A Lick Of Frost   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

I almost whispered his name but stopped in time. I held a hand out toward him. He laid his great furred head in my hand, then there was an instant of warm mist and prickling magic. Doyle stood before me, nude and perfect. He wore the only metal that seemed to have survived the transformation, the silver earrings that peeked from the fall of his ankle-length hair. Even the tie for his hair was gone.

He was unarmed and alone inside the Seelie mound. The danger he had exposed himself to made my stomach clench tightly. In that moment I feared for him more than for myself.

He took me in his arms, and I clung to him. Clung to the feel of his skin, the strength of him. I moved my head too quickly, and a wave of nausea blurred my vision. He seemed to sense it because he moved me to lay more prone in his arms. He knelt in the white-and-gold corridor, his darkness repeated in the mirrors as he held me.

There was a glitter on his cheeks, and I saw the Darkness cry for only the second time ever.



CHAPTER 27

I KNELT ON THE MARBLE IN DOYLE'S ARMS, MY HEAD RESTING ON his chest. Just his touch seemed to ease some of my pain.

"How?" I asked.

He seemed to understand exactly what I wanted to know, as he often did. "This is not the first time I have come here in this guise. Many of the fey hounds began as black dogs. I am just one who has not chosen a master. I am quite the favorite among those who have not been blessed with a dog. They offer me choice tidbits and call me sweet names."

"He is skittish, and will not let them lay hands on him," Lady Elasaid said.

"He plays the dog to perfection," Hugh said.

Doyle looked up at them. "It is not play. It is a true form for me."

There was silence for a second, then Hugh asked, "Is the Darkness truly the father of one of your children?"

"Yes," I said. I held him as tightly as I could without moving my head too much. "It is too dangerous for you to be here. If you are discovered…"

He kissed my forehead as gently as a feather's touch. "I would brave much more than this for you, my princess."

My fingers dug into his arm and back. "I could not bear to lose you and Frost. I could not bear it."

"We have heard rumor of the Killing Frost, but we thought it only rumor," Hugh said.

"Is he truly dead?" Lady Elasaid asked.

"He is the white stag in truth," Doyle said.

Hugh knelt beside us, smiling. "He is not dead then, Princess. In three years, or seven, or a hundred and seven he will return to his true self.