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Mistral gazed up at the shining spear, then smiled down at me "You are correct It is not ic wand, or staff With this infrom a clear sky miles away to strike down an enemy"

"You mean you could use it as a tool of assassination?"

He seeht," Sholto said

Mistral and I looked at hiht?" I asked

He smiled and shook his head "Don&039;t be coy, Meredith I see your faces You&039;re thinking you could use the lightning to rid us of a few enemies and no one would know But it is too late for secrecy"

"Why?" I asked, then realized "Oh, the entire sluagh saw"

"And some of them are as old as the oldest of the sidhe They will have seen the spear in the hand of a king before, and they will knohat it can do My people are loyal, and would not betray us on purpose, I don&039;t believe, but they will talk The skeletal brides, the relics of power returning; it is all too good a story not to share it"

I sighed "Well, that&039;s disappointing"

Doyle cao outside and welco of assassination as a cure for our proble That look that said that he sier ruling out any solution to our probleers, and looked deeply into my eyes "You mean that What is it that has ers dropped away, and his face looked uncertain "I arabbed his arm, made him look at ht you ain Taranis and the rest seemed very determined that you had to die first"

"They fear him the most," Sholto said

"They tried to kill you too," Doyle said, looking at the other man

Sholto nodded "But it is not h, and led out then?" Mistral asked "I have no arht or left hand Why did they go to such lengths to kill h to remember you in battle, my friend," Doyle said

Mistral looked down, his hair falling around his face like gray clouds covering the sky "That was very long ago"

"Butboth courts feared what you would do if you were your old self again," Doyle said

I had a thought "Mistral is also the only storm deity we have in the Unseelie Court The others either stayed in Europe or are Seelie"

"That is true," Doyle said, "but that is not your point"

"My point is," I said, "what if Taranis feared exactly what has happened? He knew that if his spear came back to a Seelie Storive it over But he cannot co from the Unseelie"

"Do you truly think that he believed this would return?" Mistral asked, holding the spear ceilingward

I shrugged "I don&039;t know, but it was a thought"

"I think it is siic powers, hands of power, follow bloodlines You are proof of that with your father&039;s hand of flesh, and a hand of blood that is similar to your cousin Cel&039;s"

"His is the hand of old blood, so he can open old wounds but not make fresh ones," I said

"No, yours is a ic runs in your father&039;s bloodline The children you carry may inherit the ability to deal with storms and weather If they do, and Mistral is alive, then it is clear who gave the before the babes were born, by the tih to exhibit such power, Taranis could make another plea that they were indeed his"

I shook randfather, so I could carry the gene for storic in rows desperate He has convinced half his court that the twins could be his, including your mother Her belief in it, and her lack of belief that he took you, will go far to convince doubters They will think &039;her mother would not believe lies&039;"

"Do they not know her by now?" I asked

"The Seelie, like most huhter"

"But the Unseelie know better," Mistral said

Doyle and Sholto both nodded

I sighed again "My cousin actually thought that they could convince Rhys to join the Seelie Court again, and that Galen would be no threat It&039;s why they didn&039;t attack the two of them"

"Then why did Taranis include Rhys and Galen in the false rape charges?"

"And Abeloec too," I said That er too?"

"If Rhys coerous," Mistral said "Why didn&039;t they try to kill him? Why think they could persuade hi what Cair said"

"Did she lie?" Doyle asked

That hadn&039;t occurred to me "I think she was too afraid to lie, but " I stared at them "Have I been a fool? Have we all been? No, the Goddess did not warn er to Rhys or Galen She warned me the last time Galen was nearly assassinated"

"I think they are safe enough, for now," Doyle said

"But Doyle, don&039;t you see? There are too ht now Some want you dead, but there are those Unseelie ant Galen dead They are convinced he is the Greenman ill put me on the throne I believe the Greenree," Doyle said

"Taranis ainst Rhys and the others He&039;s crazy enough to be manipulated by his courtiers Maybe someone else wanted those three out of the way for so to do it," Sholto said

"We are at the center of a spiderweb of plots Some threads we may touch and travel on, but others are sticky and will alert the spider," Doyle said

"And then it will coht, and we go back to LA, and we try to uarantee our safety here"

The three ed looks Sholto said, "I would trust that I aed He earing his ohite sword; the carved bone shield was leaning against his big chair He picked up the shield, and settled it on his arh

"Why don&039;t these things of power coo like the chalice and the spear of bone and the white knife?" I asked

"Things that coiven in vision or dreaiven by the guardians of the earth, or water, or air, or fire are more like mortal weapons They can be lost, and if you do not carry them, they are not with you," Doyle said

"Good to know the difference," I said

The phone rang in the office Sholto picked it up, , then handed it to me "It&039;s for you - Major Walters"

I took the receiver and said, "Hello, Major Walters"

"We&039;re outside, and the siege is breaking up Your uncle&039;s people are packing up and going home"

"Thank you for that, Major"

"My duty," he said "Now, if you&039;ll just coht out Oh, and Major, I have twoback to the Western Lands, I eles"

"Would that be Galen Greenhair and Rhys Knight?"

I hadn&039;t heard their names from their driver&039;s licenses in a while "Yes, that would be them Are they with you?"

"They are"

"I&039;m impressed Even in faerie people don&039;t anticipate ht said that when he saw all of us he figured he&039;d better tag along to see what trouble you and Captain Doyle had gotten into"

"Tell him the trouble just went back to the Seelie Court"

"I&039;ll pass it along Now, if you could just join us, and tell us how many seats we need to find in the vehicles"

"Myself and three others"

"We&039;ll find rooain, Major, and we&039;ll see you all in moments" I put the phone back in its cradle and turned to the men

"Rhys and Galen are already with them," I said

"Rhys would have known that there was only one person that the National Guard would come to faerie to rescue," Doyle said

"I&039;d be flattered, if er so constantly"

Doyle caive my life to keep you safe"

I shook my head and didn&039;t smile back I took his hand in mine "Silly man I want you alive and at my side, not dead and heroic Bear that in ht?"

His s s in the back of my mind that even I didn&039;t know Once that look would have made me squirm, or be afraid, but not no I didn&039;t want secrets from Doyle He could have them all, even the ones I kept from myself

"I will do my best never to disappoint you, Merry"

It was the best I was going to get from him He would never promise not to lay his life down to protect me, because that was exactly what he would do, if it came to it I&039;d ive up all of faerie, any throne offered, to keep us all safe I wanted the fathers of my children alive by the time they were born

He touched my face "You look sad I do not want tothe warmth and reality of him "It makes me nervous that all our enemies seem so determined to kill you first, my Darkness"

"He&039;s hard to kill," Mistral said

"I a at all three of the faerie won&039;t stop all of it It will give us so Taranis with rape will make the media our friends, and cut down on the attacks, unless they want pictures of it on the news"

"Are you saying the paparazzi will be our safety?" Doyle sounded incredulous

"The Seelie pride theuys They won&039;t want pictures of thehtful "An evil turned to a good"

"What are paparazzi?" Mistral asked

All of us, including Sholto, looked at Mistral Then I swear that an alrin crossed Doyle and Sholto&039;s faces "If we have to ain with the devil for posed pictures, Mistral, you can be with Merry," Sholto said

"What are you talking about?" Mistral asked

Sholto said, "I saw those pictures, Darkness You, Rhys, and Meredith, nude by the pool doing the nasty"

"We were not having sex," I said

"Some of the tabloids in Europe used pictures that left that to doubt," Sholto said

"When were you in Europe?" I asked

"I have a clip service that cuts out anything ide about the fey"

"That&039;s an excellent idea," Doyle said "I would suggest it to the queen, except " He turned to er serve that queen"

I had a ize for that Then the look on his face y unnecessary He loved me It was there in his face, his eyes Doyle loved ize for that