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That was all he knew.
It was the beat that drummed out in his head.
It was the certainty that Pestale and Hordly would strike from within and that all the Human Realm would quake beneath the enormity of what they would soon face.
He would go to them, as he had over the past years, under the guise of brotherhood. Ancient Danu magic soared through him and it was different than Pestale’s Unseelie magic for it was Seelie magic.
His deep dark secret was that he was so much more Seelie than his brothers knew. It was time he went to them now. He could feel danger reaching its tentacles toward the Human Realm and knew those tentacles would thrash at his Frankie.
Who would have thought that a slip of a girl would be the one thing standing between the horror of annihilation and safe ground?
He didn’t need a portal to make his way to Conglam. Seelie magic allowed him to shift anywhere he chose, and thus he shifted and found Pestale within his war chamber.
Pestale looked up and smiled, “Graely, good, you can help us while you are here.”
“Help you?” Graely was ever cautious with Pestale. He was never able to fathom his elder brother’s way of thinking.
“Yes, we need you to tell us what you know about Dublin’s underground. Have you any information about it?”
“Dublin? Underground? Why? Why would I know anything of the catacombs beneath Dublin?” Graely asked feeling physically sick inside. He knew now beyond any doubt, that Pestale had formulated an ‘attack plan’. He took a step away and stood near the large panoramic window with his hands folded in each other at his back and tried to appear only mildly curious. “Why, are you interested?” He turned back to face his brother.
“Because I mean to make a pact with the devil,” Pestale said and laughed out loud.
“I thought you might feel different about everything. I thought being here in this Paradise, with everything you could ever want or need would make you forget your desire for revenge. This world offers…”
Pestale cut him off, his voice filled with contempt, “This world? No, brother, it is not a world that satisfies me. The Shapeshifters have their own colony, as do the Blue Demons. The lesser beings are scarcely more than animals. The magic Crystal left us affords me no control over the thinking inhabitants.” He eyed Graely doubtfully. “I want more, but tell me Graely, do you continue still to simply walk the earth alone?”
“I do,” Graely said firmly.
“Is it as ever, enough for you?”
“It is, Pestale, it’s lonely. When I find it more than I can stand and the dark in me begins to rise—I come here.”
“To be with us, and give your darkness free will?” Pestale looked elated.
Graely shook his head. He knew Pestale would see through a lie of that magnitude. “No, not to give my dark free will, but to closet it where it belongs. I look at you and Hordly and realize the dark and the evil inside of you never allows you peace. For the most part, I do have some measure of peace. I come here to remind myself of that.” Graely looked into his oldest brother’s eyes which were so devoid of all feeling and saw something else, madness.
Pestale’s wickedness could never be squelched, but his obsession had driven him over the edge. He had never learned what was important, and when he struck this time, it would be horrendous.
Graely wasn’t gifted with the sight, he never had visions of the future, but his instincts were always right on the mark. He could see that Pestale was plotting something ugly regardless of the consequences—regardless of the danger even to himself.
“Did you know that our dear Crystal hated being kept in the Dark Realm, and was furious with our father when he first brought her to such a barren world? Did you know that?” Pestale asked suddenly.
Graely frowned wondering where this was going. “Yes, I remember that she had been unhappy and missed her human world. I don’t think hate is the right description for anything Crystal ever feels. I don’t think her capable of hate.”
“Ah, but perhaps you don’t know how much she wanted children and how unhappy she was when she discovered she couldn’t have them with the Dark King.”
“I knew,” Graely said. “She loved and sacrificed to be with him. That is who she is.”
Pestale’s eyes narrowed and he turned away from Graely to say, “Things change. Perception changes and she doesn’t want our father any longer. After eons, she wants her freedom and because she has grown accustomed to power, she means to use it to rule the Human Realm and stop their bickering, their wars and their ruination. She has made an arrangement with the leaders of the humans and means to leave him.”
“I don’t believe you. She would never desert the Dark King. She knows what that would do to him.” Graely paced. “Why do you say such things?
Pestale considered him, “You think you know her, but you have been on your own these last few years. How often have you visited with her?”
Graely was thrown into a moment’s doubt but he frowned, “I sat with her on a mountain top in the Highlands not so long ago. I know her.” And then it dawned on him. Pestale was setting his stage.
“Do you? Or do you hear what you want to hear when she speaks to you? Does our father know her? An interesting question, don’t you think? He knows what he wants, he knows what he needs, but does he know what she needs?” Pestale eyed his brother. “In recent years, he has been too busy ‘evolving’ beyond his Fae form, beyond Daoine. It is getting more difficult for her to make him focus on other matters, perhaps even on herself. Might he not believe he has neglected her and that she has turned to another?”
