Summary
A Lick of Frost begins one mois after the events of Mistral's Kiss. The opening chapters montrer Merry and a few of her guards (Rhys, Galen, Doyle, Frost, and Abeloec) in a conference room, being questioned on Rhys, Galen, and Abe's charge of rape (charges pressed par Taranis). The meeting ends badly, with Taranis losing what little control he had on his sanity, and one of the officers of Taranis' guard, Sir Hugh, telling Merry that he is going to force a vote among the nobles of the Seelie court to choose a new king, and he wants Merry to take Taranis' place.
When Merry and her guards get accueil after taking a trip to the hospital (as Doyle and Abe got badly hurt from Taranis' attack), they call Aunt Andais to tell her of all that has happened- specifically the offer to rule the Seelie Court. Andais believes Merry already agreed to rule and abuses one of her guards (Crystall) in a sadistic rage. Eventually, Merry and her men convince Andais otherwise, but she still continues to abuse the guard in reaction to many of them leaving to rejoindre Merry. The series of mirror-calls end, and Merry finalizes the coming together of her, Ash, and houx for later that night.
Night comes and houx and Ash arrive, along with all of the Red trophée in tow. Jonty, a Red casquette, cap that helped Merry fight in Mistral's Kiss, sheds a tear as Merry tells him she would bring the Red trophée into their power. She catches the tear on her finger and consumes it. This brings on the remaking of Maeve Reed's house into a sithen. Those of faerie who stand in that room with no faerie dog to keep them grounded, crumple to the floor. Some of the crumpled men are revived par one of the dogs, but Frost stays down.
The creation of the sithen (faerie land) allows the ring of fertility on her finger to flare to life and Merry realizes that she is pregnant with twins. Each twin has three fathers like in the story of Ceridwen. A phantom image of Merry's children appear par their respective fathers (Rhys, Frost, Galen, and Doyle). It is also discovered that Mistral and Sholto are the remaining fathers. There is also another phantom image (albeit dimmer) of a 3rd child (that has the potential to be born after the twins).
Frost turns out to be the sacrificial king for the creation of the new sithen. Merry prays for him not to die, and he turns into a white cerf and runs off. Merry runs to one of the gardens of her sithen to be alone and grieve the loss of Frost. While out there, Taranis (using illusion to appear as one of her guards) knocks her out and takes her to his bedroom back at the Seelie Court. It is assumed that he rapes her, and then believes he fathers her children. Hugh, some others at the Seelie Court, and Doyle (in dog form) sneak her out of the bedroom and into a press conference where she tells the press that Taranis made the Seelie woman (Lady Catarin) believe that it was Rhys, Galen, and Abe who raped her. However, it was all just an illusion of Taranis' making and the woman was in fact raped par other Seelie nobles working with him. Merry also tells them that she is pregnant, and that Taranis kidnapped and raped her.
The book ends with Merry in an ambulance with Doyle, continuing to mourn Frost and her current situation. She is on her way to the hospital to treat the concussion she received from Taranis and to take a rape test.
