"She offered you her bed?" Frost asked.
"We are not talking to you, Killing Frost," Holly said.
I put a hand on Frost's arm, letting him know that it was all right. "I must weigh the pride of all the men in my life," I said. "Frost is one of those men, and if tonight comes to pass as we have all planned, you will be, too. I know you feel that we insulted you by ignoring your call, but all of us have to wait upon the queen's wishes."
"We do not," Holly said.
"You turned her down?" I made it a question.
"We began the bargaining with what would be done and by whom," Ash said, "but she will not allow harm to come to her body. She only wishes to do harm to others."
"She actually tried to bargain that she would torture the two of you during sex?" I asked.
"Yes." Holly almost shouted it.
"She did not know that it was the gravest of insults to offer that to you," I said.
"But you knew," Ash said.
I nodded. "I visited the goblin court many times over my childhood. It was one of the few courts in faerie where my father felt that it was safe to bring me as a child."
"He would not have allowed you inside the Seelie Court," Ash said.
"No," I said.
"The goblins are not tamer than the sidhe," Holly said, his anger flaring again.
"No, but the goblins are honorable and do not break their rules," I said.
"Is it true that the queen tried to kill you when you were a child?" Ash asked.
I nodded again. "It is."
"So you were truly safer here with us than with your own kind," Ash said.
"With the goblins and with the sluagh."
Holly laughed, a harsh, unpleasant sound. "You were safer with us, and with the nightmares of faerie than with the pretty sidhe. I find that hard to believe."
"The sluagh, like the goblins, have laws and rules and they abide by them. My father knew your ways and taught those ways to me. It is why we are here speaking today."
"You have bargained most carefully, Princess," Ash said, and there was no lust when he said it, though it was sex we'd been bargaining over. No, there was respect in his face, in his eyes. I'd earned that respect.
"I am not surprised to see Frost, for lately he is half of your constant companions, but it is not usually Rhys who holds your other hand," Ash said.
"Where is the Darkness?" Holly asked.
"Yes, Princess, he has become like your shadow," Ash said. "But today you have only Frost and Rhys by your side. And it is well known that Rhys does not like goblin flesh," Ash said. He made that last comment sound suggestive.
Rhys tensed beside me, one hand going to my shoulder, but otherwise he held his temper.
Did they know that we had been attacked? If they did know, would they see it as an insult if we didn't tell them? The goblins were our allies, but not our friends.
"If the goblins are your allies," Ash said, "then should you have secrets from them?"
They knew. I made my decision. "Is the rumor mill traveling so fast in faerie?"
"There are those among the goblins who watch the human news. They saw the Darkness in a wheelchair coming out of a human hospital. We did not see it, so gave it no credit, but now he is missing from your side. My brother and I ask again, where is your Darkness?"
"He is healing."
"But injured," Ash said. He seemed a little eager at the news.
I fought not to lick my lips or show some other nervous habit. I spoke smoothly. "He is injured, yes."
"It must be grave for him to leave your side," Ash said.
"Darkness in a wheelchair like an invalid," Holly said. "I never thought I would see such a shameful thing."
"There is no shame in taking care of an injury among the sidhe," I said.
"A goblin so badly injured would either take his own life or others would take it for him," Holly said.
"Then glad I am that I am not goblin," I said, "for I injure all too easily." I'd mentioned my frailty on purpose. I hoped to turn their attention from Doyle and toward the sex we might be having tonight. Ash and Holly had never been with a human. They had never been with anyone who could be injured so easily, and death, true death, by accident, with no cold metal involved, was a novelty. Yes, Ash hoped to be king. Ash and Holly both hoped that I could bring them into their sidhe-sided magic as I had others. But it wasn't hunger for power that filled Holly's face with eagerness. It was hunger of a very different kind.
Ash's face remained thoughtful, not caught up in his brother's lust. Holly would be the one who might lose control and hurt me by accident, but it was Ash who would hurt me on purpose. He was just a little less goblin in his thoughts and a little more sidhe. If I could awaken true magic in him, he would be truly dangerous. Kurag, Goblin King, would do well to watch him. The goblins do not inherit their throne. They take it by force of arms, and they keep it the same way. The King is dead, long live the king.
"I will not be distracted, Princess," Ash said. "Not even by your white flesh."
"Am I so poor a prize then?" I asked, and lowered my eyes. The goblins liked their partners either bold as brass or demure. I wasn't capable of their level of boldness, so demure it was.
Ash gave an abrupt laugh. "You know exactly what you represent to us, Princess."
Holly stepped close to the mirror so that his handsome face filled more of the view. There was no distortion as with a camera. It was always as if the glass only separated one part of a room from another. He pressed his fingers against the glass. He looked at me, and there was something in his eyes beyond sex.