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Chapter 1

I HATE PRESS CONFERENCES BUT I ESPECIALLY HATE THEM WHEN I&039;ve been ordered to hide large portions of the truth The order had come from the Queen of Air and Darkness, ruler of the dark court of faerie The Unseelie are not a power to be crossed, even if I was their very own faerie princess I was Queen Andais&039;s niece, but the faht hting to keepon my face

The queen had never allowed this much of the human media inside the Unseelie&039;s hollow hill, our sithen It was our refuge, and you don&039;t let the press into your refuge But yesterday&039;s assassination atte the press into our home the lesser evil The theory was that inside the sithen our ic would protect me much better than it had in the airport yesterday, where I&039;d nearly been shot

Our court publicist, Madeline Phelps, pointed to the first reporter, and the questions began

"Princess Meredith, you had blood on your face yesterday, but today the only sign of injury is your ar What were your injuries yesterday?"

My left ar that matched my suit jacket near perfectly I was dressed in Christreen Cheerful, and it was that time of year My hair was a deeper red than my blouse My hair is the most Unseelie part of ood in black Not the gold or orangey red of hureen in two out of the three circles of color in ht sometimes as if it truly was metallic The eyes were pure Seelie sidhe, the only part of olden court Well, at least half

I didn&039;t recognize the reporter who had asked the question He was a new face to me, maybe new since yesterday Since yesterday&039;s assassination attempt had happened in front of the media, on camera, well, we&039;d had to turn away so roo press conferences since I was a child This was the biggest one I&039;d had, including the one after ht to use names for reporters when I knew them, but to this one I could only smile and say, "My arm is only sprained I was very lucky yesterday"

Actually, my arot on film No, my arm had been hurt on the second, or was that the third, attempt on my life yesterday But those attempts had happened inside the sithen, where I was supposed to be safe The only reason the queen and ht I was safer here than outside in the human world was that we had arrested or killed the traitors behind the attempts on me, and the attempt on the queen We&039;d damned near had a palace coup yesterday, and the media didn&039;t have a hint of it One of the old names for the fey is the hidden people We&039;ve earned the name

"Princess Meredith, was it your blood on your face, yesterday?" A woman this time, and I did know her name

"No," I said

I smiled for real, as I watched her face fall when she realized shejust a one-word answer "No, Sheila, it wasn&039;t mine"

She smiled at me, all blond and taller than I would ever be "May I add to my question, Princess?"

"No," Madeline said, "one question per"

"It&039;s okay, Madeline," I said

Our publicist turned to look atoff the switch at her waist so her microphone would not pick up I took the cue and covered mine with my hand and moved to one side of it

Madeline leaned in over the table Her skirt was long enough that she was in no danger of flashing the reporters down below the dais Her heth was the absolute latest of theattention to as in and as out She was our huton had ever sent

"If Sheila gets to add to her question, then they will all do it That will ht, but "Tell them that this is an exception Then move on"

She raised perfectly plucked eyebrows at me, then said, "Okay" She hit the switch on her mike as she turned and smiled at them "The princess will let Sheila ask another question, but after that you&039;ll have to keep it to the original rule One question per" She pointed to Sheila and gave a nod

"Thank you for letting me add on to my question, Princess Meredith"

"You&039;re welcome"

"If it wasn&039;t your blood yesterday, then whose was it?"

"My guard Frost&039;s"

The cameras flashed to life so that I was blinded, but the attention of everyone hadthe wall, spilling down the edges of the dais, to curl on either side of the table and floor They were dressed in everything froner suits to full-plate body ar that all the outfits had in common eaponry Yesterday we&039;d tried to be discreet about the weapons A bulge that ruined the line of the jacket, but nothing overt Today there were guns under jackets or cloaks, but there were also guns in plain sight, and swords, and knives, and axes, and shields We&039;d also lanced back at Frost The queen had ordered one so far as to tell uard over another I&039;d thought it was an odd deued with her at your peril But I glanced back; after all, he&039;d saved lance? I could always justify it to the queen, e if I hadn&039;t acknowledged him It was the truth, but I looked because I wanted to look

His hair was the silver of Christmas-tree tinsel, shiny and metallic It fell to his ankles like decoration, but I knew that it was soft and alive, and felt oh so warm across my body He&039;d put the upper layer of his hair back frolittered and rey Armani suit that had been tailored over his broad shoulders and the athletic cut of the rest of hiun in a shoulder holster and a knife or two It had not been designed to hide a gun under each arm, or a short sword at his hip, with a leather scabbard strapped tight to his thigh The hilt of a second sword rode over his shoulder, peeking through all that shining hair He bristled with knives, and Frost always had other weapons that you couldn&039;t see No suit was designed to cover that much armament and hold its shape His jacket couldn&039;t be buttoned at all, and the guns and sword and one knife glinted in the camera&039;s flash

Cries of "Frost, Frost" filled the room, while Madeline picked a question Thelike an assassination attempt to attract the media

"Frost, how badly were you hurt?"

Frost is a little over six feet, and since I was sitting down, and the ht, he had to lean doay down With a weapon of any kind he was graceful But bending low over that mike he ard I had a moment to wonder if he&039;d ever been onthe question

"I am not hurt" He stood back up, and I could see the relief on his face He turned away froet off that easily I knew better

"But wasn&039;t it your blood on the princess?"

His hand was gripping the po his weapons unnecessarily was a sign of nerves He leaned over the ain, and this time he bumped my bad shoulder with his body I doubted the press saw such a small movement, but it was too cluainst the table, steadying hirey of a winter sky to me The look asked silently, "Did I hurt you?"

I h and leaned back to the microphone "Yes, it was my blood" He actually stood back up, as if that would satisfy them He should have known better He had been decorative h of these over the years to know that he was being a little too concise At least he didn&039;t try to go back to his spot behind me this time

A reporter I did know, Simon McCracken, was next He&039;d covered the faerie courts for years "Frost, if you are not hurt, then where did your blood coet on the princess?" He kneord the question just right, so we couldn&039;t tap-dance around it The sidhe don&039;t lie We&039;ll paint the truth red, purple, and green, and convince you that black is white, but on&039;t actually lie

Frost leaned over the ain, his hand pressed to the table He&039;dtouched my skirt His sas almost trapped between our bodies That would be bad if he had to draw the weapon I looked at his hand, so big and strong on the table, and realized his fingertips were rip a podium when you&039;re nervous

"I was shot" He had to clear his throat sharply to continue I turned h to see that perfect profile, and realized it wasFrost, was afraid Afraid of public speaking Oh, my "I have healed My blood covered the princess when I shielded her from harm"

He started to stand back up, but I touched his arainst hiainst the curve of his ear I took in a deep breath of the scent of his skin, and said, "Kneel or sit"

His breath went out so deep that his shoulders moved with it But he knelt on one knee beside me I moved the microphone a little closer to him

I slid my hand under the back of his jacket, so that I could lay ainst the curve of his back, just below the side sweep of the big sword sheath When fey are nervous, any fey, we take cohty sidhe feel better with a little contact, though not all of us will ad the line between royalty and commoner I had too much lesser fey blood in my veins to worry about it I could feel the sweat that was beginning to trickle down his spine

Madeline started to co look but didn&039;t argue She picked another question fro

"So you took a bullet to protect Princess Meredith?"

I leaned into thecarefully, so I didn&039;t get ht Frost ju to be visible to the cameras Oh, well We were blinded, vision blurred in bursts of white and blue spots His htened, but I wouldn&039;t have known it if I hadn&039;t been touching him

"Hi, Sarah, and yes, he took a bullet for me," I said

I think Sarah said "Hi, Princess" back, but I couldn&039;t be sure, since I still couldn&039;t see well enough, and the noise of soI&039;d learned to use names when I knew them It made everyone feel et at a press conference

"Frost, were you afraid?"

He relaxed ainst me, into the touch of my hand and my face "Yes," he said

"Afraid to die," so called on

Frost answered the question anyway "No"

Madeline called on someone, who asked, "Then ere you afraid of?"

"I was afraid Meredith would be harain I realized he&039;d used uard, but of course, he wasto be prince to my princess But ere sidhe, and we don&039;t nant A nonfertile couple is not allowed to wed, so the guards were doing ive your life for the princess?"

He answered without hesitation "Of course" His tone said clearly that that had been a silly question

A reporter in back who had a television camera next to hiunshot wound in less than twenty-four hours?"

Frost gave another deep, shoulder-h "I am a warrior of the sidhe" The reporters waited for him to add more, but I kneouldn&039;t To Frost, the fact that he was sidhe was all the answer he needed It had been only a through and through bullet wound froreat deal more than that to stop a warrior of the sidhe

I hid my smile and started to lean into thehis spine suddenly stopped being wet and warm It was as if a line of cold air swept down his back Cold enough that Ihand on the table and sahat I&039;d feared A white ri out from his hand I thanked Goddess that the cloth on the table hite Only that was saving us froht notice later when they went back over the cah to worry about without thinking that far ahead In a way this was ht Frost into a level of power that he&039;d never known It was a blessing of the Goddess, but with neer comes new responsibilities, and new temptations

I moved my hand from under his jacket to cover his hand with mine, as I spoke into the reporters&039; puzzled murmur I was braced for his hand to be as icy as that slide of power down his back, but surprisingly, his hand wasn&039;t nearly that cold

"The sidhe heal al out The edge of it caught the an to climb it The mike crackled with static, and I squeezed Frost&039;s hand He saw it then, what his fear was doing I&039;d known it wasn&039;t on purpose He balled his hand into a fist, but with ers entwined with his I did not want anyone to notice the frost before it melted

I turnedin his iris, like a tiny grey snow globe set in his eyes I leaned in and kissed him It surprised him, because he&039;d heard the queen&039;s adive ave me time to explain She&039;d have done the saic

It was a chaste press of lips because Frost was that unco a red lipstick that would s kiss I saw the explosion of the caainst my closed eyelids

I drew back from the kiss first Frost&039;s eyes were still closed, his lips relaxed, almost open His eyes blinked open He looked startled, h Goddess knows I&039;d kissed hilish Did a kiss from me still mean that much to him, e&039;d kissed so many times I couldn&039;t count them all?

The look in his eyes said yesas close to the front of the table as the other guards would let the pictures of his face and ht wetness around our hands It barely darkened the white cloth We&039;d hidden the ic, but we&039;d exposed Frost&039;s face to the world What do you do when a man lets the whole world see just how ain, of course Which I did, and this time I didn&039;t worry about clown makeup, or the queen&039;s orders I simply wanted, always, to see that look on his face e kissed Always and forever

Chapter 2

WE HAD RED LIPSTICK SMEARED OVER BOTH OUR FACES, BUT WE were sidhe, and one of the lesser poe possessed was glamour A little concentration, and I sih I could feel it sic across Frost&039;s face, so that he looked as he had before, and not like he&039;d laid his face into a pot of red paint and rubbed back and forth

It was illegal to use ic on the press The Supreed on the first amendment, freedom of the press and all that But ere allowed to use sic on ourselves for cosmetic purposes After all, there was no difference between that and regular ery for celebrities The court wisely didn&039;t try to open that particular can of lamour instead of makeup in the first place, but it took concentration, and I&039;d wanted all my concentration for the questions Besides, if there was another assassination atteh that she&039;d ordered uess so that if the worst happened, I&039;d look good dead Orcynical Maybe she silah questions for one day, and it was a feeding frenzy of "Frost, Frost" There were even a few rude enough to shout out questions like "Is she good in bed? How et to fuck her?" Gotta love the tabloids, especially some of the European ones They ht friendly

We all ignored such rude questions Frost took his post behind ic around hilamour would break, but this close I could hold it Not forever, but long enough to get us through this mess

Madeline chose one of the o Tribune, but his questionthe tabloids "I have a two-part question Meredith, if Iup to so that wouldn&039;t be pleasant

Madeline looked at me, and I nodded He asked, "If the sidhe can heal almost any wound, then why is your arm not healed?"

"I&039;m not full-blooded sidhe, so I heal slower, more like a human"

"Yes, you&039;re part human and part brownie, as well as sidhe But isn&039;t it true that some of the noble sidhe of the Unseelie Court are concerned that you are not sidhe enough to rule thee you as queen?"

I sht furiously Someone had talked to him Someone who should have known better Some of the sidhe did fear ht that if I sat on the throne I would destroy them That my mortal blood would take their immortality It had been the reason behind at least one, maybe both, of the extra attacks yesterday We had an entire noble house, and the head of another, i No one had briefed me on what to say if the question arose, because no one had dreamt that any sidhe, or lesser fey, would have dared talk to the press, not even to hint

I tried for half-truth "There are so the nobility that see my human and lesser fey blood as inferior But there are always racists, Mr"

"O&039;Connel," he said

"Mr O&039;Connel," I said

"Do you believe that it is racism then?"

Madeline tried to stop me, but I answered because I wanted to kno much he knew "If not racisrel half-breed on their throne" Now if he pushed it, he&039;d look like a racist Reporters froo Tribune don&039;t want to look like racists

"That&039;s an ugly accusation," he said

"Yes," I said, "it is"

Madeline stepped in "We need to move on Next question" She pointed to soht We needed to change topics Of course, there were other topics that were alic spell made the policeman shoot at you, Princess Meredith?" This frouely familiar in the way that on-air personalities often do

The sidhe do not lie WeWe can lie But if we do, then we are foresworn Once upon a time you were kicked out of faerie for that The answer to the question was yes, but I didn&039;t want to answer it So I tried not to "Let&039;s drop the &039;princess,&039; guys I&039;ve been working as a detective in LA for three years I&039; anyone ask who had done the spell It had been part of the atte that a sidhe noble had caused one of the police helping to guard me to try to killon a new reporter with a new question "This is quite a display of sidhe muscle, Prince - Meredith" The wo they would like that And I didn&039;t need the title to knoho I was "Is the extra muscle because you fear for your safety?"

"Yes," I replied, and Madeline moved us on

It was a different reporter, but he repeated the dreaded question "Was it a spell that caused the policeman to shoot at you, Meredith?"

I drew breath, not even sure what I was going to say, when I felt Doyle move up beside me He leaned over the microphone like a black statue carved all of one piece - black designer suit, black high-collared dress shirt, shoes, even his tie, of the same unrelieved blackness "May I take this question, Princess Meredith?" The silver earrings that traced the curve of his ear all the way up to its point flashed in the lights Contrary to all the faerie wannabes with their cartilage ih court, as so th, and he could have hidden his "deformity," but he almost never did His hair was pulled back in its usual braid The dialittered next to my face

Most of his weapons were as monochrouns, darkness on darkness He had been the Queen&039;s Darkness, her assassin, for ht to keep uest," I said

He leaned down to the microphone in front of me "The attempt on the princess&039;s life yesterday is still under investigation My apologies, but some details are not ready to be discussed publicly" His deep voice resonated over the mike I saw some of the female reporters shiver, and it wasn&039;t fear I&039;d never realized he had a good voice for a microphone I think he, like Frost, had never been on mike before, but unlike Frost, it didn&039;t bother him Very little did He was Darkness, and the dark isn&039;t afraid of us; we&039;re afraid of it

"What can you tell us about the assassination attempt?" another reporter asked

I wasn&039;t sure if the question was directed at Doyle or h his wraparound black-on-black sunglasses, but I swear I felt him look at me I leaned into the mike "Notinvestigation"

"Do you knoas behind it?"

Doyle leaned into the entle questions that we are not free to answer for fear of hindering our internal investigation, then this press conference is over"

On one hand, it was neatly done; on the other hand, he&039;d said a bad word - internal

"So it was sidhe ic that bespelled the policeht

Doyle had caused it, he tried to clean it up "By &039;internal&039; I meant that it involves Princess Meredith, the potential heir to Queen Andais&039;s throne It does not get much more internal than that Especially not for those of us who belong to the princess" He was deliberately trying to distract theuard Aone of the tabloid reporters for the next question If anyone would fall for sex over internal politics, it was the tabloids

They sed the bait "What do youto the princess?"

Doyle leaned in closer to the ainst mine It was very subtle and very deliberate It would probably have beenif Frost and I hadn&039;t played kissy-face first, but Doyle kne to play to the press You had to start slow and give yourself so to the , he learned quickly and did it very well "We would give our life for her"

"The Secret Service are sworn to give their life for the president but they don&039;t belong to the president" The reporter e

Doyle leaned closer to the ainst the back of my chair, so I was framed in the curve of his body The caain I allowed ainst Doyle, partly for the picture, and partly because I liked it

"Perhaps I htness fra sex with the princess?" a female reporter asked

"Yes," he said sierness Another wo with the princess?"

Doyle stepped back and let Frost co him away from it He was brave and he came and bent over the mike, bent over me But Frost wouldn&039;t play for the ca, even though his grey eyes were bare to the caht it was beneath us to play to the ance that made him not play, it was fear A phobia, if you will, of cameras and reporters and crowds He leaned over stiffly, and said, "Yes"

This shouldn&039;t have been news to any of them Publicly I&039;d returned to faerie to seek a husband The sidhe don&039;t breed nant first The queen and I had explained this at another press conference, when I first visited houards away frouards ad it, on mike, that excited theit

"Are the two of you having sex with the princess at the saht not to frown We were lucky the reporter hadn&039;t asked if they slept together withpuppy piles It&039;s not always about sex; sometimes it&039;s about safety and comfort

Frost stepped back to the wall, stiff and unhappy The reporters were yelling even more sexual questions at hi Frost is a little shy at the irls Let&039;s pick on someone else"

So they did

They yelled out nae had never been paraded in front of the media at all I wasn&039;t certain that Adair or Hawthorne had ever seen a television or a h Adair&039;s looked like it was forold and copper, and Hawthorne&039;s was a rich crimson, a color no metal had ever been Adair&039;s was h I couldn&039;t say what it was ical They had both chosen to keep their helmets on Adair, I believe, because the queen had shorn his hair as a punish to refuse reen waves to his ankles I had no idea why he kept his hel in front of thisdecided to wear the helmets, they&039;d wear them until they fainted Well, Adair would I didn&039;t know even that much about Hawthorne They knehat a camera was because the queen was fond of her Polaroid, but beyond that and indoor pluer to the thrown to the lions Their faces would show nothing They were the Queen&039;s Ravens, they kne to hide what they felt

Thankfully, no one yelled their names, probably because no one kneho they were

Madeline finally picked a question, and a victim for them "Brad, you had a question for Rhys"