Mistral's Kiss

"It must be your choice," Doyle said softly.

Rhys joined us. "If we're talking about ru

I smiled at him, touched his face. "Yes, you come, too."

"Good, because once Cel's on the throne, the Unseelie Court won't be safe for anyone."

I closed my eyes, rested my forehead against Doyle's bare chest for a minute. I pressed my cheek against him, held him tight, so I could listen to the slow, steady beat of his heart.

Abeloec, who had been quiet, spoke next to my face: "You have drunk deep of the cup, of both cups, Meredith. Wherever you go, faerie will follow you."

I looked at him, trying to hear all the double meanings in what he'd said. "I don't want this kill."

"You must choose," Abeloec said.

I clung to Doyle for a moment more, then tore myself away. I forced myself to stand straight, shoulders back, though the shoulder Segna had torn ached and stung. If my body didn't heal itself, I'd need stitches. If we could ever get back to the Unseelie Court, there were healers who could fix me up. But it was as if something, or someone, didn't want me getting back there. I didn't think it was political enemies, either—I was begi

I'd wanted the Goddess and the God to move among us again—all of us had wanted that. But I was begi

I caught the faintest scent of apple blossoms, a small…what? Warning, reassurance? The fact that I wasn't sure if it was a warning of danger or a spiritual embrace pretty much summed up my feelings about being the Goddess's instrument: Be careful what you wish for.

I looked at Sholto, with his wound seeping blood onto his bandages. He and I had both wanted to belong, truly belong, to the sidhe. To be honored and accepted among them. Look where it had gotten us.

I held my hand out to him, and he took it. He took it, and squeezed it tight. Even in all this horror and death, I felt in that one touch how much it meant to him to touch me at all. Somehow, the fact that he still wanted me so much made it all the worse.

"I tried to share life with you, Meredith, but I am King of the Sluagh, and death is all I have to offer."

I squeezed his hand. "We are both sidhe, Sholto, and that is a thing of life. We are Unseelie sidhe, and that is a thing of death, but Rhys reminded me what I'd forgotten."

"What had you forgotten?"

"That the deities among us who brought death also once brought life. We are not meant to be split apart like this. We are not light and dark, evil and good; we are both and neither. We have all forgotten what we are."

"What I am in this moment," said Sholto, "is a man who is about to slay a woman who was my lover, and my friend. I can think of nothing beyond this moment—as if when she dies at my hand, I will die with her."

I shook my head. "You won't die, but you may wish you could, for a moment."

"Only for a moment?" he asked.

"Life is a selfish thing," I said. "If you pass through the sorrow, outrun the horror, you will begin to want to live again. You will be glad you didn't die."

He swallowed hard enough for me to hear it. "I don't want to pass through this."

"I'll help you."

He almost smiled, and it was like a ghost flitting across his face. "I think you've helped enough." With that he let go of my hand and eased himself over the edge, using his good hand to keep himself from sliding through the bones.

I didn't look back at anyone. I just eased myself over the edge and followed. Looking back wouldn't make me feel better. Looking back would simply make me want to ask for help. Some things you have to do yourself. Sometimes what it means to lead is simply that you can't ask for help.

I found that the bones weren't sharp on every point—it was mostly the spines on the tops that were vicious. I grasped softer, rounder-looking bones, using them as handholds. It took all my concentration to get down to the water without losing my grip or cutting my hand.

The water was surprisingly warm, like bathwater. The soil underneath it was soft, and mushy, silt rather than mud. The footing was uncertain, and again I let myself sink into concentration on the task at hand. I focused on finding footing, avoiding anything that felt like a bone. I did not want to think about what I was about to do.

Segna had tried to kill me twice now, but I couldn't hate her. It would have been so much easier if I could have hated her.

CHAPTER 13

IF I HADN'T BEEN AFRAID OF GETTING STABBED ON THE BONES, I would have swum out to where Sholto and Agnes stood holding Segna. The other two guards, Ivar and Fyfe, were still in the water, still close, but not holding the fallen woman. The water reached to my shoulders, stinging in the claw marks that Segna had made on me, and plenty deep enough to swim in, if it hadn't hidden those bones beneath its surface. My blood trailed into the black water, lost.

Sholto was cradling Segna's head and upper body as well as he could with only one good arm. Agnes was still beside him, helping hold her sister hag above the water. I stumbled on the soft bottom and went under. I came up sputtering.

Agnes's voice came clear to me as she said to Sholto, "How can you want that weak thing? How can that be what you want?"

I heard earth sliding, water moving. I turned to find Doyle and Frost in the water, wading toward me.

Agnes yelled, "It is her kill or she will never be queen."

"We do not come to kill for her," Doyle said.

Frost said, "We come to guard her, as your king's guard protects him." His face was an arrogant mask. His pale, expensive suit soaked up the dirty water. His long silver hair trailed in the water. Somehow, he seemed more dirtied by the water than anyone else, as if it spoiled his white-and-silver beauty more grievously.

Doyle's blackness just seemed to melt into the water. The fact that his long braid trailed in the water didn't bother him. The only thing he worried about keeping clean was his gun. Modern guns shoot just fine wet, but he'd begun using firearms when dry powder meant life or death, and old habits die hard.

I waited for them to reach me, because I wanted the comfort of their presence while I did this. What I really wanted to do was fall into their arms and start screaming. I didn't want to kill anymore—I wanted life for my people. I wanted to bring life back to faerie, not death. Not death.

I waited, and let their hands give me solace. Let them lift me above the soft, treacherous bottom and guide me through the water. I didn't collapse against them, but I let myself take courage from the strength of their hands.

A bone brushed my leg. "Bone," I said.

"A ridge of bone, by the feel of it," Doyle said.

"Are you hoping Segna dies before you get here?" Agnes asked, voice derisive. The tears shining on her face made me discount the tone. She was losing someone she had lived with, fought beside, loved, for centuries. She'd hated me before this; now she'd hate me even more. I did not want her as my enemy, but it seemed as if no matter what I did, I couldn't avoid it.

"I'm trying not to share her fate," I said.

"I hope you do," Agnes said.

Sholto, tears plain on his face, looked at her. "If you ever raise a hand to Meredith again, I will be done with you."

Agnes stared at him, searched his face, as she held Segna's body. She stared into the face of the man she loved. Whatever she saw there made her bow her head. "I will do as my king bids." The words were bitter; it seemed to tighten my own throat just to hear them. They must have burned in Agnes's throat.