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He tried again to mind link with her, but if she was in Conglam, he couldn’t tell as for the first time in six years, he felt no connection.
All at once, he thought he would go mad if he didn’t find her. If anything happened to her he knew, he could no longer exist because he wouldn’t want to. A desperate sensation wriggled through his blood and teased his nerve endings. He was momentarily bereft of answers. He only knew he had to find her unharmed.
Frankie had once punched him playfully in the stomach and said, “Graely, ye have gut instincts, everyone does, ye just need to get in tune.” Very well, he told the memory now, my own sweet girl, he whispered out loud as he tried to focus on those instincts she said he had.
The effort took him away. He could see her in his mind’s eye, laughing, calling to him, murmuring, asking him to dance with her.
He could see her with her gold streaked black hair blowing wildly in the wind around her piquant beautiful face as she spread her wings to fly. He felt a swelling inside he could not deny. Where would he take you, love, where?
At the sound of approaching footsteps across the stone floor, Graely turned, and put on a bored face, “Ah, brother.”
Pestale had entered the large
cold chamber and stopped short to mumble, “What an unexpected pleasure.” His eyes narrowed as he surveyed Graely, and a suspicious light glittered in their depths.
Graely turned partially away from his brother. He was struck dumb because Frankie’s scent floated on the air.
He blinked and got himself under control. She was here. She was alive and she was very near. But where?
He took a moment to compose himself as he moved toward the large panoramic window overlooking the manicured lawns and topiary Pestale had installed when he and Hordly had first arrived in Conglam.
It had taken quite a bit of doing, with their limited powers; he had been fond of telling Graely during his visits.
He looked out on the landscaped lawns and lovely setting and said idly, “I would have thought you and Hordly would be satisfied here, with all this beauty…”
“I will not be satisfied until I have what I am owed,” Pestale said angrily.
“And what are you owed?” Graely turned to eye him. He was running out of time. He had to slip away and look for Frankie.
“Everything!” Pestale snapped and came closer.
Her scent! It was all around Pestale. Frankie’s scent was delicious. He wanted to breathe it in, but he couldn’t allow Pestale to see. It wafted on the air, bright and lovely, driving him mad. He had to get to her and soon.
He felt a sudden relief and almost laughed with joy because he was certain she was near. He restrained himself and maintained a cool exterior. What had Pestale done to contain her? Frankie was not one to be held prisoner. If Pestale had used the Golden Wiele…then perhaps that would work?
He said as casually as he could muster, “I came to tell you that Dublin was attacked, and that the Seelie believe you have something to do with it.” No eye contact, Graely told himself, look disinterested.
Graely walked away from Pestale sure that Pestale could not, would not connect him with Frankie. How could he?
He did what he always did, walked aimlessly around the room, as though life was one big boring day after another. However, he was all too aware that Pestale was watching him curiously.
Pestale chuckled over this, “Do they? They must think me very powerful to reach all the way from Conglam into their puny world. And if I did such a thing—to what end? I haven’t my endless Unseelie army, so what good would it do?”
“As you say, but, it is their fear, and fear makes humans react irrationally. They have no way of reaching Crystal or the Dark King to ask for help as those two have not contacted either Queen Aaibhe or Queen Mab in over a year. The Fae guarding the humans are warded from entering Conglam without the Dark King’s leave.” Graely shrugged, “So they are unable to travel here and see for themselves what you might be up to. It seems they might be momentarily stumped.’
Pestale was pleased, “Stumped, are they? I like that.”
“I thought I would visit here as long as the wards allow, in the event that you may need me.”
“Why Graely, I thought you had washed your hands of my machinations. I thought you liked the life of a lonely monk,” Pestale said on a half a tease, and once again with a touch of suspicion.
“I have done so, as you say, and have been living quietly, but I do not want my brothers slaughtered. If I can do something to help you in that regard, I would,” Graely was able to say quite sincerely. He had no wish to see his brothers destroyed; though he would kill them himself if that was what it would take to save his Frankie.
His mind was thinking clearly and his cunning was at full capacity. He had but one goal at that moment. To get to Frankie.
He needed to get away from Pestale and track her scent. Where could she be? And then he almost slapped his forehead as suddenly he knew.
Somehow Pestale had trapped her in the dungeons. How he had done so, Graely could not fathom, for Frankie was cocky for a reason. She was beyond powerful, beyond Fae Magic, beyond anything Pestale had ever tackled, because all her strengths were enhanced by her human ingenuity.
