A Stroke Of Midnight   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

“Wounded?” Galen said.

“How badly?” Nicca asked.

“He had an arm in a sling, and a bandage on the side of his face and head.”

“Who could harm a warrior of the Unseelie, and the King of Sluagh, that badly?” Nicca said as if he was simply thinking aloud.

“Goblins could,” Kitto said, “if they caught him unaware and unable to use his magic. There are warriors among my people who could best any you have, except for your sidhe magic.”

“Or another sluagh,” I said softly.

They all looked at me. “There are some among his people who think that by coming to my bed he will become full sidhe, and they will lose him as their king.”

“I heard it was mostly his harem of night hags,” Nicca said.

“Did everyone but me know that his hags were his harem?” I asked.

Nicca and Galen exchanged glances. “We envied him as the only guard who had an outlet for his desires,” Nicca said.

“They’re afraid that the touch of sidhe flesh will steal him away,” Galen said.

“No one but Merry would sleep with him,” Nicca said. “No other sidhe would risk bearing his child, for fear it would be a monster.”

I shook my head. “Once the Unseelie welcomed any child. It was the way of our court. When did we become an anthropomorphic club? When did two arms, two legs, and human beauty become the ideal?”

“Long before either of you were born,” Kitto said.

Nicca nodded. He was cuddling Kitto now more than just holding him. Kitto’s eyes still looked fragile, as if he believed whatever the sidhe had said to him. No name calling truly bites deep unless, in some dark part of us, we believe it. If we are confident enough then it’s just noise, but Kitto wasn’t confident, not in the least.

He spoke in a small, low voice. “I looked almost sidhe as a baby. My mother must have kept me for a few months, then the scales appeared around my spine, and when the teeth came in, so did the fangs. That was enough for her to leave me by the goblin mound, to either be taken in or killed. She left me there knowing that the goblins liked to eat a bit of sidhe flesh.” He huddled in on himself, wrapping Nicca’s arms closer around him. I couldn’t tell if it was on purpose or accidental that the movement wrapped the other’s arm tighter. Most fey like to be touched, it comforts them, but the goblins are a different race than most. They like sex, but touch can as easily lead to violence as sex among them, and there is very little touching that is only comfort and not sex.