“Like what else can he do with light?” Lucy asked.
Doyle shook his head. “I’m hoping he hasn’t regained all his old abilities; if he has, then it could go badly no matter where Merry is.”
“Well, aren’t you just a bundle of cheer,” she said.
“Instead of being able to spend time with Merry and our children, I have spent the last day and night negotiating with one high court of faerie or another. The king’s courtiers have assured me that he will wait until the DNA tests come back. If they show that none of the babes are his, then he will acknowledge he has no claim on them, or Merry.”
“Merry was already pregnant when he …” She stopped as if afraid she’d said too much.
“It’s okay, Lucy, but the geneticist has informed us that it may not be that simple. The king is my great-uncle, and the sidhe of both courts have been intermarrying for centuries; we could share a lot of genetics. It’s probably not enough to prove paternity, but enough to confuse the issue if my uncle wishes not to give up his claim.”
“He won’t give up,” Doyle said.
“Is it true that if he’s not able to have children, then he has to relinquish the throne?” she asked.
I fought to keep my face neutral. I hadn’t known that the human police knew that, or any human knew that.
“The blank face from both of you is answer enough,” she said.
I cursed softly inside my head—sometimes in trying so hard not to give something away, the very effort screams your answer. The big question was: Did the police know that it wasn’t a matter of stepping down from the throne, but execution, for having cursed his court with infertility a century after Taranis knew he was infertile? The old idea that your health, prosperity, and fertility came from your king, or queen, was very true in faerie. Taranis was fighting for his very life. Did Lucy know that?
“What happens if he steps down?” she asked.
“He ceases to be king,” Doyle said.
“That part I figured, but is he exiled from faerie?”
“No, why do you ask?” I said.
She shrugged. “Because exile would explain why he’s so desperate to prove one of the babies is his.”
“I think it’s simpler than that, Lucy. I think he just can’t stand the thought of not being absolute ruler of the Seelie Court after all these centuries. I think he’d do anything to keep his throne.”
“Define anything,” she said, and I didn’t like the very shrewd look in her brown eyes. She was smart and very good at her job.
One of the babies made a sound from the cribs. Lucy had ignored them except for a brief glimpse at the cloth-wrapped bundles. She was here on business, not to see babies, but the noise made us turn to find out which baby was waking up.
It was Bryluen, moving fitfully in her basket like a crib within a crib. Doyle picked her up with his big, dark hands. The baby looked even tinier. Some of the fathers had been awkward holding them, but Doyle held our daughter with the same physical ease and grace with which he did everything. Bryluen’s eyes were open enough to gleam in the light like dark jewels.
“May I hold her?” Lucy asked, and the request surprised me.
Doyle looked to me, and I said, “Of course. We’re waiting for the nurse to bring the wheelchair; they won’t let me walk out, and most of the other men are helping load the gifts.”
Lucy didn’t seem to hear me as Doyle laid Bryluen in her arms. Lucy didn’t know how to hold the baby, which said she’d never really been around them. Doyle helped move her arms into place, and once she had the baby tucked into the crook of her arm she just stared down. Lucy’s face got this happy, almost beatific glow to it, as if the world had narrowed down to the baby in her arms.
I hadn’t expected Lucy to be that entranced with babies, but maybe she was having that “I’m in my midthirties and the clock is ticking” moment.
“Detective Tate,” Doyle said.
She never reacted, just started humming softly and rocking Bryluen gently.
“Detective Tate,” he said again, with a little more force to his voice.
When she didn’t react this time, I moved closer to her and said, “Lucy, can you hear me?”
She never reacted, as we hadn’t spoken.
“Lucy!” I said it sharply this time.