Page 28 of Kings and Monsters

Bleddyn nodded, and his sword vanished back into the scabbard hanging from his hip.

After that, the meeting went more smoothly, but Rosa was struggling to pay attention. Her mind drifted to the conversation with Merlin the night before.

How would they convince Bleddyn to let her go to see Gwyn?The pain in her chest bloomed afresh as she thought of Balthasar.If they managed to defeat the queen, would they find him alive?

They needed to be in the strongest possible position. She would do her best to convince Bleddyn, or she would do it without his permission. Without her, Merlin was bound to get himself into a deeper mess.

After the generalshad left them alone, Eirianwen turned on Bleddyn with all the pent-up frustration the meeting had caused.

"You shouldn't have stepped in and threatened Madoc," she said angrily.

"I wasn't going to stand by and let him continue to insult you," Bleddyn argued, his cool demeanor shredding.

"I have tolerated their insults for centuries! I can handle mutts like Madoc and his snide comments."

"He called you a traitor! You! The only person who has stood by them. I deserve them berating me, but never you. I don't care if it upsets your feminine principles. I won't have anyone disrespect you. If it weren't for Rosa, I would have taken his head."

He was so angry that he was shimmering.Thatwas the Bleddyn she knew. She had thought the human world had stolen all the fight out of him.

"I'm not yours to protect anymore. I can fight my own battles," Eirianwen said steadily, even as her heart pounded with the intensity of his anger.

Bleddyn slammed his fist down on the table. "You might not be my betrothed, but you once were, and that is enough. An insult to you is one to me. If I had known that you lived, you would be his queen right now, and he would be food for crows."

Eirianwen swallowed a hundred words that leaped to her tongue. She knew the signs to see he was furious enough togo after Madoc where Rosa wouldn't stop him. She took a long breath and rested her hand on his tense shoulder. The touch seemed to diffuse his frustration as it had hundreds of years ago.Maybe underneath it all, he's still your Bleddyn.

"Listen to me, you pigheaded faerie. We still need Madoc and his men. Kill him after the battle is done if you must, but wait until then. We need the numbers, and he hates the Seelie more than he fears me."

Bleddyn managed to smile at her. "Very well, but if he's stupid enough to continue to undermine you?—"

"I'll kill him myself and claim his men by right of conquest."

"There is the vicious woman I fell in love with," he laughed.

Eirianwen let her hand slide from his shoulder, his words hitting her like a blow to the guts. "If anything, she's a little more vicious these days."

"Why did he call you a Bánánach?" Bleddyn asked, throwing her off balance. The Bánánach, the restless dead fallen in battle and still haunting the world. Theyallcalled her that when they thought she couldn't hear.

"Because Madoc is a superstitious idiot. There are few that call me that because they believe I'm not really alive. They saw me die, and then I came back months later and raised an army. The fear is useful to keep them from challenging me."

"If they knew you before death, they'd know you were already that frightening," Bleddyn teased.

There were still questions in his eyes, but she wasn't ready to answer them.Not yet. He would look at her like all the rest when that happened.

"Come and dine with the children and me tonight," he asked unexpectedly.

"Why?"

"Because I don't like the idea of you eating alone." He straightened, emerald eyes gleaming with secrets. "Merlin wantsto tell you what he's planning. He needs your advice and your knowledge of the Unseelie lands."

"Sounds like he's planning to do something stupid."

"Undoubtedly. The first thing you need to learn about Merlin is that even his stupidest plans seem to work out in the end." He held out his arm to her. "Please, it will be a way to thank you for helping Rosa last night."

Eirianwen thought of her shared smiles with Rosa, that moment of unexpected friendship. She only had a cold house waiting for her, so Eirianwen silenced all the reasons why it was a bad idea and slipped her arm around his.

CHAPTER TEN

Merlin wasn't the least surprised when Eirianwen entered Bleddyn's quarters, her hand resting lightly in the crook of his arm. Bleddyn had ordered dinner to be served in the intimate dining room after a day of arguing and hatching plans.

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