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“Ye see it too, don’t ye? I’m right,” Frankie said.
“Yes, I see blue moving, busy at something…and I feel a pulse just below, no, not a pulse, a beat, a ticking…” Jazz’s voice was up a notch.
Dread flowed through Frankie as she said, “Not Unseelie, but Otherworldly, Jazz, oh, Jazz, I can feel their excitement. They have done something that has them excited.”
“Demons!” said Trevor as he returned. “Blue Demons. I have never encountered one, and we Fae can’t see past their Glamour, or invisibility, but Danté and Breslyn have encountered them, and what is more, Breslyn says a large colony of them happen to inhabit Conglam where Pestale is imprisoned.
“They have done something right below us, Trevor,” Frankie said, “But I can nea figure jest what it is, oh but,” Her Irish accent was heavy now, thick with brogue. “We must act now.”
He frowned, “Right then, so we shall. Going to see if I can ferret them out,” he said and immediately shifted off.
Jazz reached out her slender hand to stop him, and called out worriedly, “But…?” She pulled a face as he was already gone but she still asked, “How can you ferret them out if you can’t see them?”
“He’ll be fine,” Frankie reassured her. “They are already gone, I know that for certain, though don’t be asking me how I know, I just do, but Jazz…whatever it is that I have been afraid of is about to happen.” She began traversing the grassy square in front of the ancient library, studying the ground with desperate intensity.
“Frankie, I can hear something ticking right below us,” Jazz said doubtfully.
“The tunnels! Of course,” said Frankie remembering the legends told when she was a child. “I know all about them. Da took me through them in m’mind when he knew I had decided to go to Trinity. Bless ye, Da.”
Trevor returned in time to hear this and asked, “Yes, but Frankie, why would Blue Demons even come here? The atmosphere isn’t even suitable for them—it depletes their magic. And besides that, they have lived peacefully in Conglam for centuries.” Trevor took Jazz into an embrace and kissed her forehead, “Don’t go anywhere. I mean to try and overcome the block they put on their scent and track them and maybe get a fix on what they have done below.”
Again, he was off, with Jazz pulling a face and turning to Frankie who had gasped and grabbed her leather sleeve.
“Jazz, ye said something is ticking before. I hear it as well…and I know where it is.”
Dawning lit up Jazz’s face as she groaned, “Frankie…it is a detonator. I can see it in my mind.” She looked at all the young people walking to and fro and boomed out as hard and as loud as she could, “BOMB…get out of here, there is a BOMB!”
Panic ensued and people began running in every direction. Frankie looked around and said, her voice filled with concern, “There is more than one, Jazz. They have set two, and she knew one of them was set to take out the Ancient Library!
With that, she shifted off, leaving Jazz trying to direct as many people away from the immediate area as she could.
* * *
Graely had hung back and watched Frankie and Jazz worriedly. He didn’t want to approach with Trevor coming and going. It would only upset the balance.
He heard their conversation and realization dawned on him. This was the first of Pestale’s steps. But why? And yes, the why of it mattered as it would lead to an answer to the question, to what end?
He leaned hard against the limestone building he had been propped up against, well out of Trevor’s view.
Then Jazz shouted Bomb.
Of course, create a diversion, with total disregard for those that would be maimed and killed. He had not thought the Blue Demons were that sort, but evidently he had been wrong. They had justified the means in the pursuit of the end. Just what end had Pestale promised them?
He knew where Frankie had shifted and shifted there as well, reached out and grabbed hold of her arm, “Frankie,” he said softly.
“I can see it in my mind,” she said without preamble. “I can see it, help me find it Graely.”
“You could be killed. If the bomb severs your head from your body, you could be killed,” was all he could think and all he could say.
“Eweee, Graely!” she grinned at him.
“Frankie, why can’t you be serious? You are always throwing yourself headlong into everything without thinking!” he countered.
“Well, what are the odds of my head being blown off?” She laughed and added before he could answer, “No, don’t answer that…” she yanked on his hand, “Just help me find the bombs, Graely because there are two, and I have a notion one of them is set to blow up the Ancient Library.”
He scanned their damp dark surroundings. Torches had been left lit by the Blue Demons and he followed the scent to where it was strongest.
Frankie saw him and then suddenly rushed past him. He couldn’t see past the demon magic, but he realized that she could.
