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She shook herself, as if suddenly cold "I aer privy to the Golden Court, but I know soreatly for her to do this She risked ain she used her thuht about it, and realized Gran was absolutely right The chances of her injuring theh, because they wouldn&039;t have wanted to injure ht have made them hesitate, but eventually if she&039;d risked me, or truly injured theht about that, h and Doyle Itabout it It must have shown on my face, because Doyle came to the other side of the bed fro her a little back from the bed, or rather he stood in her way, and she made no move to couards, all the guards, would be leery of her for a tireed So removed Until we studied Cair&039;s spell we couldn&039;t be certain of everything it had been designed to do

"What would she be willing to risk her own grand shocked

"I think I know," Doyle said "I was inside the Golden Court as a dog Even the black hounds are still treated as s"

"You heard so about this spell?" Rhys asked

"No, but about Merry&039;s falad for the touch "There are still those in the court who use Cair&039;s physical appearance as a reason not to accept Merry as their queen" He bowed to Gran "I do not feel this way, but the Golden Court sees your other granddaughter as a monster and Merry not much better because of how huht and curves almost as badly as they do Cair&039;s face"

"They are a vain lot, the Seelie," Gran said "I lived a them for many years, iveso brownie I think if I looked more human, like me dad, they could have acceptedout the huhters are both lovely, and except for hair and eye color look very sidhe They can pass," Doyle said

"But neither of the grandchildren can," Gran said

"True," Doyle said

"Does anyone else find it interesting that all the fathers except lowing thread carefully away fro to do with it?

"Like calls to like," Gran said

"Some of the Seelie nobles said that if I could help a pureblood sidhe couple get with child more of both courts would followthat only the mixed breeds can breed with h"

Doyle rubbed his thuesture, and itWas it what Gran said, like calls to like? Was I sih to help the pure-bloods?

"Doyle," Galen said, "are you bleeding?" He ers came aith dots of crimson on them

Chapter Four

Doyle didn&039;t flinch or otherwise react "It is a very small wound"

"But how did it happen?" Galen asked

"I believe the glass is coated with some sort of man-made material," Doyle said

"So because it&039;s man-made and not natural," I said, "it was able to cut you?"

"Norlass would have still cut me"

"But it would have healed by now," I said, "without the ?"

"It is a s Merry&039;s body when you were cut," Gran said, and her voice was flat, alh it didn&039;t happen often

"Yes," he said, and looked at her

She sed hard "I do nae have the ht now, do I?"

"It is sidhe ," he said

She nodded, and a look of deep sorrow came over her face "I cannae be with ya, Merry I cannae resist what they will make me do It&039;s one of the reasons I left their court A brownie is a servant there, and e are invisible to them we are safe, but brownies were ne&039;r meant to dabble in court politics"

I reached out to her "Gran, please"

Rhys stepped between us as she ood idea yet We need to look at the spell first"

"I would say I would n&039;er hurt irl, but if the Darkness if Captain Doyle had not protected her, I would have cut her &039;stead of his back"

"What could they have offered to Merry&039;s cousin?" Galen asked

"Mayhap the thing they offered o," Gran said

"What was that?" Galen asked

"A chance to bed, and if with child, marry one of their Seelie nobles No one will touch Cair for fear that her deformity will breed true I was only half human, and I worked in the court as a brownie, but I saw the Seelie and I wished to be a part of it I was a fool, but it earnedmess But Cair is always outside of it, because she looks too much like her ol&039; Gran"

"Gran," I said, "it&039;s not "

"No, child, I knohat face I bear, and I know that it takes a special sidhe to love it I ne&039;r found that sidhe, but I was not part sidhe I did na&039; have the blood of the court running in ot uppity, but Cair, she is one of thereat pain to watch the others with their perfect faces get what she longs for"

"I knohat it is like to be denied a place at court," Sholto said, "because you are not perfect enough to be bedded The Unseelie sidhe run scared of my bed, for fear they will breed monsters"

Gran nodded, and finally looked at his I said, Shadow Lord I should know better&039;n most what it is to be hated for bein&039; less than sidhe"

He nodded "The Queen called ht I would be doomed to live out my life until I became simply Creature, as Doyle is Darkness" He smiled at me then, with that intimate look that he hadn&039;t quite earned yet It was so odd to be pregnant after only one night with a man But then, hadn&039;t that been what had happened with ht of sex, and e she did not want Seven years of e before she was allowed to divorce hih I had hoped the dark court would be a little less so"

"They accept more," Doyle said, "but even the Unseelie have their li as a people, because once they could bed anything and breed true," Sholto said

"They saw ," I said

"And now the two they feared theof us all," Doyle said

"Nicely ironic," Rhys said

"I irl," Gran said

"Let us test the spell and reave him a look that wasn&039;t entirely friendly "Rhys and Galen can touch you," he said "I do not need to"

She took a long breath, her thin shoulders going up and down Then she looked at hihtful look "Aye, ya should look at ood one I think the spell lingers in row and fester in themy hand in his "They do"

"Test the spell, Rhys," she said "Then cure me of it I ainst such sorceries"

"I&039;m sorry, Hettie"

She smiled at him, then turned a less-happy face to h this pregnancy, or help tend the bairns for ya"

"Me, too," I said, andhurtthread out "I&039;d like your opinion on it, Doyle"

Doyle nodded, squeezed my hand, then walked around the bed to Rhys Neither of theive Gran a clear way to touchcautious?

If it was caution, I couldn&039;t blaood-bye to Gran I wanted to touch her, especially if it was the last time I&039;d see her until after the babies were born Just thinking that all the way through - when the babies were born - shocked nant for so nancy had been all I&039;d thought about That, and staying alive I hadn&039;t thought about what it would ht about babies, and children, and having theirl, so serious," Gran said

I looked at her, and re very small, so se I re in the world could harm me I had believed that It must have been before I was six, before the Queen of Air and Darkness, Aunt Andais, had tried to drown ht the realities of beingthe immortal home to me as a child It was nicely ironic that the future of the Unseelie Court was in ht wasn&039;t worth keeping alive If I could be killed by drowning, then I wasn&039;t sidhe enough to live

"I just realized that I&039; to be a ht about anything beyond getting pregnant"

She smiled at me "It will be a few "

"Is it ever too soon to worry?" I asked

Sholto had come to stand on the far side of the bed fro at the thread Doyle was actually sniffing it rather than using his hands I&039;d seen hiic before, as if he would trace it back to its owner like a hound on a scent

Sholto took my hand in his, and I didn&039;t pull away, but I saw Gran&039;s face harden Not good I looked at him, and what I saw in his face reassured ry, and to have that directed at her I&039;d expected that he took my hand to prove to Gran that she couldn&039;t stop hi at entle as any I&039;d seen on his face His triple yellow eyes with their individual lines of gold were soft, and he looked like a man in love I was not in love with Sholto I had only been alone with hi in violent interruptions, neither of the We didn&039;t really know each other yet, but he looked at ood, safe place

It h that I dropped my eyes so he would not see that ive him love in my face, not yet Love, for me, was made up of time and shared experience Sholto and I had not had that yet How strange to be with his child, and not to be in love with him

Was this how my mother had felt? Married, bedded, but not in love, then to suddenly find herself pregnant with the child of a stranger? For the first time ever, I had souity toward me

I had loved my father, Prince Essus, but perhaps he had been a better father than husband I realized in thatof how my father and mother had interacted Had their tastes in bed been so different that they had no round? I knew their politics were opposite poles

I held Sholto&039;s hand, and had one of those adult moments when you realize that maybe, just maybe, your hatred of your parent is not co to think of ed party instead of my father

It un to escape frolaht have been harth hair Strands of his hair trailed around a face as handsome as any in the courts Only Frost had had a ht away and tried to give Sholto his due The tentacles had ripped his t-shirt apart It clung like a lace of rags around his chest and stomach Shreds of the cloth were still tucked into his jeans, with their belt, and the heavy collar was still intact, so it, along with the sleeves, kept it all in place, but the chest and stomach revealed were lovely, the skin pale and perfect The tattoo that decorated him from just under the breastbone to his belt looked like soold, ivory, and crystal, with edges of blue and pink, soft colors, like the sun caressing the edge of a seashell One thicker tentacle had been drawn so that it curled up over the right side of his chest, looking as if the tentacle had been frozen in mid-movement, so that the tip was close to the darker paleness of one nipple I wasn&039;t certain, but I was pretty sure that the tattoo had changed It was almost as if the tat was literally for when he froze the else that was held inside his jeans, was lovely, and that he knehat to do with it

He lifted htful "You look like you are weighing andme, Princess"

"And well she should be," Gran said

Without looking at her, I said, "He spoke to me, not to you, Gran"

"So you would take his side over er in her eyes, and a covetousness that wasn&039;t her, but ht be my cousin It was as if Cair had put her desire to possess into the spell, her jealousy given ical form Subtle, and nasty Not unlike ic was often like that, colored by the personality of the maker

"He is my lover, the father ofI will do what all woo to his bed, and his arms, and ill be a couple It is the way of the world"

A look of deep hatred came over her face, and it was alhtly to Sholto&039;s hand, and had to fight the urge to wiggle a little farther away in the bed fro in her that wasn&039;t

Galen moved up beside us "The expression on your face, Gran, it doesn&039;t look much like you"

She looked at him, and her face softened Then that other looked out of her true-brown eyes for a moment She looked down, as if she knew she couldn&039;t hide it

"And how do ya feel, Galen, that you share her with soin his face "I&039;ve wanted to be Merry&039;s husband since she was a teenager Noill be, and we&039;ll have a child together" He shrugged, spread his hands "It&039;s so ht I&039;d have How can I be anything but happy?"

"Do ya not wanne be king in yer own right?"

"No," he said

She looked up then, and the other was in her eyes, sharp and pure, and unco, I would be a disaster," Galen said siist for politics The others are better at all that than I am"

"You mean that," she said, and the voice didn&039;t sound very le closer to Sholto and Galen then, and farther away fro with her, in her

That strange voice said, "We could let her keep you, let her be queen of the Unseelie You would be no threat to us"

"No threat to whoht of the thread now I didn&039;t know if they&039;d destroyed it, or just hidden it I&039;d been too caught up in Gran&039;s strange state to notice It wasn&039;t good that I hadn&039;t noticed, but the world had narrowed to the stranger in randmother&039;s eyes

"But you, Darkness, you are a threat" There was no accent now There were simply well-spoken words, and because it was Gran&039;s throat saying it, the words still sounded vaguely like her, but a person&039;s voice is made up of more than just their larynx and mouth There is a piece of yourself in your voice, and the words she spoke now belonged in solanced across the bed at Sholto "Shadon and his sluagh are a threat" Shadoas a nickname that even the queen rarely said to his face A lesser fey, even rand of the sluagh

"What have they done to her?" I asked My voice was soft, almost a whisper, as if I were afraid that if I spoke too loudly, it would tip the tension building in the roo bloody and awful and irrevocable

Gran turned to Doyle, one hand spread wide It was one of those moments that seem frozen in time It is the illusion that you have all the time in the world, when in fact you have milliseconds or less to react, to survive, to watch your life be destroyed

He reacted in a blur of movement that I couldn&039;t follow He was simply a dark blur, as the power burst from Gran&039;s hand - a power that she had never possessed White-hot light burst forth, and for a htness I could see Doyle caught against that light,her arm, her body, away from the bed, away froht cutting across the front of his body

There was a shuddering screaiant tentacles still in the opening The bedshield I had tiht, then all I could see was Galen&039;s shirt All I could feel was his body above mine, tensed for a blow