A Lick of Frost

by Laurell K. Hamilton

  The truth was that it wasn’t faerie they wanted to leave but her sadistic care, but that was a truth better kept to myself.

  “If the Seelie offer is a genuine one, Meredith, you might consider taking it.”

  “What reason did he give?” she asked in an amazingly calm A thrill of fear ran through me. “Aunt Andais, I don’t understand.”

  “Every man who prefers you to me makes me hate you a little more. Soon, my hatred for you may outweigh my desire for you to sit my throne. On the golden throne of the Seelie Court you would be safe from my anger.”

  I licked my suddenly dry lips. “I do nothing to anger you on purpose, my queen.”

  “And that is what is so maddening about you, Meredith. I know you do not do it on purpose. You simply are, and somehow by being yourself you part my nobles and my lovers from me. Your Seelie magic wins them away.”

  “I carry the hands of flesh and blood. Those are not Seelie hands of power, Aunt.”

  “Yes, and Cel’s prophet said that if someone of flesh and blood sat the Unseelie throne he would die. He thought it meant your mortality, but it didn’t.” She looked at me, and there was something other than cruelty, though I wasn’t sure what exactly. “Cel screams your name in the night, Meredith.”

  “He means my death if he can manage it.”

  She shook her head. “He has convinced himself that if he lay with you, you and he would have a child, and he would be king to your queen.”

  My mouth couldn’t get any drier, but my heart rate could get faster. “I do not think that would work, Aunt Andais.”

  “Work, work—it is fucking, Meredith. The mechanics of it would work just grand.”

  I tried again, while Doyle and Rhys gripped me harder. Even Abe moved in at my back to put his face against my hair. Touching to comfort me.

  “I suppose what I meant was that I do not think Cel and I would make a good ruling couple.”

  “Do not look so frightened, Meredith. I know that Cel would not make you pregnant, but he has convinced himself of it. I suppose I am warning you. He no longer wants you assassinated, but he would kill every lover you have, if he could.”

  “Is he—” I tried to think of a way to say it, “—free to….”

  “He is not imprisoned, but he is under guard at all times. I do not want my own guards to kill my only son to protect my heir.” She shook her head. “Go, call the Goblin King back. I will try to find out if Hugh’s offer of the golden throne is true or false.” She was walking back to the bed as she spoke the last few sentences. “But first I will take out my anger and frustration at you on your Crystall. Know that every cut is a cut I would make on your lily-white skin if I didn’t need your body whole.” She crawled onto the bed and reached for Crystall. A knife had appeared in her hand, either by magic or it had been tucked into the sheets.

  Frost got to the mirror first and cleared it with a touch. We were left staring at our own images. My eyes were a little too wide, my skin pale.

  “Crap,” Rhys said.

  That about summed it up.

  CHAPTER 13

  THE MIRROR RANG AGAIN, A STRIDENT CLASH OF SWORDS, AS IF blades had screamed down the sides of each other. It made me jump.

  Rhys looked at Doyle and me. Doyle said, “Let Abe and me get out of sight. The fewer people in faerie who have this rumor the better, I think.” He gave my hand a last squeeze. Then he tried to rise with his usual effortless movement, but paused in mid-motion. It wasn’t a flinch so much as that he simply stopped trying to stand.

  I put a hand on his back to steady him. Frost grabbed one of his arms, and it was probably more him than me that helped Doyle stand upright. Doyle tried to move away from Frost’s arm but stumbled. Frost got a firmer grip on his friend. Doyle actually leaned a little on the other man, which meant he was in a lot of pain.

  “You didn’t take the pain medication that the hospital gave you, did you?” I asked.

  The mirror clanged again, an even angrier sound than before, as if the next sound of swords would break one of the blades.

  “The goblins are not known for their patience, Meredith,” Doyle said in a tight voice. “You must answer the call.” He started off, and didn’t fight Frost from helping him, which meant he was very hurt indeed. More hurt than he’d let on. The thought of my Darkness being this injured made my stomach and chest tight, not just because I loved him, but because he was the greatest warrrior I had. Frost might be as good in battle, but for strategy it was Doyle. I needed him, in so many ways.

  It must have shown on my face because he said, “I have failed you.”

  “Taranis tried to burn your face off,” Rhys said. “You failed no one.”

  The evil sound of swords filled the room again.

  “Go,” Rhys said. “I’ll stay with her.”

  “You don’t like goblins,” Frost said.

  Rhys shrugged. “I killed the one that took my eye. That’s got to be good enough revenge. Besides, I won’t let you and Merry down by being a big baby. Go, rest, take your meds.”

  “I’ll take Doyle,” Galen said.

  We all looked at him. “If Merry can’t have Doyle by her side for this call, then she needs Frost,” he said.

  Abe had managed to get off the bed on the other side. “I see that no one cares that I might need help.”

  “Do you need help?” Galen asked, as he moved to take Doyle from Frost. He actually held his other hand out to Abe.

  Abe looked into his face for a breath, then shook his head, but stopped the movement as if it hurt. “I can walk, boy. The king’s men jumped him before he could do his worst on my back.” He moved toward the door slowly but surely.

  Doyle let Galen help him out of sight of the mirror and toward the door. Frost came to stand with me and Rhys. Rhys reached toward the mirror, then hesitated. “I hate that you are going to be with these two tonight.”

  “We’ve had this discussion, Rhys. For every half-sidhe goblin whom we bring into his full power, our alliance with the goblins is lengthened by a month. We need their threat to keep us safe,” I said.

  The mirror made its ugly sound again. “The goblins do not wait with patience,” Frost said.

  “We need them, Rhys,” I said.

  “I know. I hate it, but I know,” Rhys said. A look passed over his face too quickly for me to read. “One of these days I’d like you to be able to do things just because you want to do them, not because you’re forced to do them.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to that.

  Rhys reached out toward the mirror. The metallic shriek rose to a crescendo. I fought the urge to cover my ears. I couldn’t afford to show weakness in dealing with the goblins. The two high courts of faerie would use weakness to their advantage. Goblin culture simply saw weakness as a reason to abuse you. You were either prey or predator to the goblins. I was working very hard not to be prey.

  The mirror was suddenly a perfect window onto the goblin throne room. Their king was not there, though. Ash and Holly stood alone before the empty stone throne. It was Ash’s hand on the glass when we saw them, his magic making the mirror sound like a battle.

  He blinked solid green eyes into the mirror. There was no pupil, only a blind expanse of perfect grass green surrounded by a little white. His hair was yellow, cut short, because only the sidhe are allowed long hair on their men, but his skin was gold kissed. Not sparkling with golden bits like Aisling’s, but it was close. Both the twins had Seelie skin, sunlight skin. Moonlight skin like mine and Frost’s was plentiful at both courts. That golden color, almost like a tan, was exclusively Seelie. The eyes were goblin except for the color. Holly strode to the mirror to stand by his brother. He was identical except that his eyes were the color of red holly berries, like his namesake. The red color with no pupil was not just goblin but Red Cap goblin.

  Rhys moved back from the mirror to stand on the other side of me so that I was sandwiched between him and Frost.

  “The bargain is over,” H
olly said, his handsome face contorted with rage. He was usually the one to lose his temper first.

  “To keep us waiting like this is to make us lose respect in front of all,” Ash said. He didn’t sound much more reasonable than his brother, which was bad, since Ash was the voice of reason for the two of them.

  “Queen Andais kept us overlong,” Frost said.

  Rhys just moved closer to me, as if the twins’ anger alone could hurt me.

  Their eyes flicked to him, then back to me. “Is this true, Princess?” Ash asked.

  “The queen had much to show us,” I said, and let my voice hold some of the upset I felt about Crystall and his fate in her bed.

  “She’s been entertaining the sidhe you left behind,” Ash said.

  Holly actually looked uneasy, his anger fading, which was unusual for him.

  “Has the queen spoken to the two of you?” I asked.

  They exchanged a look. Ash answered. “Apparently, the queen enjoyed watching us lick her blood off of your skin. We didn’t think that any sidhe, even Unseelie sidhe, would be so goblin in their tastes.”

  Andais’s blood had gotten on me in her most recent attempt to kill me. She’d been unhappy with me that day. Lately she’d been happier with me, so her murder attempts had stopped, and she was paying my legal bills.

  “She offered you her bed?” Frost asked.

  “We are not talking to you, Killing Frost,” Holly said.

  I put a hand on Frost’s arm, letting him know that it was all right. “I must weigh the pride of all the men in my life,” I said. “Frost is one of those men, and if tonight comes to pass as we have all planned, you will be, too. I know you feel that we insulted you by ignoring your call, but all of us have to wait upon the queen’s wishes.”

  “We do not,” Holly said.

  “You turned her down?” I made it a question.

  “We began the bargaining with what would be done and by whom,” Ash said, “but she will not allow harm to come to her body. She only wishes to do harm to others.”

  “She actually tried to bargain that she would torture the two of you during sex?” I asked.

  “Yes.” Holly almost shouted it.

  “She did not know that it was the gravest of insults to offer that to you,” I said.

  “But you knew,” Ash said.

  I nodded. “I visited the goblin court many times over my childhood. It was one of the few courts in faerie where my father felt that it was safe to bring me as a child.”

  “He would not have allowed you inside the Seelie Court,” Ash said.

  “No,” I said.

  “The goblins are not tamer than the sidhe,” Holly said, his anger flaring again.

  “No, but the goblins are honorable and do not break their rules,” I said.

  “Is it true that the queen tried to kill you when you were a child?” Ash asked.

  I nodded again. “It is.”

  “So you were truly safer here with us than with your own kind,” Ash said.

  “With the goblins and with the sluagh.”

  Holly laughed, a harsh, unpleasant sound. “You were safer with us, and with the nightmares of faerie than with the pretty sidhe. I find that hard to believe.”

  “The sluagh, like the goblins, have laws and rules and they abide by them. My father knew your ways and taught those ways to me. It is why we are here speaking today.”

  “You have bargained most carefully, Princess,” Ash said, and there was no lust when he said it, though it was sex we’d been bargaining over. No, there was respect in his face, in his eyes. I’d earned that respect.

  “I am not surprised to see Frost, for lately he is half of your constant companions, but it is not usually Rhys who holds your other hand,” Ash said.

  “Where is the Darkness?” Holly asked.

  “Yes, Princess, he has become like your shadow,” Ash said. “But today you have only Frost and Rhys by your side. And it is well known that Rhys does not like goblin flesh,” Ash said. He made that last comment sound suggestive.

  Rhys tensed beside me, one hand going to my shoulder, but otherwise he held his temper.

  Did they know that we had been attacked? If they did know, would they see it as an insult if we didn’t tell them? The goblins were our allies, but not our friends.

  “If the goblins are your allies,” Ash said, “then should you have secrets from them?”

  They knew. I made my decision. “Is the rumor mill traveling so fast in faerie?”

  “There are those among the goblins who watch the human news. They saw the Darkness in a wheelchair coming out of a human hospital. We did not see it, so gave it no credit, but now he is missing from your side. My brother and I ask again, where is your Darkness?”

  “He is healing.”

  “But injured,” Ash said. He seemed a little eager at the news.

  I fought not to lick my lips or show some other nervous habit. I spoke smoothly. “He is injured, yes.”

  “It must be grave for him to leave your side,” Ash said.

  “Darkness in a wheelchair like an invalid,” Holly said. “I never thought I would see such a shameful thing.”

  “There is no shame in taking care of an injury among the sidhe,” I said.

  “A goblin so badly injured would either take his own life or others would take it for him,” Holly said.

  “Then glad I am that I am not goblin,” I said, “for I injure all too easily.” I’d mentioned my frailty on purpose. I hoped to turn their attention from Doyle and toward the sex we might be having tonight. Ash and Holly had never been with a human. They had never been with anyone who could be injured so easily, and death, true death, by accident, with no cold metal involved, was a novelty. Yes, Ash hoped to be king. Ash and Holly both hoped that I could bring them into their sidhe-sided magic as I had others. But it wasn’t hunger for power that filled Holly’s face with eagerness. It was hunger of a very different kind.

  Ash’s face remained thoughtful, not caught up in his brother’s lust. Holly would be the one who might lose control and hurt me by accident, but it was Ash who would hurt me on purpose. He was just a little less goblin in his thoughts and a little more sidhe. If I could awaken true magic in him, he would be truly dangerous. Kurage, Goblin King, would do well to watch him. The goblins do not inherit their throne. They take it by force of arms, and they keep it the same way. The king is dead, long live the king.

  “I will not be distracted, Princess,” Ash said. “Not even by your white flesh.”

  “Am I so poor a prize then?” I asked, and lowered my eyes. The goblins liked their partners either bold as brass or demure. I wasn’t capable of their level of boldness, so demure it was.

  Ash gave an abrupt laugh. “You know exactly what you represent to us, Princess.”

  Holly stepped close to the mirror so that his handsome face filled more of the view. There was no distortion as with a camera. It was always as if the glass only separated one part of a room from another. He pressed his fingers against the glass. He looked at me, and there was something in his eyes beyond sex.

  I shivered and looked away from him.

  “I wish I could smell your fear through this glass,” he said in a voice gone low and rough with need.

  Frost moved closer to me. Rhys put his arm around my waist. I wanted the comfort, but we were dealing with goblins, and they would use it against us.

  “We agreed to Darkness and one other watching our fucking,” Ash said. “But he is injured, so I say we have no audience.”

  “No,” I said, voice soft.

  “Then all our negotiations must be redone,” Ash said.

  Frost started to say something, but I touched his arm. “You and Holly have the chance to bring magic, true magic, back to the goblins. You have a chance to be in the running for king of the Unseelie Court. You will not pass up such power because Doyle is too injured to watch us fuck. You will allow me to choose two other men to guard my safety, and to make certain
we all have a care tonight.”

  “We do not take orders from the sidhe,” Holly said.

  “This is not an order. This is simply the truth.” I looked at Ash, who was deeper into the room, farther from the mirror.

  “We have given you our word, Princess,” Holly said. “The goblins, unlike the sidhe, keep their word. We will do only what has been bargained for, nothing more. We will do nothing that you do not agree to.”

  “The guards will be there to see that in the midst of pleasure you do not get carried away, but they will also be there for another reason,” I said.

  “And what would that be?” Ash asked.

  “To make certain that I do not lose myself to the moment.”

  “Lose yourself,” Holly said. “What does that mean?”

  “It means that we bargained that you would do nothing I did not agree to, or ask for. I fear that I may in the heat of the moment ask for things that my body cannot survive.”

  “What?” Holly asked, frowning.

  “She’s saying that she likes to be hurt, and she might ask for things that would damage her,” Ash said.

  “Lying sidhe,” Holly said.

  “I swear to you that I do not lie. I must have guards to keep me safe from myself.”

  Holly hit the mirror hard enough to make it shake on his end. It made me jump. “You are afraid of us,” he said. “The sidhe do not crave that which they fear.”

  “I cannot speak for anyone but myself.”

  “Do you want me to hurt you?” Holly said.

  I looked up then, gave him my gaze, full on, and let him see the truth. “Oh, yes.”

  CHAPTER 14

  EVENTUALLY THE MIRROR WAS JUST A MIRROR AGAIN. THE GOBLINS would arrive tonight with a guard of Red Caps to make certain this was not sidhe treachery. With Doyle injured, I had to choose new guards to watch us, and frankly the ones I trusted most didn’t want the duty.