Through Time-Slamming (11 page)

“Still I can not allow that.”

“We shall talk again later, for now…” Mab waved her hand and her sacred Orb appeared on the nearby round table and she said, “Look here…and concentrate with me to infuse our warriors with power. They are gravely outnumbered.”

Aaibhe felt a lump in her throat when she looked in the Orb and discovered hordes of Unseelie converging on her Royals and the meager number of warriors at their backs.

There were less than a hundred, but the Unseelie numbered nearly five hundred. Some evidently had already multiplied.

Matters were dire.

~*~

“They are overrun”,
Trevor heard his Queen say as he took his mate’s hand. “We are for Killarney.”

Jazz wondered if Fae ever got tired. She sure didn’t feel tired. They had left Inverness swept clean of Unseelie, and then Edinburgh as well. Could they just keep going at this rate? She thought of those humans who had been tortured and eaten whole. The survivors would all tell the same tale and the military would no doubt institute a search for the origin of these creatures.

They had not left any bodies in the streets for authorities to investigate and Jazz knew investigators would not be able to solve this ugly attack—yet.

Deaths like these would sweep the globe, sooner or later, if they couldn’t send them back to the Dark Realm soon enough. The authorities would start sharing information and draw their conclusions. She could only imagine what those would be.

This was a problem for another time, for as they stepped out onto the grassy knoll overlooking the lower lake and the giant Monoliths, Jazz caught her breath.

The Royals and the warriors were surrounded by the worst of the Unseelie Fae, the ones that were problem solvers. Their numbers were such that she could only think, that their first feeding had allowed them to multiply in astounding numbers!

She could see Deimne flying overhead and bombarding those numbers with deadly magic, laying them on the ground for the Seelie Warriors to destroy with their Death Swords.

The mass of creatures were jumping on the backs of those brave warriors as Trevor and Ete rushed in to help. Jazz realized they needed more than Death Swords and more than Deimne from above. Why hadn’t she remembered what she could do? She could
Slam
. She was a Fios
Slammer
long before she had been infused with Fae Blood.

She zeroed in on twenty murderous monsters attacking a lovely blonde Fae female, and an immortal who was not a Fae. They were in trouble.

She began in her Fios style, taking the magic of the Dark Fae. Even as she drew their magic out of them, she realized something inside of her had changed. Her power had changed. Not only could she take their magic, she was able to merge her Fae magic with her
Slamming
ability. The result was going to be phenomenal.

She stood with her legs apart and concentrated as she felt, then saw the air shift. Her magic traveled like a rocket, splintering as it grew in size. It took out the twenty abominations without effort.

They were on the ground helpless, unable to move. The Royals only paused a moment to give her a shocked expression before they fell on the beasts and began decapitating them one by one.

Here was how she could really help.

She could lay them down in groups, which would allow the warriors to slaughter them quickly and move on. She began systematically doing this. She didn’t know how long they would be unable to move, but the royals were fast. Killing and shifting continuously as the grassy field became covered in green, yellow, and black goo.

As she turned to attack another group of Unseelie, she felt a sensation. She looked up and there was
Pestale!

Pestale had positioned himself well out of the battle at the top edging of one of the rolling foothills of the neighboring mountains. He was far enough to be safely out of the battle, and yet close enough to oversee it.

Before she could react, he shifted in and put his Death Sword to her throat.

~*~

Trevor had watched his mate with a swelling of pride which was as illogical as it was profound. She was a swirling whirlwind of quiet strength. She took on dozens of grotesque Unseelie, knocking them over and out with her Fios might.

And then the world stopped.

Time stopped for him as he heard none of the din around him. He saw nothing but his beloved caught in Pestale’s deadly grip. He had to think, he had to act. Here was Pestale who had killed his Lana so swiftly and without a thought.

Now he had Jazmine Decker. Pestale had her with the blade of the Death Sword at her delicate neck.

She was his bonded mate and he was certain that he could not go on living without her. Pestale was about to kill her. He had to think.

He had only one advantage. Pestale had not seen him.

And then he knew just what he had to do.

He shifted in behind Pestale with his sword ever ready. His free hand gripped Pestale’s shoulder and squeezed. “What now devil? You can’t shift anywhere without taking me as well.”

Pestale turned his head slightly and said with a sneer, “I can kill her you know, even if you manage to drive your sword into me before I cut open her throat. I can still cut her enough to give her a long agonizing death. Will you chance it?”

“For the good of all, I will,” Trevor bluffed and hoped the Dark One would buy it. In truth, he would rather die on the spot than chance it, but he told himself that the Dark Prince was unaccustomed to such a notion. He was unfamiliar with a sense of true love and loyalty.

“You don’t mean that. I have seen the way you look at her. You want her and she wants you. You are not ready to do without her,” Pestale said derisively. “I know you believe I don’t know about such things, but while I don’t understand such emotions, I do discern them in humans…and some Fae.”

Trevor’s sword tip was firmly in place and with but one pierce of the sword would give Pestale a slow death. “Release her demon and I shall release you. We are not at an impasse for if you kill her, you will die. I will make certain it will be long and torturous.”

“You don’t wish to anger my father. The Dark King will not readily accept the death of another of his sons”, Pestale said on a low hiss.

Trevor’s voice was lined with hatred. “Do I give a damn what the Dark King wants or doesn’t want? No. I mean to put all his sons in the ground and end this once and for all. I am not a diplomat like my Queen.” He knew that Pestale believed this. He knew because he had spoken the truth and the Dark Prince had heard it. He felt his words take their place in the Prince’s complicated mind.

“If that is so, I think I will gut this pretty before I die”, the Dark Prince said on a low and threatening note. “Shall I let her go…shall we deal more elegantly than that?”

“I never want to see any pretty gutted, so deal,” Trevor said with a growl.

“You know if I slip and the sword cuts her, she will die a slow death in horrible agony,” Pestale said, “So be careful how you hold your sword to me.”

“You won’t slip, to do so means you die…slowly.”

“How then shall we accomplish both our goals at once? You get the pretty and you put down your sword.”

“In that order. I get her and then I release you,” Trevor said.

“Ha! I should trust you in this? We are at an impasse,” said the Dark Prince.

Chapter Twelve

FRANKIE WALKED BESIDE a tall young female Fae, whose thousand Fae years, put her at about a couple of human years older than Frankie. “Suade, I am afraid,” Frankie said.

Suade put her arm around her and sighed, “We all are, but I trust the Royals. My mother says they have seen us through terrible trials and shall do so again.”

“The problem is that the Dark Princes are very different. They do not think like Seelie Fae, even though they have Seelie in them. They have no…no…what is the word?”

“Empathy,” Suade supplied and smiled. “I know, but it doesn’t matter. In the end they will be beaten.”

“In the end our Royals will strike at the Dark Princes and defeat them at their stronghold.” Frankie said grimly, “I have seen the war ahead in a dream and it was frightening, because I couldn’t see the outcome.” She touched the spot in her chest where she still had a very human heart. “I feel so much in here, where my mother lives in my heart. The Dark Princes are planning a trap, I just know it.”

“You can be certain that every possibility to find a final solution is being explored,” Suade answered. “I am not of royal blood, but my father is Nuad, Chief Tracker. I hear a great deal when he and my mother talk.”

Frankie sighed. No one took her seriously because she was considered a child. Even Suade treated her like a child that needed to be reassured. What she wanted was to know the truth.

She wasn’t like the other Fae, Daoine or Seelie. She had Sluagh blood, and that blood, she realized when she had met her father, made her a very different kind of Daoine Fae.

She wasn’t sure what had activated this sudden mental and physical growth, but she knew that something was occurring inside of her. Also, her Fios powers had changed. They had blossomed beyond imagination. They were merging with her Sluagh bloodline and evolving.

She sighed and let the subject go. She told Suade she wanted to return to the castle, and she wouldn’t have to babysit her any longer.

Suade laughed and pointed a finger. “You are not a baby and we shall be great friends one day, for you are maturing rapidly. I can feel it in you, though I don’t quite understand it. Perhaps something happened to you during your time in the Dark Realm?” She shrugged, “Very well, I can see you are anxious to get back to the castle. Go then and I shall see you later.”

Frankie shifted, but did not go anywhere near Tir Palace or the Queen’s chamber.

She shifted to the Highlands in the heart of the Grampian Mountains, just outside Queen Morrigu’s Castle grounds. She put her hand to the earth and softly asked, “
Tell me
.”

“What do you think grass and dirt can tell you?” asked a beautifully accented voice at her back.

Frankie jumped up and nearly fell on her butt as she tried spinning around at the same time. It was done in all one movement. As she righted herself she stared.

Before her, more handsome than Trevor, with black glistening locks blowing about his exquisitely good looking face was a Dark Prince.

He was naked to the waist and Frankie gulped. She should shift. She needed to leave immediately, but her curiosity made her stay.

His shoulder carried a tattoo of a Celtic cross. One bicep was banded with Celtic runes. Down one arm was a tattoo designed to protect him against the forces of Dark Magic and Frankie took it all in.

He was bold, yet she did not feel evil emanate from him. She watched as he strode forward wearing only dark leather pants and sandals.

She remembered him from the Dark Realm. She had noticed him at some point when she had been hiding behind Jazz. This one was called Graely.

Some instinct kept her from shifting away.

“I was not being sarcastic child. I was interested. What can the earth tell you?” he asked again.

“Ye be Graely. I remember ye from the Dark Realm,” she answered.

He cocked his head. “I am. I mean you no harm. You can shift away anytime you like.”

“Are ye going to sound the alarm? I know ye can do that in yer head. Are ye going to tell them I am here?” she asked warily. She prepared herself to escape. At the least sign of a Dark Fae, she would shift.

“No, you are but a child. Why would I do that?” he asked and took a step toward her.

She hopped back and away from him. “Because ye be evil,” she answered in her pretty Irish lilt.

“I have done wicked things, I know. Lately I have been wondering if I truly am evil. My father says
I am not
. Crystal says she believes I have redeeming qualities.
I wonder
. If they are right, then what am I doing here with my brothers?”

“What do ye want from me?” Frankie got to the point. She didn’t have time or patience with riddles. Frankie preferred to say what she felt.

“I am not sure. I know when I saw you touching the earth with such purpose, I was curious. You have not yet answered my question,” Graely said, spreading his hands out imploringly.

“Why is it so important to ye?”

“Because, you intrigue me. You are but a child, and yet I sense immense power in you. I can feel it growing inside of you, child. Tell me just what you are, for you are much more than a Royal Fae.”

“Which shows ye that ye know nothing,” she answered pugnaciously. “Not royal at all and I think I should leave now,” Frankie said.

“Did you get what you wanted from the earth outside our castle?” Graely pursued.