A Lick of Frost

Sex,poly

This is Hamilton at her absolute best, and so far, I have to say that this is the best book in the Meredith Gentry series.

Full of Hamilton's impeccably drawn characters and graceful description, this installment moves more quickly and with more twists than the more recent books before it, and is virtually impossible to put down. Here, Hamilton's penchant for eroticism is well-balanced by plot and character development, and each chapter builds upon the last to make more progress in the storyline than I'd expected from a single work.

Simply, this book is the reason so many of us love Hamilton. You wouldn't want to read it out of order, or I doubt you'd get much enjoyment from it, but it is without doubt Hamilton at her very best. Maybe my favorite book by her yet.

Recommended for lovers of Hamilton and this series--those who were put off by the extra focus on sex in the last book should move on to this one--they'll be rewarded for their devotion to the series. ( )

Book six, A Lick of Frost, allows us to finally learn what her great-uncle, King Taranis, has had in mind for Merry Gentry. It's something we readers have been left to wonder since chapter 26 of book two, A Caress of Twilight . Merry and company were right to be worried. King Taranis is worse even than his actions in book two implied. I think it's a pity the Seelie's Cu Sith hasn't bitten a few choice chunks off Taranis.
The problems with the King of Light and Illusion take up most of the book, but not all. Besides scenes involving certain goblin, there's finding out the reaction to rejection displayed by Merry's aunt, the Queen of Air and Darkness (not good at all).

If you don't like the numerous sex scenes in this series, this book has very few.

As usual, I don't like the design of the dust jacket (the feathers of frost are a nice), but I love the colors.

SPOILER ALERT-- the following facts are meant to help my memory, but if they help you, too, great:



CHAPTER 1:

Merry is talking about her Great-uncle Taranis as her Uncle Taranis again.

This rape charge against Rhys, Galen, and Abeloec is the first time Taranis has gone to humans for justice.

Faerie rule, faerie law = sidhe rule, sidhe law

This time Merry says that the sidhe don't lie because to truly lie means to be cast out of faerie. I guess one has to be caught in that lie because her uncle-by-marriage, Eamon, lied to support her in chapter 31 of
Seduced by Moonlight.

The sidhe have ruled faerie for longer than anyone could remember, but Merry doubts that they've always been in charge.

Lady Caitrin is the Seelie crying rape.

Simon Biggs and Thomas Farmer are representing the defendents.

Who is seated where is described.

Blandly handsome brown-eyed, brown-haired Ambassador Stevens brings up the bit about not thanking people of faerie to Michale Shelby, a U.S. Attorney for L.A.

Ambassador Stevens is supposed to represent both sidhe courts, but he avoids the Unseelie Court,

Doyle is wearing a royal blue shirt as a sop to their lawyers, who think all black is too threatening. (see Doyle's response)

The silver barrette in Frost's hair is older than Los Angeles.

Asst, D.A. Pamela Nelson is having trouble keeping her eyes and mind on business (the human guys across the table keep glancing at Merry's guards, too, but their reasons are different.)

Shelby (ambitious fellow) and his assistant, Bertram, are described. So are the U.S. Attorney for the St. Louis area, Albert Veducci, and his assistant, Grover. Ditto Nelson.

Merry doesn't know if 'Grover' is the assistant's first or last name because he introduced himself only as 'Grover'.

Nelson's boss is Miguel Cortez, THE district attorney for L.A. county. That ambitious man is also described.

Veducci mentions remedies against glamour (he won't tell what he's carrying): cold steel, iron, four-leaf clover, Saint-John's-wort, rowan or ash -- wood or berries. He doesn't think high sidhe will be bothered by bells ringing.

Veducci, filled in by Ambassador Stevens and other sources, knows that a lot has happened at the Unseelie Court in the last few days. Merry and her guard have moved up the power grid.

There's arguing about active glamour and passive glamour. Veducci explains about the effect of being in the presence of a queen or king, human or sidhe.

Merry considers St. Louis her hometown. (human hometown?)

Ambassador Stevens wears a rolex watch King Taranis gave him.

There's discussion about Stevens' favoritism.

The watch affects Stevens in a very illegal way.

Merry suggests turning their jackets inside out, but it takes Veducci's louder voice to cut through the noice. He'd forgotten that trick.

Nelson finds out why her cross doesn't protect her from glamour. Merry also tells her why the Unseelie Court got painted as evil over the centuries.

We get to find out how the watch forces Stevens to see Merry and her guards.

Bigg's father is one of the founders of the firm and he's the leading active partner.

Uniformed security guards and a doctor come. Farmer follows orders to the letter, but builds on them, making them better.

After they leave, Merry suggests having a licensed practitioner of the arts look at the watch before it's removed. She just thought of that then, Doyle thought of it earlier, but said nothing because it's not his job to protect the ambassador.

Doyle thinks the ambassador is weak and without honor.

Queen Andais has lodged several complaints about Stevens to the government, but has been ignored.

Doyle disapproves of the way Taranis betrayed Stevens with that gift.

Lieutenant Frost explains what Taranis gains by blackening the Unseelie Court's name. Taranis and his nobles have convinced themselves that to join the Unseelie Court is to become deformed, a monster, and that's what they tell their people.

Biggs is one of the best lawyers on the West Coast. He knows why Rhys and Abeleoc were exiled from the Seelie Court, but not Frost. Galen was born at the Unseelie Court.

All of the guards (Merry's) have diplomatic immunity.

Shelby points out that all of the queen's and all of the princess' guard are a danger to everyone around them, especially women. (There's more)

Merry tells Shelby that her uncle doesn't like her much. He tells her that her uncle has only good things to say about her.

King Taranis has a vehement dislike of all of Merry's guard. This leads to the Raven guards' chastity (the word 'celibacy' is used, but 'chastity' is meant -- yes, the guards are celibate [unmarried], too. That's the reason for vows of chastity as well as celibacy -- can't have those Catholic priests fornicating and then telling their lovers they'd marry them if not for that pesky vow of celibacy. Let's face it, it wouldn't be fair to the wives if priests vowed only to be chaste.)

Biggs says something that has Merry thinking he might be worth all the money her aunt is paying.

There's a law from President Jefferson's time that would allow the US government to permanently confine to faerie any citizen of faerie deemed too dangerous to be among the human citizenry. The law has never been invoked, but Taranis is trying to have it invoked against Merry's guards.

Apparently, Merry's male royal guards are still called the Raven Guard, same as the guards who stayed with Queen Andais.

That law about confining citizens of faerie cannot be invoked against Seelie or Unseelie royals.

Merry's guards are her royal consorts for now. Farmer mentions that the guards take turns sitting in the throne next to Merry.

Merry says to lie is to be cast out of faerie, but to be the king is sometimes to be above the law.

Merry says she is not above the law. She doesn't lie.

Merry says they torture people at both courts.

Frost doesn't understand the expression about letting the cat out of the bag.

Taranis gave away the Raven Guards' forced chastity, Merry states for what will be a sealed record that King Taranis's golden court uses torture.

CHAPTER 2:

There's very frank talk about how often Merry has sex.

Merry has 16 Ravens to satisfy.

Aside from some members of the Seelie Court, the sidhe see no shame in sex, so long as it is consensual. (Well, some Unseelie sidhe also seem to find shame in having sex with the lesser fey...)

Merry is not bothered about anything she's done with her guards, but Griffin releasing photos to the press (see chapter 35 of A Kiss of Shadows), hurt because he broke her trust.

The Seelie try to ape human behavior -- they're stuck somewhere between the 16th and 19th centuries. Many Seelie who were exiled to the Unseelie court just wanted to be true to their original natures.

Merry wrote a paper on the differences between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts in college. She thought it might help the teacher and other students understand that the Unseelie Court wasn't the bad guy.

Merry was the first of the fey to attend human college in the USA. Her father thought if one of the royals went, their people might follow. Some of the lesser fey (Cortez used 'so-called' before 'lesser') have gotten degrees since.

Read here for what the guards think about Griffin.

Doyle is usually a good judge of Merry's moods. Frost is learning.

Six of Merry's current guards were once her father's Cranes.

Apparently, Taranis thinks Essus' murderer was never caught because the investigators were the murderers (at least, that's what he said).

Merry's guards' oath to protect Queen Andais (and her family) is still in effect.

Taranis alleges that the guard killed Essus to keep him from killing Andais and taking her throne. (Andais would torture persons who hinted that.)

Merry tells us that Essus loved his sister and wouldn't kill her because of that, but he might have killed Cel to keep him from the throne.

If Merry believed that one of the Ravens killed her father, she'd never trust them again -- reason enough for Taranis' allegation.

Merry, Dole, and Frost think this is all intercourt politics.

Veducci still believes in the law.

CHAPTER 3:

The mirror to be used for the call with King Taranis belonged to the original Mr. Biggs' great-grandmother.

They're in Mr. Biggs' inner sanctum. Galen, Rhys, and Abeloec have already been questioned in the conference room.

Abe has been clean and sober for about two days. (So he'd still been stoned or drunk for almost all of the few weeks Merry and company have been in L.A.)

Sidhe can't be addicted to anything and can't truly drink or drug themselves into oblivion.

Galen has the best alibi because he was having sex with Merry when the alleged rape took place.

Merry talks about Rhys being attacked by Seelie warriors (see chapter 36 of A Stroke of Midnight ).

Biggs brings up Lady Caitrin's allegation of rape taking place when the accused were in Los Angeles, but Doyle tells him about time running oddly in all of faerie for the first time in centuries. It was running most oddly around Merry. Time's still running oddly in faerie, but no more oddly for one court than any other. (What Rhys reported in chapter 36 of A Stroke of Midnight was that time was running oddly for only the Unseelie Sithin.)

It's January in both the human world and the sidhe courts, but not the same day. That post-Yule ball Taranis wanted Merry to attend is safely past and they didn't go. (According to chapter 26 of A Caress of Twilight , Hedwick gave Merry an invitation to a pre-Yule ball by mirror call. She said no. In chapter 30, the ball in question was the Yule ball, according to Taranis' more important social secretary, Rosmerta. Merry still turned the invitation down. In chapter 33, Rosmerta called again to say Taranis was giving Merry a feast in her honor a few days before Yule. Of course, with everything that's happened since that mirror call, it's not that surprising that Merry got it wrong.)

Ah, here's the fun of the lawyers finding out that the date of the alleged rape, the same date where witnesses can confirm Sergeant Rhys was in L.A., wasn't the same day.

The last great human-faerie war in Europe started as a dispute between the Seelie and Unseelie Courts.

On Merry's earth there's still a crater on the European continent almost as wide as the widest part of the Grand Canyon where the last battle of that last war was fought.

It's Galen who wonders if the alleged rape was illusion, but it's Rhys who picks up the idea that Caitrin was raped by real sidhe disguised by illusion. With more discussion, Merry's men and Veducci figure out that Taranis may be the only sidhe left with enough power of illusion to pull that off.

Taranis has been absolute ruler of the Seelie Court for over 1,000 years.

Merry feels dizzy. They wonder if she's coming down with a cold. She doesn't get them very often, but she gets them. Her guards can't catch colds.

It's Veducci who suggest cold metal before the mirror call with Taranis.

The mirror call is held in Mr. Bigg's office.

Merry has a gun in one of those new sideways holsters and a knife strapped to her thigh.

When Taranis calls on the mirror, it starts out with a sweet sound of trumpets. He's waiting for someone on their side to touch the mirror.

CHAPTER 4:

By using Meredith's name with none of her titles, Taranis is insulting her, but they're going to let him get away with it. Taranis hasn't formally announced himself.

Taranis is not a power of flesh and sex. To combat what he's so good at, you have to use the magic you're good at just to think at all.

Taranis pulls the same no-titles crap on Merry's aunt. Her aunt and great-uncle have been trying to out-magic each other for centuries.

Taranis has no sense of humor that Merry is aware of. He thinks he's funny, but no one at his court is allowed to be funnier than he is.

The last rumor from the Seelie Court is that Taranis' last court jester had been imprisoned for impertinence.

The Romans had equated Taranis with Jupiter, although Taranis' powers had never been as far-reaching.

Nelson is besotted because of Taranis' spell.

Taranis' rumbly voice can't compare to Mistral's.

Abeloec's balance seems shaky sometimes even when he's sober.

Either 5 men is the magic number for Merry to be able to resist her great-uncle, or it's the mix of the powers of these particular 5 men.

When Taranis complains about not being able to see Merry well for her men, only Rhys doesn't move away.

Queen Andais advised Merry not to accept the calls Taranis made to her about this alleged rape.

Taranis gives Merry an opening to bring up the fact that he nearly beat her to death when she was a child.

Merry reminds us why her great-uncle beat her.

Maeve has gone to Europe, so Merry and her people have more room at her Holmby Hills estate.

Sidhe avoid answering a question for only two reasons: sheer perversity or a love of word games. (How about direct orders?) OR, they don't want to admit to the answer.

Taranis has not answered the question about whether he has sexual or marital intentions toward Merry. He has no love of word games and is one of the least perverse of the sidhe.

The lawyers for the prosecution had entered into a verbal agreement with Taranis, which is enough to give someone of his power more of a hold on them. If you agreed to be a true king's man, there's power to that agreement. The lawyers for the defense are having less trouble with Taranis' magical presence. Veducci appears to be doing just fine.

(Why did Merry tell her great-uncle that she's probably the only sidhe noble in recent history who can compare [the two sidhe courts]? There are plenty of Unseelie sidhe nobles who were once part of the Seelie Court. Even if Merry meant she's the only sidhe noble whose comparison would be recent, didn't her mother have to spend time at the Unseelie Court?)

In front of the Unseelie, Taranis is always very aware of his title. This time he hasn't asked for all of his appellations to be read. It's not like him to forgo anything that builds him up in others' eyes, so why is he insisting Merry address him by his name, not his title? Merry finds out.

What Taranis has done is against the rules, but you don't challenge the king to a duel. Not only is he king, he was once one of the greatest warriors of the sidhe.

Magic can make one forget things such as needing a chair instead of just standing -- even if one is wearing high heels.

There's an old wives' tale that Unseelie sidhe have bone and spikes on their lower members. (A royal nightflyer has a bony spike in his member, we are reminded. See chapter 13 of A Kiss of Shadows)

Merry is not a fan of beards. Queen Andais prefers her men to be beardless. Most of them couldn't grow a good beard if they'd wanted to.

Taranis goes so far as to deliberately use magic on Mr. Biggs, but Mr. Veducci counters it,

Merry realizes that Taranis can make a mirror a mode of travel. (From Illinois to California? He's as powerful as Kitto. See chapter 5 of Seduced by Moonlight When Doyle said that the hand of reaching hadn't been seen among 'us' since the second weirding in chapter 9 of that same book, did he mean the Unseelie Court? Or is Taranis' power something other than the hand of reaching?)

Taranis shouts that Merry will not bed the greenman [Galen] and bring life to the darkness. The goddess [Danu] has touched her and they [the Seelie] are the people of [Danu]. He calls the Unseelie the dark god's children. Merry reminds him they aren't Christians, but children of earth and sky.

Merry smells roses, Galen apple blossoms, Doyle autumn oak, Rhys lily of the valley, Frost flavored ice, and Abeloec honeyed mead. Now Merry smells all of those scents.

Here is where Merry realizes that her great-uncle is insane.

Taranis attacks through the mirror.

Not even sidhe can outrun light, Merry thinks.

CHAPTER 5:

Galen moves so fast he carries Merry through the door. (Like the Flash! Cool!)

Here is where Merry says the sidhe are no longer immortal -- they both know it.

Merry has replaced the Lady Smith gun Doyle took from her -- in chapter 26 of A Kiss of Shadows (a bit of history about that type of gun is given)

CHAPTER 6:

A female EMT sees Galen's and Merry's guns. They use glamour to disguise them.

Abeloec is injured. He wishes aloud he still drank. (Why was his hair unaffected if it had to be swept aside to see the injury on his back?)

Taranis is not visible in the mirror. Merry can hear him demanding to be unhanded, though.

Sir Hugh Belenus is in the mirror. He doesn't always insist on his title, unlike most Seelie Guards. Hugh is an officer of Taranis' personal guard.

Unlike the Unseelie Court, the Seelie Court has no female guards, just male.

Hugh's hair is like his king's in that it's the color of flames. (Merry had never noticed that before.) Taranis' hair is like sunset, but Hugh's long, straight hair is the red, yellow, and orange of moving flames.

Doyle is much more seriously injured than Abe. According to Merry, he fought a thousand battles before she was born.

Hearing Taranis makes Merry NOT say 'how dare you' to Rhys when he tells her they need her to be their queen, not Doyle's lover.

Queen Andais has infamous temper tantrums but today Taranis showed he's even more unstable.

Prince Essus taught Merry that to be queen meant she'd have to be queen first and everything else second.

Merry's duty tastes like ashes in her mouth.

CHAPTER 7:

Sir Hugh's braid and clothes took the brunt of the blow meant for Abeloec. He deliberately stood in front of his king.

Frost's eyes have their snow globe look. It's made Merry feel dizzy to see that look before, but today it's calming. She realizes that Frost survived the queen's petty torments by embracing the coldness in himself.

Sir Hugh saw a vision of a white stag walking ghostlike behind Merry and Frost. It's been a long time since he's seen such a vision.

Sir Hugh's black eyes have orange sparks and swirls in them like the ashes of a fire long banked. He also has a small, neat beard and mustache. He was once a fire god.

The swans with golden chains around their neck that were created in chapter 21 of Mistral's Kiss are in a lake near the Seelie Mound.

Here's where Merry explains why there will be no charges filed against her men.

This is going to be the greatest Seelie Court scandal in a century, according to Sir Hugh.

Sir Hugh also says that Taranis has not tried '...his rather human version of the truth...' since Merry helped release the wild magic.

Merry suspects that Rhys and Hugh know each other better than she thought.

Remember that Cu Sith created in chapter 22 of Mistral's Kiss? As it loped off toward the Seelie Mound, Merry wondered what King Taranis would think of its return. Now we find out.

Andais abolished the law that allowed the nobles to vote an unfit monarch incompetent and force him or her to step down. The Seelie Court still has that law because Taranis is too confident that his people lobe him.

Sir Hugh would like to make Merry the Seelie Queen because of what her magic has done. King Sholto brags of her magic.

We find out what Tarannis and other nobles did to Lady Caitrin. (Unless Taranis can make illusions solid, wouldn't devices have been needed?)

Yay! This time Merry remembered not to say thank you to an older fey!

Merry says the Seelie Court has treated her worse than the Unseelie Court has for all her life.

Mr. Biggs was injured. Read here for his reaction to Merry's apology.

Merry suspects that Veducci is psychic.

Rhys brings up an old question about eyes to Veducci, but it was something the wee folk did, not the sidhe. The sidhe were more likely to abduct humans who could see faerie.

Merry will need a ride to the hospital because Maeve Reed's limo driver is running errands for her and it's not time for him to come back.

CHAPTER 8:

Most of the staff in Doyle and Abeloec's hospital room are female. Rhys had some of the other guards come to the hospital, so they're in the room, too.

Merry reminds us that Abeloec had once been the god Accasbel, the physical embodiment of the cup of intoxication, which could make one a queen.

For some reason, Merry's healer, Hafwyn, has her name spelled 'Hafwen'. Anyway, Doyle's human doctor, Sang, won't let her heal him.

Queen Andais was shocked by how many of Cel's Cranes chose exile with Merry -- a dozen in one month. (If it's been a month since the offer, why has Abeloec been sober for only about two days, as stated in 3? Furthermore, Merry said, in chapter 2, that six of her guards were once her father's Cranes. What Queen Andais said, in chapter 25 of A Stroke of Midnight , was that any of Cel's guard who hadn't made oath to him were free to leave his service. Merry even reminds Andais of this in chapter 22 of Mistral's Kiss, although Merry got the wording a bit off. Andais also agreed to allow those guards who hadn't given oath to Cel to offer service where they wished. So six of those twelve former guards of Cel's who have come to Merry had not been her father's guards? Was Cel that careless about getting his Cranes to give oath to him?)

Merry says the queen had admitted in private that she could not guarantee Merry's safety around Cel. Merry did find out, in chapter 22 of Mistral's Kiss, that Andais had admitted it to her nobles.

What Cel did to the first of his guards whom he bedded was the stuff of serial killers, except she was sidhe, so she lived to be his victim again and again.

Here is where Merry thinks Abeloec might be a dry drunk.

When Merry describes again the power of the ring Andais gave to her, she says the ring wasn't at its best with Andais because the queen is a power of war and destruction, carrion crow and raven.

Find what Merry saw when she touched Dr. Sang with the ring here.

It's been a few thousand years since their healing magic worked best only on faerie flesh.

Merry doesn't want to be seen falling apart emotionally in the hospital because the doctors and nusrses could sell her emotional pain to the tabloids.

Interesting that Merry tells Dr. Sang that he and the lady won't live happily ever after when in chapter 18 of Seduced by Moonlight Sage told Merry that ring was once known as the 'happy-ever-after' ring. Doyle continued by explaining that at one time the ring's magic guaranteed no tragedy would befall a couple of its choosing. Eh, given that Merry doesn't know yet how much of the ring's power is back, the warning was probably just as well.

Merry talks about the love of years and the first rush of love being the tip of the iceberg. Dr. Sang makes a joke about the Titanic.

Here is where Merry talks about one of the greatest differences between men and women being a certain silence [between men] that women don't understand and men can't explain.

Huzzah! Biddy is pregnant! It's the first pregnancy among the Unseelie since Merry was conceived.

Frost has taken to being with Merry and Doyle whenever they're intimate.

CHAPTER 9:

There's a barrage of reporters outside the hospital. Someone in the hospital is going to be taking home money for alerting the press, Merry tells us. Doyle and Abe are leaving in wheelchairs. Read on for the different reasons.

Some of Merry's guards seem able to use their touch to impart courage and strength to the cops between them and the reporters. Merry isn't sure if she's not remembering them being able to do it before or if it's just that the men who could do it had never been with her before.

Oops, a reporter asks a question that suggests either a security officer or lawyer tipped off the press.

Merry has never seen Abeloec's hair braided before. She thinks it looks like a Goth version of a candy cane.

Because Aisling was kicked out of the Seelie Court when their new sithin chose him over Taranis, Frost thinks he needs to know what Sir Hugh wants to do.

Usna's mother is still a favorite at the Seelie Court and still speaks to her son.

Doyle discusses why Merry having favorites is hard on her men.

Fred has been Maeve Reed's driver for 30 years.

CHAPTER 10:

See the beginning of this chapter for Usna's three reactions to being in a big city for the first time.

Aisling asks why he and Usna are in the main car when they aren't among Merry's favorites.

The color of the spirals around Aisling's pupils seems to change.

The newest guards are still dressed in 15th century fashions because there hasn't been time to make new clothes for them. (It's been a few weeks -- couldn't they have bought a few rags off the rack?)

Queen Andais is fond of the latest and greatest designers, so long as they like black.

Good for Usna -- he borrowed a t-shirt, jeans, and suit jacket from someone.

Some of the lesser fey will eventually die if locked inside metal.

Read here for what Doyle did that kept Taranis from permanently blinding him and for the insulting term Abeloec used to describe his former king.

Abeloec is older than Taranis in years, but Taranis is older on the inside.

Doyle is not sure that the new polymer-frame guns will deflect magic because plastic doesn't seem to bother the lesser fey.

Doyle wants the guards to use guns that are more metal than plastic until they know for sure if it's the metal in guns that enables them to deflect magic.

Taranis used his hand of power three times after his guard jumped him.

Merry says she must be able to lead in battle if she's to truly rule a court iof faerie.

At the end of the chapter is where Merry tells the readers that she'd found years ago that the difference between madness and cruelty doesn't matter much to a victim.

Aisling refers to Sir Hugh as 'Hugh the Firelord'.

CHAPTER 11:

Aisling is beginning to realize that some of Doyle's finer emotions may have been buried under the queen's orders, as he puts it. Abeloec's comment is amusing.

Merry is worried that she can't possibly be everything her men need her to be, but Danu whispers they will be enough. Merry is no longer sure that what she thinks would be winning is the same thing as what winning would mean to Danu.

CHAPTER 12:

Remember the dogs introduced in chapter 21 of Mistral's Kiss? They appear again here. Merry's two faerie hounds have names -- the female is Minnie, short for Miniver is white with a large red spot on her back and one side of her face is red. The male is Mungo, white with one red ear. (Why would Merry give one of her dogs the same name as an enemy who tried to kill her in chapter 33 of Seduced by Moonlight?)

Most of the dogs are white and red, except for some of the terriers that are the black and tan variety that modern terriers are descended from, and Doyle's black hellhounds. Frost is among the few who touched those black hellhounds in chapter 22 of Mistral's Kiss without having them change into different dogs. Frost is bothered that he has no dog of his own. Read here for what he fears this means.

All of the demi-fey who followed Merry into exile had been those wingless ones to whom she'd given wings. Penny and Royal get mentioned.

One of Doyle's dogs growled at Merry when Doyle didn't want her to help Frost help him.

We find out what Andais has done to poor Crystall. He wasn't in the first few groups that Sholto, Lord of That Which Passes Between, had brought to Los Angeles, so Crystall is among the guards trapped in Faerie with Andais after she took back her generous offer to let any guard who wanted to go into exile with Merry go. Again, it was in chapter 22 of Mistral's Kiss that Sholto said he would bring all those [guards] who wished to come to her. He also said he would see an oath given and accepted is honored. The offer given in chapter 25 of A Stroke of Midnight was to those of Cel's guards who hadn't made oath to him. If all of those Cranes who offered their service to Merry are in Los Angeles, does that mean Andais isn't foresworn? (By the way, was Sholto's sidhe title used instead of his Slaugh title because it was his sidhe power that he used to bring those guards?)

Merry describes Andais' feelings about exile as a fate. She uses the analogy of a purebred bitch giving birth to a puppy fathered by a mongrel to describe Andais' attempt to drown her when she was six.

Andais has tied her hair with a red ribbon. Merry has never seen her aunt wear even a spot of red before. The only red Andais likes on her person is someone else's blood. Merry considers her aunt to be serial-killer scary.

Andais has used red nail polish on her fingernails.

Yes, Andais has been told what happened in the lawyer's office, but not all she was told is true. Merry swears that scary oath about the Darkness that Eats All Things to calm her aunt.

To the best of Merry's knowledge, she has no friends or allies at the Seelie Court.

They discuss why Taranis targeted Rhys, Galen, and Abeloec with his fake rape charge.

Merry and Andais both suspect treachery in the Seelie Court offer to Merry. Andais has said that the Seelie Court is voting Taranis unfit to rule even as they were speaking, but her intelligence could be incorrect.

Andais finds out that Merry has call waiting on her mirror. Rhys did the spell. While Andais is being sadistic in her conversation, Galen loses it and tells her off.

Kurag King of Goblins has his name spelled 'Kurage' in this chapter.

Andais suggests Merry take the golden throne if the offer is genuine and explains why. She also warns Merry that she knows her son, Cel, couldn't make her neice pregnant, but he's convinced himself that he can.

Cel is not imprisoned, but he is under guard.

Andais refers to the Firelord as 'Hugh,' not 'Sir Hugh'.

Andais wants Merry to know that what she's doing to Crystall is what she'd be doing to Merry if she didn't need Merry's body whole.

CHAPTER 13:

Doyle hasn't taken his pain medication.

It's not Kurag calling, it's Holly and Ash, and they feel insulted by being kept waiting. They say the bargain is off. During the discussion that follows, we find out that Holly and Ash turned down Queen Andais' offer of sex. Read here for why.

Holly finds it difficult to believe that Merry was safer with the goblins and the slaugh than with the sidhe. [why Prince Essus took his daughter to visit those courts. He wouldn't allow Merry to visit the Seelie Court -- that must have been after Taranis almost beat her to death or Taranis wouldn't have been able to do it.]

A goblin injured as bad as Doyle was would either kill himself or have others kill him.

Kurag's name is spelled 'Kurage' in this chapter, too.

Merry has earned Ash's respect.

The reason Merry wants guards present when she has sex with the twins is not what Ash or Holly thought. Ash figures it out from Merry's remark and Holly doesn't believe it.

CHAPTER 14:

Rhys is disturbed by the fact that Merry likes to be hurt during sex. Frost is okay with a little bondage, but he doesn't consider that pain.

Queen Andais has ready access to Merry's mirror because she didn't take it at all well when they put a spell on it to keep people from peeking in. She wants Merry to see what she's done to Crystall, which is what is normally reserved for traitors, enemies, persons from whom she wants information, or prisoners tortured for crimes. Poor, poor Crystall!

Andais reports the results of her talk with Sir Hugh, whom she is still just calling 'Hugh'.

Andais complains that half her sithin is covered in white, pink, and gold marble and that there are flowers and vines everywhere. For some reason she calls the Hallway of Mortality the 'Hallway of Immortality' when she complains about not being able to make the sithin bebuild her torture chamber's cells that Galen dissolved. She has his flowers in the hallway ripped up, but they grow back overnight. (See chapter 22 of
Mistral's Kiss). This has been her sithin for mere centuries -- is she counting the sithin in Europe when she complains that the 'Hallway of Immortality' had stood as a place of torment for millenia?

Andais wonders if Merry taking the Seelie Throne will stop the changes to the Unseelie Sithin. She asks Merry if their goddess offered her blood sacrifice or sex. Before Andais was queen, she was offered that choice and she chose death and blood to cement her tie to the land.

Andais is less sane than normal and the last couple of pages of this chapter are a most unpleasant conversation, especially the part about the option the queen doesn't want to give up.

CHAPTER 15:

Rhys and Frost have never shared Merry, not even for sleep.

This is the chapter where we learn how and why Frost came to be what he is.

CHAPTER 16:

The sex scene is interrupted by Andais' mirror call.

Andais tells Merry she hates her. It's mutual.

Frost reminds Merry that he would rather die than go back to Andais.

CHAPTER 17:

Tsk, tsk Merry -- bringing up only the nearly 20 men to house and feed -- what about the six women and all those dogs?

So Merry allowing her aunt to pay Rhys, Galen, and Abeloec's legal bills isn't accepting a favor from her queen?

There are moments when Merry isn't certain she's a good enough person to be a good sport about aging while her men remain young and fair.

Doyle has forced Kitto to use the gym so Kitto is more muscular.

The fact that Kitto's snake goblin father had raped his sidhe mother instead of eating her was unusual because passion doesn't move snake goblins.

Merry is in Kitto's room. Kitto knows she comes in there to hide, but Merry didn't know that he knew until now.

Kitto tells Merry about his past history with Ash and Holly.

Rhys has sat up late with Kitto to introduce him to marathon film noir movie sessions. Rhys has also accompanied Galen when he took Kitto shopping for new clothes. Still, Rhys leaves when Merry and Kitto get physical.

Kitto follows Merry's orders beautifully, which is more than she can say about her other men.

Merry finds out about a spell that prevents seeing or feeling all of the weapons Rhys is carrying. Doyle and Frost have these bespelled leather rigs, two, but their big swords break the line of the clothing, which spoils the illusion. They were a gift made by a lesser fey. Merry's speech about most of her childhood friends being below stairs, not sidhe -- and the fact that she's part Brownie [one-eighth] -- has made her pretty popular with the lesser fey. (See chapter 3 of A Stroke of Midnight for the speech)

Rhys says that apparently the lesser fey had held on to more of their magic than the sidhe had known. He thinks they were afraid to let the greater fey know this.

Rhys is actually willing to join Merry and Kitto in cuddling. There's a cute bit of dialogue about being opinionated here.

Merry speculates about why Kitto is more goblin and herself more human, more American. Her father had thought it important she understand their new country. This is where Merry tells us she's sometimes wondered if her father would have found another excuse to raise her outside of faerie.

Guy silence doesn't work with Kitto.

Kitto is the only guy there who will watch more than two gangster movies with Rhys.

Kitto and Rhys name three short movie stars (they're both short by sidhe standards)

Ah, Kurag's name is spelled correctly here.

Rhys and Kitto are officially friends now.

CHAPTER 18:

Merry explains the difference between the love she feels for Doyle and the love she feels for Rhys and Kitto.

Merry often touches Kitto to clear her mind. He can be her lady in waiting -- they don't trust the Cranes to be alone with Merry. The Cranes have been out of Cel's service for only a few weeks.

Merry is the first person to hold Kitto for comfort and he likes that very much. She pets him when he's under her desk. Kitto is jealous of her dogs because they can give Merry some of the things Kitto can give her. Minnie and Mungo do not join Kitto under the desk. Kitto says his place is at Merry's feet. The dogs can't have his place.

When Kitto tells Merry she is his princess, that phrase can mean several things. Read on to find out what they are.

Rhys says goblins have never kept dogs. They used to eat them. Merry says she won't be happy if any of the dogs turn up missing.

Kitto reminds her that Red Caps will be guarding the twins while they have sex with Merry. He warns her that Red Caps like their meat fresh and wriggling.

The Red Caps didn't help torture Rhys. They still feel they owe him for when he was Cromm Cruach and shed much blood for them to play in.

'Red Claw' is the translation for one of Rhys' true names.

A 'true name' is an accurate description.

Rhys took Merry out on a date when she was 16. He wasn't actually trying for sex, he just wanted to see if she took after mother's side or her father's side before he talked to her father.

Rhys did ask Essus to consider him [as a possible fiance for Merry].

Merry doesn't know where Griffin is or even if he's been caught. If he's dead, she doesn't want to know how he died or be presented with his head in a basket. (Andais could do either, or worse, so Merry hasn't asked.)

Kitto is good at being nearly unnoticed. Snake goblins are used as scouts. Do they possess a natural talent for not being noticed?

Merry learns why her father didn't choose Rhys.

Griffin's magic was beauty and sex.

Rhys wants Kitto to teach him how to be something new so Merry will turn to him for something.

Merry may be part Seelie, brownie, and human, but she considers herself Unseelie.

Interesting that Rhys saw a couple of maternal aunts [great-great aunts?] and a great-grandmother or two in Merry's hair and eyes. In chapter one of Seduced by Moonlight Merry tells the readers that while there are redheads among the Seelie sidhe, their hair isn't as dark as Merry's. Oh, Rhys describes the personalities of some of the fertility goddesses in Merry's mother's line.

Rhys is still not up to having sex with Merry with Kitto present.

CHAPTER 19:

Rhys and Merry talk about Galen, who has taken himself out of the running to be king because he knows he's not strong enough to keep Merry alive. Rhys calls him 'Gallant Galen'. Rhys admits he's too selfish to follow Galen's example.

Rhys confesses more about his feelings. He doesn't want Merry's pity. He doesn't want the darkness in her, either.

Merry says it's the Constitution [spelled with a small 'c' here] that says all men are created equal. I haven't read all of the Constitution, but I do know that created equal line is in our Declaration of Independence.
Merry says that's a lie and explains why. (Well, duh, but we're supposed to be social equals.)

Merry insults the Brothers Grimm over the fairy godmothers in fairy tales.

CHAPTER 20:

Merry still sleeps in the master bedroom of Maeve Reed's guesthouse. She says they have enough men to fill all of the bedrooms of both houses. Some of the men are having to double up. (What about the women?) Kitto has his own room because it's too small to share with anyone above Merry or Rhys' size.

They're using Maeve's dining room for the initial meeting with the goblins. That room had started out as a ballroom.

Seven feet would be short for a Red Cap. Merry tells us that most are closer to 12 feet tall, but the average is eight to ten feet. (HUH????). She describes the Red Caps' skin colors.

Although at the beginning of chapter 14, Merry said the Red Caps would be coming as guards to make certain this wouldn't be sidhe treachery, here she explains that Kurag sent the Red Caps because if the twins were not guarded and were harmed, the goblins would take it as a plot between their king and Merry to rid himself of Ash and Holly. Kurag knows the twins plan to be the Goblin King someday and they can be that only if they kill him. Kurag doesn't resent them for this, but he'd like to hold that day off a little longer. Besides, Kurag would be killed if the goblins thought he had the sidhe assassinate the twins.

There are goblin assassins, but they will never jobs where the intended victim is another goblin. All goblin challenges are personal, unless the goblin is a trullop (also known as a 'trull'), as Kitto had been. A trullop's master does the fighting for him. We learned the terms for a 'kept' goblin in chapter 3 of Seduced by Moonlight. (To be a kept woman or man is an old-fashioned human term for someone who is supported by and has sex with a person who is not the kept person's spouse.)

That their [Merry doesn't specify whether she means all fey or just sidhe] magic is never as strong outside of faerie as in it is one reason why exile is so feared by most.

Frost is at Merry's back. He explains to the twins that they have been allowed inside the wards along with those Red Caps only to keep human reporters from talking about this in the press.

The twins are wearing satin clothes that would have been the height of fashion between the years 1500 to 1600. Ash is wearing green and Holly is wearing red, to match their respective eyes.

The twins have started to let their hair grow, but it would have to touch their collars to get them in trouble with Queen Andais. They're letting their hair grow in anticipation of becoming sidhe.

Ash can lie with his face and eyes, but Holly can't.

Merry recognizes some of the Red Caps from the battle in chapter 21 in Mistral's Kiss, There the Red Caps had obeyed Merry beyond the requirements of Merry's treaty with the goblins, unlike the Red Caps' usual attitude toward sidhe and females. (So the Red Caps are sexist?) Merry hasn't explored that strange obedience because she doesn't want Kurag to think she's trying to seduce, even politically, the most powerful goblin warriors to her service. She knows that Kurag fears that there will be civil war in the Unseelie court or between the two courts and he wants no part in their battles, so he's desperate to get out of his treaty with Merry. She's not going to give him an excuse to pull out.

Not only has Merry never seen this many Red Caps in one place at one time before, but about a third of them have blood running down from their caps. Previously, Jonty was the only Red Cap she'd met who could do that. She called it 'that rarest of natural abilities' when telling us about the Red Caps in chapter 32 of Seduced by Moonlight, where Jonty was introduced. Of course, when Jonty licked the blood off her palm then, she became wet with blood. Then Kongar, another Red Cap, licked her forehead and his cap started bleeding.

All Red Caps have red eyes, but there are shades of red and Jonty's is the color of fresh blood. His gray skin had reminded her of dust when they met, but now it looks as if he'd used a 'good deep moisturizer'. (His tongue felt like sandpaper then. Would it now?) Jonty's cap trickled blood when they met. It's bleeding in thick runlets now. (Good thing the floor is marble instead of covered with a carpet.)

Merry reminds us about what Jonty did for her in chapters 18 through 21 of Mistral's Kiss. According to that 21st chapter, a dozen Red Caps were out that night, so there must be at least 13 Red Caps in Maeve's dining room now.

Kitto has since explained to Merry that if the other goblins who were out that night hadn't followed the Red Caps, they would have been open to being challenged in single combat by the Red Caps who'd fought beside Merry. No goblin would willingly invite such a challenge.

Merry still wonders about the loyalty of the Red Caps that night. (Personally, I figure it's because her magic made their caps bleed.)

Goblin culture has no room in it for asking a warrior 'why'.

Rhys and Frost won't guard Merry during her sex with the twins, Amatheon and Adair will. Those two step forward from among the line of Merry's guards behind her.

Adair's hair used to be close to mere brown, but since he and Merry had sex, it's turned dark gold.

Amatheon used to be a deity of agriculture. Merry doesn't know if Adair had been the oak grove and a solar deity, but Merry doesn't know if he'd been both at the same time or got downgraded to oak. It would be the height of rudeness to ask a fallen deity what his powers once were.

So, every Red Cap the goblins have to command is present.

Onilwyn is the most graceless sidhe Merry's ever seen.

Merry has refused Onilwyn her bed, but he has her permission to pleasure himself. If she doesn't get pregnant soon, the queen will order her into his bed. Read further for the two reasons.

Merry's hand of blood (her left) likes the Red Caps. They're here because they insisted on coming.

One of the reasons Ash is here is that he's noticed that Merry seems to make a study of all her people's culture. (Should that be peoples' ?)

Onilwyn, who fought in the goblin-sidhe wars, knows that the Red Caps are under oath never to disobey the Goblin King. Jonty, adressing him as 'greenman,' tells him he's correct.

Onilwyn asks why the Red Caps are here. The Red Caps look at Jonty, who looks at Merry. Merry asks why they're there.

By telling Merry he will answer her, Jonty has insulted everyone there except Merry (even his fellow Red Caps?)

Rhys refers to Jonty as a 'that' and Merry calls him on it. Rhys' feelings are hurt, but Merry has other things on her mind than juggling her men's emotions.

The only item the twins ask Merry to wear was high heels. Read a description of the kind she chose.

Like Merry, the twins know what it is to be an outsider.

Jonty kneels before Merry. Now she notices that his skin is a smoother, softer gray. The teeth that she remembered as a mouthful of fangs are straighter and whiter, etc.

Merry's hand of blood has brought the Red Caps who were with her that night back into their power. When Holly points out it wasn't their full power, Jonty calls him 'halfling'. (So if a third of the Red Caps present have blood running from their caps and a dozen were in that battle, does that mean there are only 36 Red Caps -- or only 36 male Red Caps?)

According to Jonty, the other Red Caps want Merry to touch them. Merry asks why they didn't ask sooner. Jonty's reason is interesting.

Jonty sheds a red tear even though Red Caps never cry. Merry follows goblin custom with that tear.

CHAPTER 21:

Goblins consider demi-fey tasty.

There's always something sensual, even sexual, about Royal.

There's a kelpie in the dining room. Kelpies had been hunted and destroyed in Europe before the fey came to America. Merry explains why.

CHAPTER 22:

The oldest magic that had ever belonged to the sidhe is in Maeve Reed's dining room tonight.

CHAPTER 23:

The new Cu Sith doesn't want to touch Onilwyn any more than Merry does.

Apparently, Ash and Holly aren't sidhe enough for the Cu Sith. It takes a Gally-trot to revive them.

The Red Caps change in this chapter.

This is where Merry learns that Minnie is pregnant.

There will be a third child for Merry someday.

Danu reminds Merry that she's forgetting her history. Then she remembers Ceridwen and Etain.

CHAPTER 24:

Holly would rather be goblin. Ash would rather be king of the sidhe.

Merry reminds Ash that it was Queen Andais and Doyle who made a bargain not to interefere directly in the line of succession of its subsidiary courts. She has made no such agreement.

Holly's eyes have a weight and intelligence Merry hasn't seen before in him.

Merry has never actually been brokenhearted before.

Rhys brings up Clothra.

Jonty already considers Merry his queen.

CHAPTER 25:

Taranis hears something that surprises him.

CHAPTER 26:

Taranis acting as if nothing was wrong frightens Merry more than almost anything he could have done.

Regarding Merry's conception: no one had dreamed that if neither court was breeding, a 'mixed' marriage might be fertile.

The Seelie have dogs, too.

All nobles love a good lapdog.

Sir Hugh has two Irish wolfhounds. (The 'Sir' is left off in this chapter)

Here is where we learn the lie Taranis' told and his press secretary has said to the press in reply to Queen Andais' accusations.

Merry thinks the Seelie nobles in the hallway view her as an object, not quite real. There's more.

Hugh made sure to leak what happened in Biggs' office to the human media. Read here for what the photos showed.

The silk robe Lady Elasaid lends Merry is a brilliant green that has gold designs on it -- matching Merry's eyes. (The lady called it a shawl.)

Taranis let human press into the Seelie Mound because Andais called a press conference to demand her return -- he couldn't allow the Unseelie to seem more progressive than the Seelie, could he?

Lady Elasaid pins the robe with a gold pin at the neck.

Lady Elasaid doesn't understand Merry's question about a live feed, but Hugh does.

Taranis no longer cares enough to use his mirrors for such things [spying?].

Read here for Merry's comments about plotting treason.

This is the second time Merry has seen Doyle cry. For the first time, see chapter 12 of A Stroke of Midnight.

CHAPTER 27:

Hugh isn't 'Sir' in this chapter, either. His attempt to comfort Merry falls flat.

Most of Taranis' supporters believe that only mongrels [part-sidhe] are breedable. They'd rather die as a race than pollute their blood. Elasaid thinks those supporters would follow Merry if she proved that belief wrong. Hugh says some [of Taranis' supporters] hate too deeply.

Hugh and Elasaid would like to have a child of their own. Merry says that when she's healed and safe, and her people are safe, she'd be happy to try a spell for them. (Elasaid and Hugh must be of the pure Seelie line, then.)

Here is where you may find Merry's response to Doyle's desire to slay Taranis for her.

Once you needed only so many nobles and the blessing of the gods to rule in Faerie. Once, even longer ago, the blessing was enough. (What about the sithin choosing? Is that considered the blessing of the gods?)

Doyle and Merry tell each other what each loves the other more than -- Doyle goes first.

Doyle does address Hugh as 'Sir Hugh'.

Hugh is to carry Merry.

Merry prays to Danu to help these Seelie, to keep them safe.

There's a rain of pink rose petals. Lady Elasaid says that once their queen walked everywhere in a shower of flowers.

CHAPTER 28:

See the first paragraph for the shades of pink those rose petals are. They're the only living thing [aside from the sidhe, of course] that Merry and companions pass. Merry tells us what that palace isn't and what the sidhe were meant to be.

The Seelie nobles who aren't accompanying Merry wear stiff clothing of gold, silver, and subdued colors.

Touching the petals makes the sidhe happy.

Hugh remembers loving Queen Roisin and realizes something about that.

Merry has learned that when the scent of roses grows stronger, it means yes or don't.

One of Sir Hugh's Irish wolfhounds is almost solid white. The other is almost solid red, with small white markings. Everytime one of the dogs touches Merry, she feels a little better.

They've been passing through rooms of cold pink marble with veins of silver and pillars of gold as well as rooms of white marble with veins of pink and lavender and pillars of silver -- and some of gold and silver marble with pillars of ivory. Now they're in a room of red and orange marble with veins of white and gold. The pillars are silver with gold vines carved to look as if they bloomed with golden flowers.

When she was a child, Merry thought that room's pillars were the most lovely things in the world. Now she sees them for what they are -- stand-ins for the real thing.

There's no life in the Seelie Court. Even its great tree is made of metal. (Merry compares that to what life there had been in the Unseelie Court even before the new magic.) Read here for what Merry says about the immortal and art.

The Seelie nobles who are guarding the door are wearing business suits. Merry makes a comparison.

Merry realizes the guards have seen lies so long they no longer recognize the truth.

The blond guard takes out a cell phone. The Seelie have reception near this room.

Merry contrasts the behavior of the Seelie sidne nobles with her now and how some of them had behaved when she was a child. She wonders what Taranis had done to them.

The someone with a rough voice who wants to come Merry's way is Major Walters.

Well, well, well -- someone has a federal warrant and that's Gillett. Merry reminds us who he was to here, what she used to think, and what she realized in chapter 6 of A Stroke of Midnight .

Taranis gave his oath that his story was true. He ordered that Merry is not to go near the Unseelie again. The guards were also ordered to keep her away from the press.

When Merry looks in Gillett's eyes, she understands what she'd seen in him when she was 17.

The first time Gillett saw Merry, she was collapsed in grief and clutching her dead father's sword.

Merry is thinking of the babes in her womb as her father's grandchildren.

The sidhe do not understand the arsenal of the powerless, but Merry does, because she's lived in the land of the helpless most of her life.

Merry sees the talkative guard. He has hair the color of Autumn leaf flame before it drops to the ground and eyes with green circles. Guard Shanley has two perfect circles of blue in his eyes.
Perhaps it's the head injury that makes Merry say that Galen is seventy, which is closer to the age difference between Galen and Merry. Galen is the next youngest sidhe to Merry (well, the babes are now the youngest sidhe).

Poor Shanley is bound by his oath to serve Taranis as king even though he knows Taranis lied.

Shanley is rude enough to tell the Seelie healer, Quinnie, that she lies when she tells him Merry is pregnant. He doesn't want to hear what Quinnie says.

So, if a sidhe believes the that what he or she tells under oath is true -- even though it isn't, nothing happens.

Merry gives her full name, her hands of power, and the fact that she's the granddaughter of Uar the Cruel before her order.

CHAPTER 29:

The human doctor in the room is Dr. Vanessa Hardy.

Merry swears by the Darkness That Eats All Things again.

Poor Merry has a neck brace and an I.V. The first is just a precaution and the second is is for another reason.

Merry has a concussion.

Taranis' supporters want Merry to recant.

Merry realizes the grass around the mounds is uneven when her gurney is wheeled over it. It had always seemed such level ground.

Read here for a bargain Rhys made with some humans.

Some people's glamour doesn't hold up to cameras. Taranis would have seen through disguises. So who besides Rhys and Galen was good enough to risk it?

Merry is losing little bits of time.

Sholto got the news about the baby twins from Doyle.

So when Merry tells us what Sholto risked to rescue her and that she hadn't needed the rescue, does she mean she didn't need Sholto to take part in the rescue?

Merry feels that the tenderness of Solto's touch on her hair has not been earned as a couple. When she says they've been together once, she must be talking about the sex they had in chapter 15 of Mistral's Kiss. They didn't get that far in chapter 13 of A Kiss of Shadows'

Seek here for Dr. Hardy's remark after Doyle shifts his shape in the ambulance.

Arrogance and surety (certainty) are more sidhe and not human than magic and otherworldy beauty, according to Merry. She reminds us again that Doyle was once a god named Nodens.

There are colors in the black depths of Doyle's eyes that are not colors present in the ambulance.

Doyle admits that they hadn't dreamed Taranis could travel by sunlight. They'd thought it a lost art.

Doyle tells Merry how her hounds are doing. Minnie and Mungo's puppies will be the first faerie hounds born in 500 years. (But not the first faerie dogs. Dulcie, one of the 3 faerie terriers owned by Merry's maternal Great-great Aunt Maggie May was pregnant in chapter 9 of A Stroke of Midnight .

The Unseelie Court throne is the throne of night, unlike Taranis' Golden Throne of the Seelie Court. Merry wonders if the Unseelie throne should get a new name. She mentions Shakespeare.

A Lick of Frost begins one month after the events of Mistral's Kiss. Merry and her guards/lovers Doyle, Frost, Rhys, Galen, and Abeloec in a conference room, being questioned about the charges of rape against Rhys, Galen, and Abeloec which King Taranis has brought the charges on behalf the woman allegedly raped by the aforementioned fey. The meeting ends badly, with Taranis losing what little control he had on his sanity. One of the officers of Taranis' guard, Sir Hugh, tells Merry that he is going to force a vote among the nobles of the Seelie court to choose a new king, and he wants Merry to take Taranis' place. When Merry and her guards get home after taking a trip to the hospital after tending to the injuries sustained by Doyle and Abeloec. They call Aunt Andais to tell her of all that has happened���specifically the offer to rule the Seelie Court. Andais believes Merry already agreed to rule and abuses one of her guards in a sadistic rage. Eventually, Merry and her men convince Andais otherwise, but she still continues to abuse the guard in reaction to many of them leaving to join Merry. The series of mirror-calls end and Merry finalizes the coming together of herself and two new half-goblins, Ash, and Holly for later that night. Night comes and Holly and Ash arrive, along with all of the Red Caps in tow. Jonty, a Red Cap that helped Merry fight in Mistral's Kiss, sheds a tear as Merry tells him she would bring the Red Caps into their power. She catches the tear on her finger and consumes it. This brings on the remaking of Maeve Reed's house into a sithen. Those of faerie who stand in that room with no faerie dog to keep them grounded, crumple to the floor. Some of the crumpled men are revived by one of the dogs, but Frost stays down. The creation of the sithen allows the ring of fertility on her finger to flare to life and Merry realizes that she is pregnant with twins. Each twin has three fathers like in the story of Ceridwen. A phantom image of Merry���s children appears by their respective fathers, Rhys, Frost, Galen, Doyle, Mistral, and Sholto. There is also a dimmer phantom image of a 3rd child that has the potential to be born after the twins. Frost turns out to be the sacrificial king for the creation of the new sithen. Merry prays for him not to die, and he turns into a white stag and runs off. Merry runs to one of the gardens of her sithen to be alone and grieve the loss of Frost. While out there, Taranis, using illusion to appear as one of her guards, knocks her out and takes her to his bedroom back at the Seelie Court. It is assumed that he rapes her, and then believes he fathers her children. Hugh, some others at the Seelie Court, and Doyle sneak her out of the bedroom and into a press conference where she tells the press that Taranis made the Seelie woman Lady Catarin believe that it was Rhys, Galen, and Abeloec who raped her; when in fact, it was all just an illusion of Taranis' making and the woman was in fact raped by other Seelie nobles working with him. Merry also tells them that she is pregnant, and that Taranis kidnapped and raped her. The book ends with Merry in an ambulance with Doyle, continuing to mourn Frost and her current situation. She is on her way to the hospital to treat the concussion she received from Taranis and to take a rape test. ( )

A good addition to the Anita Blake series