Page 21 (2/2)

"Nothing’s wrong, Merry" He tried to lower his face back to my breasts, but I kept both hands on his chest, kept him pushed away from me

"Yes, there is"

"What? "he asked

"That’s just it, I can’t remember I can’t remember, Galen, do you understand? I can’t remember I should be able to re" He shook his head "I can’t remember"

"Why are we in the back of this car?" I asked

Galen eased back off ofwith his pants still undone, hands in his lap "You’re going to see your grand to ht"

"What just happened?" he asked

"It’s a spell, I think," I said

"We didn’t drink the wine or eat the food"

I looked at the black interior of the car "It’s here soe of the seat "Someone put it in the car, and it wasn’t the car"

Galen ran his hands over the ceiling, searching "If we had made love"

"My aunt would have had us executed" I didn’t tell him about Doyle, but I doubted seriously if the queen would letpunished for it

I found a luently, not wanting to hurt the car What I found was a woven cord tied with a silver ring The ring was the queen’s ring-one of the ical ite the great exodus The ring was a thing of great pohich is what had allowed the cord’sinvoked

I held the thing up so he could see it "I found it, and it’s wearing her ring"

Galen’s eyes widened "She never lets that ring off her hand" He took the cord fro the different-colored strands "Red for lust, orange for reckless love, but why the green? That’s usually reserved for finding a amous partner You’d never mix those three colors"

"Even for Andais this is psychotic Why invite uest, but set me up for execution on the way to the court? It otten that ring without her per out from between the seat and the back

I moved closer to it and found it was half an envelope "This wasn’t there before," I said

"No, it wasn’t," Galen said He picked his sweater up off the floor and slipped it on

I pulled at the envelope, and it felt as if so, as if of ht my pulse in my throat, but I took the envelope It had -the queen’s handwriting

I showed it to Galen as he continued to dress "You’d better open it," he said

I turned it over and found her seal set in black wax, unbroken I broke the seal and pulled out a single sheet of thick white stationary

"What does it say?" Galen asked

I read it aloud to hiift and a token of things to come I want to see it on your hand e ned her name" I looked at Galen "This makes less and less sense"

"Look," he said

I looked where he was pointing, and there was a s out of the seat now It had not been there when I took the envelope out of the seat

"What is going on?"

Galen pulled the bag into sight, carefully It was very s in it was a piece of black silk "Letoff the cord, holding it in the palainst row hot, but it was just a slight pulsing war’s enchant out to Galen "Hold it in the pal tentatively between two fingers and laid it in his opposite hand The heavy octagonal ring sat in his pal for a few seconds Nothing happened "Is it warm?" I asked

Galen looked up at me, eyebrows raised "Warm? No, is it supposed to be?"

"Not for you, apparently"

He wrapped the ring in the bit of silk and slipped it into the s It fit perfectly, but there was no room for the heavy cord He looked at me "I don’t think the queen did the spell I think she put this ring in here for you as a gift, just like the note says"

"Then someone else added the spell," I said

He nodded "It was a very subtle spell, Merry We alht it was eous lust spell we’d have noticed so much sooner" There weren’t that many people in the Unseelie Court ere capable of such a sophisticated love spell Love wasn’t our specialty; lust was

Galen echoed hts "There are only three, maybe five people in the entire court that could do such a spell If you’d asked ly hurt you They may not all like you, but they aren’t your eneo," I said "People change theirthat different," Galen said

I had to s surprise that you wouldn’t notice political wheeling and dealing behind the scenes"

"All right, all right, I’m not a political anie of heart this severe a the neutral parties at court"

I heldI took the ring out and laid it ontouched my skin I could feel the s it in , the queen’s ring, answered to er her? If she didn’t want the ring to acknowledge iven it to me?

"You look pleased," Galen said "Why? You’ve just been the victiht?" He was studyingis warm to my touch, Galen It’s a relic of power and it knows me" The seat underneath me twitched It made me jump "Did you feel that?"

Galen nodded "Yes"

The overhead light flashed on, and I juain "Did you do that?" I asked

"No"

"Me, either," I said

This time I watched the leather seat push out the object It was like watching so It was tiny, silver, a piece of jewelry I was al until the itelance that it was a cufflink

Galen picked it up His face darkened, and he held it out tolines "The queen had cuff links o They have our first initials on theuard put the spell in the car and tried to bury the letter and the bag in the seats"

Galen nodded "And the car kept the cuff link until it showed it to you"

"Th thanks, car," I whispered Thankfully, the car didn’t seerateful for that But I knew that it had heardat the back of your head, and when you turn around there is souards, did you uards, too?" I asked

Galen nodded "She liked the look of the feuards in men’s shirts, said it was stylish"

"That adds what, five, sixhas it been known that the queen was going to send the Black Coach to meet me at the airport?"

"Barinthus and I only found out two hours ago"

"They had to act quickly Maybe the love spell wasn’t intended forabout for some other purpose"

"We’re lucky it wasn’t ht not have co back in the velvet bag and picked up my turtleneck from the floor For some reason I couldn’t define, I wanted to be dressed before I put the ring on I looked up at the car’s black ceiling "Is that all you have to show ht went out

I juh I’d hoped it would happen

"Shit," Galen said He backed away froht He stared at me, eyes very wide "I’ve never ridden in the car with the queen, but I’ve heard"

"That if it answers to anyone," I said, "it answers to her"

"And now you," he said softly

I shook ic; I am not so presumptuous as to assume I have control over it The car hears ed "Tiround in Saint Louis an hour, Merry, and there’s been one attempt on your life It’s worse than when you left"

"When did you become a pessimist, Galen?"

"When you left the court," he replied

There was a sorrowful look on his face I touched his cheek "Oh, Galen, I have missed you"

"But you’ve ainst his cheek "I can see it in your eyes, Merry The old a"

I drew my hand away from him "I’m not ambitious in the way that Cel is I just want to be able to walk the court in relative safety, and unfortunately that is going to take so in my lap and slipped on the turtleneck I scraun and the knives back in place I slipped the suit jacket over everything

"Your lipstick is gone," Galen said

"Actually you see most of it," I said

We used the mirror in my purse to reapply my lipstick, and wipe it off of his h er

I held the ring up in the dier, so I slipped the ring on ht hand without thinking about it The ring ar touch, a reure out what to do with it Or, ure out what to do withwasn’t actively evil, though that didn’t ic is like any tool: it has to be treated with respect, or it can turn on you Most ic isn’t overtly harmful any more than a buzz saw is har off, and it wouldn’t coht inat it sort of desperately, then stopped ift fro it on my hand would , like the car, had its own agenda It wanted to stay on er, and there it would stay until it wanted to leave, or until I figured out how to take it off It wasn’t hurting me There was no need to panic

I held my hand out to Galen "It won’t come off"

"It was the same on the queen’s hand once," he said, and I knew he ht htly When his hands brushed the ring, there was a shock of soic

Galen let o and scooted away from me to the far side of the seat "I’d like to know if Barinthus’s touchjump like that"

"So would I," I said

Barinthus’s voice carandmother’s in about five minutes"

"Thanks, Barinthus," I said I wondered what he was going to say when he saw the ring Barinthus had been my father’s closest adviser, his friend He was Barinthus Kingmaker, and after my father’s death he became my friend and adviser Some at court called him Queenmaker, but only behind his back, never to his face Barinthus was one of the few at court who could have defeated ic But if he had stepped in and destroyed my ene the sidhe Barinthus had had to watch helplessly while I defended h he had counseled me to be ruthless Sometimes it’s not howto do with that power "Make your enemies fear you, Meredith," he had said, and I had doneas Barinthus He could destroy entire arave hi to sith sharks, a six-thousand-year-old ex-god was a good swi partner I loved Galen, but I worried about hiet hiured that if anyone buried anyone, it would be hi me