A Kiss of Shadows by Laurell K. Hamilton

“He must not see a lot of naked women.”
    She smiled, shaking her head. “I’ve dealt with fey, even a few visiting sidhe, and you’re the only one I’ve met that was humble.”
    I frowned at her. “I’m not humble. I just think that if seeing me strip to my underwear is enough to make your partner nearly swallow his tongue, he must not be very experienced.”
    Lucy looked at Roane and Jeremy. “Does she not know what she looks like?”
    â€œNo,” Roane said.
    â€œI think, though I don’t know, that our Merry was raised somewhere where she was considered the ugly duckling,” Jeremy said.
    I met his eyes, my pulse thudding in my neck. That one comment was a little too close for comfort. “I don’t know what you guys are talking about.”
    â€œI know you don’t,” Jeremy said. There was a knowledge in his dark grey eyes, a guess that was close to a certainty. In that moment, I knew he suspected who I was, what I was. But he would never ask. He would wait until I was ready to talk, or the question would remain forever silent between us.
    I looked at Roane. He was the only fey lover I’d
known
had not come to my bed to further his political ambitions. To him I was just Merry Gentry, a human with fey ancestry, not Princess Meredith NicEssus. Now I stared into that familiar face and tried to read his expression. He was smilingly blank. Either it had never occurred to him that I might be the missing sidhe princess, or he’d guessed long ago, but would never be rude enough to bring it up. Or had Roane known from the first? Had that been why he’d come to me? Suddenly, all the security that I’d built up with these people, my friends, began to crumble around me.
    Some of it must have shown on my face because Roane touched me. I drew back from him. His face showed the hurt, confusion. He didn’t know. I hugged him suddenly, hiding my face from him, but I could still see Jeremy.
    As the look on Roane’s face had reassured me, so the look on Jeremy’s frightened me. All it would take was my true name being mentioned after dark, and it would float back to my aunt. She was the Queen of Air and Darkness, and that meant that anything said in the dark was hers to hear, eventually. The fact that spotting the missing Elven American Princess had become more popular than spotting Elvis helped. Her magic was always chasing blind leads. Princess Meredith skiing in Utah. Princess Meredith dancing in Paris. Princess Meredith gambling in Vegas. After three years I was still a front-page story for the tabloids, though the latest headlines had been speculating that I was as dead as the King of Rock and Roll.
    If Jeremy spoke my name aloud to my face, the words would resonate, and when they finally floated back to her, she’d know I was alive, and she’d know that Jeremy had spoken my name. Even if I ran, she’d question him, and if polite methods didn’t work, she’d use torture. I am told she is a creative lover. I know she is an inventive torturer.
    I drew back from Roane and gave them part of the truth. “My mother was the beautiful one.”
    â€œHow do you know that?” Jeremy asked.
    I looked at him. “She told me so.”
    â€œYou mean your mother told you you weren’t beautiful?” Lucy asked. It took a human to be that direct.
    I nodded.
    â€œDon’t take this wrong, but what a bitch.”
    To that there was only one thing to say—“I agree, now let’s get out of here.”
    â€œWe wouldn’t want to keep Mr. Norton waiting,” Jeremy said.
    â€œI still wish we were going after him for proof on the attempted murder,” Lucy said.
    â€œWe can’t guarantee proof that will stand up in court about the death spell,” I said.
    â€œBut,” Jeremy said, “we might be able to prove tonight that he is using magic to seduce women. Magically aided