A Stroke Of Midnight   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

“What did they say to you?” I asked. I was really worried now. I’d never seen him quite like this, and I didn’t like it.

He dropped his gaze again, and wouldn’t look at me as he said it. “They said that I would never be anything but a filthy goblin. That only a whore would share her bed with me.” He looked up then, and his face was so hurt, so confused. “I didn’t think any fey called another whore. It is not our way.”

“Oh, Kitto,” I said.

“I should not be here if it hurts your chances of being queen.” He started to bend down, as if he would make himself smaller, but Nicca’s arms wouldn’t let him do it. Nicca held him tightly but gently against his body.

“They are jealous,” Nicca said.

Kitto looked over his shoulder at the other man. “Jealous of what?”

“Of you,” Galen said.

Kitto blinked at him, and shook his head. “No, not of me.”

“You are the first non-sidhe to be brought into his power in centuries,” Galen said. “No matter how common it used to be, it isn’t now. They are jealous that Merry could do it, and you could become it. They’re afraid of you and what it might mean if more of the sidhe-sided goblins could be made sidhe.”

I looked at Galen.

“What?” he said. “It’s true.”

“Yes, but I…”

“Didn’t think I’d noticed,” he said.

I had the grace to look embarrassed. “Let’s say, I didn’t think you’d noticed so much, and so well.”

He smiled, a little sadly. “I’m learning just how stupid everyone thought I was.”

I touched his shoulder. “Not stupid, never that.”

“Foolish then, or oblivious.”

“Oblivious,” Nicca said. “Can’t truly argue that one.”

I had to smile. “You did seem oblivious to most of the politics.”

Galen nodded. “I was, maybe I still am, but we all have to keep our wits about us. We all have to see what there is to see, or we are going to die.” He gripped my arms, sloshing the water against our bodies. “When it was just my life and there was no chance that I would ever be in your bed, I didn’t care that much.” He hugged me against him. “There’s too much to lose now, and I don’t want to lose any of it.”

I wrapped my arms around him, held him as tight as I could. My hands traced the patches of dried blood, covering all of him that hadn’t gone in the water. I trailed my hands down and found that even in the water, the blood still clung. So much blood, so terribly much.