[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

"I'm upset because Sage is not a prince of either court. He's a demi-fey whom your magic has brought
into something more, but he is not sidhe, Merry. He will never be truly sidhe. A hundred years from now,
even with his tricolored eyes, he will not be sidhe."
"You see how they are." It was Frost from the doorway. Neither of us had heard him come up, and we
both jumped.
He wore a standard white dress shirt, tie, and dress slacks, but the tie was silver and only a shade less
bright than the hair that shimmered around his shoulders. His slacks were dark grey, thick material, cut
well so the pants managed to be roomy in the front and over the thighs but form-fitting from behind. I'd
admired the view earlier. A silver-and-diamond tie bar and matching cufflinks glittered as he moved into
the room. His usual loafers had given way to dark grey boots, mostly hidden by the generous cut of pant
cuffs.
"How who are?" I asked.
"The Seelie." He said Seelie as if it was a dirty word. The way most Seelie said Unseelie.
Maeve stood up from the table. "How dare you."
"How dare I what?" he asked as he moved toward us.
"How dare you insult the Seelie."
"They would say the same of us," Frost said, and there was a level of anger in him that I wasn't sure of. I
hoped this new anger wasn't his answer to the pouting. Trading one problem for another was not what I'd
had in mind.
Page 125
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Maeve opened her shapely mouth, then closed it. She couldn't call him a liar, because it was true. She
finally settled for, "I don't know what to say," in a much more subdued voice.
Frost turned to me. "She'd never have touched Sage if she was still part of the golden court."
"Oh, I don't know," I said. "I'm proof that more than one Seelie will sully her body with those not of her
court."
He shook his head, and his hair caught the light more than the small diamonds he wore. No jewel could
truly compete with his hair. "Uar the Cruel wed your grandmother to avoid a curse. Besaba went to your
father as part of a treaty. Trust me, Merry, the shining ones do not come willingly to our beds."
"As you should know, Jackie Frost."
He winced but didn't back down. He turned to her and moved forward enough to invade her personal
space by American standards. When she didn't move back, he invaded her space even by fey standards.
They were almost touching, the entire lengths of their bodies. It managed to be threatening, not erotic.
Frost was taller, but only by a few inches. They met each other's eyes, opponents, evenly matched.
She looked at him, but her words were meant for me. "He was not always sidhe. Did you know that?"
Her voice was calm, but held malice the way the air can hold the beginnings of a storm.
"Yes," I said, "I know Frost's origins."
She glanced at me then, and surprise showed on her face. "He would not have told you willingly."
I shook my head. "He showed me willingly with his magic. I've seen him dancing over the snow. I know
what he is, and what he was, and it changes nothing for me."
Her lovely face went from surprise to astonishment. She stepped away from him and took my arm. "Of
course it changes how you feel. You thought you were bedding a sidhe, and you find he is merely the
hoarfrost brought to life."
I looked down at her hand, and my face must have been as unfriendly as I was beginning to feel,
because she dropped away from me.
"You mean it. You truly mean it. It makes no difference to you."
I shook my head. "None."
She looked puzzled then. "I don't understand that."
"You came back into your powers as Conchenn just last night. You slept with your first sidhe in a
century. You wake up this morning, and you don't sound like Maeve Reed. You sound like just another
Seelie noble. I've never understood why the Seelie embraced such a Victorian view of sex. It's so
un-fey-like."
"You don't understand, Merry, how could you? Sleeping with a human would be forgiven, but not
fucking a demi-fey. My need outrode my common sense last night. I was power-drunk. This morning,
I'm sober."
Page 126
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
"But you're exiled from the Seelie Court, Maeve, and the Unseelie Court doesn't care about origins, only
about results. It's not where you come from, but what you can do for us."
She shook her head. "I can't shield my eyes. I can't make my glamour cover them this morning, and I
don't know why. I've worn this glamour for decades. It feels almost more real than my true form, but I
haven't been able to cover my eyes again. You gave me power, Merry, but you stripped me of things,
too."
"So it's my fault that you fucked Sage?"
"Maybe," she said, but even in that one word there was doubt. She didn't really believe it.
"It doesn't really matter what the Seelie Court thinks of your actions, Maeve. If you ever go back there,
the King of Light and Illusion will see you dead. You're welcome to join the Unseelie Court and come
with us. You can be in the heart of faerie tonight." I watched her while I said it, and saw the hunger in her
face before she hid it.
She gave me her publicity smile. "I am Seelie sidhe, Merry, not Unseelie."
"I was once a member of the golden court," Frost said.
"You were never a member of the court, Jackie Frost. Never!"
He gave her a cold smile. "Allow me to rephrase. I was once barely tolerated at the court of beauty and
illusion. Tolerated because as others faded in power, I grew. Not through some other sidhe's powers, but
through the minds of the humans. They remembered me when they'd forgotten all of you beautiful, shining [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]