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Others of the ar shield They huddled around her as they were supposed to huddle around me, but I would never burn like that I was not sun, but moon

In that moment, I didn&039;t want to kill her I wanted her to come back to me I wanted her to be one of my court I wanted the summer&039;s heat to warm us all

I called, "Dilys, we are all Unseelie We should not be killing each other"

She spoke in a voice that held an edge of roar, and I realized it was the sound of soreat fire, as if her very words burned "You say that because your human weapons cannot harm me"

Hayes flinched beside me She whispered, "It hurts to hear her speak"

"Not asus all," Dawson said

He was right The gla the voice She wasn&039;t fire, she was the heat of sun It fills the fields with life, but too much of it and the fields wither, die, and become lifeless dust

You needed water and heat for life Where was heron my hand pulsed once It had been known as the Queen&039;s Ring for centuries Andais had given it toof destruction and war only I was life as well as death; I was balance The ring had once belonged to a goddess of love and fertility Andais had taken it froer

Death should never take the tools of life, because it won&039;t kno to use them But I knew

There was a rain of pink petals around ainstA white figure li the trees It was Crystall The last time I&039;d seen hi tortured to a red ruin One of the serious downsides to being i was that if you fell into the hands of a sexual sadist, the "fun" could last a very long time

She&039;d picked hiuards who had tried to answer my call He would have come to LA with uard to me So she punished those who had to stay but did not wish to stay She wasn&039;t getting volunteers to take the place of the guards who had co Theup That had made her even worse to the men she still had Crystall showed that as he er lean on the trees, he fell to the ground on all fours and began to craard us The soldiers aiuns around hi out of the trees It was a thought Where was the queen? Why was she letting Cel and so ainst her express orders? It wasn&039;t like her to sit idly by if she could punish people But watching Crystall crawl, seeing the bloody wounds on his body, I thought that she ht be busy Soot everything but the pain and flesh under her hands Was she somewhere intoxicated with sadistic pleasure while her son iree?

I started uns trained on Dilys, on the trees, on the dark, but I wasn&039;t sure there was anything to shoot right now Later There would be things to shoot later

Dilys called across the field in her voice with its edge of fire sound "Your bloodline is corrupt, Meredith Your aunt has tortured her guards until they are useless for anything but slaves"

I looked at the golden figure, and called back "Then why are you helping Cel? Isn&039;t he just as corrupt?"

"Yes," Dilys said

"You&039;ll help him kill , but her light flared a little brighter It was the ical equivalent of that little smile that you can&039;t always keep fro-ht for a an to crawl, painfully, slowly, toward that golden glow

I started to go forward and help hin I stayed where I was I let him do that slow, piteous crawl His white hair, which I knew in the right light wasn&039;t white but alround, like a rich cloak fallen on hard times

Dawson said, "Do you want us to help him?"

"No," I said in a low voice "I want her to help hiave me a look, then when my look didn&039;t make any sense to him, he did the look with Brennan and Mercer Mercer said, "But won&039;t she kill him?"

"Not if she wants to be saved," I said

"I don&039;t think she&039;s the one who needs saving," Mercer said

Dilys yelled atto help him, Princess?"

"He&039;s not here for me"

"You speak in riddles," she said

Crystall continued his agonizingly slol across the field with its dead and wounded But it was clear now that he wasn&039;t ailow

"Do not let him throw his life away, Meredith If he tries to harm me in this condition, I will destroy him"

"He&039;s not here to harm you, Dilys," I said

"Why else is he here but to save you and your huht, but had not quite touched it The light, like sunlight will, sparkled through his skin and hair as if he werehis body Shts, to chase back the dark

He put out his hand, and the ht, he knelt and looked at her The blood on his body gleaic is this?" Dilys asked, but her voice was not the burning thing it had been

Crystall stood, and walked into that light His body began to glow, like sunlight on water, or the reflected light on dia it a thing of beauty

"What are you doing to hi it"

Crystall was al form He stood there, tall and lithe, his body lined with muscles, but lean like a runner He had always had a delicate strength He was like a jewel thrown into the sun, glea with rainbows from the tips of his hair to every inch of bare skin The wounds had closed, as if just being near her power had healed hihtened "I am no healer, but he is healed How is this possible?"

Crystall held his hand out to her

"What does he want?" she yelled, and the fear was plain in her voice

"Take his hand, and you&039;ll know"

"It&039;s a trap," she said

"I wear the queen&039;s ring, Dilys I saw you burning with the heat of the suht, &039;Where is her balance?&039; Where is her coolness to keep her fro to death?"

"No!" She shouted it at him

Crystall simply held his hand out to her, as if he could hold that shining hand out forever

Then her golden hand began to ertips brushed his, and the golden heat became half silver, and I saw the waver of heat meet the sparkle of water in front of them, like the sun on the surface of a summer lake

Then they were in each other&039;s arh I knew they had not He had never been her lover, her god to goddess, but he as left He was the coolness she needed, and I had called what I could find

Her glow banked to a hard, yellow light as if she were carved of it Crystall glowed as if he were forod," Hayes whispered

"Yes," I said

"What did you do?" Dawson said

"They will be a couple, and there will be children Two children"

"How do you know that?" Brennan asked

I sreen and gold

He sed hard, as if the sight disturbed hiic"

"Make love, not war," another solider said

"Exactly," I said

Then there was a shriek fro wordlessly at ray and black armor, surrounded by followers in every color of armor and some that looked like bark and leaves or ani but steel and iron Those dreaure between thenized him, my heart failed me His hair fell loose around hiht Their white sidhe hands seeainst all his dark perfection

Cel screamed across the field at rel worth your life, cousin? Will you walk to aze from him, dark and so terribly still Was he even still alive? Only death would ht that I had lost the Frost, was too much Too much pain, too much loss, just too much

I whispered his name "Doyle" I willed him to look up, to move, to letto save My hand went to nancy, and I knew that I could not trade ive ain A wave of nausea washed over ht swam, but I couldn&039;t faint I couldn&039;t be weak; there was no tis away that would un to the ones that would help e, and a coldness that I didn&039;t know I had inside me

"It&039;s war, then," I whispered

"What?" Dawson asked

"We will give Cel what he wants," I said

"You can&039;t give yourself to him," Hayes said

"No, I cannot," I said, and my voice sounded like sonize ive hian to walk across the field My soldiers came withDoyle thrown onto the ground like so e, I was content with that