"What do you want from me, Merry?" He was looking angry and sullen again.
"Distract me while I reassure Kitto."
He shook his head hard enough to send his white curls flying. He winced, and put a hand up to his neck. There was a bandage on it, but apparently it still hurt. The wound wouldn't last long; a couple of hours and he'd be healed.
"I vowed never again to let goblin flesh touch mine, Merry. You know that."
"He's going to be touching me, Rhys, not you."
"No, Merry, no."
"Then pack your bags and go."
His eye widened. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that I can't risk you hurting Kitto and screwing up the treaty with the goblins."
"I said I was sorry about that."
"But not sorry enough to make friends with Kitto. Not sorry enough to behave like a bodyguard instead of a spoiled, bigoted child."
He stood in the half-open doorway, staring at me. "You can't mean that you'd kick me out in preference to this... goblin."
I shook my head. "My enemies are the goblin's enemies for three more months. That has kept me safer than any of you have managed to do. No one wants to risk facing the entire goblin army. The fact that you can't see past your own prejudices to how important this is means you're too flawed to be my guard." I ran my hand down Kitto's arm, pressed his head more firmly into my shoulder, forced Rhys to look at him.
The rage in his face was raw. "They" -- he pointed at Kitto -- "made me flawed." He tore his eye patch off and stalked into the room. "They did this to me." He kept his finger pointed at Kitto as he advanced toward us. "He did this!"
Kitto raised his face enough to say, "I have never harmed you."
Rhys's hands trembled as he balled them into fists. He stood above us, looming, trembling with rage, with the need to strike out at something, at someone.
"Don't, Rhys," I said, my voice low, calm. I was afraid if I raised my voice, it would set him off. I really didn't want to lose him, but I didn't want Kitto hurt either.
I heard a sound behind us, though I couldn't see the doorway through Rhys. Doyle's voice came clear and deep. "Is there a problem?"
"Thanks to Rhys, I need to renew my vows with Kitto, so I told him he needed to distract me while we did it."
"I would be happy to distract you, Princess," Doyle said.
"Oh, yeah, you're great at foreplay as long as there's no follow-through, and let me just say that that's really beginning to get on my nerves, too," I said.
"Frost should be back from his assignment very soon. He's told the starlet that she'll have to find someone else to guard her from her would-be fans."
We were still speaking around Rhys's body. "I thought Frost's body-guarding gig lasted until the end of the week, at least."
"I thought it prudent after last night's attempt that we have him with us. I've sent him on ahead to scout Ms. Reed's home."
"Scout?" I made it a question.
"She is, after all, full Seelie Court sidhe, once a goddess, but yet no longer of either court. She might feel she is beyond the limits of our laws. I would be a poor guard indeed to simply allow you to walk into her home without some preparation."
"So you just pulled Frost off a job for our agency and reassigned him, without asking Jeremy, or me."
Silence.
"I'll take that as a yes." I frowned up at Rhys. "Move to one side, Rhys. The threat display is getting a little old."
Rhys looked a little surprised, as if I was supposed to be quaking in my boots. Of course, maybe the show wasn't for me. Kitto looked pale and very frightened.