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“Yes, but you should worry about the human at your back.” He clucked his tongue. “Are you still pining over the lovely Milesian, Lana?” Pestale taunted him. He then looked at Jazz. “Has he told you about her yet? She killed our youngest brother when we stormed Dublin, not so very long ago.” He shrugged. “What I did next was what you humans call payback. I took my payback and killed her. Your Seelie lover was distraught over the business. Who could blame him? She was devastatingly beautiful.” Pestale had been watching Jazz and added suddenly, “Ah, I see it is as I thought. He has not told you how much he loved her and vowed vengeance for his loss. Why is that, do you think?”
Trevor growled at him and jabbed with his sword. Pestale laughed, and then he and Hordly shifted away. The middle brother lingered a moment and then shifted off as well.
* * *
They had been gone only seconds, and during that time Trevor sent his sword with the Orb once again into concealment. He then turned to Jazz, saw her face, and cursed softly, for he could see Pestale had gotten to her. He stomped over to her, took her shoulders in his hands, and looked intently into her eyes. “My Jazmine Decker, do not allow him to get to you,” he pleaded.
“Tell me,” she said.
“I have told you. There is nothing more to tell. Yes, Lana and I were just beginning … we never got past that first look, that first kiss, and, yes, I loved her, but it was different than—” He touched her face and then shook his head. “—different than you and me. It was real, and I won’t make little of it by denying that what I felt for her was enormous, yes, but it was my first real attachment. Lana and I had just begun …” He sighed heavily. “I believe in facts. My queen believes in the fates. Here are both for you to consider. The fact is, I lost her early on in our beginning, and perhaps the fates have always intended to bring you to me. Are you listening to me, Jazmine Decker—are you listening?”
“Yes.” She rubbed her face against his naked chest and then looked up at him. “Trev, don’t misunderstand me. I am not jealous—well, maybe a little,” she admitted with a smile. “I just wanted to know everything, so that when a monster tries to cause trouble, I know just how to respond.” She kissed his chest all over.
He took her head in his hands and kissed her lips, and then without another word, and kissing her still, returned them to their bedroom in the Retreat.
With her curled up in his arms on the bed, he told her about their last days fighting Gaiscioch and Pestale—how it had all come about and why. He told her about the first time he saw Lana and how he had felt. He told her how she had saved his life by taking the fourth, and youngest, Dark Prince by surprise and killing him with her Death Sword, and how he had felt having to watch Pestale kill her—because of him.
“I was helpless … Jazmine Decker. She saved my life, and I could not save hers. Her brother, Chancemont, and I formed a union to track Pestale and kill him. Princess Royce joined us at the queen’s command. We did track him. He was ours to destroy, but the queen intervened, saying the Dark King wanted to take him home and make him drink from the Cauldron and start anew.”
Jazz frowned. “She had no choice, Trevor—she had to avert a battle with the Dark King.”
“I agree, but it was a difficult time for me, and in the end, look what it has wrought, and where is he, this Dark King who has thrust his son upon the universe?”
“It sucks,” Jazmine pronounced.
Trevor regarded her for a serious moment and then let loose with uncontrollable mirth. “It sucks,” he repeated and began laughing again.
She hugged him fiercely then and said, “Trev—something is wrong.”
He forced his laughter to die down and took her chin. “Yes, we should be lying on a bed of green grass in Tir—”
“Trev, listen to me. I know it is only human instinct, but something in my gut tells me those brothers were putting on a show for us. Like us, distracting them while the other Royals work to close the gaps on the other side, the Dark Ones are trying to distract us from the real door they are opening through the Prison Wall.” She put a fist to her stomach. “I feel it … here …”
“You feel it, but that doesn’t make it so.” He frowned.
&nbs
p; “Well, then logically, Fae logic, think about it. What the heck were they doing? Standing there naked, chanting just one word—open? You don’t really believe it would have stayed open long enough for them to get through? And where was their army?” She shook her head. “I don’t think they mean to go through without backup. This time, when Pestale goes marching into our worlds, I think he will have his two brothers and Queen Morrigu at his side, yes, but he will need that army at his back. And they will be dressed for battle, with whatever weapons they have accumulated at their disposal. Think about it—he can’t cover the globe unless he has numbers. Trev, he has to have his dark monsters come through with him … he has to, because he damn well won’t risk coming back for them.”
He considered her, and then dawning lit over his face. “Your human gut is very wise.” He began pacing. “Right, then, where would he be working on this portal, for, my sweet Fios, it will have to be enormous and bursting with living power.”
“I’m guessing it has to be somewhere we wouldn’t think to look. Somewhere he could line up his army and have them available for the trip. Somewhere, hmm, somewhere where he is in control of his surroundings.”
“Queen Morrigu’s castle then—it would have to be at the castle. But there isn’t enough room there for the—”
“Yes, there might be. Do you know how cavernous the dungeon part of his castle might be? He might have a tunnel that could extend for a mile for all we know. He is a Dark Prince—he can create with the flick of his wrist, and he isn’t Hordly. Everything he does, he does with forethought and purpose.” She got onto her knees on the bed and held his hands as she continued, “Think about it. A tunnel for his monsters to line up in while he opens the real portal to the Human Realm. Wouldn’t that be convenient? And convenient is what I think Pestale will go for. Trev, you can’t underestimate him. He isn’t a raging bull like Hordly. There is more to him. He arranges his plans with a certain flair—I feel that in my gut. I can see that although he is reserved enough to control himself to achieve what he wants, he is ruthless.”
She put a finger to her lips and tapped. “Yup, I think that is what he has been building, a portal underground that will lead him to the human world and then to yours once he and his army are out of here.”
~ Seventeen ~
QUEEN AAIBHE STOOD on her balcony and looked over the courtyard. It was a distance, quite a distance from her private quarters, but she was Daoine, the highest of the Seelie caste, and able to turn up her Fae hearing volume even more than most and at will.
Some of her favorite acquaintances and friends were in a heated debate. She was thankful that none seemed to think she should be deposed. None seemed to think it was even their legal right to do so; no, that was not at the meat of their arguments with one another.
And their arguments divided them, females against males.
Female Fae reveled in the notion she had at last found someone she could love. Male Fae were outraged it wasn’t one of them but a Milesian.
