meghan

Meghan,_ whispered a voice, heart wrenchingly familiar, drawing me out of the void. I recognized it immediately, just as I realized it was a figment of my desperate imagination, because the real owner of that voice would never be here, talking to me.Ash?__ake up,_ he murmured, his deep voice cutting through the layers of the darkness. __on__ do this. If you don__ come out of this soon, you__l fade away and drift forever. Fight it. Come back to us.__ didn__ want to wake up. There was nothing but pain waiting for me in the real world. If I was asleep, I couldn__ feel anything. If I was asleep, I didn__ have to face Ash and the cold contempt on his face when he looked at me. Darkness was my retreat, my sanctuary. I drew back from Ash__ voice, deeper into the comforting blackness. And, through the layer of dreams and delirium, I heard a quiet sob.__lease._ A hand gripped mine, real and solid, anchoring me to the present. __ know what you must think of me, but_ The voice broke off, took a ragged breath. __on__ leave,_ it whispered. __eghan, don__ go. Come back to me.

When he was kidnapped by the Iron King and taken into the Nevernever, she didn__ hesitate to go after him. And she didn__ stop there. When her magic was sealed by Mab, leaving her defenseless in the Winter Court, she somehow managed to survive, even when she thought you had turned on her. When the Scepter of the Seasons was stolen by the Iron fey, she went after it, despite having no magic and no weapon with which to defend herself. And when the courts asked her to destroy the false king, she accepted, even though the Summer and Iron glamours within her were making her sick, and she couldn__ use either of them effectively. She still went into the Iron Kingdom toface a tyrant she didn__ know if she could overcome.__ow,_ Ariella finished, turning toward me, __o you still believe humans are weak?

You think I don__ know pain?_ Puck shook his head at me. __r loss? I__e been around a lot longer than you, prince! I know what love is, and I__e lostmy fair share, too. Just because we have a different way of handling it, doesn__ mean I don__ have scars of my own.___ame one,_ I scoffed. __ive me one instance where you haven______eghan Chase!_ Puck roared, startling me into silence. I blinked, and he sneered at me. __eah, your highness. I know what loss is. I__e loved thatgirl since before she knew me. But I waited. I waited because I didn__ want to lie about who I was. I wanted her to know the truth before anything else.So I waited, and I did my job. For years, I protected her, biding my time, until the day she went into the Nevernever after her brother. And then youcame along. And I saw how she looked at you. And for the first time, I wanted to kill you as much as you wanted to kill me.

His breath hitched, and he regarded me hungrily. __ou__e playing with fire, you know that?_ __hat__ weird, considering you__e an ice prin__ I didn__ get any further, as Ash leaned in and kissed me.

Touch her, and I'll freeze your testicles off and put them in a jar. Understand?

Meghan rose with the regal grace of a queen, calm and unruffled. I noticed she subtly moved in front of me when facing Ariella, a familiar gesture that caught me off guard. The Iron Queen was protecting me.