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reach the fight first if they showed themselves weaker, slower, than him then they might not be in
charge at the end of the night. Goblin society is survival of the fittest.
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I cradled the gun carefully, pointing it away from Jonty. No one got ahead of us no one else had the
length of leg and the others were fighting just to keep pace. Such a big creature, but he ran with the
grace and speed of something lithe and beautiful.
I asked him,  Why help me?
In his deep voice, like gravel, he said,  I swore a personal oath to protect you. I will not be forsworn.
He leaned over me, so that a drop of that magical blood fell upon my face. He whispered,  The Goddess
and God still speak to me.
I whispered back,  You heard my prayer.
He gave a small nod. I touched his face, and my hand came away covered in blood, warm blood. I
cuddled closer into the warmth of him. He raised his eyes again, and ran faster.
CHAPTER 20
THE SKY BOILED WITH STORM CLOUDS OVER THE SMALL WOODSthat bordered the
parking lot. The wild hunt wasn t a tentacled nightmare anymore. It looked like a storm, if storms could
hover against the tops of trees and drape like black silk dripping between the trunks.
Lightning flashed from the ground into the clouds Mistral was still alive and fighting back. Who else?
Green flame flickered through the trees, and something hard and tight in my chest eased that flame was
Doyle s hand of power. He was alive as well. In that moment nothing else really mattered to me. Not
crown, not kingdom, not faerie itself; nothing mattered except that Doyle was alive and not so hurt he
could not fight.
Ash and Holly put on a burst of speed so that they were ahead of Jonty and me as we neared the open
area closest the trees. There wasn t enough cover to hide anything in the open field, until from thin
shadows, goblins appeared. They didn t materialize, but emerged like a sniper hidden in his gillie suit in
the field except that the only camouflage the goblins had was their own skin and clothes.
Ash had called Kurag, Goblin King, as we ran to this place. To do so, he had bared his sword and put a
hand on my shoulder to come away with blood to smear upon the blade. Blood and blade: old magic that
worked long before cell phones were a dream in a human s mind. Personally I wouldn t have wanted to
run on the icy road with a bared blade. But Ash wasn t human, and he made it all look easy.
Ash and his brother ran ahead of Jonty whoever got to the rendezvous first would lead the goblins
without argument. But I didn t care as long as we saved my men, I didn t care who led. I would have
followed anyone in that moment to save them.
One of the brothers fell to talking with the waiting force. It wasn t until the other brother got close
enough for his eyes to flash crimson that I knew it was Holly come back to Jonty and me. Holly was
struggling to breathe normally. Outrunning someone whose legs were almost as tall as he was took more
effort than was pretty, even for a warrior as formidable as he. His voice held only a hint of the
breathlessness that made his shoulders and chest rise and fall so rapidly.  The archers will be ready in
moments. We need the princess.
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 I am not much of an archer, I said, still cradled in the heat of Jonty s body, and the blood. The blood
that flowed from his cap down to my body was warm. Warm as if it spilled from a freshly opened
wound.
Holly gave me a look that appeared irritated even in the forgiving glow of moonlight.  You carry the
hand of blood, he said. He let that anger that was always just below the surface for him fall into his
voice.
I nearly asked what that had to do with archers. But the moment before I said it, I did know.  Oh, I
said.
 Unless Kitto exaggerated what you did inLos Angeles to the Nameless, Holly added.
I shook my head, the warm blood creeping down my neck between my skin and the borrowed trench
coat. The blood should have been disturbing, but it wasn t it felt like a warm blanket on a cold night:
comforting.  No, Kitto didn t exaggerate, I said. I didn t like that Kitto had borne tales to the goblins,
but forced myself to accept that he was half theirs and still had to answer to their king. He d probably
had little choice in what he told them.
 The full hand of blood, Holly said, and his voice wasn t so much angry as skeptical.  Hard to believe it
lies in such a fragile creature.
 Look at my cap, if you doubt her power, Jonty rumbled.
Holly gazed upward, but his eyes didn t stay on the cap long. His gaze slid down to me, and something
in that look was both sexual and predatory. I could feel the blood plastering the back of my hair, my
shoulders, arms; I must have looked like an accident victim. Most men would have found it frightening,
but Holly looked at me as if I d covered myself with perfume and lingerie.One man s nightmare,
another s fantasy.
He reached a hand up, tentatively, as if he thought either Jonty or I would protest. When we didn t, he
touched my shoulder. I think he meant to merely get a touch of blood on his fingers, but the moment his
fingers brushed me, a look of wonder came over his face. He leaned in toward me, the wonder being
eaten by something that was part desire, and part violence.  What have you been doing, Princess, to feel
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