Page 20 of Kings and Monsters

Bleddyn laughed. "Of course that is why I love her. That and she's fearless. Even with the changes, she isn't afraid of what I am. She never has been. You said yourself that all the Unseelie fear me, what I am. I don't want to live with that."

"But this is the only place you can ever truly be yourself, Father," Merlin said softly. "I won't argue with you about it, but consider what I say."

"Very well. So we don't have enough men to attack the Seelie Court head-on, so we do it by deceit. We can find a way in to free the Unseelie that are in the cells under the Court, while we distract Aeronwen above ground," Bleddyn changed the subject. "What else are you thinking?"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Merlin frowned and poured himself more summer wine.

"Aeronwen has the entire Unseelie as an enemy, and it's still not enough," Bleddyn said.

"I was thinking about her other enemies, and if the stories are to be true, even in part, she has a very powerful enemy indeed," Merlin replied convincingly. Bleddyn stared at him, his expression moving from curiosity to horror.

"Merlin, you can't be serious."

"Can't I?"

"It's suicidal. He is more likely to slay you than listen to you. That's if you could even find him."

"We could disguise ourselves as a Tithe. Go to the right place. See what happens."

"I forbid it." Bleddyn's voice was cold.

"You can't forbid me to do anything anymore. If it's the only way to get Nimue back, I'm going to do it," Merlin replied stubbornly.

"Please exhaust all other options before you decide. And don't you dare leave without telling me."

"I promise—" Merlin began as a sharp pain gripped his chest. "What in Dante's Hell is that?"

Bleddyn gasped beside him, the wine glass falling from his hands and shattering on the floor. "It's our link to Balthasar. Something has happened."

Merlin was on his feet in seconds, running as fast as he could to his chambers.

Arthur crashed into him, white-faced. "Quick, Merlin, you must come. Rosa won't stop screaming, I don't know what's wrong."

Merlin shoved him aside and found Rosa curled up on the floor, sobbing loudly. "It's okay, Rhosyn," he said uneasily. "I felt it too." He went to touch her, but her surging magic made him hesitate.

"He's dead, Merlin. Oh, fuck, she's killed him," Rosa groaned. She started to hyperventilate. "I knew we would be too late. I knew she would punish him…"

The ground underneath Rosa heaved and cracked, and the thorny vines of a rose bush streamed out around her.

Merlin backed up to her door. "Calm down, Rosa. Your magic is reacting to your emotions."

She screamed long and plaintive as a thick vine hit him across the chest, shoving him out of the heavy door that shut behind him.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Balthasar woke to the tickle of ribbons draped on his face. He opened his eyes to see Rosa leaning over him and smiling, the laces of her corset brushing against his bare skin.

"You are up early," he commented, his hands going around her waist to bring her close. She battered his hands away playfully.

"Don't you dare dishevel me, Medici, or you'll have hell to pay," she chastised. "You had best get yourself up, husband, or Cosimo will disown the both of us."

Husband. He still couldn't believe that she had agreed to marry a rogue like him. He sat up and grabbed the back of her dress. He pulled her back to him for a long kiss, his hands itching to bury into her careful coiffed hair, to pull off the many layers of her fine dress.

The kiss lasted long enough that the church bells of Florence rang in warning, and she wriggled out of his arms.

"Later," she said, answering a question he didn't have to ask. Balthasar climbed out of bed and washed his face in the basin left out by the servants. He picked up his shaving knife and hesitated.

He had been dreaming of a strange kingdom under the ground and a queen. He looked up at the portrait of his family—his father, Cosimo, and elder two brothers, Lorenzo and Juliano. Where were his other brothers? The one with the golden hair and an easy smile, the dark one with hawk eyes…

---