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Chapter Twenty-One

Sholto&039;s office was full of rich, polished wood, stained as dark a brown as it was possible to do and not ruin the wood The walls were even paneled wood There was a wall hanging behind the main desk It was faded, but the threads still showed a scene of the sky boiling with clouds that held tentacles and sights best left to horror round of people running in terror One figure, a woazed up at the clouds while everyone else ran or hid their eyes As a child I had gazed at the hanging whilethat the hanging was almost as old as the Bayeux tapestry, and that the blond woman was Glenna the Mad She had made a series of tapestries of what she&039;d seen when the wild hunt had coradually became more bizarre as her senses left her

I&039;d stared into what had driven Glenna insane, and I hadn&039;t flinched Had it been shock? Had it been the blessing of the God and Goddesses? Or had all the losses finally caught up withbehind ainst the front of his body The weight and reality of hiood reasons, the right reasons, but I could admit in my head that one of the main reasons was this man Maybe it was Gran&039;s death, but I think I&039;d decided that for Doyle and the children inside me I&039;d trade a throne

A man&039;s voice on the other end of the phonetime I think they hadn&039;t believed that I ho I said I was

Doyle hugged htly, while my pulse calmed a little

"This is Major Walters Is that really you, Princess?"

"It&039;sme you need a police escort out of faerie" A tendril of the roses in my crown curled doard to touch the phone receiver

"I do"

"You do know that the walls of your hospital roo Sholto flew out of the roo horses, but so the outside of your rooh away, then the holes in the walls just appeared to them" He didn&039;t sound happy

"Major Walters, I am sorry that I upset your Mobile Reserve and anyone else, but I&039;ve had a hell of a night myself, okay?" There was the tiniest catch in my voice I took a few deep, even breaths I would not break down Queens didn&039;t do that

Doyle kissed the top ofhis cheek between the roses and the htly around the phone, and tugged

"Are you hurt?"

"Not physically"

"What happened, Princess?" His voice was gentler now

"It&039;s tiet out of faerie, Major Walters It&039;s tiet out of your jurisdiction I&039;m too close to my relatives in St Louis" The tendril pulled harder, as if it were trying to pull the phone out of my hand Faerie had crowned me the queen of this mound It didn&039;t want to lose me to the human world

I whispered, "Stop it"

"What was that, Princess?"

"Nothing, sorry"

"What do you need froan to uncurl it from the phone He tried to take both of his hands away to do it, but I put one arm back around my waist, so he was forced to do it one-handed

I explained that e and were threatening war on the sluagh unless they handed me over "My uncle is absolute ruler of the Seelie Court He&039;s convinced them that the twins I carry are soh stole me away, and the Seelies want ht the catch in ive me back to my uncle Do you understand?"

Doyle finally had the tendril unwrapped I felt itcrown

"I heard what he&039;s accused of, and I am sorrier than I kno to say, Princess Meredith"

"Accused of, Walters? Nice that you don&039;t adhtly

Major Walters started to protest

I cut him off "It&039;s okay, Walters Just escort me back to reality Get us all on a plane and back to LA"

The tendril slid back toward the phone

"You should have a doctor look at you before you get on a plane"

I put a hand over the receiver and hissed, "Stop!" The vine stopped infor cookies

"Princess, we&039;ll coet you, but on the condition that you let a doctor look you over before we put you on the plane"

"We melted the walls of the room I was in Do you really think the hospital wants me back?"

"They&039;re a hospital, and they want you safe We all want you safe"

"You don&039;t want hed, and kissedme not to be too harsh with the hu me

"Princess, that is not what I mean," he said and he sounded like he et us"

"It will take a little while to get things round, but we&039;ll get there"

"Why a while?" I asked

"After what happened last tiiven per on how you want to look at it, to have the National Guard with us Just in case the sky boils and ain I know your h of them reht police matter"

"Mobile Reserve can&039;t handle it?" I asked

"The National Guard has witches and wizards assigned to their units now The police don&039;t"

"Oh," I said "I&039;d forgotten that That horrible thing that happened in Persia" It had been on the news for days, in horrible living color

"It&039;s not called Persia any time"

"But the creatures that attacked our soldiers were Persian bogey beasts They had nothing to do with Islaion"

"That ic workers, and after what&039;s been happening, I think I agree that we need them"

What was I supposed to say to that? The tendril curled around the phone and tugged again, and this tier It curled away as if I&039;d hurt its feelings I appreciated being crowned by faerie itself I appreciated the honor, but a croasn&039;t going to protect ht it would, but I realized that that had been naive

"I&039;ll h mound?"

"If we just stay inside, awhile But I don&039;t kno long the Seelie ait to press the matter"

"Do they actually believe that your uncle is the father of your children?"

"Mywith it I can&039;t even bla her She&039;s my mother Why would she lie?"

Sholto pushed away fro I think they were giving me alone time with Doyle But now, Sholto caentle kiss on it I wasn&039;t sure what I&039;d done to deserve such comfort

"Why would she lie?" Major Walters asked

"Because her greatest goal in life was always to be part of the inner circle of the Seelie Court, and if she can make me Taranis&039;s queen, then she&039;s suddenly the mother of the queen of the Seelie Court She&039;d love it"

"She&039;d trade your freedo?"

"She&039;d trade "

Doyle stood at my back, and held s, gazing up at me The flowers on his croere like a mist of lavender, pink, and white He looked terribly Seelie kneeling there and staring up with those tri-gold eyes

"No, Princess, she&039;s your mom"

"She letShe watched hirandmother was the one who intervened and saved my life"

I touched Sholto&039;s face, and knew in that instant that here was anotherfor me He&039;d already proven that when he came to fetch me from the Seelie Court, but the look in his eyes now said rand her on horseback out of the hospital"

"She&039;s not injured She&039;s dead" My voice was oddly flat when I said it

Sholto&039;s eyes showed pain, because he was the one who had struck the fatal blow It was his hand that had killed Gran, even though he had had no choice

"What?" Major Walters asked

"I don&039;t have time to explain, Major Walters I need help I need a huuard get you out?"

"I&039;m not certain what the Seelie would do if they saw Unseelie warriors right now But they won&039;t attack humans, especially human soldiers It would break the peace, and they would risk being kicked out of A to give you back to theyou That&039;s not very rational Do you really think that they&039;ll let soldiers coht?"