries to breathe the water The pressure of the depths cannot crush your body, but it still presses down You would be forever in pain, never dying, never aging, but always in torment"

"Barinthus," I said, and that one word held the shock I felt I clung to Sholto now, because I needed the comfort It was a fate truly worse than death that he threatened Galen with, my Galen

Barinthus looked at me, and whatever he saw on my face didn&039;t please him "Don&039;t you see, Meredith, that I a this in some twisted bid to make me respect you?" I asked

"Think hoerful I could be at your side if I had my full powers"

"You&039;d be able to destroy this house and everyone in it You said as much in the other room," I said

"I would never harm you," he said

I shook my head, and pulled away from Sholto He held on to me for a moment, then he let me stand on my own It was how this next part had to be done

"You would never hurtto Galen, stolen hi me, Barinthus Surely you see that?"

His face fell back into that handsome unreadable mask

"You don&039;t understand that, do you?" I asked, and the first trickle of real fear wormed its way up my spine

"We could form your court into a force to be feared, Meredith"

"Why would we need it to be feared?"

"People only follow out of love or fear, Meredith"

"Don&039;t go all Machiavellian on me, Barinthus"

"I don&039;t knohat you mean by that"

I shook s you&039;ve done in the last hour, but I do know that if you ever harm any of my people and condemn them to such a terrible fate, I will cast you out If one of my people vanishes and we can&039;t find them, I will have to assume that you&039;ve done what you threatened, and if that happens, if you do that to any of them, then you will have to free them, and then "

"And then what?" he asked

"Death, Barinthus You would have to die or ould never be safe, especially not here on the shores of the Western sea You&039;re too powerful"

"So, Doyle is the Queen&039;s Darkness, still to be sent out to kill on co he is"

"No, Barinthus, I will do it ainst me and win, Meredith," he said, but his voice was softer now

"I have the full hands of flesh and blood, Barinthus Even my father didn&039;t have the full hand of flesh, and Cel didn&039;t have the full hand of blood, but I have both It&039;s how I killed Cel"

"You would not do such a thing to o I would have said that you, Barinthus, would never have threatened people I loved I rong about you; do not make the same mistake"

We stared at each other across the room, and the world narrowed down to just the two of us I aze, and I let him see in my face that I meant what I&039;d said, every word of it

He finally nodded "I see my death in your eyes, Meredith"

"I feel your death inthat my heart would be happy to have his death, or at least not sad

"Ae those who insult me? Would you make a different kind of eunuch out of me than Andais did?"

"You can protect your honor, but no duel is to the death, or to anything that will destroy a man&039;s usefulness to me"

"That leaves little that I can do to protect my honor, Meredith"

"Maybe, but it&039;s not your honor I&039;m worried about, it&039;sto besmirch your honor, only the pixie brat"

"First, never call hiain Second, I am the royal here I am the leader here I have been crowned by faerie and Goddess to rule Not you, me" My voice was low and careful I didn&039;t want it to break with e the father of my child, my consort, in front of me, you proved that you have no respect for me as a ruler You do not honor me as your ruler"

"If you had taken the crown as it was offered, I would have honored what Goddess chose"

"She gave me a choice, Barinthus, and I have faith that she wouldn&039;t have done that if the choice offered was a bad one"

"The Goddess has always allowed us to choose our own ruin, Meredith Surely you know that"

"If by saving Frost I chose ruin, then it was my choice, and you will either abide by that choice or you can get out of ht, and stay out of it"

"You would exile me?"

"I would send you back to Andais I hear she has been in a blood-lust since we left faerie She mourns her only child&039;s death in the flesh and blood of her people"

"You knohat she is doing to them?" He sounded shocked

"We still have our sources at court," Doyle said

"Then how can you stand there, Darkness, and not want us all brought back into our power so we can stop the slaughter of our people?"

"She has killed no one," Doyle said

"It is worse than death what she does to them," Barinthus said

"They are all free to join us here," I said

"If you bring us all into our power then we can go back and free theeon"

"If we rescued her torture victims we&039;d have to kill her," I said

"You freed me and everyone else in her Hallway of Mortality when you left this last time"

"Actually, I didn&039;t," I said "That was Galen&039;s doing His ic freed you and the others"

"You say that to make me think better of him"

"I say it because it is true," I said

He looked at Galen, as glaring at him Frost was just a little behind the other ant hts Doyle moved out froo far Ivi, Brii, and Saraid were all standing a little apart from each other, the better to draeapons I remembered Barinthus&039;s words that I&039;d left a vacuuuards at the beach house had turned to hilected them, and seemed not to trust the women at all I had a moment to wonder where their loyalty would lie, with ic filled the Hallway of Immortality with plants and flowers?" Barinthus asked

Galen siain He wasn&039;t one for silence The fact that he wasn&039;t talking was a bad sign It ht say

Rhys came in from the opposite hallway He took one look at all of us, and said, "I see what the noise was that I heard That was Jere Are we?"

"We&039;re co," I said I looked away frolaht"

She looked startled, then nodded and even bowed "It is"

"Then you, Galen, Rhys, and Sholto, come with me We need to look huain" My voice sounded so sure of itself The pit of ht, but it didn&039;t show, and that hat it e You kept your panic to yourself

I went to Hafwyn and Dog, but she was pale and still shaken I sat down beside her, but was careful not to touch She&039;d had enough touching for one day apparently

"I&039;lamour would be up to the job, too, but I&039;ll leave you here to recuperate"

"Please, let me come I want to be useful to you"

I smiled at her "I don&039;t knohat kind of crily of so that Cel did For today, stay here, but in future you and Saraid will be part of uard rotation"

Her blue eyes went a little wide, and then under the drying tears she looked pleased Saraid came to us and dropped to one knee, head bowed low "We will not fail you, Princess," she said

"You don&039;t have to bow like that," I said

Saraid raised her head enough to give me those blue eyes with their white starbursts "Hoould you like us to bow? You have but to ask and ill do as you prefer"

"In public don&039;t do any of that, okay?"

Rhys walked wide around Barinthus, but was careful not to give his back to the other man He was nonchalant about it, but if I noticed, I knew the otherto one knee in public, all the glamour in the world won&039;t hide the fact that she&039;s the princess and you&039;re her guards"

Saraid nodded, then asked, "May I rise, your highness?"

I sighed "Yes, please"

Dogmaela dropped to one knee in front of me as the other woive you the honor due your station"

"Please, stop that," I said

She looked up, clearly puzzled I stood and offered her"Have you noticed that the lances "The queen did not insist upon it always, but our prince did," Saraid said "Just tell us which greeting you prefer and ill give it to you"

"A hello will be fine"

"No," Barinthus said, "it will not"

I turned and gave him a less-than-friendly look "This is not your business, Barinthus"

"If you do not have their respect then you have no control over the sidhe," he said

"Bullshit," I said

He actually looked shocked, as if it wasn&039;t a terht to hear fro fro in the world didn&039;t make any of them respect Cel or Andais It made them afraid of them, and that is not respect, that is fear"

"You threatened me with the full hands of flesh and blood You want me to fear you"

"I&039;d prefer your respect, but I think you will always see ht care for me you can&039;t see me as fit to rule"

"That is not true," he said

"The fact that I gave up the crown to save Frost&039;s life has made you doubt me"

He turned so I couldn&039;t see his face, which was answer enough "It was the choice of a ro?" Doyle asked,a little toward the other man

He looked from one to the other of us, and then said, "It was most unexpected that you, Darkness, would ht you would help make her into the queen we needed Instead she hasme weak?" Doyle asked, and I didn&039;t like the tone in his voice at all

"Enough!" I didn&039;t mean to shout it, but that&039;s how it came out

They all looked at me "I&039;ve seen our courts ruled by fear my whole lifetime I say that ill rule here out of fairness and love, but if there are those a my sidhe ill not take fair treatment or love from me, then there are other options" I walked toward Barinthus It was hard to be tough when I had to crane my neck so far up totheed

"You say you want me to be queen You say you want me to be harsh, and you want Doyle to be harsh You want us to rule the way the sidhe need to be ruled, correct?"

He hesitated, and then nodded

"Thank the Goddess and the consort that I am not that kind of ruler, because if I was I would kill you as you stand there so arrogant, so full of your power from only a ain more power, and that is exactly what my aunt and my cousin would do"

"Andais would send her Darkness to kill hter for that"

"You would try to kill me yourself," he said

"Yes," I said

"And you could only defend yourself," Rhys said, "by killing both Essus&039;s daughter and his grandchildren I think you&039;d let her kill you before you&039;d do that"

Barinthus turned on Rhys "Stay out of this, Croet that I know your first nahed and it startled Barinthus "Oh, no, Mannan Mac Lir, you can&039;t play true naer that naer a true nah of this," I said, , and I want you, Barinthus, at the lad of dinner withto be at the main house for a while"

"I would prefer to remain near the sea," he said

"And I don&039;t care what you would prefer I say that you will move into the main house with the rest of us"

He looked al since I lived near the sea, Meredith"

"I know I&039;ve seen you swi in the water of it happier than I&039;d ever seen you and I would have let you stay here by your eleoes to your head like some rich liquor You are drunk with the nearness of wave and sand, and I say that you will go to the er filled his eyes, and his hair did that odd underwater ain "And if I refuse tothat you will disobey a direct order fro what you will do if I do not comply," he said

"I will exile you from this coast I will send you back to the Unseelie Court and you can find out firsthand how Andais sacrifices the blood of all the fey to try to control the ht that if I left, the ain, but the Goddess herself is ain, and I think all you old ones have forgotten what that ," he said

"That is a lie," I said

"I would never lie to you," he said

"Then you lie to yourself," I said I turned to the others "Come on, everybody We have a crime scene to visit"

I started for the door and most of the people in the room followed me out I called back over ht in time for dinner, Barinthus, or be on a plane back to St Louis"

"She will torture o back," he said

I stopped in the doorway and the crowd of guards had toso I could see him "And isn&039;t that exactly what you threatened to do to Galen just o?"

He looked at me, just looked at me "You are still moved by your heart and not your head, Meredith"

"You knohat they say Never come between a woman and what she loves Well, don&039;t threaten what I love, for I will move the Summerlands themselves to protect what is mine" The Summerlands was one of our words for Heaven

"I will be there for dinner," he said, and he bowed "My Queen"

"I look forward to it," I said, and that last I didn&039;tI wanted at the ry ex-deity, but sometimes decisions aren&039;t about what you want, but about necessity Right noe needed to go to a crime scene and try to earn the paychecks that helped support the mass of people we&039;d become If only my title had come with more money, more houses, and less trouble, but I&039;d yet to meet a princess of faerie asn&039;t in trouble of soet to the story&039;s end, bad things and hard choices are lived through In a way I&039;d co, but unlike fairy tales, in real life there&039;s no ending, happy or otherwise Your story, like your life, goes on One minute you think you have your life relatively under control, and then the next minute you realize that all that control was just an illusion

I prayed to the Goddess that Barinthus wouldn&039;t force me to kill him It would hurt my heart to do it, but as alked out into the California sunshine and I slidhard and cold inside h I would do exactly what I&039;d threatened Maybe I was more my aunt&039;s niece than I cared to think about

Chapter Twenty-nine

Doyle and Frost, with Usna driving, took the Suv, and Usna used glamour to make him appear as me It had surprised me that he had his driver&039;s license, but apparently years before I was born he had left faerie to explore the country When I&039;d asked why, he&039;d replied, "Cats are curious" And I knew just by the look on his face that that was all the answer I would get

Usna wasn&039;t good enough at glah a crowd One bump and the illusion would have shattered, which hy he wasn&039;t going withBut ere hoping the ates, so we could drive off uno with us There was arooth hairwith the feathers so that she, like Doyle, was dark enough that where one blackness ended and the other began the eye couldn&039;t sort out It ainst all the darkness

Then the feathers s black trench coat that it so often appeared to be Cathbodua only had to soften her skin from the otherworldly paleness to a more huraphed withbut their eyes, hair, and soold and her skin to a sun-kissed tan Her blue-and-star eyes were simply blue She was still beautiful, but she could pass for human Even the fact that she was six feet even and naturally thin didn&039;t make her stand out here in LA the way it would have back in the eous wo and had had to settle for a day job

Galen ed his eyes to match He darkened his skin so he looked truly tanned, and he did subtle things to his face and body so that he looked ordinary You&039;d seen a laughing, cute guy like hiave hi eye, and painted both eyes to a good blue, but not too eye-catching He sith curls up under his fedora, left his signature trench coat at the beach house, and went in just the suit coat that he&039;d worn last to work, putting it over jeans and a T-shirt The jeans were his, but the T-shirt he&039;d had to borrow It fit through the shoulders, but lots of it was tucked into the stylishly faded jeans He slipped back into his boots and he was dressed

I came out of the bedroom with my hair an auburn that was almost brown I&039;d also put it up into a French twist The deep, chocolate-brown skirt suit was a little short for business, but I was short enough that long just wasn&039;t good on un from Rhys and put them at the sun, a sword, and a dagger I had h holster under the skirt The knife actually wasn&039;t just for defense; it was also so there would be soainst faerie ic, but it&039;s best if they touch your skin There were a lot of fey, even sidhe, who couldn&039;t have done gla their skin My huic no y surroundedcompared to the city itself Out here by the ocean it was easier for the rest of theic in the heart of any ht made me wonder about Bittersweet and whether Lucy had found her I pushed the thought aside and checked the un nor knife showed in the suit The skirt was lightweight but flouncy,enough that even a sainst the reat rooot you make your eyes brown, too"

"Green eyes are too unusual Hurinned at me, and moved to taketo say "We should test the gla makes either of us lose our concentration"

We kissed, and it was a nice, thorough kiss He dreay and I was staring up into a pair of dark brown eyes set in a face more tan than his would ever be by nature

I smiled

It was Rhys who said, "Colamour holds up Amatheon and Adair checked in The press took the bait with Doyle and Frost, so we can go do so each other&039;s hands as alked outside I trusted the other guards that theall over each other like lovers, no a pictures, and not all glamour holds up to cameras We don&039;t knohy, but even with the best of us sometimes a picture will reveal the truth when the naked eye will not

Sholto had gone ahead of us all

"All doors are in place"

"So you&039;ll just appear," Galen said

"Yes"

"How do you make certain someone isn&039;t in the doorhen you appear"

"I can feel if it&039;s empty," he said

"Nifty"

"I didn&039;t know you could do doorways," I said

"Its a power that has returned since ere crowned"

"Don&039;t tell Barinthus," Galen said

"I will not" He&039;d been solemn when he said it "But I will scout the area and if reporters seem aware you are on your way; tipped off, I believe they say"

"They do," I said with a smile

"Then I will call if they have been tipped off" He&039;d gone with his blond hair looking short, his golden eyes as brown as Galen&039;s and mine Sholto even made his face less handsome so he wouldn&039;t even attract attention as a too handsome human

Rhys drove since it was his car We put Saraid in the front with him, and the rest of us scattered in the back We could actually see the distant flash of police lights when Rhys pulled over into a sainst one of the coave me that smile of his that I kneas Julian and not his twin brother They both had short, rich brown hair cut so it was short on the sides, but a little longer on top, where it was gelled into small spikes But Jordan didn&039;t have such a careless, devil-ood sh ency and then to buy into the Grey Detective Agency They were both six feet of tanned and easy handsoh oddly it was the teasing brother who had found a amous relationship and done happily so for more than five years Serious brother Jordan was still quite the ladies&039; le days Julian had never been a ladies&039; entleman&039;s man, if that was a phrase, would have been lasses with yellow-tinted glass that complehing "You should have called, dear I&039;d have worn another color so ouldn&039;t have ot and returned His face still held that edge of laughter, but his eyes behind their allasses were very serious

"You haven&039;t been to the crime scene yet, have you?" I asked

"No," he said, his voice as serious as his eyes, but if anyone atching, his face still laughed and was pleasant "But Jordan has"

Now I understood why his eyes were already a little grim The twin brothers could let each other see what they were looking at, if they wanted to When they&039;d been little they&039;d had no control over it, but they&039;d gone to the afterschool psychic prograifted children and now they only shared if they chose Whatever Julian&039;s brother had shown hih to take the shine from his eyes

He looked past me to the men with me, and the smile climbed back up into his eyes There were other hu certain as hiding behind the glaood, and so was his brother So he went to Galen and exchanged a cheek kiss like he had with me and a handshake with Rhys The fact that he kneho to kiss and who to just shake hands with said that the disguises weren&039;t really fooling hiood, since some police were noizards, but " the truth

Julian hesitated at the women, which meant that it wasn&039;t what they looked like to his physical eyes that let hi uards well at all, so he shook their hands He was actually more careful of the women than the men

Of course, even Julian hadn&039;t quite been his exuberant self since otten eaten by a very big, bad piece of ical beastie called the Nameless We - my men and I - had eventually entrapped it, but Kane and Hart had been ground down to only four eency was now the Grey and Hart Detective Agency Both agencies had been going after the same niche market, so it made sense to join forces, andtheir huht be healthier for their retiht I think Ada in those first feeeks Even now Ada clients, but not rief, or whether Julian couldn&039;t stand the thought of endangering him Eventually, if it had to be asked, Jeremy would do it, because at the office he was the boss It was actually nice that I wasn&039;t the boss every damn where

"It&039;s actually quicker to walk from here," Julian said His hands went to his jacket pocket and started to lift a pack of cigarettes out, then he hesitated "Do you mind if I smoke as alk?"

"I didn&039;t know you s the perfect white teeth that he&039;d gotten as a model and that nowwith the local celebrities "I quit years ago, but lately I&039;ve felt the need again" Soht or eood one

"Is the cri that he&039;d noticed the expression, too

Julian looked up al the here and now I&039;d seen that look before when he was seeing through his brother&039;s eyes "It&039;s bad enough, but not so bad it makes me want to sh to send hian to stride down the sidewalk He walked as he usually did, as if the sideas a runway and everyone should be looking at him Sometimes they did Rhys moved ahead of us, with Saraid by his side Galen and Cathbodua took up the rear position behind Julian and lauards That would be a clue that Julian and I weren&039;t e seemed

He seemed to notice that when I did, because he offered an to touchthe part of wealthy lover and businessuards I played with hi at comments that weren&039;t funny at all

He leaned over and spoke quietly, s brilliantly "You alere a quick study on undercover work, Merry"

"Thank you, you, too"

"Oh, I&039;hed He also tossed his half-sarette into the first trash can we ca up at hi is better than s one arainst his body I&039;d had a lot of practice walking like that with people about six feet tall, though he moved differently than most of my men I slid ainst his own gun that was at the small of his back so it didn&039;t ruin the line of his suit coat We strolled up the street like that, our hips rubbing against each other as alked

"I didn&039;t think you liked flirting omen," I said

"I&039;m an equal-opportunity flirt, Merry, you should know that"

I laughed, and this one was for real "I do remember that, but not usually this htly, but there was an intimacy to it, a reality to it that he&039;d never used when undercover onwith it It let you know he didn&039;t ainst hiave htly and spoke quietly for his ears only "Are you not getting h that he stuht himself and me, and we continued our alhts

"Isn&039;t that awfully direct for fey culture?" He whispered it against my hair

"Yes," I whispered back, "but we&039;ll be at the cri"

He sh to know that it left his eyes e much touch at home Adam seems to have buried his heart with his brother I&039; to shop seriously, and I realized it&039;s not just sex, it&039;s the touch I et rief better"