Cel

Prince Cel is a major recurring antagonist in the Merry Gentry series. He is Queen Andais' only child and the natural heir of the Unseelie Court. He is Princess Meredith's cousin, and his ongoing attempts at Merry's life are what drove her to leave the court three years before the start of the series.

He is vain, weak, evil-minded, cruel, and petty. He is a sadist, and generally regarded as quite mad. He created a coven of worshipers in LA breaking one of only two laws that could get all of his people banished from the last country that would have him. That he set himself up as a god is a secret known only to the Queen and his cousin, Meredith. He was punished for his crime by being chained alone in the dark with the sidhe's most powerful aphrodisiac spread on his skin for almost six months.

He possessed one hand of power, the hand of old blood. He has a personal guard,  made up of noble women of the court, Siobhan was their captain. When prince Essus was killed, Cel commandeered the prince's guard, the Cranes without giving them the option of joined or leaving, as a result, none of them had given him vows to serve, and when this breach of personal liberty was discovered, the Queen had no option but to allow Essus' old guard to leave her son's service.

Cel was prematurely released from his torture by Galen when wild magic was rebuilding parts of faerie. He emerged from confinement in earth and plant and found the queen walling up members of a noble house. Galen said there would be no walls no prisoners and there then were not.

Swallowing Darkness
When Merry and her people tried to leave faerie, Cel ambushed the column which included police, FBI, and National Guard contingents in an attempt to kill Merry, her unborn children, and her consorts.

Merry saw Cel manage to hold off Doyle in melee, realizing for the first time what an accomplished swordsman he was. She also realized that the reason no assassin had ever been found after her father's murder was because Cel had killed him personally:'' "Because you were good enough with a blade, and because you knew he would hesitate. You knew my father loved you. You counted on it." ''

Andais, who had loved her brother, screamed at her son that her brother had loved them, she was genuinely stunned that one of the two beings she had actually loved had murdered the other.

When the cousins came face to face, Cel revealed that he was infertile, and that was why Merry had been called home. He told her he would kill her and her babies.

Merry's hands of flesh and blood proved the superior weapons, and she drove both powers into him seeking blood and flesh to tear, and flexed the power inside her cousin so that Cel virtually exploded, killing him instantly.