"I smell flowers," Nelson said, her voice uncertain.
"What do you smell, Uncle?" I asked.
"I smell nothing but the corruption that stands behind you. Where is Ambassador Stevens?"
"He is being tended by a human wizard by now. They will cleanse him of the spell you placed upon him."
"More lies," he said, but there was something in his face that belied the strength of his protests.
"I have bedded these men. I know that their bodies hold no horrors."
"You are part human, Meredith. They have bewitched you."
The wind grew, and pushed at the surface of the mirror, with its bits of floating herbs, like wind on water. I watched the glass ripple. "What do you smell, Uncle?"
"I smell nothing but the stench of Unseelie magic." His voice was ugly with anger, and something else. I realized in that moment that Taranis was mad. I'd thought all his crimes had been arrogance, but looking into his face, my skin ran cold, even with the Goddess's touch. Taranis, King of the Seelie Court, was mad. It was there in his eyes, as if a curtain of sanity had lifted and you couldn't miss it. There was something broken in his mind. Consort help us.
"You are not yourself, Your Majesty," Doyle said softly in his deep voice.
"You are the Dark, and I am the Light." Taranis raised his right hand, palm outward. I felt my guards move forward, toward me. They piled on top of me, pressed me to the floor, protecting me with their bodies. I felt heat, even through the flesh that protected me. I heard a noises, then Nelson was screaming, and the lawyers were yelling. I spoke from the bottom of the pile with Galen pressed tightly against me. "What is it? What's happened?"
More male voices from the far door. Security had arrived, but what good were guns when someone could turn light itself into a weapon? Could you shoot through the mirror and hit anything on the other side? You could shoot out the mirror, but the bullet should stop at the glass. Taranis could hurt us. Could we hurt him?
Other voices seemed to be coming from in front of us, from the mirror. I tried to peer around Galen's arm, and the spill of Abe's long hair, but I was trapped in the dimness of their bodies, with the feel of more weight atop me, so that I was trapped and useless until the fight was over. I knew better than to order them off of me. If they thought it was safe, they'd move, and get me out of the room. Until that moment they were offering their lives to shield mine. Once I'd been relieved to know that. Now some of them were as precious to me as my own life. I had to know what was happening.
"Galen, what is happening?"
"I've got two layers of hair in front of me. I'm as blind as you are," he said.
Abe answered me. "Taranis's guard is trying to calm him."
"Why did Nelson scream?" I asked. My voice was squeezed a little from the weight of everyone atop me.
I heard Frost's voice yelling, "Get her out!"
I felt the movement before Galen grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. Abe had my other arm, and they were running for the far door. Running so fast they simply carried me between them.
Taranis screamed behind me, "Meredith, Meredith, no, they won't steal you from me!"
Light, golden-bright burning light, haloed behind us. The heat hit our backs first. I recognized Rhys's voice, yelling. I heard running behind us, but I knew that they would be too late. Unlike the movies, you can't outrun light. Not even the sidhe are that fast.
CHAPTER 5
ABE STUMBLED BESIDE ME, ALMOST JERKED ME DOWN, BUT Galen swung me in his arms and sprinted for the door. He moved in a blur of speed that left the room in streamers of color. It was almost as if he didn't so much open the door and go through it but was moving so quickly that the door wasn't solid enough to stop us. I wasn't sure if the door opened or not, but we were on the other side of it. He turned me in his arms, so that he was carrying me like a child, or a bride on her wedding night. He moved down the hallway at a quick trot, away from the door and the sound of battle inside.
I could order Galen around more than most of the guard. I thought about ordering him to stop, but I wasn't certain what was happening. What if stopping was the wrong thing to do? What if the men I loved had given their lives to save me, and my stopping here would make that sacrifice worthless? It was one of those moments when I would have given almost anything not to be princess. There were too many decisions, too many moments like this, where, lose or win, I would still lose.
He put me down, but kept my hand, as if he knew I might go back. He'd pressed the button to call the elevator. I heard the machinery behind the doors whirring. I couldn't leave. I knew in that instant that when the doors opened, I wouldn't get on. I couldn't leave them. I couldn't leave them not knowing who was hurt, and how badly.
I stepped back, pulling on Galen's hand. He looked at me, his green eyes a little wide, his pulse still thudding against the side of his pale throat above the tie and collar the lawyers had made him wear. I shook my head.
"Merry, we have to go. My job is to keep you safe."
I just shook my head, and pulled on his hand. I tried to pull him back toward the doors that had closed behind us, or had not opened for us to go through. I still couldn't remember the door opening. The harder I thought about it, the less I seemed to remember of that one moment. It probably meant that Galen had, indeed, taken us through the door. Impossible, especially outside of faerie. Impossible, but it had happened, hadn't it?
The elevator doors opened. Galen stepped inside, but I kept his arm stretched out, because I did not step forward. "Merry, please," he said. "Please, you can't go back."
"I can't go forward either. If I am to be queen, then I have to stop running. To be ruler of a faerie court means I must be a warrior, too. I must be able to fight."
He tried to pull me inside. I put a hand on the wall to keep some leverage. "You are mortal," he said. "You could die."
"We could all die," I said. "The sidhe are no longer immortal. You know it and I know it."
He put a hand on the door that tried to close on him. "But we're harder to kill than a human. You injure like you're human, Merry. I can't allow you to go back inside that room."
I had a moment to understand that somehow this was a deciding moment. What kind of queen would I be? "You cannot allow? Galen, I must rule, or not rule. I cannot have it both ways." I pulled my hand free of his, and he didn't fight me.
He just looked at me, searched my face, as if he didn't know me. "You really are going back, and short of me throwing you over my shoulder, I can't stop you, can I?"
"No, you can't." I started walking back down the long hallway that we had just raced down.
Galen fell into step beside me. He unfastened the buttons of his jacket, and took out the gun he was wearing. He switched off the safety and chambered a round.
I reached behind my back to the nice little sideways holster, and took out my own gun. I'd replaced the Lady Smith that Doyle had taken off of me in faerie once before he was mine. It was the gun I was accustomed to, and a popular backup gun for a lot of police officers. Mostly male, strangely. The original push for the gun had turned off a lot of women. One of the colors the grip had come in had been pink. But in black or steeled blue it was still a good gun, and the one I was most used to. I didn't draw my gun as smoothly as Galen had, but it was a new holster, and a newish gun. It would take practice to be smooth. If Taranis was mad, I might get all the practice I needed.
CHAPTER 6
THE FAR SET OF ELEVATOR DOORS OPENED AND A SECURITY guard stepped out. Emergency medical techs rushed behind him with a wheeled gurney and medical bags. Two more EMTs with another gurney and more equipment followed them. A second security guard brought up the rear.