"Who? "I asked.
"Don't you love surprises, Meredith?"
"Not particularly."
"Well, I do. I like surprises a great deal. He will be my treat to you.
He's scrumptious in bed, or was sixty-or is it ninety years?-ago. Yes, I think he'll do nicely."
I didn't bother to ask who again. "How can you be sure that he'll spy for you once he's in Los Angeles?"
She paused with her hand on the door handle. "Because he knows me, Meredith. He knows what I'm capable of, both of pleasure and of pain." With that she swung open the double doors and had Rhys come back in the room.
He glanced from her to me. His eyes widened just a touch, but that was all. His face was carefully blank as he walked to me and offered me his arm. I took it gratefully. It seemed to take a very long time to walk across that floor to the open door. I wanted to run to it and keep running. Rhys patted my hand, as if he felt the tension in my body. I knew he'd seen the small wound on my neck. He could make his own guesses as to how it got there.
We made it to the door, then out into the hallway beyond. My shoulders relaxed just a touch.
Andais called after us, "Have fun, children. We'll see you at the banquet." She closed the doors behind us with a sharp bang that made me jump.
Rhys started to stop. "Are you all right?"
I clutched his arm and pulled him into a walk again. "Get me away from here, Rhys. Just get me away from here."
He didn't ask questions. He just led me down the hallway away from there.
Chapter 28
WE WALKED BACK THE WAY WE HAD COME, BUT THE HALL WAS STRAIGHT now and narrower-a different hallway all together. I glanced behind us, and there was no double door. The queen's rooms were elsewhere. For a moment I was safe. I started to shiver and couldn't stop.
Rhys hugged me with both his arms, pressing me to his chest. I sank against him, arms sliding around his waist, under his cloak. He stroked my hair from my face. "Your skin is cold to the touch. What did she do, Merry?" He raised my head back, gently, so he could see my face while I clung to him. "Talk to me," he said, voice soft.
I shook my head. "She offered me everything, Rhys, everything a little sidhe could want. The trouble is, I don't trust it."
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
I pulled away from him then. "This." I touched my throat where the blood was drying. "I am mortal, Rhys. Just because I'm offered the moon doesn't mean I'll survive to put it in my pocket."
There was a look on his face that was gentle, but I was also suddenly aware of how very much older he was than I. His face was still young, but the look in his eye was not. "Is that the worst of the injuries?"
I nodded.
He reached out and touched the spot of blood. It didn't even hurt when he touched it. It really wasn't much of a wound. It was so hard to explain that what was hurting didn't show on my skin. The queen was living in denial about what Cel was, but I wasn't. He'd never share the throne with me: One of us would have to be dead before the other sat on the throne.
"Did she threaten you?" Rhys asked.
I nodded again.
"You look totally spooked, Merry. What did she say to you in there?"
I stared at him and didn't want to tell him. It was as if saying it out loud would make it more real. But it was more than that. It was the fact that if Rhys knew, he wouldn't be totally displeased. "It's sort of good news, bad news," I said.
"What's the good news?"
I told him about being named coheir.
He hugged me tight and hard. "That's wonderful news, Merry. What could possibly be bad news after that?"
I pulled back from the hug. "Do you really think Cel will let me live long enough to displace him? He was behind the attempts on my life three years ago, and he didn't have nearly this good a reason for wanting me dead."
The smile faded from his face. "You bear the queen's mark now- even Cel would not dare kill you. It's death by the queen's mercy if anyone harms you now."
"She stood in there and told me that I left the court because of Griffin. I tried to tell her that I hadn't left because of a broken heart, that I'd left because of the duels." I shook my head. "She talked over me, Rhys, like I wasn't saying anything. She is in very major denial, and I don't think my death would change that."
"You mean her baby boy would never do such a thing," he said.
"Exactly. Besides do you really think he'd risk his own lily-white neck? He'll have someone else do it if he can-then they'll be the ones in danger, not him."
"It's our job to protect you, Merry. We're good at our job."
I laughed, but it wasn't a good laugh, more stress than humor. "Aunt Andais has changed your job description, Rhys."
"What do you mean?"
"Let's walk while I tell you. I feel the need for more distance between myself and our queen."
He offered me his arm again. "As my lady wishes." He smiled when he said it, and I went to him, but I slid my arm around his waist instead of taking his arm. He stiffened, surprised for a second, then slid his arm across my shoulders. We walked down the hallway, arms wrapped around each other. I was still cold, as if some inner warmth had been extinguished.
There are men that I can't walk arm in arm with, as if our bodies have different rhythms. Rhys and I moved down the hallway like two halves of a whole. I realized that I simply couldn't believe that I had permission to touch him. It didn't seem real to suddenly be given the keys to the kingdom.
Rhys stopped, turning me in his arms, until he could rub his hands up and down my arms. "You're still shivering."