Niceven's had children. Maybe she'll cut Merry some slack for that."
Mistral sat down on the bed beside me, face all concern. "Are you well?"
"I seem to be now. I guess I couldn't get by without a little morning sickness."
He hugged me very gently, as if afraid I'd break. Mistral liked his sex pretty rough, so to feel him hold me like I was made of eggshells made me smile. I hugged him back a little more firmly. "Let me brush my teeth and then we'll see how I feel." And that's what we did. I took the robe that had been laid on the bed into the bathroom, brushed my teeth, and took off the hose, and my dress. I came back out with the robe belted in place and the room empty except for Rhys. He was sitting on the side of the bed looking less than pleased.
"How do you feel?"
"Fine," I said.
He gave me a look.
"Really, I'm fine; whatever caused me to be sick seems to have passed."
"I'll have the cooks make a list of the food you ate tonight. Some women just can't eat certain foods while pregnant."
"Could your wife?" I asked.
He shook his head, smiling a little, and stood up. "No, I won't talk about that. What I will talk about is that Royal is outside. He seems genuinely embarrassed that his queen is insisting on this, even knowing you were ill earlier this evening, but he's worried that she'll call him home if he refuses to be a good little surrogate for her."
I came to him, putting my arms around his waist. He returned the favor, and with him only six inches taller than me the eye contact was comfortable. "Kitto made mention that Kurag is wanting out of our alliance, and Kitto is being careful not to give him any excuse for it. Is there something happening at the Unseelie Court that I should know about?"
"You didn't want to rule the Unseelie Court, so it's not your problem."
"That would be a yes. Something is happening."
"Not that you need to know about, though."
I studied his face, trying to read something behind the smiling pleasantness of it. "Why are the goblins and the demi-fey both wanting to sever ties with me?"
"When they thought you were going to be queen they wanted to align themselves with you, but now they want to be able to align with whoever wins the race."
"The Unseelie Court still has a queen," I said.
"Who seems to have been driven mad by the death of her son."
I hugged him, putting my face against his chest. "Cel was going to kill me. I had no choice."
He rested his head against my hair. "He would have killed us all, Merry, and she would have let him. The fact that you had enough power to do it is amazing and wonderful, and let's face it, she wasn't the most stable cookie in the box to begin with."
"I didn't mean to leave our court in such disarray. I just wanted us safe."
"No one blames you, Merry."
"Barinthus does, and if he does so do others."
He kissed my cheek and held me close, and again that was answer enough. I could have asked questions about how bad it was, and what we could do, but the only thing we could do was to go back and take the throne, but we'd rejected the crowns of faerie once. I hadn't found that you got second chances at such offers. Even with the crowns on our heads, the chances that Doyle and I could hold the throne against all the factions that Andais had allowed to rise in her court was slim. I wanted to stay safe and have our babies. They and the men I loved meant more to me than crowns and even the Unseelie. So I let him hold me and I didn't press for details because I was certain they would all be bad ones.
Chapter 40-42
Chapter Fourty
Royal might have been embarrassed about his Queen's lack of manners, but he couldn't hide the fact that he wanted to be with me. Of course, in fey culture to hide the fact that you found someone attractive, especially if they were trying to be attractive, was an insult. I wasn't exactly trying to be attractive, but I wasn't trying not to be either.
I lay in the white robe against all the pale creams and gold of the bed. Royal floated above me on his wings of red and black and