A Lick Of Frost   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

I held the sheets to my breasts like a virgin startled on her wedding night. I thought of a dozen things to say, but finally said, "Uncle Taranis, where are we?" There, I'd reminded him that I was his niece. I wasn't panicking out loud. He'd already proven he was crazy in the lawyer's office. He'd proved it again by knocking me unconscious and bringing me here. I was going to be calm, for as long as I could.

"Now, Meredith, don't call me "Uncle." It makes me feel old."

I stared up into that handsome face, trying to see some sanity that I could reason with. He smiled down at me, looking charming and unworldly handsome, but there was no hint that what was happening was wrong, or strange. He acted as if nothing was wrong. That was more frightening than almost anything he could have done.

"All right, Taranis. Where are we?"

"My bedroom." He made a gesture, and I followed the line of his hand.

It was a room, but it was edged with flowering vines, and trees espaliered to the wall, heavy with fruit. Jewels winked and glittered among the verdant plant life. It was almost too perfect to be real. The moment I thought it, I knew I was right. It was illusion. I did not try to break it. It did not matter that he used magic to make his room look lovely. He could keep his decorating tricks to himself. Though part of me wondered how I had been so sure so soon that it wasn't real?

"Why am I in your bedroom?"

He frowned then, just a little. "I want you to be my queen."

I licked my lips, but they stayed dry. Should I try reason? "I am heir to the Unseelie throne. I cannot be both your queen and queen of the Unseelie Court."

"You never have to go back to that awful place. You can stay here with us. You were always meant to be Seelie." He leaned in, as if to kiss me again.

I couldn't help it. I recoiled from him.

He stopped, frowning again. He looked like he was thinking and it hurt. He wasn't a stupid man. I think it was just another symptom of his madness. He knew, in some part of him, that he was in the wrong, but his madness wouldn't let him see it.

"Don't you find me handsome?"

I told the truth. "You are always handsome, Uncle."

"I told you Meredith, not Uncle."

"As you like I find you handsome, Taranis."

"But you react as if I am ugly."

"Just because a man is handsome doesn't mean I want to kiss him."

"In the mirror, if your guards had not been with you, you would have come to me then."

"I remember."

"Then why do you recoil from me now?"

"I do not know." And that was the truth.