"I return the compliment," I said, toasting him with the mug.
He smiled, flashing that expensive smile. "Yes, I have surprised a few humans in my day." The smile faded around the edges. "If you had just told me to mind my own business, I'd have done it, but you volunteered information, so I'm going to ask some questions. Just tell me if you don't want to answer."
I nodded. "I started it, Jeremy. Go ahead."
"Rhys didn't get blood on his coat from you throwing him into a wall."
"That's not a question," I said.
He shrugged. "How did he get bloodied?"
"A knife."
"Doyle?"
I shook my head. "I cut Rhys."
"Because he tried to hurt Kitto?"
I nodded, but I met Jeremy's direct gaze with one of my own. "They wouldn't obey my orders last night. If I don't gain their respect, Jeremy, I may gain the throne, but I will be queen in name only. I don't want to risk my life and the lives of people I care about just to be some sort of figurehead."
"So you cut Rhys up to prove a point?"
"Partly. And partly, I just reacted, didn't think. He was trying to hurt Kitto over some stupid thing that happened centuries ago. Kitto has never given Rhys any reason to hate him like this."
"Our fair-haired guard hates goblins, Merry."
"Kitto is a goblin, Jeremy. He can't change that."
Jeremy nodded. "No, he can't."
We looked at each other. "What am I going to do?"
"You don't mean just with Rhys, do you?"
We exchanged another long look, and I had to look down, but that meant staring into Kitto's searching blue gaze. Everywhere I looked, people were expecting something of me. Kitto wanted me to take care of him. Jeremy, well, he just wanted me to be happy, I think.
"I thought I had their respect back in Illinois, but it's as if something's changed over the last three months."
"What?" he asked.
I shook my head. "I don't know."
Kitto raised his head, which slid my hand to the warm curve of his neck. "Doyle," he said softly.
I looked down at him. "What about Doyle?"
He half lowered his eyes, as if afraid to look directly at me. He wasn't being coy; it was a habitual gesture, a subservient gesture. "Doyle says you made a good start, but you have made no use of your treaty with the goblins." He raised his eyes a little. "You have the goblins as your allies for only three more months, Merry. For three more months if the Unseelie go to battle, it is you who the Queen must come to for the goblin's aid, not our King Kurag. Doyle fears you are simply going to fuck everyone and make no move on your enemies."
"What's he want me to do, declare war on someone?"
Kitto hid his face against my knee. "I do not know, mistress, but I do know that the others follow Doyle's lead. It is he who you must win over, not the others."
Jeremy pushed away from my desk, came closer to the two of us. "I find it a little strange that sidhe warriors would speak so freely in front of you. No offense, Kitto, but you are a goblin. Why would they confide in you?"
"They did not, as you say, confide in me. But sometimes they talk over me like I am not there. Like you just did."
Jeremy frowned. "I am talking to you, not over you, Kitto."