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"I am so sorry, Meredith, about your grandmother. Please forgive me."
"We punished the person who killed Gran. You know, we all know, that it wasn't your hand that did it."
He gazed up at me, his handsome face anguished. "But it was my hand that struck the blow."
"If you had not done it, and I could have," Doyle said, "it would have been my hand."
Mistral spoke from near the door. "What all has been happening while I was being tortured?"
"There is much to tell," Doyle said, "but let it wait for a later time."
Mistral came to stand near us, but there wasn't much of me left to touch. I offered him a hand, and after a moment's hesitation, he took it. "I will follow you into exile, Princess."
"I ca
"You will be in danger if you stay in faerie," I said. "They've already proven that the three of you are marked for assassination."
"You must come with us, Sholto, or never leave the safety of the sluagh mound again," Doyle said.
Sholto hugged my legs, rubbing his cheek along my thighs. "I ca
"A dead king is not worth anything to them," Mistral said.
"How long will this exile last?" Sholto asked.
"Until the babies are born, at least," I said.
"I can travel from Los Angeles to parts of the sluagh mound, for thanks to our magic there is a beach edge inside the mound. So I can visit my people without making myself a target to the sidhe."
"You say sidhe, not Seelie," I said. "Why?"
"Onilwyn is not Seelie, but he helped your cousin and her Seelie allies try to kill Mistral. We have enemies on all sides, Meredith. Isn't that why you are leaving faerie?"
I thought about what he'd said, then could only nod. "Yes, Sholto, that is exactly why we must leave faerie. There are more enemies than even the Goddess herself could have foreseen."
"Then we go into exile," Doyle said at my back, his voice rumbling through my body like a purr to ease my nerves.
"We go into exile," Mistral said.
"Exile," Sholto said.
We were agreed. Now we just had to find Rhys and Galen and tell them we were leaving.