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"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."

In fact, Meredith has been posing as a human in Los Angeles, living as a private investigator specializing in supernatural crime. But now Doyle, the Queen's chief bodyguard and assassin, has been dispatched to fetch her back - whether she likes it or not. And suddenly Meredith finds herself a pawn in her dreaded aunt's plans...plans that affect the future of the entire UnSeelie Court.

The requirements of the job: to enjoy the constant company of the most beautiful - and immortal - men in the world. The reward: the crown - and the opportunity to continue to live. The penalty: death.

"I am Princess Meredith, heir to a throne - if I can stay alive long enough to claim it. My cousin, Prince Cel, is determined to see that I don't. As long as we both live, we are in a race for the crown; whichever one of us reproduces first gets the throne.

"So now the men of my royal guard - frightening warriors skilled with blade, spell, and gun - have become my lovers, auditioning with pleasure for the role of future king and father of my child. And they must still protect me from assasination attempts - for unlike most fey, I am part human, and very mortal.

"All this royal backstabbing makes it difficult for me to pursue my living as a private investigator in Los Angeles, especially since the media made sure the whole world knows the Faerie princess is alive and well in sunny California.

"Now, in the City of Angels, people are dying in mysterious, frightening ways. What the human police don't realize is that the killer is hunting fey as well. Havoc lies on the horizon; the very existence of the place known as Faerie is at grave risk.

"So now, while I enjoy the greatest pleasures of my life with my guardians, I must fend off an ancient evil that could destroy the very fabric of reality. And that's just my day job."

"I am Meredith Gentry, P.I., and Princess Merry, heir to the throne of Faerie. Now there are those among us who whisper I am more. And who can blame them? I've awakened the dazzling magic that's slumbered in them for thousands of years. But the thing is, I can't figure out why.

"My aunt, Queen of Air and Darkness, is no longer distracted by her sadistic hobbies. Her obsession has turned unwaveringly to me. The mission to get me pregnant and beat my cousin Prince Cel to the crown is taking longer than expected. Even though I spend each night with the Queen's Ravens, my immortal guards, no child has come of our decadent pleasures.

"But something else is happening. My magic courses through me uncontrollably. And as I lock my half-mortal body with their full-Sidhe-blooded ones, the power surges like never before.

"It all began with a chalice. I dreamed of it, and it appeared, cool and hard, beside me when I awoke. My guards know the ancient relic well - its disappearance ages ago stripped them of all of their vital powers. But it is here with us now. My touch resonates with its force, and they're consumed with it, their Sidhe essences lit up by it.

"But even as they cherish me for this unexpected gift, there are those who loathe me for it. Me, a mongrel, only half fey and part mortal. The Unseelie court has suffered for so long, and there are some who would not have it weakened further by an impure queen. My enemies grow in number every day. But they do not know what I am capable of. Nor, for that matter, do I."

"I am Meredith Gentry, P.I., solving cases in Los Angeles, far from the peril and deception of my real home - because I am also Princess Meredith, heir to the darkest throne faerie has to offer.

"The Unseelie Court infuses me with its power. But at what price does such magic come? How much of my human side will I have to give up, and how much of the sinister side of faerie will I have to embrace? To sit on a throne that has ruled through bloodshed and violence for centuries, I might have to become that which I dread the most.

"Enemies watch my every move. My cousin Cel strives to have me killed even now from his prison cell. But not all the assassination attempts are his. Some Unseelie nobles have waited centuries for my aunt Andais, Queen of Air and Darkness, to become weak enough that she might be toppled from her throne. Enemies unforeseen move against us - enemies who would murder the least among us.

"The threat will drive us to allow human police into faerie for the first time in our history. I need my allies now more than ever, especially since fate will lead me into the arm of Mistral, Master of Storms, the queen's new captain of her guard. Our passion will reawaken powers long forgotten among the warriors of the sidhe. Pain and pleasure await me - and danger, as well, for some at that court seek only death.

"I will find new joys with the butterfly-winged demi-fey. My guards and I will show all of faerie that violence and sex are as popular among the sidhe as they are among the lesser fey of our court. The Darkness will weep, and Frost will comfort him. The gentlest of my guards will find new strength and break my heart. Passions undreamed of await us - and my enemies gather, for the future of both courts of faerie begins to unravel."

"I am Princess Meredith, heir to a throne of fairie. My day job, once upon a time, was as a private detective in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, princess has now become a full-time occupation.

"My aunt, Queen Andais, will have it no other way. And so I am virtually a prisoner in fairie - trapped here with some of the realm's most beautiful men to serve as my bodyguards...and my lovers. For I am compelled to conceive a child: an heir to succeed me on the throne.

"Yet after months of amazing sex with my consorts, there is still no baby. And no baby means no throne. The only certainty is death at the hands of my cousin Cel, or his followers, if I fail to conceive.

"Now Mistral, Queen Andais' new captain of the guard, has come to my bed - defying her and risking her terrible wrath in doing so. But even she will hesitate to punish him in jealous rage, because our joining has reawakened old magic - mystical power so ancient that no one stands against it and survives, not even my strongest and most favored: my Darkness and my Killing Frost. Not even Mistral himself, my Storm Lord. But because Mistral has helped to bring this magic forth, he may live another day.

"If I can reclaim control of the fey power that once was, there may be hope for me and my reign in fairie. I might yet quell the dark schemes and subterfuges surrounding me. Though shadows of obsession and conspiracy gather, I may survive."

"I am Meredith Gentry, princess and heir apparent to the throne in the realm of faerie, onetime private investigator in the mortal world. To be crowned queen, I must first continue the royal bloodline and give birth to an heir of my own. If I fail, my aunt, Queen Andais, will be free to do what she most desires: install her twisted son, Cel, as monarch...and kill me.

"My royal guards surround me, and my best loved - my Darkness and my Killing Frost - are always beside me, sworn to protect and make love to me. But still the threat grows greater. For despite all my carnal efforts I remain childless, while the machinations of my sinister, sadistic Queen and her confederates remain tireless. So my bodyguards and I have slipped back into Los Angeles, hoping to outrun the gathering shadows of court intrigue. But even exile isn't enough to escape the grasp of those with dark designs.

"Now King Taranis, powerful and vain-glorious ruler of faerie's Seelie Court, has leveled accusations against my noble guards of a heinous crime - and has gone so far as to ask the mortal authorities to prosecute. If he succeeds, my men face extradition to faerie and the hideous penalties that await them there. But I know that Taranis' charges are baseless, and I sense that his true target is me. He tried to kill me when I was a child. Now I fear his intentions are far more terrifying."

"I am Meredith, princess of faerie, wielder of the hands of Flesh and Blood, and at long last, I am with child twins, fathered by my royal guard. Though my uncle, Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, claims that he is the true father, since he abducted me from my home, betrayed, and defiled me. And now he has branded my guards as a threat to my unborn children.

"Bearing an heir has placed me halfway to my aunt's throne, that much closer to my reign over the Unseelie Court and well ahead of her son, my cousin Cel, in this race. Now I must stay alive to see my children born and claim my place as queen.

"But not all in faerie are pleased with the news, and conspirators from every court in the realm plot against me and mine. They seek to strip my guards, my lovers, from me by poisoned word or cold steel. But I still have supporters, and even friends, among the goblins and the sluagh, who will stand by me.

"I am Meredith Nic Essus, and those who would defy and destroy me are destined to pay a terrible price for I am truly my father's daughter. To protect what is mine, I will sacrifice anything, even if it means waging a great battle against my darkest enemies and making the most momentous decision ever made as princess of faerie."

Some know her as Meredith Nic Essus, princess of faerie. Others as Merry Gentry, LA private eye. In the fey and mortal realms alike, her life is the stuff of royal intrigue and celebrity drama.

Among her own kind, she has confronted enemies, endured the treachery and malevolence of her kith and kin, and honoured her duty to conceive a royal heir... all so she could claim a throne. But now she's turned her back on court and crown in favour of exile in the human world.

However, while she may have rejected the throne, she cannot abandon her people. Someone is killing the fey. The LAPD are baffled and Merry is worried: her kind are not easily captured or killed. At least not by mortals. And it's not just these murders that concern her. It appears mortals who she once healed with magic are now able to perform miracles themselves - a phenomenon that's wreaking havoc on relations between man and fey and provoking suspicions of forbidden powers.

So much for leaving blood and politics behind her. Merry had dreamed of a quiet life, but evil knows no borders and it seems nobody lives forever - not even the immortal...

I am Princess Meredith NicEssus. Legal name Meredith Gentry, because Princess looks so pretentious on a driver's license. I was the first faerie princess born on American soil, but I wouldn't be the only one for much longer...

Merry Gentry, ex-private detective, now full-time princess, knew she was descended from fertility goddesses, but when she learned she was about to have triplets, she began to understand what that might mean. Infertility has plagued the high ranks of faerie for centuries. Now nobles of the both courts of faerie are coming to woo Merry and her men at their home in exile in the Western Lands of Los Angeles, because they will do anything to have offspring of their own.

Taranis, King of Light and Illusion, is a more dangerous problem. He tried to seduce Merry, and failing that, raped her. He's using the human courts to sue for visitation rights, claiming that one of the children is his. And though Merry knows she was already pregnant when he took her, she can't prove it.

To save herself and her babies from Taranis Merry will use the most dangerous powers in all of faerie: a god of death, a warrior known as the Darkness, The Killing Frost, and a king of nightmares. They are her lovers, and her dearest loves, and they will face down the might of the high courts of faerie - while trying to contain the war, to keep it from spreading to those innocent humans who are in very real danger of becoming collateral damage...