A Lick of Frost

"A concussion, and she is with child. A month gone with twins."

He looked startled. "We must get her away."

The healer nodded. "Yes, we must."

The nobles with their dogs closed behind us, so that if Taranis had opened his door he would have seen a solid wall of sidhe nobles, and I would have been hidden from sight.

Did they truly mean to defy their king for me? We continued to hurry down the corridor as they spoke of treason.

A woman with hair that flowed in shades of blue and gray like sky or water spoke. It took me a moment to recognize her as Lady Elasaid. "The press secretary has already spoken to the human media."

"What did they say in answer to Queen Andais's accusations?"

"He said that we have offered the princess sanctuary after she was viciously attacked by her own guards."

"So they are telling the lies that Taranis told them," Hugh said.

Lady Elasaid nodded.

"Does the media know that he attacked us in the lawyer's office?" I asked.

They looked startled, as if they hadn't expected me to speak. I think that for them I was an object, and not quite real yet. They weren't joining my cause because they liked me or believed in me, they just believed in the magic and power I was helping bring back to faerie. I was simply the vessel for that power.

"Yes," Hugh said. "We made certain that it was leaked. They have pictures of your injured guards coming and going from the hospital."

We had come to a pair of huge white double doors. I had never seen this hallway. I had never before been honored with a trip to the king's bedroom. I hoped to never be so "honored" again.

Lady Elasaid came to my side. "Princess Meredith, I would give you my shawl to cover yourself, if you would like it." She held out a silken cloth in a brilliant green with gold designs. It matched my eyes. I looked at her, moving my eyes careful so that nothing hurt. They had a plan. I didn't know what it was, but the shawl matching my eyes said that they had one. If even my clothes were being coordinated then they had a plan.

"It would be most welcome," I said, and again my voice was soft, because I feared what my head would feel like if I spoke too loudly.

I had been healed of worse injuries in vision, but this time the Goddess seemed content to make me feel better in inches rather than all at once.

Hugh spoke as Lady Elasaid and another noble lady helped me slip on the robe. For robe it was, not shawl. "With a little persuasion from some of us, the king demanded a press conference so that he could tell his side of the story. He wanted to override the monstrous lies that the Unseelie were telling. The conference was scheduled to speak about the earlier attack in Los Angeles. But they are still here, Princess. They are now waiting for the king to speak to them about the accusation that he has kidnapped you."

"He let press into the Seelie mound," I said.

"How could he allow the Unseelie to be more progressive than we? Andais had called a conference to demand your return. He would appear guilty if he did less."

I thought I understood now why Deity had healed me only in small bits, enough to function, but not enough to be well. I needed to look hurt for the press. "Does he honestly believe what he said earlier, that he rescued me?"

"I fear so."

Lady Elasaid fastened a gold pin at the neck of the robe. "I would do your hair if there was time."

"We want her to look disheveled and injured," Hugh said.

I managed a smile at Lady Elasaid. "Thank you for the robe. I will be fine. Just get me to the press. I assume it's a live feed?"

Lady Elasaid frowned. "I do not understand."

"Yes," Hugh said. "It is live."

"Let us not linger here," the blond guard said.

"Only the king can see us here, and he no longer cares enough to use his mirrors for such things. We are safer here than in the next corridor," Hugh said.

"No one would dare spy on the king," a woman said.

So we stood in Taranis's own place of power, safe. Safe to plot behind his back. Safe from prying eyes, because they feared that he would see them, but his madness had made him blind.

I wondered who had first been bold enough figure out that the king's own i

"We wanted to see how sensible you were before we told you our plan," Lady Elasaid said.

Hugh said, "Head wounds can make a person unreliable, and this is too dangerous a game to have you privy to our secrets if you will blurt them out."

"May I speak freely here?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"Get me in front of the cameras and I'll play damsel in distress for you."

Hugh and several others smiled. "You do understand."

"I've been in front of the press my whole life. I understand their power."

"We made him swear a most solemn oath that he would not reveal himself to you until we were certain you would not spoil the plan if you knew him near."

I frowned at Hugh but it hurt, so I stopped. I said, "I don't understand."

There was movement near the far door, hidden by the crowd of people and dogs. The crowd moved to either side, revealing a huge black dog. Not as huge as some of the Irish hounds, but… The black dog trotted toward me, his nails clicking on the marble.

I almost whispered his name but stopped in time. I held a hand out toward him. He laid his great furred head in my hand, then there was an instant of warm mist and prickling magic. Doyle stood before me, nude and perfect. He wore the only metal that seemed to have survived the transformation, the silver earrings that peeked from the fall of his ankle-length hair. Even the tie for his hair was gone.

He was unarmed and alone inside the Seelie mound. The danger he had exposed himself to made my stomach clench tightly. In that moment I feared for him more than for myself.

He took me in his arms, and I clung to him. Clung to the feel of his skin, the strength of him. I moved my head too quickly, and a wave of nausea blurred my vision. He seemed to sense it because he moved me to lay more prone in his arms. He knelt in the white-and-gold corridor, his darkness repeated in the mirrors as he held me.

There was a glitter on his cheeks, and I saw the Darkness cry for only the second time ever.

CHAPTER 27

I KNELT ON THE MARBLE IN DOYLE'S ARMS, MY HEAD RESTING ON his chest. Just his touch seemed to ease some of my pain.

"How?" I asked.

He seemed to understand exactly what I wanted to know, as he often did. "This is not the first time I have come here in this guise. Many of the fey hounds began as black dogs. I am just one who has not chosen a master. I am quite the favorite among those who have not been blessed with a dog. They offer me choice tidbits and call me sweet names."

"He is skittish, and will not let them lay hands on him," Lady Elasaid said.

"He plays the dog to perfection," Hugh said.

Doyle looked up at them. "It is not play. It is a true form for me."

There was silence for a second, then Hugh asked, "Is the Darkness truly the father of one of your children?"

"Yes," I said. I held him as tightly as I could without moving my head too much. "It is too dangerous for you to be here. If you are discovered…"

He kissed my forehead as gently as a feather's touch. "I would brave much more than this for you, my princess."

My fingers dug into his arm and back. "I could not bear to lose you and Frost. I could not bear it."

"We have heard rumor of the Killing Frost, but we thought it only rumor," Hugh said.

"Is he truly dead?" Lady Elasaid asked.