Page 14 (1/2)

Chapter 27

The upside to Kitto’s near-death experience was that I got to go back to bed and sleep I’d suggested that Doyle join us, but Frost had thrown a fit So Doyle had just begged out, as long as Frost didn’t get to join us either I’d pointed out that Doyle and I had gotten the least aht, but Frost didn’t care I also pointed out that ere just going to sleep, so did it really uo back to bed and cuddle Kitto I h, so I could spoon around his body without lying on the shoulder that he’d bitten I’d taken some Advil, but the shoulder still ached fiercely like it had its own pulse It hadn’t hurt nearly this ood sign I hoped so I hated to have soood purpose

Jere back to the office, until he found out that Kitto had nearly died

He was silent for a long tih for me to say his name softly

"I’m here, Merry, just bad memories I’ve seen fey fade away before Do what you need to do to take care of hi to keep Teresa overnight for observation She’s sedated, so I don’t knoto be all right?"

He hesitated "Probably But I’ve never seen her like she was today Her husband yelled atany more criree with him?"

"I don’t know if it matters, Merry I’ve er does police work I’ician, but I had no clue what did that today I could feel the remnants of a spell, but that was all I told Detective Tate what I’d felt, but Lieutenant Peterson didn’t want to hear it He’s deter mundane Extraordinary, but mundane" Jereo to bed and cuddle up to sohed "Greedy ol’ Merry wanting to take up all the fey men in LA"

"If you need to come over and be held, you’d be welcootten that"

"Forgotten what?"

"That it’s okay to be held by your friends in ways that huht for me to come and cuddle close to you while we slept"

"If you need it"

"I’ve been out a, Merry I don’t think entirely like a trow anyo to bed with you and not have it turn sexual"

I hadn’t knohat to say to that

When I woke, the light against the drapes was fading to dusk I was still spooned around Kitto’s body, and he was still pressed against et It was as if neither of us hadhow stiffThe shoulder ached distantly, ignorable Kitto’s breathing was still deep and regular What had woken ain It opened before I could say anything Galen peered through He smiled when he saw h to prop oblin He ainst ain no space between his body and ers through his curls His head ainst the ?" I asked

Galen made a face that I couldn’t quite read "Well, not exactly"

I frowned at hi the door behind him We talked in low voices, so as not to disturb Kitto

Galen ca-sleeved shirt whose pale green color brought out the green tint in his skin, intensified the darker color of his hair The pants were just faded blue jeans washed until they were alh where white threads gave hints of the pale green skin underneath

I realized he’d said so attention "I’ white teeth "Queen Niceven’s representative is here He says he has strict orders to collect the first payaze went back to the hole in his pants, then traveled up his body until I reen eyes The heat in his eyesin my body

Kitto stirred beside , andof my body in response to Galen, that had woken him

I explained briefly that Niceven’sinto the room I’d known he would have no problem I’d asked for politeness’ sake The queen wouldn’t have asked, but I think it was ht, rather than her knowing they wouldn’t mind

Galen went back to the door and opened it wide A tiny figure fluttered in The body was about the size of a ser than the rest of his body, and mostly rich butter yelloith lines and bars of black and spots of blue and orangey-red He hovered over the bed, above htly paler version of the rich yellow of his wings He wore a fils to Princess Meredith of the Unseelie froe, most lucky fey to be chosen as our royal majesty’s ambassador to the Western Lands" His voice was like the sound of tinkling bells, a laughing sound It lae, for that is a kind of lie"

He pressed tiny perfect hands to his chest, his wings beating faster, sending a breath of air against lamour to a sidhe of the Unseelie Court?"

He had been careful not to deny the charge; he silamour, or it can be stripped fro I want to see what, or whoh that the wind fros played in the strands of hair around my face "My lovely maiden, you wound me I aht upon me and let me test the truth of your words For if you are truly as you appear, then touching e you, but if you play me false, then the mere touch of my skin will show your true self" The very formality of the words was a type of spell I had spoken truly and believed utterly what I had said; thus it was true When he touched my skin, he would be forced to appear as he truly was

I sat up so I could extend a hand The sheets slipped down, pooling at e eyes staring at the fluttering fey He watched the tiny figure like a cat fascinated by a bird I knew that the goblins were not above cannibalizing other fey The look on Kitto’s face said that, perhaps, deht, Kitto?"

He blinked and looked up atfey, across ed but a very little That one look frightenedainstunder the sheet

"The taste of flesh has oblin bold" Doyle was in the doorway

The little fey turned in ive a save the barest of bows, a e, I must say that I aDoyle eye to eye; but he stayed out of reach, like the shy insect he resembled

"Why surprised, Darkness?" His voice didn’t sound so much like joyous bells now

"I did not know that Niceven could spare her favorite lover"

"No more that, Darkness, and well you know"

"I know that Niceven had child and husband by another, but I didn’t think the dee flew a little higher, a touch closer "You think because we are not sidhe that we do not know the law" The anger could have sounded i from that tiny chimelike voice, but it didn’t It was the sound of chi er queen’s lover Whatever have you been doing with yourself, Sage?" I had never heard Doyle so chiding before He was deliberately baiting Sage I’d never seen Doyle dothat didn’t have a purpose to it, so I let it go But it all had a personal feel to it What could this minute man have done to the Queen’s Darkness, to earn such personal attention?

"I have had the whole of our kingdom’s women to please me, Darkness" He flew almost into Doyle’s face "And you, one of the queen’s eunuchs, what have you been doing with yourself?"

"Look at what lies in the bed, Sage Tell me that that is not such a bounty asman didn’t even bother to turn around "I did not know that you liked goblins, Doyle I thought that was Rhys’s peculiarity"

"You can be deliberately obtuse, Sage, but well you know the s, Darkness They say that you guard the princess but do not share her bed There has been much speculation as to why you would pass by such a bounty, when the others have partaken of it" The little s almost brushed Doyle’s face "Rumor whispers that perhaps there was more than one reason Queen Andais never took you to her bed Rumor would have you eunuch in truth and not merely in lack of use"

I couldn’t see Doyle’s face through the rapidly beating wings of the des looked like butterfly wings, they beat much faster, and the physical motions weren’t identical to the insect he ive you my most solemn oath," Doyle said, "that I have taken the pleasure of Princess Meredith in the way that abeat, then his entire body dipped as if he’d alained hiain "So, you are no longer the queen’s eunuch, but now the princess’s lover" The voice sounded low and evil, a tinny hiss Whatever was happening was definitely personal

"As you say, Sage, rue from Andais’s book You were her favorite lover before her one-night tryst with Pol got her with child When she was forbidden from your bed, you were forbidden from anyone else’s If she could not have her favorite, then no one would"

Sage hissed at hiry bee "Much pleasureswitched, Darkness"

"Whatever do you e?" But Doyle’s voice was low and held a note that said he knew exactly what the dereat sidhe warriors, the great ravens of old, reduced to court eunuchs, oh, yes, I taunted you all I boasted of hts, like an evil whisper in your ears"

Doyle just looked at hi a circle in the air like one ood does ood is it to see her in all her beauty but be unable to touch her?" He turned back to Doyle "Oh, I have thought long these many years, Darkness, on how I didst torment you Do not think the irony of it is lost upon ot very close to Doyle’s face, and though I kneas a whisper, the hiss of it filled the rooh to die of, irony enough to kill to rid e, fade and be done with it"

The little fey winged backwards "Fade yourself, Darkness Fade and be done with you I aate If you wish cure for the green knight, then you must deal with me" His voice was thick withroom "I wish to be cured, but not at any price" His usual sh of this," I said, voice soft, not angry

They all turned tojust outside the doorway "I bargained with Niceven, not Doyle And I alone bargained for Galen’s cure The price for that cure was e fluttered over the bed, not quite over Kitto and reen knight, asof bells anymore It was almost normal, small, thin, but a man’s voice

His dark eyes had beco particularly friendly on that pretty toy-size face

I held up a hand, and he alit upon it He was heavier than he looked, hter, more bone than e was meatier, or rather his slender body held s went still, showing thes They fanned softly as he stared at s beat in tiy, thick, straight, falling in careless strands around his triangular face The hair brushed his shoulders in places There was a tirow so long Only the sidheas a woe

His hands were no bigger than the fingernail on er He put one of those hands on his slender waist, the other hanging by his side, one foot in front of the other, a defiant pose

"If we are given privacy, then I will take payht" He sounded petulant

It made me smile, and the smile made his face fill with hatred "I aence, Princess I aesture with both hands "A s, but I a looked upon as you would shty child"