Rhys thrusting inside me one last time, as we both cried out at the release of our bodies and the release of the magic miles away.
Only when our skin began to fade, glowing around the edges, instead of that white-hot light, only then did he let himself slide to his knees, still holding me, as I slid down the railing. The sea held our weight, and then tried to spill us down the steps. He moved us up in a kind of crawl until he had us safe on a drier step. He had fallen out of me somewhere in the climb but we were both ready to be done. It had been enough.
He gave a shaky laugh as he cradled me against him, and we leaned back against the steps.
"What was that magic?" I asked, my voice still breathless.
"It was the power of faerie creating a sithen."
"A hollow hill here in Los Angeles," I said.
He nodded, still trying to catch his own breath. "I caught a glimpse of it. It's a building, a new building that wasn't there before."
"Wasn't where before?" I asked.
"On a street."
"What street?" I asked.
"I don't know, but tomorrow I'll be able to find it. It will call to me."
"Rhys, how will you explain a new building appearing?"
"I won't have to, just as the hollow hills would appear and the people would think the hill had been there forever. If the magic works as it always has, everyone will accept that it's been there. I'll be new moving in, but the building won't look new, and people will remember it."
I laid my head on his chest, and his heart was still thudding fast. "A sithen is like a new court of faerie, right?"
"Yes," he said.
"So, in essence, faerie just made you a king."
"Not the Ard-ri, but a lesser king, yes."
"But I didn't see the building. I didn't feel it."
"You are the high queen, Merry. You don't have just one sithen; in a way they're all yours."
"Are you saying that the other men will get them, too?"
"I don't know. Maybe only those of us who had one once upon a time."
"Which would be you, and who?"
"Barinthus for one. I'll have to think about the others. It's been so long for most, so many centuries. You try to forget what you were before, because you don't ever think you'll get it back. You try to forget."
"First my dream or vision and being able to save Brennan and his men when they have to be hundreds of miles away, and then them being able to heal with my blessing, or whatever you want to call it. Now this. What does it all mean?"
"The sidhe didn't appreciate the Goddess coming back through you. I think she's decided to find out if the humans are more grateful than the fey."
"And what exactly does that mean?" I asked.
He laughed again. "I don't know, but I can hardly wait to see this new modern sithen, or try to explain all this to Doyle and Frost." He pushed to his feet, grabbing onto the railing to steady himself.
"I can't walk yet," I said.
He grinned. "High praise for me."
I smiled at him. "Very."
"I'm going to rescue my weapons before the tide rises any more. I'll have to clean everything. Salt water rusts like nothing else." He waded down into the water, and finally had to dive out of sight in the waves to find where he'd pierced the sand and left his weapons.
I had a moment of being alone with the sea and the wind and the moon full and glowing above me. I whispered, "Thank you, Mother."
Then I heard Rhys surface, taking a deep breath, splashing toward the steps, his weapons dangling from his hand, his curls plastered to his face and shoulders. He walked up beside me, the water running down his skin in shining rivulets.
"Can you walk yet?"
"With help, I think so."
He grinned again. "That was amazing."
"The sex or the magic?" I asked as he helped me to my feet. My knees were still weak enough that I grabbed for the railing even with his arm on mine.
"Both," he said. "Consort save us, but it was both."
We walked a little shakily up the steps laughing. The wind from the water seemed much warmer than before we'd made love, as if the weather had changed its mind and decided that summer was a better idea than autumn.
Chapter Twenty-one
Salt water is one thing you have to rinse off your body before you fall into