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Mistrals Kiss :: Гамильтон Лорел
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I didn’t feel guilty very often — few in faerie do — but in that moment I knew that if I had taken him to my bed, he wouldn’t have beenvulnerable to the Seelie’s trick. Or maybe he would have been more vulnerable — we’d never know.
I tried to hug him without hurting the front of his body. Segna reached around and shoved me away.
“Do not touch her again,” Sholto snapped at Segna, and his voice was full of a choking anger.
“Now she’ll cuddle you,” Segna whined, “now she’ll touch you, because the icky bits are gone. Now she wants you, just like the other sidhe bitch.”
“She would have touched me that night in Los Angeles if you had left us alone,” he said.
Agnes reached to the other hag and drew her back. “He is right, Segna. We bear blame in this atrocity, too.”
A tear trailed down out of the sickly yellow of Agnes’s eye. She turned away so I wouldn’t see. Most of faerie cried when we cried, and displayed any emotion out in the open. It was only when we got close to a throne that we learned to hide what we felt. We were meant to be a freer people than this.
“Lady Clarisse,” Sholto continued, “took me inside the Seelie sithen. She led me cloaked through back ways to her room. Then she told me that although the tentacles fascinated her, she also feared them. She said she could not bear to have the tentacles touch her while we made love. Here I was truly a fool — I let her tie me up, so I would not accidentally brush her with the parts she feared, and said she craved.” He wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes again. I watched his face redden even through the strands of his white hair. He burned with embarrassment. “When I was helpless, other sidhe slipped into the room. They did to me what you see.”
“Was their king with them?” Doyle asked.
Sholto shook his head. “He is not a king who does his own dirty work. You know that, Darkness.”
“Did the king know?” Doyle said.
“They would not have done this without his knowledge,” I said. “They fear him too much.”
“But by not being present, he has left himself room to deny it,” Sholto said. “If I could see what he hoped to gain from this, I would believe it of him. But what does this accomplish?”
“Some of your people believed that Queen Andais did this to you, allowed it to be done. Perhaps this atrocity was committed with that as the intent. You are her strongest ally, King Sholto. If you had left her side, what then?” Doyle asked.
“The only reason for the king to want our queen shorn of her allies is that he means to make war. And if any of faerie make war on another, our treaty with America is breached.
I didn’t feel guilty very often — few in faerie do — but in that moment I knew that if I had taken him to my bed, he wouldn’t have beenvulnerable to the Seelie’s trick. Or maybe he would have been more vulnerable — we’d never know.
I tried to hug him without hurting the front of his body. Segna reached around and shoved me away.
“Do not touch her again,” Sholto snapped at Segna, and his voice was full of a choking anger.
“Now she’ll cuddle you,” Segna whined, “now she’ll touch you, because the icky bits are gone. Now she wants you, just like the other sidhe bitch.”
“She would have touched me that night in Los Angeles if you had left us alone,” he said.
Agnes reached to the other hag and drew her back. “He is right, Segna. We bear blame in this atrocity, too.”
A tear trailed down out of the sickly yellow of Agnes’s eye. She turned away so I wouldn’t see. Most of faerie cried when we cried, and displayed any emotion out in the open. It was only when we got close to a throne that we learned to hide what we felt. We were meant to be a freer people than this.
“Lady Clarisse,” Sholto continued, “took me inside the Seelie sithen. She led me cloaked through back ways to her room. Then she told me that although the tentacles fascinated her, she also feared them. She said she could not bear to have the tentacles touch her while we made love. Here I was truly a fool — I let her tie me up, so I would not accidentally brush her with the parts she feared, and said she craved.” He wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes again. I watched his face redden even through the strands of his white hair. He burned with embarrassment. “When I was helpless, other sidhe slipped into the room. They did to me what you see.”
“Was their king with them?” Doyle asked.
Sholto shook his head. “He is not a king who does his own dirty work. You know that, Darkness.”
“Did the king know?” Doyle said.
“They would not have done this without his knowledge,” I said. “They fear him too much.”
“But by not being present, he has left himself room to deny it,” Sholto said. “If I could see what he hoped to gain from this, I would believe it of him. But what does this accomplish?”
“Some of your people believed that Queen Andais did this to you, allowed it to be done. Perhaps this atrocity was committed with that as the intent. You are her strongest ally, King Sholto. If you had left her side, what then?” Doyle asked.
“The only reason for the king to want our queen shorn of her allies is that he means to make war. And if any of faerie make war on another, our treaty with America is breached.