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She might be in the talons of a giant flying beast, but her Trevor had taught her the skills she needed to escape her situation.
The landscape was changing faster than she could take it all in. She would have to make a decision fast. Yup, time to leave.
She shifted out of the sharp talons, and just before she landed in the mass of tall wheat grass below, she hovered with a smile on her face. She gave herself a mental pat on the back.
The feeling of accomplishment, however, was short lived, as an anaconda lifted itself high and slithered through the air to come face to face with her.
Screaming was her first reaction. The entire jungle vibrated with the scream that came out of her mouth.
Her next and instinctive reaction was to lift off and hover higher—much higher off the ground. “Never going to touch that land down there again,” she told herself out loud. Then she once again attempted to mind link with Trevor.
Nothing.
Jazz remembered the pendant around her neck. It had to work. It had worked in the year 1816, so why wouldn’t it work now?
Hovering well above the huge anaconda that had not given up on her and had curled into a coil ready to spring, she took the pendant in her hand and murmured the ancient spell that had been
handed down from mother to daughter.
She waited, and then a swirl of black mist opened up onto a bright yellow aura, but, as suddenly as it had arrived, it was gone.
She thought she heard the queen’s voice whisper just before the aura vanished, “Be patient.”
Unsure it actually was the queen’s voice, Jazz frowned with frustration. “What is the good in having this charm if you can’t get through to help me?” she asked the queen, but she did not receive a reply. She shook her head and sighed heavily.
She was going to have to shift again and again until she could find a place to set down and shield herself.
However, suddenly a strong swish of wind blasted over her, and once again she found herself dangling from a determined pterodactyl’s talons.
She swung in the wind for a moment while she tried to get herself together and decide where to jump shift to. Then she saw them.
She was being carried toward three hungry-looking pterodactyl babies whose wide-open mouths were as large and toothy as that of a great white shark.
Jazmine Decker screamed with total abandon.
* * *
In Killarney, the Arched Monoliths stood regally at the edge of the Middle Lake. A glow emanated from and surrounded the gigantic sarsen stones. The air vibrated and pulsated with magic, both light and dark magic, and the earth objected to the clashing forces.
The Seelie Royals could feel the power of Unseelie magic as it instigated tremors through the ground and shook everything within its immediate circumference. The lake bubbled and foamed. Opposing powers were contesting and challenging each other’s might.
The queen stood, both hands out, palms facing the dolmens, as she silently chanted. She had to trust Jazmine to take care of herself, for at the moment she had a larger problem.
At her back were her finest and strongest: Princes Breslyn and Danté, Princesses Ete, Radzia, and Royce, and Milesians Chancemont and Morgan LeBlanc. Together they formed a pyramid of power and magic as they concentrated on keeping the portal from opening.
* * *
They looked grim, ready to kill or be killed.
This was Trevor’s first thought as he stepped through with the Orb.
He felt a sense of pride, but he saw it was going to be one hell of a battle. The Dark Royals were already inside the portal, and in that regard they had the advantage. However, the portal was locked and, thus far, would not allow them to emerge. The Seelie Royals had managed to trap them for the moment, though it was a challenge that none of the Seelie Royals had encountered before.
The laws of nature could not be interfered with in this manner for long, and Trevor knew what they all knew. This was a losing battle. The best they could hope for as Aaibhe’s army increased at their backs was to contain the Unseelie, to keep them from storming Ireland and beyond.
Nuad, with his white hair blowing in the breeze, arrived and took up a stance with all of his Trackers flanking the pyramid of Royals.
The queen’s Royal warriors were gathering in numbers as the moments swiftly ticked by, but Trevor knew their numbers were not enough—they would have to rely on Seelie magic.
