A Lick of Frost(60)

"The look on your face, Meredith, as you gaze upon him, what are you thinking?"

"Love, Aunt Andais, I am thinking of love."

She made a disgusted sound. "Know this, niece of mine. If the Killing Frost is not your king, I will have him back, and I will see if he is as good as he looks."

"He was your lover once, hundreds of years ago."

"I remember," she said, but not like it made her happy.

I didn't understand the look on her face, or the tone of her voice. I didn't truly understand why she had been so determined to catch me with Rhys—or, was she eager to catch me without him? Was she looking for an excuse to order Rhys back to faerie? If yes, then why? She had never treated him as one of her favorites, not in the memory of anyone I knew.

"I see fear in your eyes, my Killing Frost," she said.

My arms tightened around him. I couldn't help it. "Would you protect him from me, Meredith?"

"I would protect all my people from harm."

"But this one is special to you, isn't he?"

"Yes," I said, because anything else would be a lie.

"Frost, look at me." She ordered it.

He raised his eyes to her.

"Are you afraid of me, Frost?"

He swallowed hard enough that it sounded painful, and said in a voice gone rough, "Yes, my queen, I fear you."

"You love Meredith, don't you?"

He answered, "Yes, my queen."

"He loves you, niece, but he fears me. I think you will discover that fear is a more potent threat than love."

"I don't want to threaten him."

"One day you will. One day you will find that all the love in faerie is not enough to keep the man you love obedient. You will want fear on your side, and you are too soft to wield it."

"I am not frightening. I know that, Aunt Andais."

"I look at you and I see the future of my court and I despair."

"If love is the future of our court, Aunt Andais, then I am hopeful."

She looked once more at Frost, as if he was something to eat and she was starving. "I hate you, Meredith. I truly do."

I fought not to say what I was thinking, but she said, "Your face betrays you. Say what is in your mind, niece. I hate you, Meredith. What does that make you want to say to me?"

"I hate you, too."

Andais smiled like she meant it. The bed behind her had been stripped down to its bare essentials. Apparently Crystall's torture had produced too much blood even for her to sleep in. "I think I will have Mistral tonight, Meredith. I will do to that strong body what I did to Crystall earlier."

"I cannot stop you," I said.

"Not yet you can't." With that the mirror was blank again. I was left staring at my own startled reflection.

Frost did not look at the mirror. He just crawled off the bed and started getting dressed. He didn't even bother to clean up first. He just seemed to need to be dressed, and I guess I couldn't blame him.

He spoke without looking at me, all his concentration on getting his nakedness covered as quickly as possible. "I told you once that I would rather die than go back to her. I meant it, Meredith."

"I know you did," I said.

He started buckling on his weapons. "I still mean it."

I reached up to him. He took my hand, kissed it, and gave me the saddest smile I'd ever seen. "Frost, I…"

"If you are going to be with Rhys before evening, I'd use another room. I would not want her as an audience again today."

"I'll do as you suggest."

"I'm going to check on Doyle." He had his clothes in place, and all his weapons. He was tall and handsome, and coldly beautiful. He was my Killing Frost, as arrogant and unreadable as when I'd first met him. But I carried with me the memory of his eyes wide and frantic as he plunged inside my body. I knew what lay inside that cool, controlled, man, and I valued every glimpse of the real Frost. A glimpse of the man who had fallen in love with a peasant's daughter, and given up everything he ever knew to be with her.

He walked out of the room, tall and straight and, to most eyes, unmoved. But I knew why he left me there in the bed. He left because he was terrified that his queen would come back for a second peek.





CHAPTER 17





I TOOK FROST'S ADVICE, AND WENT TO ONE OF THE SMALLER guest rooms in Maeve Reed's huge guesthouse. She'd offered us the main house while she was away in Europe, where she'd fled because Taranis had tried to kill her twice with magic. Maybe soon we could tell her that Taranis was no longer a threat to her, or anyone, but I still had to get through today. I'd have liked to have found a place of our own by now, but with nearly twenty men to house and feed I couldn't afford it. I was still refusing to take aid from my aunt. I knew all too well how long and dangerous were the strings that she attached to all favors.