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“What makes ye think so?” Chance shot back.
“Ireland is delicious and has its own flavor … and scent. I can smell Ireland, and I can see the lake …”
“Ireland—lake. What lake?” asked Trevor.
“I am not sure.” She looked at Trevor and avoided Chance’s eyes. He was studying her, and it made her feel uneasy. He seemed to sense that she was holding back. “Let’s look at this from Pestale’s point of view. What do we know about him?”
“You mean other than the fact that he is an abomination—a murderer?” Trevor spat out irritably.
“That is part of our problem. We don’t know anything about him, and it would help us locate him if we did,” Royce answered thoughtfully before glancing at Chancemont. After some hesitation, she continued, “Right—we know that he was filled with anger and the need for revenge when he killed …” She gave Chancemont a solemn eye-to-eye look. “When he … took your sister’s life. She had killed his youngest brother to save Trevor’s life. That tells us he is capable of emotion—he, like you, wanted revenge.”
“He is nothing like me.” Chance’s voice was a shout that roared through the air. “Lana went after and killed his brother because he was about to kill the man she loved. She was a baby—she didn’t stand a chance against Pestale.” He shook his head, and it was an anguished movement. “Aye, I want m’revenge, but he is well able to stand his own ground and take me on. She was no match for him.” Chance looked away from Royce and went quiet.
She wanted to reach out and touch him and did in fact take a step towards him. He turned and eyed her from brows drawn together, and she touched his hand. “Yes, you are right, but let’s focus on him—get a feel of where he might go. The Dark Fae are usually devoid of emotion, empathy, but this Dark Prince seemed to have cared about his youngest brother—about the loss of his brother, and it certainly moved him to action.”
Royce took to pacing as she spoke and turned to frown up at Chance. “It is very possible that he still has feelings for his remaining brothers and Queen Morrigu. After all, they are all this Dark Prince has ever had, all he’s known. If he has even the slightest feelings for them, he would want them with him. He would work as hard to be reunited with them as he would to stay out of our reach while he formulates his plans—whatever those plans are. Perhaps his goals are different than the goals Gaiscioch had outlined. But whatever the goals, he will need a portal to help his brothers escape the Dark Realm.”
“You are suggesting that that he has genuine feelings,” Trevor growled. “I don’t believe that. He is a Dark Fae … no empathy, no emotions—”
“I disagree,” said Chance quietly. “I think m’wee princess has a point. Pestale was different than his brothers. He led them, but he did care when m’Lana killed his brother. We saw it—he was enraged. We would do well to remember that, because we might yet be able to use it against him in the future. If he can feel rage, he can feel other emotions.”
“Point taken,” said Trevor. “So the question remains, why Ireland, because the why of it may give us the where exactly.”
“He will need a very special portal,” Royce said as she tried to form a picture of the portals the queen had already removed from Ireland. “As I recall, my brother said they had removed a very large sarsen portal from a secret island in the Lower Lake in Killarney.” She turned away from Trevor and Chance and tried concentrating on the three lakes.
She could picture them in her mind—and all at once, she saw him.
He stood on a mystically hidden small island in the largest lake—the Lower Lake. He was at the water’s edge of that island, and she could see the ruins of an old abbey behind him. He was reciting something in ancient Danu.
Instinctively she knew she should withdraw, but she wanted to watch. This was happening in the present, and as she feared, he sensed her—or something—that made him stop his chanting. He looked out onto the lake and then upwards towards the gray and cloud-studded sky.
She stared into his brilliant black eyes and knew he was looking back into her eyes. They had made a connection. So not good, was her first thought.
She felt linked to him somehow, as though his eyes held her in place. That wasn’t possible. She was a Seelie Royal and far more powerful than an Unseelie Royal—wasn’t she?
Chance reached for her elbow and called sharply, “Lass! Coom back to me—lass,” and then more gently, “Steady now …”
She heard his voice as though it were on an airwave far away, but it enabled her to break the connection with Pestale. She shook off the feeling and frowned. “What?” she said because she was a bit embarrassed.
“What did ye see, love?” Chance asked gently.
“The Lakes of Killarney—he is there. He is there right now.”
“There aren’t any other portals left in Killarney,” Trevor said doubtfully. “Why go there?”
“Gaiscioch could have had a portal hidden in Dark Magic,” Chance answered him and took Royce’s hand. She was surprised how he always seemed to take hold of her when he was ready to move. The next thing she knew they had shifted to Killarney near the Lower Lake’s shoreline.
“Don’t like Milesian mode of shifting—it feels sticky,” Royce said to Chance as they stepped onto the grass. “I can shift very well on my own, you know.”
“There is naught wrong with Milesian shifting,” Chance answered with a laugh, “and I prefer to ha
ve ye near when we travel. Now, never mind that. Tell me where he is, lass.”
Royce saw past the concealment spell the Dark Prince had enacted to the island that hid its presence from prying eyes in veils of ancient magic.
Absently noticing a large blue tour boat making its slow way past the island, she sighed wistfully. How nice it would be just to relax on a boat and enjoy the beauty of these natural surroundings instead of having to rout out a devil.
She turned back to Chance and said quietly, “Do you see that island through the magic?”
