A Shiver of Light

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

QUEEN ANDAIS WAS on the large mirror in the dining room again, but it was a very different call. She was wearing a sleek black pantsuit that covered almost all of her; only the lack of a shirt underneath the vest left more cleavage than Auntie Andais should probably have been flashing around her nephew and nieces, but the outfit was such a concession that I wouldn’t have dared complain. This was as much as she dressed for a press conference; it was a big step in the right direction.

Her consort, Eamon, was at her side in a tailored black suit, but he’d added a round-collared white shirt with pencil-thin black stripes under his vest so he was showing far less chest.

Doyle was at my side, along with Mistral, Rhys, and Galen. Kitto was back in his place under my feet as my footstool. I’d let him know that this was an informal conference and he could pass on his role, but he had said, “I still do not believe that I am so lucky as to be one of the fathers of the babes, and I would have a place at your side, Merry, even if it is under your feet.” What could I say to that?

Kitto was wearing yoga pants today, shirtless, no shoes, because the men were working out after the call. Doyle had insisted everyone learn how to protect themselves at least a little, no exceptions. Doyle and Galen were in jeans, and it was slacks for Rhys and Mistral, because their weaponry needed a belt and fitted waistband to fit properly. They’d change after the phone call. Doyle’s weapons blended in with his all-black clothing, but Galen’s blue jeans and green T-shirt showed every weapon he had. Mistral and Rhys were in suits with jackets designed to go over weapons, so it was less obvious. One of the exiled lesser fey here in L. A. had built them all leather holsters that were magically less visible under clothes, but the men had decided they wanted the queen to see that they were armed. Well, except for the pregnant lady. I knew how to use a gun and a sword, but when my doctor approved it I was joining the training. It probably wouldn’t have helped me against Taranis, but I wanted more options if there was ever a next time. I was wearing one of the purple dresses that was actually fitted around the waist. It was good to be back in real clothes again, though the strappy black sandals with their stiletto heels were just for show. I so wasn’t ready to walk in anything like that yet. We’d learned that Kitto liked feeling heels in his back during sex, so he was very okay with the shoes.

“You must make Taranis afraid of you, Meredith; only fear will hold him in check.” She’d requested to see the babies, but we were talking business first.

“He’s already attacked Doyle, and we believe that was motivated out of fear. The king would not willingly meet him in a duel,” I said.

“Yes, he feared the Queen’s Darkness, but he does not fear Doyle in the same way. He feared me, Meredith, and my Darkness as an extension of me, but without my protection and threat he sees Doyle as only your strong right hand; chop that hand off and it makes you even weaker than you are. You must make Taranis fear you, Meredith, you and no other, if you are to rule the Unseelie Court. If he does not fear you, then it is only a matter of time before the Seelie try to take your throne and combine it with theirs.”

“He’s made it clear that he would welcome me as his queen,” I said, and looked carefully at nothing when I said it, because I couldn’t keep the emotion out of my eyes and Andais had used my emotion against me for years.

“I thought about using his rape of you as a reason to challenge him to a duel.”

That made me look at her again. “I didn’t think you cared that much about my fate, Aunt Andais.”

“It’s not your fate, Meredith, it’s the insult of him thinking he could kidnap and attack my heir with no retribution.”

“Of course, it’s an insult to you,” I said, and just shook my head. She didn’t understand that she’d just admitted that what happened to me was important only because it showed a lack of respect for her.

Eamon laid a hand on her shoulder and looked at me. His face showed that he at least understood, and understood that she didn’t. I tried to tell him with my eyes that I appreciated it. Andais went on talking, oblivious.

She said, “It is, but I believe Taranis is actually insane. He has convinced himself that you went willingly with him and were kidnapped from him by the evil Unseelie. The King of Light and Illusion seems to be truly deluded.”

“I agree,” I said.

“He babbles of taking you as queen if he can only strip you of the abusive Unseelie that are poisoning your mind against him. If I wanted to strip you of your protection I, too, would begin with the Princess’s Darkness. It really doesn’t have the same ring as the Queen’s Darkness, does it?”

“No, Aunt Andais, it does not.”

She looked just past my shoulder to where Doyle stood, as he had once stood by her, though he had his hand on my shoulder, a gesture I don’t think I’d ever seen him make to her. I raised my hand to lay it over his.

“No need to remind me that I neglected my Darkness.”

“I didn’t touch his hand to remind you of anything, Aunt Andais; I did it because I wanted to touch him.”

She made a small movement with her mouth that meant she was unhappy, and then smoothed it into a smile. She really was trying, on this first call since I’d laid down my ultimatum that she behave like a sane person or she couldn’t see the babies.

“I believe that, though I do not understand it.”

What I wanted to say was, How sad for you, but my aunt had never taken well to pity. She didn’t understand it and always saw it as an insult, and she certainly never gave pity to anyone. She was pitiless in the true meaning of the word.

I looked past her to Eamon with his own hand on her shoulder. I was sorry for him, too, and if he had been mine I would have reached up and touched his hand, as I did Doyle’s, but he wasn’t mine to worry over, and he loved Andais utterly. I’d never understood why, but I knew it to be truth.

“You are the Queen of Air and Darkness, my aunt; all fear you. How do I make Taranis fear me?”

“You disfigured him in the dream, Meredith; that did frighten him.”

I tensed, holding tighter to Doyle’s hand, my heels involuntarily digging a little harder into Kitto’s back. “I told you that I used my hand of power on him in the dream, but not what hand of power I used. How did you know that?”

“Darkness is not the only one with spies at the Golden Court, Meredith. Taranis’s sleep is troubled, for he keeps seeing his arm melted and crippled from your magic. If you would do that in reality to someone that he could see, a constant visible reminder, it would be a good start to his fearing you.”

“Are you actually suggesting that I pick some random Seelie sidhe and partially cripple or disfigure him, just as an object lesson to Taranis?”

She nodded.

I saw Eamon’s hand tighten on her shoulder, as if to caution her. She patted his hand absentmindedly but did not hold on to it.

“There is no one I hate that much at the Seelie Court,” I said.

She frowned at me. “It’s not about hate, Meredith, it’s about practicality. You asked how to frighten Taranis; well, I’m telling you how to do that. If you don’t want my help, then do not ask for it; it is most irritating to suggest things and watch you make that face.”

“I wasn’t aware I was making a face, Aunt Andais; I will try to school my expression better from now on.”

“And there you go again, that tone in your voice, never a word out of place, but your tone says, clearly, ‘You are a fucking psycho bitch and I hate you.’”

“I would never say such a thing, Aunt Andais.”

“No, you would never say it, but you think it hard enough.”

“I don’t believe I’ve ever said, or even thought, those exact words about you, my aunt.”

“Then what words would you say aloud, if you dared?”

“Are you simply incapable of having a conversation where you don’t threaten me or imply something unpleasant?” I asked.

She startled visibly, and this time she did reach for Eamon’s hand. “I … I hadn’t thought about it, niece of mine. I have spent many centuries where my threat was all that kept me and my court safe. You see what Taranis will do if he does not fear another royal.”

I nodded. “I do understand that. So you’re saying that it’s just habit for you to threaten people?”

She seemed to actually think about it for a moment and then said, “Yes, I believe it is.”

I sighed and squeezed Doyle’s hand. Mistral moved closer to me and laid his hand on my other shoulder. I reached up and took his hand, too. It helped steady me to touch them, though I knew that Mistral did not understand why such casual touch pleased me so; he was the least affectionate of the fathers outside the bedroom, but once he’d accepted that I liked and needed it, he’d tried to do more. I appreciated his efforts and did my best to tell him so.

“That must be very lonely,” Galen said.

We all turned to him slowly, like you do in a horror film, because that was pity and you did not let the queen know you pitied her, ever.

She looked at him, head to one side like a crow about to peck the eye out of a corpse. “What did you say?” Her voice made it plain that she didn’t believe he’d repeat himself, and that he certainly shouldn’t repeat it.

“If people are afraid of you, how do they love you?” he asked.

“Love,” she said, and made it sound like a very different kind of four-letter word.

“Yes,” he said, softly.

I wanted to say, Stop this, don’t make her look at herself that closely, but hadn’t I done just that the last time we spoke to her? Had my boldness made him bolder, too?

“I do not need to be loved, Galen. I need to be obeyed. I need my people to follow me unquestionably.”

“Everyone needs to be loved, my queen,” he said.

“Now you remember I’m your queen; how convenient and how too late.”

“Too late for what, Aunt Andais?” I asked. My heart was thudding in my throat, and I had to swallow past it to speak clearly. Galen had been one of her lesser guards; he had no special place in her esteem, which meant he had no cards to play here. What was he trying to accomplish?

“If Merry disfigured members of the Seelie Court, they could go to the human media. They would think her a monster, and they’d be right.”

She frowned and gave him a very unfriendly look. “Perhaps being thought a monster is the price a queen must pay to keep her people and those she loves safe.”

“Perhaps,” he said, “but Meredith must win the media’s love, or the Golden Court will win their sympathy and all the good work you’ve done over the years in America will be undone. Haven’t you wished for Taranis and his people to be as reviled and feared as we once were?”

She still didn’t look happy, but there was a considering look on her face. He had her thinking, which in this case was good. “Go on,” she said, voice still unhappy, but under that was another tone. I couldn’t quite interpret it, but it wasn’t anger.

“What if we make Taranis the monster in the press? What if we use the modern media to win the hearts and minds of viewers to our side?”

“Viewers? I don’t understand.”

“We’ve been offered a television show.”

“We had decided not to take it,” Doyle said.

Galen turned to Doyle. “But don’t you see? Taranis will never be able to control himself forever. If we give him enough on-camera rope, I think he’ll hang himself.”

“You want him to attack us on camera,” I said, staring at him.

“I think I do, yes, I do.”

“He could hurt or even kill one of us, not to mention endangering the human camera crew,” Rhys said.

“True, it’s a risk, but maybe we don’t have to make him fear Merry, but fear looking bad on TV. He’s the King of Light and Illusion; he prides himself on being desirable, right?”

“He does,” Doyle said.

“What would he do if he saw himself on film being monstrous and terrifying?”

“The cameras could capture your deaths on film very nicely,” Andais said in a voice thick with disdain.

“Or capture us fighting for our lives and defending ourselves.”

“You’re planning to kill him on camera,” Andais said, and she sounded astonished and almost happy.

Galen nodded. “If he attacks us, yes, why not?”

She laughed, head back, her hand in Eamon’s swinging, almost like a child skipping beside you.

“We’d be up on murder charges, for one thing,” Rhys said.

“Maybe, but the camera crew would be our witnesses, don’t you see?”

“It is possible, but Taranis would have to lose complete control on camera,” Doyle said.

“And we would have to have the camera crew in the house with us for weeks, months before the chance might come,” Mistral said. His hand was tense in mine.

I turned and looked up at him. His long gray hair had more glittering strands of gold, copper, and silver, as if the “light” were getting stronger with his anxiety.

“The thought of them filming us truly bothers you,” I said.

“Yes, do you honestly want them filming everything here?”

“There are things that we do, or that happen around us, that we might not want on camera,” Doyle said.

I turned and looked at him. He was right, but … “No, Mistral, I don’t, and Doyle is right.”

“If we just want to kill the king, then let’s do it. Why do the television show? Why give the courts proof we did it? We could go back home and simply execute him for what he did to Merry.”

“I like this plan,” Doyle said, and his deep voice was a little deeper with emotion. I knew he’d wanted to slay Taranis for raping me. It had been tempting to let him do it.

“No,” I said, “no, the risk is too great.” I squeezed his hand in mine and looked up at him. “I will not lose you to vengeance.”

“He’s tried to kill me twice, Meredith; if he attacks us on camera my life may still be forfeit.”

“Then no,” I said, “no. We will not lure him here to help us kill him on camera, and we will not go home and slay him there. We will leave the mad king alone.”

“He won’t leave us alone, Merry,” Galen said.

“The boy is right,” Mistral said.

“He’s going to hunt us in our dreams, Merry; we can’t protect ourselves there, so bring him out here where our power is greater.”

“What power do we have that is greater?” I asked.

“You are Princess Meredith NicEssus, the first faerie princess born on American soil, and now you have triplets. You are a media darling, or have you forgotten that the police had to help us drive out through the press and people?”

“I haven’t forgotten.”

“Merry, you are the face of faerie right now. If you take this moment and run with it, really embrace it, you will have the power of the media.”

“They’re already trying to climb the walls and using telephoto lenses on us, Galen. I’m not sure I want more.”

“You asked what power we have that is greater than Taranis; well, that’s it. You can be the biggest star, the biggest illusion in all faerie, because we pick and choose what they see. We can take this moment and show the Unseelie as good and loving, and eventually the king will lose it and have to come to us. He won’t be able to resist, because above all else he has to be the star, the center of attention.”

“He always has been a media slut,” Rhys said.

“No,” I said, “just no; I just want to enjoy my children and the men I love. I don’t want more attention.”

“You can do what the queen suggested, and maim someone with your hand of flesh, but then you will be the bad guy. Let’s just for once make the Seelie Court the bad guys.”

“This is conspiracy before the fact,” I said.

“No, it’s not. We won’t do anything to lure him here or set him up; he will come on his own, because he won’t want anyone, not even you, to outshine him, Meredith. His ego is too big to stay away.”

“It could take months for him to finally break down and come here,” I said.

“It could, but we’ll be getting paid pretty handsomely the whole time, and maybe Maeve can stay home with Liam, so that he starts thinking of her as mommy, not just his mother.”

“Oh, don’t go and spoil it now,” Andais said.

“Spoil what?” Galen asked.

“You had a lovely plan to kill the king, and now instead of fear or revenge, your motive is all love and sunshine; please, just let me have a few more moments of thinking that there is an Unseelie heart trapped in that overgrown pixie body.”

The smile left his face, and he looked … cold. “Trust me, my queen, I am Unseelie.” And just as Andais had accused me of my words being mild but my tone being insulting, so now Galen’s words were fine, but the tone was … ominous, even threatening.

She looked at him, and there was something in her face I’d never seen before when she looked at Galen. She “saw” him, considered him in a way I don’t believe she ever had before. Andais had a very binary way of looking at most men. They were either barely considered, victims of the moment, or potential lovers. He’d been her victim before, as had we all, and he’d been barely considered for most of his life, but now I watched that third choice cross through her eyes.

“If the genetic tests do not come back with your genetics listed, then perhaps I’ll give you a night to prove just how Unseelie you are, Galen Greenknight.”

He tensed, visibly, his newfound boldness stumbling. My heart was back in my throat, and I was clutching Doyle’s hand a little. Mistral had actually moved a little apart from us, so that he was at Rhys’s back, as if he thought she might try some violence, and in a way he was right, because she didn’t have sex without violence. She was like the anti-vanilla, Auntie Vanilla, and once I thought of it, it was funny and I laughed.

I laughed and I couldn’t stop laughing. I laughed so hard it began to ache in places that even sex hadn’t bothered. I laughed until tears ran down my face, and I heard other laughter. Galen came to stand by my chair, taking my hand and joining me in helpless laughter, but we were the only ones. Everyone else stayed silent, and when I could wipe the tears away enough to look at the mirror I saw why: The queen was not amused.

She was on her feet with Eamon far enough behind her that she, or maybe he, was out of reach. Her tricolored eyes sparked like lightning behind gray clouds. The storm isn’t overhead, but it’s coming.

“I will not be laughed at, Meredith, not by anyone.” Her voice had crawled down into that low purr that should have meant sex but usually meant torment for someone.

I managed to say, “You are the least vanilla person I know, Auntie Andais; you are anti-vanilla, Auntie Vanilla, get it?”

Rhys gave a small snort as he tried not to laugh. Even Mistral made a small noise; only Doyle stayed impervious to my dangerous silliness.

“No,” she said coldly, “I do not ‘get it.’”

Guards spilled into the room, some sidhe and some Red Caps. They had begun to train together, working on battle strategies that played to their mixed strengths. The goblins had fought like shock troops for the Unseelie sidhe for centuries, but never shoulder to shoulder with them. Goblins had been used as cannon fodder, never truly as another warrior to fight beside. Now they spread out in front of us, sidhe and goblin, side by side. They stacked themselves around us in a move that was obviously practiced, making themselves a shield of flesh between their “queen” and her “kings.” I hated that they might have to sacrifice themselves for us, but that was what it meant to be bodyguards, especially royal guards. Once it had been Doyle and the rest who were the sacrifice for Andais, and the female guards in front of me scattered among the men had been expected to do the same for Prince Cel.

“I allowed you to flee to the Western Lands and my niece’s more tender care, but do not let it go to your heads, my guards. None of you are would-be kings. If I call you back to the court, you are oath-bound to answer and return to me.” I couldn’t see her through the bodies of our guards, but hearing the tone was enough to steal away the last bit of my laughter, even with happy tears still wet on my face.

Galen took my hand in his; he looked grim. Doyle, Mistral, and Rhys had all moved up around my chair, but they were still behind the wall of guards. In a real battle we might lead from the front, but in moments like this princes and kings did not stand in front of their bodyguards. I had spent months learning this lesson as I watched the men I loved risk themselves again and again to keep me and the unborn children safe. Now, they were having to learn the lesson. I looked at my three warriors standing so certain, so ready, and hidden from the threat. I knew that it would chafe on them more than it had on me, because a year ago they would have stood between the danger and Queen Andais; now they stood beside me.

A voice even lower than Doyle’s came from that tall wall of guards. “We are goblin; you cannot call us back to your side, Queen Andais, for that has never been our place.” It was Jonty, the leader of the Red Caps. He was smallish for his people, only a little over eight feet tall; some of the men in the line were closer to thirteen feet, like small giants, or average-sized ogres. Their skin color ranged through every shade of gray, yellow, and two golds that were almost brown. The sidhe warriors, so tall and commanding, looked small interspersed between them.

“You are Kurag the Goblin King’s problem, not mine, but the men and women you stand beside—they are mine.” Her voice went down another note to a purring, sexual depth, but it didn’t excite any of us who were sidhe, because we knew that it promised violence, not sex, at least for us. I’d begun to realize that violence was a kind of sex for my aunt. She was truly like one of those sexual predators who are wired so that images of violence hit the same centers of the brain that “normal” sex does for the rest of us.

I projected my voice to be heard. It would have been more impressive if I hadn’t been hiding behind my guards, but it would have to do, because Andais wasn’t the most stable person, and I wouldn’t risk myself betting that, one, she couldn’t do magic through the mirror, and two, she would remember that she valued my fertile womb, if nothing else.

“They are not yours, Aunt Andais, not anymore.”

“Do not let your fertility go to your head, Meredith. It may keep you and your lovers safe, but the rest are on loan, nothing more. Until you sit on my throne, the Unseelie sidhe are mine.”

“They are oathed to me now, Aunt Andais.”

“They cannot be oathed twice, niece. That would make them foresworn.”

“The Cranes, my father’s female guards, were never asked to make oath to Prince Cel; you just ordered them to guard him, so they were free to make oath where they will.”

“They were oathed to my son,” she said.

“No, they were not,” I said. I would have liked to see her face, but I trusted the guards to do their job and stared at their broad backs, Galen’s hand still in mine.

“Cel gave them a choice and they swore oath to him.”

“Who told you that?” This was from Cathbodua, who stood at the end of the line that shielded us.

“Cel and the captain of the Cranes, Siobhan.”

“They lied, then,” Cathbodua said.

“Why would they have lied about that?”

“His reasons were his own, always, Queen Andais, but I swear to you that no one standing here today ever took oath to Prince Cel.”

“I neglected much where my son was concerned, and I regret that.”

Cathbodua went to one knee. “I am honored to hear you say that, Queen Andais.”

One guard taking a knee was often a sign for all, but no one else knelt, and after a time Cathbodua got to her feet and joined her fellow guards again.

“I will grant that the female guards are free to be with you, Princess Meredith, but the men are mine.”

“They took oath to me, as well, Aunt Andais,” I said.

“Yes, remind me of our blood ties, Meredith, because you do grow tiresome so quickly.”

“As do these moments between us, for me, auntie.”

“Do not call me auntie.”

“As you wish,” I said. My voice was as neutral as I could make it.

“I will call all my Ravens home to roost, Meredith, and they will come.”

“No, we won’t.” This from Usna, who stood beside Cathbodua. His normal joking voice, as if nothing were really serious, was missing. It was a very grim cat that stepped from the line.

“How dare you tell me ‘no’ and ‘won’t.’ I will carve those words into your flesh.”

“We all made oath to Merry; we are no longer your Ravens. You cannot call us home, and we are no longer yours to torture at your will,” he said, and his voice sounded sad now. I realized that he did not believe that anything would keep him safe from Andais. Usna spoke bravely, but he didn’t believe in that safety.

“Then you are all foresworn.” She almost yelled it.

I spoke then, standing up as if that would help. Galen squeezed my hand tight as if afraid of what I would do. “They are oathed to me, which does make them foresworn.”

“Then they will be punished for breaking their oath,” she said.

“By exile from faerie? Isn’t that the usual punishment for being foresworn?” I said.

“No!” She yelled it.

“Yes,” I said, clearly, calmly.

“You can’t all have chosen exile from faerie,” she said, and her voice held shock.

“We are exiled from the Unseelie Court,” Usna said, “but we are not exiled from faerie, for wherever Princess Meredith goes, faerie follows.”

“That is not possible,” Andais said.

“You have seen it yourself, Queen Andais,” Cathbodua said. “She brought the gardens of the Unseelie Court back to life. Faerie is alive and spreading for the first time in over a thousand years.”

Doyle spoke then. “The night itself must have told you that faerie is alive again.”

“My power has whispered rumors to me,” she said, and her voice was growing calmer. That could be a good thing or a bad thing; one can never tell with psychopaths.

“Then you know that faerie has come to the Western Lands and we are no longer exiles, but pioneers on the frontier of new fairylands,” Doyle said.

“I cannot let anyone defy me like this, Darkness; you know that I am only as powerful as my threat.”

“I am sorry for that, my queen.”

“I must call one home and make his punishment terrible enough to prevent any others from joining your quiet rebellion.”

“I do not know what to say to that, my queen; it is almost reasonable, and for you very reasonable.”

“Send Usna to me, and I will leave the rest in place,” she said.

I watched Usna reach out and take Cathbodua’s hand. I was about to say something in their defense, but she spoke first. “I am pregnant with Usna’s child.”

“You are lying to save him,” Andais said, voice certain.

“The little stick says I am with child, and the only man I have lain with is Usna.”

“Little stick, what little stick can tell you you are pregnant?”

I said, “Cathbodua, do you mean a home pregnancy test?”

She looked behind to find me, and nodded.

“When did you find out?” I asked.

“Just before this meeting.”

I’d had enough. I stepped forward with Galen’s hand in mine. The Red Caps and sidhe in front of us glanced at each other, and then the sidhe looked to Doyle, and the Red Caps looked to me. Whatever they saw on both our faces, it made them move aside so we could come forward and face Andais.

“We have another fertile couple among the sidhe; it is something to celebrate, Aunt Andais, not punish.”

She stared at me, and there was a look on her face that I couldn’t understand, but it looked almost pained. On anyone else, I might have said it looked afraid, but Andais feared no one, least of all me.

“It is love that has made them fertile,” Galen said. I glanced up at him, but he looked only at the queen. He looked handsome, commanding standing there, as if something had stripped away the last bits of childhood and brought him into the man he was always meant to be.

“The crow and the cat do not love each other; it is lust that has made a child.” Her voice was thick with disdain.

“I didn’t mean their love for one another, but Meredith’s love for them.”

“Are you saying they, too, are her lovers? Is no one safe from your lusts, Meredith?”

Rhys stepped forward. “Meredith loves them as a ruler is supposed to love her subjects.”

“You cannot rule by love,” she said, and her beautiful face was creased with angry lines, as if the monster inside her were starting to peer out.

Galen said, “But they oathed themselves to Meredith because she has shown them love and caring, the way Prince Essus did to his guards.”

“Do not wave my brother’s memory at me and think it will make me relent. Meredith has brought it up too often of late.”

Doyle came to stand on the other side of Galen. “Prince Essus stood between you and those you would harm more than once. I don’t think any of us understood what a good and strong influence he was on you until we lost him.”

“I would allow Essus liberties that no one else dared.”

“You loved your brother,” Doyle said.

“Yes, yes, I loved my brother, but he is dead and gone.”

“But his daughter stands before you; his grandchildren are in the other room waiting to see their great-aunt Andais. Meredith is truly NicEssus, the daughter of Essus, for she has shown the same nobility, kindness, intelligence, and love that he did. He would have made a fine and generous king.”

Her eyes were wide, and I realized that the shine in them now wasn’t magic, but unshed tears. “But for a few years of time he would have been eldest and king.”

“Yes, King Essus,” Doyle said.

One lone tear trailed from her eye. “You have made me cry twice, Meredith, daughter of my brother, mother of my nieces and nephew, bringer of life to the sidhe, creator of new fairylands, and they tell me you do all this by love. Is that true, niece of mine? Are you all sunshine and love? Are you all Seelie sidhe and there is none of the Unseelie’s blackness inside you?”

“I do my best to rule through fairness and love, but I am also the wielder of flesh and blood; those are not Seelie powers, my queen.”

“I saw what your hand of blood can do when you killed my son.”

“I did not flinch when Cel tried to kill me; that was my father’s mistake. If he had not loved Cel, he would not have hesitated in his own defense and my father would be here to see his grandchildren.”

“Do you not think I have thought of that, Meredith, since I learned of my son’s treachery?”

“You ask if I am all sunshine and love, and I tell you this, aunt, I do not rule by love and fairness alone.”

“What then, kindness?” She made it an insult.

“Ruthlessness. I am more ruthless than my father. You can take credit for that, Aunt Andais, for you allowed sidhe after sidhe to challenge me to duels when I had no magic to defend myself. I had to become ruthless to survive, because you would not protect me. You would not acknowledge that the duels were attempts to assassinate me, attempts done either on Cel’s orders or to curry favor from him. If you had only reached out to me, protected me, if not for myself, then for your brother’s memory, but you did not. Essus taught me kindness, honor, love, fairness, justice, but you, dear aunt, you taught me ruthlessness—and hate.”

She smiled then, and nothing she could have done in that moment would have frightened me more. It caught my breath in my throat and made my skin run cold. Galen moved closer to me, folding me in his arms.

“Then perhaps Essus and I have forged a fit ruler for the sidhe, at last. Perhaps it is Taranis who should fear you, Meredith.”

“I do not understand, Aunt Andais.”

“I will let it be known that my Ravens, and Cel’s Cranes, have oathed to you out of love and loyalty the way rulers gathered followers thousands of years ago. I will let it be known that sidhe among your guards that have not been in your bed are with child. I will make certain that the Seelie know we have a new goddess of love and ruthlessness, for it was not only I who taught you that last lesson, Meredith. Your mother’s neglect and Taranis’s madness helped forge you into the ruler you are today.”

I hugged Galen closer and nodded. “I will agree with that, Aunt Andais.”

“I will make certain Taranis knows that.” She gave a short, abrupt laugh. “You may be right after all, Galen Greenknight; perhaps love is frightening enough all on its own without any torture needed.”

She laughed again, and then just walked out of sight of the mirror. It was Eamon who came forward, reaching to blank the glass. He spoke to me before he did it. “Princess Meredith, Prince Galen.” And we were staring at our own startled reflections before I could give him his title in return.