A Kiss Of Shadows   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

"What of Cel? Does he mean to kill me?"

"The queen has been most insistent, to everyone" — he emphasized the "everyone" — "that you are to be unmolested while at court. She wants you back among us, Meredith, and seems willing to enforce her wish with violence."

"Even against her son?" I asked.

"I don't know. But something has changed between her and her son. She is not happy with him, and no one knows quite why. I wish I had more concrete information for you, Meredith, but even the biggest gossips at court are lying low on this one. Everyone's afraid to anger either the queen or the prince." He touched my shoulder. "We are almost certainly being spied upon. They will be suspicious if we keep up the spell of confusion for our words."

I nodded and withdrew the spell, flinging it into the air with a thought. The noise closed around us, and I realized in the press of people that we'd been lucky not to be bumped into, which would have shattered the spell. Of course, I was walking with a seven-foot-tall blue-haired demi-god, which did tend to open a path for you. Some of the sidhe welcomed the faeriephiles, the groupies, but Barinthus was not one of those, and a mere glance from those eyes was enough to make almost anyone back up a step.

Barinthus continued in a voice that was a little too cheerful for his normal words: "We'll drive you from here to your grandmother's." He lowered his voice. "Though how you got the queen to agree to you visiting relatives before paying your respects to her, I do not know."

"I invoked virgin rights, which is why you're also taking me to my hotel to check in and get changed."

We were at the baggage carousel now, watching the empty silver of it glide around and around. "No one has invoked virgin rights among the sidhe in centuries."

"It doesn't matter how long it's been, Barinthus, it's still our law."

Barinthus smiled down at me. "You were always intelligent, even as a young child, but you have grown to be clever."

"And cautious, don't forget that, because without caution, all clever will do is get you killed."

"So cynical, so true. Have you really missed us, Meredith, or did you enjoy being free of all this?"

"Some of the politics I could do without, but—" I hugged his arm. "I've missed you, and Galen, and… home isn't something you can pick and choose Barinthus. It is what it is."

He leaned down to whisper, "I want you home, but I fear for you here."

I looked into those wonderful eyes and smiled. "Me, too."

Galen came bounding up to us, putting an arm across my shoulders and the other around Barinthus's waist. "Just one big happy family.