Chapter 10 begins with Merry walking over to greet Maeve
Reed. She hands Maeve her hand, and Maeve does one of those “grabs just the
very tips of Merry’s fingers” handshakes. Merry wasn’t sure if Maeve was
waiting for her to genuflect, but Merry is all fuck that, she bows to no one.
Except her queen. And King Taranis. And other nobles. Whatever.
Merry immediately blurts out “You really did hire Kane and
Hart to protect you from us, didn’t you.” And Maeve responds with that typical
sidhe not-lying. She dances around the true answer to the question, all smiles
and sparkly eyes. If there’s one thing that annoys me terribly (and my god,
there’s a lot that annoys me), it’s when someone cannot respond to a fucking
question asked of them. Might be why I hate these characters so much. Maeve
smiles and laughs, brushing off the question with “What a strange idea. I
assure you, Ms. Gentry, I am not afraid of you.”
Merry then asks Maeve if she is afraid of her guards, Doyle
and Frost. “Whatever gave you such an absurd idea?” Maeve asks, and Merry tells
her that she did. Maeve doesn’t respond to this, and instead begins using her
glamour to make herself glow. Because why? Merry tries to continue the
questioning, and again asks Maeve if she hired the extra guards to protect her
from Doyle and Frost. Maeve turns to Doyle and asks him “Have you taught her no
manners?” “She has all the manners she needs, “ Doyle responds.
Merry continues the interrogation-like questioning, asking
the same question again. Maeve whispers at Merry to stop this, but Merry
continues, bluntly asking “why are you afraid of us?” and Maeve essentially
breaks down with “Why are you doing this to me?”
Oh boo hoo, Maeve, you baby.
Merry keeps pushing and pushing at Maeve to answer her
question, and eventually Maeve breaks down so much she lets her glamour go and
reveals her true sidhe-eyes to the group. Many of the sidhe have tri-colored
eyes, and Maeve was no exception, with blue and copper and gold ringed eyes.
Merry grabs Maeve’s hand and brings it to her lips to kiss, telling Maeve that
she has the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen, which causes Maeve to begin
crying. As the tears fall from her eyes, her glamour drops further, fading her
tan to reveal the perfect milky white sidhe skin and white blonde sidhe hair,
no longer pretending to be more human-like.
Merry continues holding Maeve’s hands as the room begins to
fill with a sweet golden light and the scent of flowers filled the air. Maeve
lets her power overtake her, ands he drops to her knees, still holding Merry’s
hands. She begins laughing
joyously, almost hysterically, and announces “And I thought he men were
the danger.”
Maeve stands abruptly and pulls
Merry in for a deep kiss, and as Merry begins to kiss back, Maeve breaks off
from the kiss and the chapter ends with Maeve running from the room.
***
I’m definitely beginning to find this book a bit more
tedious to write about than the first one. Not a whole lot has happened, and we’re
ten chapters in already. True, this book is a bit longer than the first, and
the first moved a bit more quickly due to all the introductions of characters,
themes, world, etc… But jesus, the second book of your series should not drag this badly. I apologize if these past few chapters
haven’t been the most exciting to read. They’re lengthy conversational chapters
where the plot doesn’t even minutely advance. Welcome to the wonderful world of
a large majority of LKH’s novels.
Anyway,
Chapter 11
Chapter 11 begins with Julian going after Maeve to find out
what had caused her to run from the room. Doyle turns to Merry, who had fallen
to her knees, and asks her if she is alright. Merry is a little too shocked for
words, and it takes her a few tries before she tells the room she is fine.
“I’ve just never… She tasted like sunshine. And until this second I didn’t know
that sunshine tasted like anything.”
Doyle
knelt beside me and spoke softly. “It is always difficult to be touched by
those who hold such elemental powers.”
I frowned at him. “She said she thought it was the men she needed to be afraid
of. What did she mean by that?”
“Think of how you were after just a few years alone out here… and magnify that
by a human century.”
Wait, there’s a difference between sidhe centuries and human
centuries? What?
I
felt my eyes widen. “You mean she’s attracted to me?” I shook my head before he
could say anything. “She’s attracted to the first sidhe she’s touched in a
hundred years.”
“Do not underestimate yourself, Meredith, but I have never heard it said that
Conchenn was a lover of women, so, yes, it is the touch of sidhe flesh that she
craves.”
Merry then begins to worry that perhaps Maeve had invited
them there that day to discuss the option of sharing Merry’s men. Doyle doesn’t
think that would be possible, as it would be the height of rudeness to ask such
a thing. I thought the height of rudeness was to be blunt? The sidhe are super
fucking killjoys, aren’t they?
Rhys picks that exact moment to walk into the room. He had
been waiting outside the house with Max, one of the guards from K&H. Rhys
wants to know what had happened, what he missed, and Merry tells him that Maeve
dropped her glamour. Rhys is impressed – he could feel Maeve's magic from outside, and he didn’t think anyone had power that
strong anymore. Doyle tells them all that Maeve had been one of the last sidhe
to be worshipped by humans, that she was still being worshipped by her pagan
cult not 300 years ago, just as they were being kicked out of Europe. This
means that Maeve’s magical abilities, her power, is likely much stronger than
other sidhe’s power.
Frost comes over to the group and announces that he has a
theory as to why Maeve’s power seemed so much stronger than Merry’s or any of
her sidhe guards. “I have watched movies on Meredith’s television set. I have
seen how humans react to these movie stars. Their adoration of the actors is a
type of worship.”
Doyle worries that Maeve allowing humans to worship her as
an actress would be grounds to have all the sidhes kicked out of the US, as
that was one of their only rules when they came to America - that they do not set themselves up to
be worshipped as gods. Merry disagrees with this and says that Maeve didn’t set
herself up to be worshipped as a goddess, but rather she took advantage of an
already skewed system where humans treated actors and other stars as gods and
goddesses. Hell, Maeve is called Hollywood’s Golden Goddess multiple times in
this story, so duh? Because Maeve knew precisely what to do with all the power
of her human fans, she was able to turn that ‘worship’ into added power.
Merry adds that what Maeve is doing is similar to what the
sidhe who remained in Europe did – they could only remain in Europe if they
married into the royal houses, so as they intermarried with the European
royalty, they were able to take that extra adoration already in place and use
it to boost their powers.
Julian enters the room and
requests that they move their conversation with Maeve outside, to the poolside.
They all agree and head out there, and the chapter ends with Rhys taking Merry
by the hand and trying to get her to skip down Maeve Reed’s hallways while
humming “We’re Off to See the Wizard”. What?? I don't even get these characters anymore. I give up.
Labels: book review, Caress of Twilight