"Cel can bleed most of you to death without ever lifting a weapon," I said, leaning forward as far as the seat belt would allow.
"But we can't prove he's doing it," she said. "You've never tried to prove a magic attack in a military court. I have. It ain't pretty."
"Would you rather they all die?" I asked.
"We can help them, Meredith," Doyle said.
I turned to him. "That's what he wants, Doyle. You know that. He's hurting the soldiers to lure us out."
"Yes, Meredith," he said, cupping my face with his free hand, "and it is a good trap."
I shook my head, moving back from his touch. "The soldiers are supposed to protect us."
"They are dying to protect us," he said.
My throat was tight, and my eyes burned. "No," I whispered.
"You will stay inside this truck, no matter what happens, Meredith. You must not get out."
"Once you are dead, they will drag me out. They will drag me out and kill me and your unborn children."
He flinched, something I had never seen before. The Darkness did not flinch. "That was harsh, My Princess."
"Truth is often harsh," I said, and let him hear my anger.
"She's right, Captain," Rhys said.
"Would you let them die in our place?" Doyle asked.
Rhys sighed, then kissed me on the cheek. "I will follow where my captain leads, you know that."
"No," I said, louder.
"I can't allow any of you to leave the safety of the vehicle," Gregorio said.
"What will you do to stop us?" Doyle asked, his hand on the door handle.
"Shit," she said, and started to get on the radio.
Doyle touched her shoulder. "Do not give away what little surprise we will have."
She let go of the button and just stared at him. "The princess is right. This ambush is meant to lure you to your deaths."
"It is," he said. He turned back to me. "Kiss me, Meredith, my Merry."
I was shaking my head over and over. "No."
"You will not kiss me good-bye?"
I wanted to scream at him that I would not. I would not endorse his stupidity in any way, but in the end, I couldn't let him go without it.
I kissed him, or he kissed me. He kissed me gently, his hands on my face, then he drew me into his arms so that our bodies molded against each other. He drew back with a last chaste kiss on my lips.
Rhys said, "My turn."
I turned to him with tears glittering in my eyes. I would not cry, not yet. Rhys's face was so sad, gentle but so sad. He kissed me delicately, then he grabbed me fiercely, almost painfully, and kissed me as if my lips were food and water and air, and he would die without my kiss. I fell into the fierceness of his mouth, his hands, and his body, and when he finally broke away, we were both breathless.
"Wow," Gregorio said, then said, "sorry."
I didn't even look at her, only at Rhys. "Don't go."
The door opened behind me, and I turned in time to see Doyle sliding out. I whispered, "If I am your queen, then I can order you to stay."
Doyle leaned back in the doorway. "I vowed never again to listen to humans die screaming for my cause, Meredith."
"Doyle, please."
"You are now and always will be my Merry." Then he was gone.
A sound escaped my lips that was almost a cry, but it was not a sound that I ever wanted to hear from my own mouth.
The door opened on the other side of me, and I turned to see Rhys climbing out. "Rhys, no!"
He smiled at me. "Know that I would have stayed, but I cannot let him go without me. He is my captain, and has been for more than a thousand years. And he's right. I too vowed never to let humans die for me again. It was wrong then, and it's still wrong." He reached in, touched my face.
I held his hand against my cheek. "Don't go."
"Know that I love you more than honor, but Doyle wouldn't be Doyle if he felt the same way."
The first tear trailed, hot and painful, down my face as he drew his hand away. I held on to him with both hands on his one. "Rhys, please, for the love of the Goddess, please!"
"I love you, Merry. I've loved you since you were sixteen."
I thought I would choke on the next words, but I got them out, "I love you too. Don't you die on me."
He grinned, and it almost reached his eyes. "I'll do my best." Then he was gone into the night, and the sound of fighting.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Gregorio turned around in her seat and grabbed my arm. She held on tightly. She thought she knew what I was thinking, but she didn't. I was mortal, and I knew it. But I was also part brownie and part human, which meant I could do magic inside the car. I could do every bit of magic I had, and not suffer. I didn't want to get out of the car. I needed to lure Cel to the car.
If I could get him close enough, I could kill him but be surrounded by metal, so that his magic could not harm me. We could turn the trap against him. If only we could figure out how to lure him to me. If I'd thought of it before Doyle and Rhys got out of the car, they would have done it, but I'd been too emotional. Goddess, help me think of something!
"Gregorio," I said, "I need to lure the prince to me, to this car."
"Are you crazy? He's making people bleed from a distance."
"We both have a version of the hand of blood. It runs in the family. But magic cannot touch us in the metal of this car. But my magic can go out."
"Why can your magic work in the car, and his can't?"
"I'm part human. My magic works here, just like yours and Dawson's."
She looked at her driver. The two women exchanged a long look. "If we get her killed, the least that will happen to us is being given a dishonorable discharge," said Corporal Lance. "We'd be lucky not to be brought up on charges."
Gregorio turned back to me. "Lance is right."
"Listen to the screams. Your men are dying. My men are in danger. We can stop this, because once the prince is dead, his allies will melt away into the night, because if he can't take the throne, there's no point to this fight. They're fighting to kill me and win the throne for their choice. If we take away their choice, we take away their reason to fight."
The women exchanged another look. A particularly piteous scream rose in the silence between gunfire and magic. It was the sound of death. It was the sound of mortal life being ripped away.
"If I were willing to do this, how would I lure him?" Gregorio asked. The moment she said it, I knew she'd do it, if I could just think of a way to bring him to me.
I spoke, thinking aloud, because I had no clear plan. "He wants to find me. He knows by now that my guards are not with me in the car. If I were him and his allies, I'd find me."
A mist formed on the other side of the road in the fringe of trees.