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Pestale looked genuinely shocked, but Graely wasn’t fooled.
His brother had perfected the art of acting, and Graely returned a sneer and repeated, low and threateningly, “Don’t bother trying to pretend you don’t know anything, my brother. Now, what have you done with Frankie—tell me at once, or face the consequences.”
“I wasn’t sure how you would react, to my ministrations in the Human Realm, and I certainly didn’t realize that you and Frankie the Sluagh were so well acquainted. That, brother, is a surprise. I thought you would come in here with outraged fury to find out what we had done with our father’s consort.”
Graely stopped dead and swallowed his breath. Crystal? They had Crystal? The Dark King would kill them all to retrieve her. Was Pestale some kind of crazy?
He said on a quieter note, “Do not expect me to believe that someone such as you was actually capable of capturing and holding our father’s most powerful and beloved consort.” Graely had calculated his words to get an unguarded response. He did.
Pestale’s face contorted with rage, “You know me not,” he calmed himself, “Indeed, I would have thought you would know by now, just what I can accomplish when I set myself to it. We have Crystal contained, and although the initial injection of Dragon’s Breath will keep her sufficiently helpless, I have not administered a lethal dose—yet.” He put up his hand. “I am not ready for her to die just yet, as I must keep her alive long enough for him to know she is missing, long enough for him to feel the fear of her possible loss forever, long enough so I can drive home the pain I wish to cause him.”
“I don’t believe you. She has evolved beyond us, beyond the ability to be abducted and held…” Graely was incredulous.
“Ah, her pride has brought about her downfall. She could not give up her lovely female form. Indeed, when she visits the inhabitants of Conglam, she does so as a Fae, an incredibly beautiful Fae, even more so, now brother, than ever before.”
Graely tried to put his thoughts in order. He had to remain calm and find out all he could, he said on what he hoped was a suitably concerned voice, and one that did not hold condemnation; “Even so, she would not allow you to get close enough.”
Pestale cut him off with a ferocious growl, and then snapped, “That is why I partnered with a faction of the Blue Demons. They called her here, and the leader I work with, Sventer, was the one to shoot her with the venom and truss her up with the tainted netting, Hordly was crafty enough to perfect.”
“She will find a way to escape,” Graely scoffed.
“Will she? Not if she is hidden in a box of iron, as is your little Fios Sluagh.”
Graely felt all his insides collapse.
So it was true. All his fears were correct. His Frankie was presently at Pestale’s mercy. What mercy? His brother had none. He knew better than to try and reason, but he was desperate and suddenly he found himself trying to appeal to a threat, to some fear of consequence.
“Pestale, I have not interfered with any of your machinations over the years, because you left Frankie out of it. But, I swear to you, I will find a way to rip you to pieces and feed you to the abominations we left behind in the Dark Realm, if you harm her.”
Pestale regarded him curiously and asked, “So then, you would betray your brothers for this one female?”
“I would do anything to keep her from harm,” Graely said and saw the flicker of Pestale’s long black lashes and realized...
Too late, Graely realized. Too late he turned to find Hordly plunging the long needle into his bicep. It was too late, he realized what was about to happen.
He closed his eyes cursing himself as a fool and felt the powdered iron as it scurried through his veins and played havoc with his Fae blood.
“We cannot handle the iron ourselves,” Pestale said calmly. “Do you remember, our father threatening us with it? I often wondered if he at times, slipped us some of the powdered iron into our food when we had been particularly unruly as boys. You never thought so, and as it turns out, he might one day wish he had made it lethal.”
Graely collapsed onto his knees as the iron infiltrated his system and sapped his Fae strength.
Pestale clucked his tongue, “Powdered iron, even in the syringe, causes us great discomfort, so we had Sventer fill it for us. Hordly bravely accepted to
suffer holding the syringe. You see, we expected you at some point to come here outraged and threatening. We thought that we would keep you out of our hair.” Pestale sighed. You see, we can no longer trust you at all.” Pestale sneered and added, “You think I don’t understand what it feels to be so completely enamored and swept away by one female—I do. I feel what you feel, I want what you want to protect and keep my female. Mine is loyal just to me. She is worthy my protection and affection, but, I would put a knife through her heart before I would allow her to interfere with my efforts to destroy our father and take over the Human Realm.”
He turned to Hordly who was rubbing his hands. “Is that not so?”
“Damn straight,” Hordly grimaced, “But the next time iron has to be handled, you do it,” he told Pestale.
His brother ignored him and turned back to Graely. “I should put you to death right now, but I am loathing to do so. We have lost a brother in the Gaiscioch war, and I won’t lose another now if I can help it. But who knows. Maybe it has always been destiny for there to be but two Dark Princes, Hordly and me. Or, perhaps, one day you will come to your senses. In the meantime, I think I will simply keep you a prisoner until we are done, till we have witnessed the end of the Dark King.”
Graely could scarcely concentrate on what Pestale was saying. It was as though a thousand knives slashed viciously at his muscles, and stabbed into his vital organs. Bursting rockets of pain raced through his body, and it took everything he had to keep from losing consciousness.
A hammer pounded in his brain, and even through it all, he called to her with their mind link, Frankie, Frankie, Frankie…can you hear me, my love—I shall break free and come for you.
* * *
Eslym shifted into the hallway just outside the door of Pestale’s War Room chamber, as it was not her habit to enter this particular room without first announcing her presence.
