A Lick Of Frost   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

"Also, he went buggers, mad as a March fucking hare," Abe said.

"Well, there is that," Doyle said.

Aisling looked at me. "They offered you the throne of the Seelie Court, truly?"

"Hugh said something about a vote among the nobles, and that if it went against Taranis, which he seemed confident it would, he would get them to vote me in as heir apparent."

"What did you say?" Aisling asked.

"I said we'd have to talk to our queen before I could answer their generous offer."

"Will she be pleased, or pissed?" Usna asked.

I think it was a rhetorical question, but I said, "I don't know."

Doyle said, "I do not know."

Frost said, "I wish I knew."

We had a chance of being caught between a ruler of faerie who was crazy and a ruler of faerie who was simply cruel. I had found years ago that the difference between madness and cruelty doesn't matter much to a victim.



CHAPTER 11

DOYLE AND FROST PICKED USNA'S MIND FOR OTHER BITS OF unimportant news from his mother about the Seelie Court. There was a lot of it. Apparently Taranis had been acting erratically for some time. Aisling asked as we pulled into the gates of Maeve Reed's estate, "Why did you request me for this talk? Taranis forbade anyone to speak to me of the Seelie Court on pain of torture, so I have no intelligence to report."

"The Seelie sithen recognized you as king when we arrived in America," Doyle said. "You were exiled because of that."

"I am aware of what cost me my place at court," Aisling said.

"So the princess is in effect being offered your rightful throne," Doyle said.

Aisling's eyes went wide. Even through the veil his astonishment showed. Obviously he had not put two and two together and come up with that.

The door to the limo opened, and Fred held the door. We all stayed sitting while we waited for Aisling to digest this. "Close the door for a moment, Fred," I said.

The door closed.

"Just because the sithen recognized me more than two hundred years ago does not mean that I would still be its choice for king," Aisling said. "And it is not me to whom the nobles are making this offer."

"I wanted you to hear it first, Aisling," Doyle said. "I did not want you to think that we had forgotten what faerie itself offered you once."

Aisling looked at Doyle for a long moment. "That was a very decent thing for you to do, Doyle."

"You sound surprised," I said.

He looked at me. "Doyle has been the queen's Darkness for a very long time, Princess.