your car, so fine, we'll wait over here."
O'Brian tried to protest, but her partner insisted. They argued quietly as they gave us our privacy.
Doyle's hand on my arm tightened, and Frost moved closer. They were telling me silently not to share stories out of court, but the queen had never cared that I talked about some things. "And their friends, never forget their friends, I never could," I said.
He looked from Frost to Doyle, and asked, "Did they torment you before they became your lovers?"
I shook my head. "No, I have taken no lover who ever raised a hand to me."
"You have cleared out the Unseelie sithen. They've all come to L.A. with you. Who is left, who tormented you so?"
"I've taken only the guards away, not the nobles," I said.
"But all guards are noble among the sidhe, or they are not worthy of guarding a queen, or a king."
I shrugged. "I have called to me that which is mine."
He went to his knees again, but closer to my feet, so that I had to fight the urge to back up a step. Earlier I would have, but something about this moment made me want to be the queen that the Fear Dearg needed. Doyle seemed to feel me think it, because he put a hand on my back as if to help me not give ground. Frost simply moved to my other side, so that he almost touched me, but he was keeping his hands free for weapons, just in case. In public they tried to keep one of them free for that, though sometimes it was hard to comfort me and guard me at the same time.
"You have not called the Fear Dearg, Queen Meredith."
"I did not know they were mine to call."
"We were cursed and our women destroyed so we would cease to be a people. No matter how long-lived we are, the Fear Dearg are a dying race."
"I have never heard even a hint that the Fear Dearg have women, or of a curse."
He turned those black, uptilted eyes to Doyle at my side. "Ask that one if I speak the truth."
I looked at Doyle. He simply nodded.
"We and the Red Caps almost beat the sidhe. We were two proud races, and we existed on bloodshed. The sidhe came to help the humans, to save them." His voice was bitter.
"You would have killed every man, woman, and child on the isle," Doyle said.
"Mayhap we would have," he said, "but it was our right to do it. They were our worshippers before they were yours, sidhe."
"And what is a god if he destroys all those who worship him, Fear Dearg?"
"What is a god who has lost all his followers, Nudons?"
"I am no god, nor was I ever."
"But we all thought we were, didn't we, Darkness?" He gave that disturbing chuckle again.
Doyle nodded, his hand on my back tensing. "We thought many things that turned out not to be true."
"Ay, that we did, Darkness." The Fear Dearg sounded sad.
"I will tell you truth, Fear Dearg. I had forgotten you and your people and what happened so long ago."
He looked up at Doyle. "Oh, ay, the sidhe do so many things that they simply forget. They wash their hands not in water, or even blood, but forgetfulness and time."
"Meredith cannot do what you want."
"She is crowned queen of the sluagh, and for a brief moment queen of the Unseelie. Crowned by faerie and Goddess, that's what you made us wait for, Darkness. You and your people, we were cursed to be nameless, childless, homeless, until a queen crowned rightly by Goddesses and faerie itself granted us a name again." He looked up at me. "It was a way for them to curse us forever without sounding like it was forever. It was a way to torment us. We used to come before every new queen and ask for our names back, and they all refused."
"They remembered what you were, Fear Dearg," Doyle said.
The Fear Dearg turned to Frost. "And you, Killing Frost, why so silent? Do you have no opinions but the ones that Darkness gives you? That's the rumor, you're his sub."
I wasn't entirely sure that Frost would understand that last part, but he knew he was being taunted. "I do not remember the Fear Dearg's fate. I woke to winter, and your people were gone."
"That's right, that's right, once you were but wee Jackie Frost, just one more retainer in the court of the Winter Queen." He