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"This is the first I have heard of it He will be punished"

"He&039;s already been punished," I said

They both looked at me "What do you mean, Merry?" Doyle asked

"Onilwyn is dead"

"By whose hand?" Mistral asked

"Mine"

"What?" Mistral asked

Doyle touched my arm, and studied my face "What has happened while I was in the human hospital?"

I told them as quick a version as I could They were full of questions about the wild hunt, and Doyle heldat the gates here is partly my fault I sent the Seelie sidhe ere forced to join the hunt back to Taranis with a e - that I had killed Onilwyn by my own hand, and that the chalice had chosen to come to my hand"

"Why did you show them the chalice when the queen has forbidden it?" Mistral asked

"To save your life"

"You used the chalice to save me?" Mistral asked

"Yes"

"You should not have wasted its ic on me Doyle you had to save, and Sholto, but I was not worth such a risk"

Doyle looked at me

"He doesn&039;t know," I said

"I do not think he does"

Mistral looked from one to the other of us "What do I not know?"

"I did not mention Clothra&039;s name without purpose, Mistral Just as she had one son with three fathers, so I will have two babes with three fathers each"

"So s; ill you do with all of them, Princess?"

"Meredith, Mistral Call me Meredith If I am to bear your child, we should at least be on a first-name basis"

Mistral stared at me for a moment, then shook his head He turned back to Doyle "She speaks in riddles If I had been one of the fathers, the queen would have released o to the Western lands"

"We found out onlyabducted Meredith So there was not time for you to come to us in the Western lands because ere here in faerie, and in St Louis"

"Did she not know that I was one of the fathers?" Mistral asked

"I informed her that Meredith ith child and who the fathers were personally," Doyle said

"She unchained " He turned to me, his eyes full of different colors, as if tiny slices of the sky, or clouds of different colors, were blowing through them He didn&039;t seem to knohat to think or feel, and his uncertainty was bare in his eyes

I went to hiazed into those uncertain eyes "You are to be a father, Mistral"

"But I was only with you twice"

I sh"

He slanced at Doyle "Is it true?"

"It is I was there when the visions spoke loudly to more than just Meredith We are both to be fathers" Doyle flashed that white sht His eyes were suddenly the blue of a clear, suently, as if afraid I would break "Pregnant, with my child?" He made it a question

"Yes," I said

I watched clouds slide across his eyes, like a reflection His eyes were the color of a rainy sky That sky began to rain down his strong, pale cheeks I watched him cry, and of all the possible reactions; that was not what I&039;d expected from the Storm Lord He was always so fierce in the bedroom and in battle, and now he, of all the fathers, was the only one hen he found out Every tiain

His voice caes "Why did she not tell me? Why did she hurt me when I had done what she said she wanted most in all the world? To have an heir of her own bloodline to sit on her throne was her wish, and she tortured me for it Why?"

I kneho "she" was I&039;d noticed that uards spoke of Queen Andais as "she" She was their queen, and the absolute ruler of their fates The only wo

I said the only truth I had to offer "I don&039;t know"

Doyle caic has not ruled the queen forthat Andais was mad She was, but to say it out loud was not alise

I touched Mistral&039;s other arm He jerked as if the touch had hurt "If she finds out that faerie has handfasted you to Sholto, she could use it as an excuse to take the rest of us back into her guard"

"She cannot take the fathers of my children," I said, but I sounded more sure than I felt

Mistral voiced my fears "She is the queen, and she can do as she likes"

"She swore to give you all to me if you would coain, and oathbreakers, even royal ones, can be hunted again"

Mistral grabbed h that it hurt immediately "Do not threaten her, Meredith For the love of the Goddess herself, do not give her reason to see you as a danger"

"You&039;re hurting rip, but did not let randchildren will keep you safe from her"

"I am not safe inside faerie I know that That is echarges against the king and drag hiet away fros is also a weapon to be used against us all" I turned to Doyle, and laid my other hand on his arm "The Goddess has warnedThere are too o back to the city and surround ourselves with y It will limit the other&039;s power"

"It will liic of faerie, I trust un and blade"

"Faerie has coeles, Merry," Doyle said

I nodded "Yes, but the closer we are to the faerie ather round us I&039;m not even certain that the Seelie are my enemies, but they are not ic I represent"

"Then we eles," Doyle said

"Sholto cannot leave his people besieged by the Seelie," Mistral said

"Nor can we," I said

"What do you mean to do, Meredith?" Doyle asked

I shook my head "I&039;m not certain, but I know that I need to convince theh did not steal me away I need to convince them that they cannot steal the chalice fro for you and the chalice," Mistral said "I think they understand that it is your hand it coht, "What do I do?" Goddess, what do I do to fix this? Then I had an idea, a very huh mound just like in the Unseelie mound There&039;s a phone and computer, an office"

"How do you know that?" Mistral asked

"My father had to make a phone call from here once when I ith him"

"Why did he not use the phone at the Unseelie mound?" Mistral asked

I looked at Doyle "He didn&039;t trust the Unseelie," Doyle said

"Not in that moment It was only weeks before he died"

"What was the phone call about?" Mistral asked

"He o with Sholto to see another part of the h," Doyle said "I was, but h had never haroblin mounds were the only faerie ht Now the sluagh are afraid thatSholto&039;s queen will destroy thehter of Essus and they liked my father"

"We all did," Mistral said

"Not all," Doyle said

"Who did not?" Mistral asked

"Whoever killed him It had to be another sidhe warrior No other could have stood against Prince Essus" It was the first time I&039;d heard Doyle say out loud what I&039;d always known, that somewhere in the faces of those around me at court was my father&039;s murderer

Doyle turned to me "Who will you call?"

"I&039;ll call for help I&039;ll say the truth, that the Seelie are trying to take &039;s hands That they do not believe his guilt, and I need help"

"They cannot defeat the Seelie," Doyle said

"No, but neither can the Seelie defend theainst huht to live on American soil They will be banished from the last country that will have them"

The two men looked at me, then Mistral nodded "Clever"

"You put the Seelie in a situation that they cannot win," Doyle said "If they fail their king, he could have the, Doyle If they are too illed to do it, then their fate is their own"

"Harsh words," he said softly

"I thought being pregnant would make me softer, but when I stood alone in the snow and realized that Onilwynthat I ith child," I shookto put it into words, "some terrible resolve took hold ofin my arms that finally made me realize"

"Realize what, Meredith?"

"That I cannot afford to be weak, or even too terribly kind anys must be over, Doyle I will save faerie if I can, but I will protect my children and thethe throne?" Doyle asked

I nodded "You saw the noble houses when the queen presentedh to push whatever heir she chose upon the nobles, but if the nobles of her court are conspiring with the nobles of the Seelie Court, she&039;s lost too much power over them There is no way to be safe on this throne, unless we can findup the crown?" Doyle asked, words very careful

"No, but I a that I cannot take it unless uaranteed I will not lose another person to assassins, and I will not die at their hands as my father did" I put my hands on ures on the ultrasound I would not lose theo to the Western Lands, and we stay there until the babies are born, or until we are certain that we are safe"

"We will never be safe, Meredith," Doyle said

"So be it, then," I said

"Be careful what you say, Princess," Mistral said

"I say the truth, Mistral There are too many schemes, plots, enemies, or sirandmother as a weapon, and set her up to be killed Sofor the lesser fey, and that&039;s wrong too If I am to be queen here, then I will be queen of all, not just of the sidhe"

"Merry ," Doyle said

"No, Doyle, the lesser fey haven&039;t tried to killloyal to the very people who keep trying to hurt me?"

"Because you are part sidhe"

"I auide to the phone roo since I was there But ill call the police and they will coeles, and the plane itself will be enough y to protect us"

"It is not a happy thing for me to fly, Meredith," Doyle said

I smiled at him "I know that much metal is a problem for most of you, but it is the safest way for us to travel, and it will guarantee that we have hu to embrace the media, because this is war, Doyle Not a war of weapons, but of public opinion Faerie grows stronger on the belief of ive the this all along?" he asked

"No, no, but it&039;s tiths I was raised human, Doyle I realize now that my father tooknow, because it was safer"

"You are exiling all of us, including our children, fro ether "Only you lost to ive up a throne forto kill you hardest of all affects ic around er kno s that were driven froo, not at the hus that could truly destroy us all, huerous to be this close to the faerie eles, Merry, or had you forgotten?"

"That new bit of faerie cost us Frost, so no, I hadn&039;t forgotten If I had not been in the new part of faerie Taranis could not have taken uards on the doors and I at least will stay in the human world, until the Goddess or God tell ive you, to make you so resolved?" he asked

"It is the dreaer to all ould shelter o home"

"Faerie is hoeles as a punishe, and I will make it our home"

"I have never been to the city before," Mistral said "I am not sure I will thrive there"

I held my hand out to the other man "You will be by row ripe, and you will hold our children in your hands What more is home than that?"

He cath of their arms I buried ainst his body My resolve would have been firto the huwas a fey creature, and it would not coht in this choice I felt it, like a firm yes in my mind It was tio to Los Angeles and hteen

Chattan, Sholto&039;s cousin, was on the door as guard again His brother was not with hihtflyer stood on the other side of the door, flat upon the floor, its great wings pulled tight around it so that it looked like a black cloak Standing, the nightflyer was a little shorter than I I looked into its huge, lidless eyes, and a glance at Chattan&039;s own eyes showed plainly where the genetics for those large liquid dark eyes had come from

He was Sholto&039;s cousin on his father&039;s side

Chattan caood to see you up and well This is Tarlach He is our uncle"

I knehat he ood to &039;s relatives"

Tarlach bowed in that liquid way that the nightflyers had, as if their spines worked in ways that human spines never would His voice had sooblin, but there was also a sound of wind and open sky in his words, as if the sound that wild geese e of a stor since a sidhe calledBy sluagh law that h have never stood on cereer Blood calls to blood" In the Unseelie Court that would have been a threatening line, blood to blood, but ah it sienetics in ood You are your father&039;s daughter"

"Everywhere I go outside the Unseelie Court I find people who respectedto wish that he was a tenth less likeable and a tenth more ruthless"

Tarlach moved ould have passed for shoulders if he&039;d had htflyer tutor, Bhatar, that it was their nod

"You think it would have kept him alive?" Tarlach asked

"I plan to find out"

"You plan to be more ruthless than your father?" Chattan asked

I looked at the taller sluagh and nodded "Take me to the office so that I can make a phone call, and I will try to be both practical and surprising"

"What help is there froainst the Seelie?" Tarlach asked, in his wind and storhtflyers had such voices It was athereat power Even a the royal not all had the voice of storm

"I will call the police and tell theain They will coer to you all will go with ainst the Seelie, then the humans cannot," Chattan said

"But if the Seelie dare to attack huned when they first came to this country It is war on American soil, and war on humans They can be exiled froht, but to ht," Tarlach said

"Exactly"

His slit of a h that it crinkled his lidless eyes into happy sht of it as a child when I&039;d made Bhatar smile that broadly "We will take you to the office, but our king and nephew is fighting a different fight, which the human police cannot help with"

"Let us walk as you explain," Mistral said

Tarlach looked up and gave the tall sidhe a look that was not friendly, though I wasn&039;t certain that Mistral would be able to read it I&039;d grown up staring into the face of a nightflyer, so I could

"The sidhe do not rule here" Then he looked at Doyle

"Once the queen ordered , but you rejected h&039;s vote is final I did as I was ordered, nothing more"

"It left a bad taste on our skin," Tarlach said

"The queen orders, and the ravens obey," Doyle said, an old saying a time

"Some say the princess is only a puppet for the Darkness, but you have reh on her own"

"Yes, she does" Tarlach seean to walk down the hallway As graceful as they are in the air, they are less so on the ground

"We heard that the sluagh had voted a new proxy king because they feared Sholto would not wake in time to deal with the Seelie," I said as I fell in step beside him Mistral and Doyle came in behind me, ht up the rear

"It was more than that, Princess Meredith The bower you had created was terribly Seelie, though the bone gate was a nice touch"

"It was ic from Sholto and myself"

"But it was mostly flowers and sunshine That is not very Unseelie, and h"

"I cannot always choose how the ic, and it chooses its oay like water finding a cleft in a rock," he said

I sireed "Is there a chance that they will try to dispossess Sholto?"

"Soh They have chosen a full-blooded nightflyer in his place as proxy Only the fact that Sholto has been the best and fairest of kings saved hiiveout of office?"

Tarlach spoke without trying to look back at Doyle "It has been done before"

We walked in silence for a few h&039;s sithen looked much like the Unseelie&039;s, with dark stone walls, and floors of cold, worn stone But the energy was different That thruy that was always present inside a fairie htly different It was like the difference between a Porsche and a Mustang They were both high-perforh&039;s sithen roared, the power calling to me louder and louder as alked

I stopped so abruptly that Doyle had to touch ?" he asked

"We will call, but Sholto needs ht now"

"You at his side will not comfort them," Tarlach said

"I know I look too sidhe for them, but it is the power that they need to see The sithen is talking Don&039;t you hear it?"

Tarlach gazed up atat reat stor ever closer I need to be at Sholto&039;s side while he faces his people"

"You are too sidhe to help him," Chattan said

I shook my head "Your sithen doesn&039;t think so"

The sound pulsed against ine, so that it vibrated along my body "There is no ti, as all the sithens once did It will not take another, and your people are not listening to it"

"If you are truly his queen, and the sithen truly speaks, then ask it to open the way from here to the chamber of decision It may speak to you, but does it listen to you?"

I reainsthad been working against , and I wanted the sa

I spoke "Sithen, open the way to your king and the charew so loud that I could hear nothing but the roar and pulse of it It staggered me for a moment so that I reached out to Tarlach&039;s slick muscled form for steadiness Maybe it was the fact that I reached to a nightflyer and not a sidhe, but whatever the reason, the corridor in front of us ended, and becareat cavern I could see seats full of sluagh going up and up in a great a a huge nightflyer als, and shrieked at us Sholto turned a startled face to us He only had tihtflyer launched itself at us Tarlach threw hiht that went upward

"You should not have come," Sholto said, but he took an to broil into a riot The sluagh were fighting a themselves