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Chapter 29

I mounded the pillows behindI’d had toto e He watched the demi-fey as if he didn’t trust hierous, or e would taste like Whatever Kitto was thinking, it was not friendly

Sage didn’t seeoblin’s less-than-friendly stare He si as I made myself comfortable

I secured the sheet across my chest and held e could reach ers, because that here he would take the blood froood enough for his queen, it was good enough for Sage Besides, so about him unnerved me It was ridiculous to be nervous of soainst the ith one hand, but silly or not, I couldn’t deny how I felt I didn’t question it, just covered e landed on my wrist He knelt in er He stroked

I iven la my voice

He smiled, and his mouth was like a tiny red petal, his eyes warm, sincere I felt myself relax as if a hand had siht it, because I had agreed and the pain inhurt

Kitto curled aroundmine My hand fell away from the sheet and stroked his curls His hair was unbelievably soft He snuggled his face in against ainst my skin made me shiver I think anyone could have touched me then and I would have reacted to them

I looked at Sage "You’re very good" My voice was husky

"We have to be," he said, as he ran his hands up and down er nice; it was erotic, as if there were nerves in that one finger that had never been there before I kneas glaood, so very good

Surrendering to solamour ran to the sensual, could be a wondrous experience Sidhe did not do it with each other, because to practice glamour on another sidhe in an intirave insult But the lesser fey practiced it often a with a sidhe Perhaps it was insecurity Perhaps it was just a way of saying, look e have to offer

Sage had er, and it was as if he touched larger things, so ertip that was like the brush of finest silk I felt his lips part, and they felt larger than they were I had to open my eye and look at hi inininoverFor a oblin, when suddenly Sage bit intointo an apple, sharp, but the pain floated away, and when he began to suck at the wound, it was like he had a thin, red thread froroin Every s low infaster, harder, and it was as if he stroked lower things, faster, harder I felt that groeight in e of pleasure It was as if Sage had coaxed e of a cliff I hadn’t seen, and I had to choose whether to fall over it into the embrace beyond

I couldn’t think I couldn’t decide anything I had becoht of war in h me I called out, but it wasn’t pain that burst from my lips I cried out in pleasure and writhed on the sheets, caught between Sage’s mouth still locked on ainstKitto’s body rodeover my waist, upward to brush the tip of one breast It was a tentative touch, but in htened state, it felt like so ain, and when Kitto slid his body over the edge ofacross er, I didn’t protest

Kurag had said that I had to give Kitto true sex, and for a goblin that oblins didn’t have sex without drawing blood Now, nothing hurt, nothing would hurt

I looked up to find Sage hovering over us He was glowing, a soft honeyed light as if a candle had lit within his glealowed like stained glass in a fall of brightest sunlight

I had enough sense left to ball up a handful of Kitto’s hair and jerk his face up toe’re done"

He whispered, "Yes, mistress"

I released his hair abruptly, and he looked up atblue with his pupils like a thin black line within them It was as if I could have fallen into the blue of his eyes, and I kneas Sage’s glaave myself over to it, let the illusion ride me

Kitto slid inside er than I kneas, fillinginsideour lower bodies together, frozen for a azed down at le tear welled up frooblins considered sex, and they didn’t cry at the first joining Through the glaic, I truly saw hione white and shining I touched that one crystal tear and did what goblins do with precious body fluids; I touched it to my lips I drank the salt of his tears, and he an to thrust hier, swelling wider, touching parts of me that had never been touched, that were not supposed to be touched I watched hilohite and pearlescent He thrust hiht, and that was not glaht Only for another sidhe would an to dance under his skin as if rainbows danced inside his body, coh crystal water

His eyes held nothing but blue flalass His short curls moved around his head as if an unseen wind played with them, and the as Kitto He was sidhe Goddess help us, he was sidhe

He brought ic that blinded ht and rainbow flashes across my vision All I could feel waswas the only part of our bodies that was still solid As if we had becoic and only the anchor point of our joined bodies held us, tied us, bound us Then even that fell away as he caic and color and wave upon wave of pleasure It was as if you could becohter, become joy, become whatever most pleasured you

I came to myself slowly Kitto had collapsed on top ofsoftly like two fires banked down for a long winter’s night A war safe through the long cold nights to coh the room like stray rainbows from some crystal sun catcher But there was no sun, no crystal, only us

Well, not only us The guards stood around the bed, hands held up, palms toward us I concentrated and saw the nearly invisible barrier that they had thrown up around us They had put up a sacred circle, a circle of power

Doyle’s deep voice cay to raise an island froood"

I blinked up at hi?"

"We caught it in time, I think, but the neill probably be full of unusual tides We will have to see if the ground itself holds still for such a release"

Kitto hid his face between my breasts, and whispered, "I’m sorry"

"Do not be sorry, Kitto It is e you an apology We thought of you as goblin because you are half theirs We never thought what it ht h to look up at Doyle, then he hid his face again "I don’t understand" He spoke with his ainst my skin, and even after all we’d done, the feel of hiainst my chest made me shiver

My voice was a little breathy, but I answered, "You are sidhe, Kitto, truly sidhe You have come into your power"

He shook his head, his face still buried against my breasts "I have no powers"

I put a hand on either side of his face and raised hi ones There will be power now"

His eyes widened, and he looked frightened

"We’ll help you," Galen said from the far side of the bed "We’ll help you learn how to control your ic It’s not that hard; if I can do it, anyone can" He smiled, made it a joke

Kitto didn’t look convinced

Soe perched upon a stray olden, bejeweled doll His face was tear-streaked, the line of tears like silver glitter upon his tiny face His face was enraptured

"Dalimpsed heaven and found it fair, and now I stand on the shores of earth, abandoned I did not understand until this moment what it meant that you were sidhe and I was not" He laid his face in his hands and wept, curling on his side on a satin pillow, his wings held out behind hiotten

Kitto touched my chest, and it hurt, a little I realized that he’d bitten me between my breasts, a little to one side, so that some of the mark was in the mound of my left breast It hadn’t hurt until he touched it It wasn’t as deep as the mark on my shoulder, because it hadn’t needed to be The sex had made up for the lack of violence It should have healed cleanly and quickly, but somehow I kneould not Somehow I kneould bear his mark over my heart forever

"I am sorry," he whispered, as if he’d readthe silken skin of his cheek "I wear your ave a shy sh the beginning of the love I noticed first the spots of blood on ht; then I looked up at Kitto and saw that from collarbone to waist my nails had marked him Bloody furrows across the perfection of his skin, across the small mounds of his nipples I’d sliced into the meat of one of his nipples and it bled there more than the rest

It was my turn to say, "I’m sorry"

He shook his head, and the smile wasn’t shy now "You havee of one of the nailyour kind now, Kitto Right now"

Doyle seemed to knohat I wanted, because he pulled his black T-shirt up enough to show Kitto the nail marks on his black skin

"You are Unseelie sidhe," I said

HeHe lay beside azed at the men around the bed "My mother’s people were Seelie They left oblin mound" His voice washe’d always known

Doyle lowered his shirt and turned to face the bed "We are not Seelie" He did not lower the circle around the bed, but stepped inside it He raised Kitto up with a hand on his shoulder Kitto seele

Doyle laid a chaste kiss on the smaller man’s forehead "You have already tasted the blood of our court and been tasted in return Now receive our kiss and be welcouards bent and laid lips upon Kitto’s forehead He was crying and shaking by the tihts had kissed Kitto’s forehead, Sage rose up into the air, his wings hu sound

"I hate you all" The venoh to choke on "Now letin the circle big enough for the deh it, and Doyle closed the circle behind hiht one of us would have to get up to open it, but the door opened of its own accord, and Sage hurried through the opening He turned in the darkness of the living rooic

"The queen has had her price, but you have not had your cure The cure lies within my body where the queen didst place it I oblin to ensure his silence, not be displaced by hioblin could be sidhe? Would that it were me in thy arlaain, and vanished into the darkness beyond The door slammed shut behind him

We all stared at the door "Did he mean what I think he meant?" Galen asked

"It would amuse Niceven to force a sidhe princess to pleasure one of her tiny men," Doyle said

I raised eyebrows at that "How?"

"Best not to ask," he said, and he looked down at Kitto, "for tonight orry over nothing We have found new blood of our blood, kin of our kin We will sorrow over nothing tonight"

As celebration of the faerie court went it was ht some very fine wine, and partied until dawn

It was a little after dahen the earthquake hit, a 44 on the Richter scale, centered in El Segundo There is no undo It’s probably all that saved us fro the entire city It lasted for only about a e overall; no one was killed, though there were injuries But it added an entirely neist on the idea of safe sex

Chapter 30

On the first day ofbehind our wards, Taranis’s main social secretary, Daold cloth that coold hair to perfection She’d been the soul of polite and proper decoru up for Hedwick’s rudeness She also made it clear that the ball in question was the Yule ball I had to decline If I attended any Yule ball, it had to be the Unseelie ball Rosmerta had made noises that she, of course, understood that

We weren’twith the murders, because Peterson had forbidden anyone fro with the case Jereh that he told Teresa not to tell the her fellow man She went dutifully from the hospital to the police station and finally found a detective ould take her report

Teresa had felt the people suffocate, felt thehosts -- white shapes, she said, sucking the life frohosts didn’t do shit like this Peterson had come in about then and thrown the report in the trash can in front of Teresa Usually the police wait until so that

Teresa had ot hi a police officer Teresa’s husband used to play for the Rams back when they were the football team in LA Ray’s like a nicelysmile and a very firm handshake

We ended up with a lot of time on our hands No, we did not just have sex all day We pestered Sage I had paid the price that Queen Niceven asked, but we had no cure Why hadn’t Sage given us the cure last night? Why did Kitto becoe? Did he really mean to imply that he needed to have sex with e didn’t want to answer any questions

He had flown around the apart to escape our questions, but it was a small apartment, even if you were the size of a Barbie doll Late in the day he launched hiot a little too near Galen, who batted at him like you’d swat a e fell heavily on the floor He lay very still, a tiny butter-colored thing with his bright wings like a fragile shield He raised slowly onto one arht?" I asked

He looked at me with such hatred in those tiny doll eyes that I flinched He stus and caught his balance He refused the hand I offered him He stood there, hands on hips, and stared up at us as ered over hiht, the cure dies withcareless"

"I didn’t intend to hurt you," Galen said, but there was soentle, not Galen Perhaps, ed by the de into the air, his butterfly wings a blur Butterfly wings just didn’t work like that It was ht enough tobeats slowed and he hovered, the large wings fanning h force to stir the curls around Galen’s face

"I didn’t intend to strike you that hard" Galen’s voice was low and ith anger There was a hardness there that I’d never heard before Part of me mourned that tone; part of me felt a flare of hope Perhaps even Galen could learn those harsh lessons that would be needed if he ever beca how to hate That lesson I would have spared hilare at each other, both hating Sage was still the size of a Barbie doll, but his anger wasn’t aativity froht, boys, play nice now" They both turned and glared atthe tension "Fine, be that way, but what did you e rotated in midair, arms half crossed on his tiny chest as if he couldn’t quite cross them and fly at the same time "I mean, Princess, that Queen Niceven left a present infor your e" He spread his ar

"What does that e?" Doyle said "Exactly what it ave another turn in e could have silanced over his shoulder, but I think he wanted Doyle to knoas being looked at "You want truth, Darkness, all of it?"

"Yes," Doyle said, his thick voice, lower, deeper, not angry, but a tone that hadsound that nearly drew a sht any derier than that when you hear what e," I said "Quit drawing out the story"

He turned to s to caress my face "Say please" His tone made it an insult

Galen tensed, and Rhys laid a hand on his shoulder I think I wasn’t the only one who didn’t quite trust Galen around the demi-fey

"Please," I said I had a lot of faults, but false pride wasn’t one of the to say please to the tiny man

He srabbed his tiny crotch through the filmy skirt he wore "The cure is trapped here, where Queen Niceven laid it"

I felt my eyes widen

"How does Meredith retrieve the cure?" Doyle asked His voice held ee ser than nized a leer when I saw it "The saave it to me

"Niceven is not allowed intercourse with anyone but her husband," Doyle said

"Ah, but there are exceptions to every rule You should know that, Darkness, better than ht of his skin, it was hard to be sure "If Queen Andais knows she has broken her o badly for your queen"

"The derew jealous of Niceven’s children Three children she has, three pure-blood deed to Pol, but Andais chose that match to be permanent Andais envies Niceven her babes, and all the court knows it"

"I would be careful who I told that to," Rhys said There was no teasing in his voice, just truth

Sage brushed it aith his tiny hands "You requested a cure for your green knight, and there is only one cure for it She had to lay with reen knight must be cured at all costs She didn’t seeht be"

I shook e rose into the air "Then your green knight stays unain "We’ll see about that" I felt the first stirrings of anger I didn’t let ence that only the most powerful could afford I had never been that powerful Maybe I still wasn’t, but we’d see

"Doyle, call Queen Niceven We need to talk" The anger had leaked out into h that the wind fros fanned iven for this curse, and cannot be given twice"

I glared at him "I am not every man’s meat to feast upon, little man I am Princess of Flesh, and heir to the Unseelie throne I do not whore for Niceven"

"Only for Andais," Sage said

I ca him, but I wasn’t sure how hard I would have hit, and I didn’t want to hurt hie that badly, I wanted it to be on purpose

"Doyle, contact Niceven, now"

He didn’t argue, just went for the bedrooe kept talking as ent "What do you plan to do, Princess? What can you do? Is one night with ht’s nored him

Niceven was already in the mirror when I entered the bedroom She wore a black dress today, utterly sheer so that her pale body seeh the dark cloth Discreet touches of black sequins sparkled at neck and sleeve Her white hair fell loose around her body The hair fell ale looking, almost like it wasn’t hair at all All I could think of was a spider-web blowing in the breeze Her pale wings fra stood behind her chair, but each was clad only in a tiny silken robe, as if they’d been roused fros, rose-red, daffodil-yellow, and iris-purple The hair that flowed loose around their faces was sleep-tousled the way real hair should be

The white mouse was back at her side complete with bejeweled collar For Niceven to wear no crown, no jewels, meant she had been in true haste to answer our call

"Princess Meredith, to what do I owe this unexpected honor?" Her voice held just a trace of peevishness Apparently, we had awakened her entire court from their beds

"Queen Niceven, you promised me the cure for Galen if I fed your servant I have lived up to ain, but you have not lived up to yours"

She sat up a little straighter, hands folded in her lap, ankles crossed "Sage has not given you the cure?" She sounded truly puzzled

"No," I said