Through Time-Whiplash (14 page)

A moment’s dazzling of light and sound, and then black, all black.

The next thing she knew she was looking at stone flooring at her feet and feeling a sense of bleakness as she managed a quick scan of the dark corridor they were in. Trevor broke free from her hold and spun around to begin his rant.

She didn’t hear his first words because she was mesmerized by his golden eyes. His beautiful alien eyes simply held her captive. She shook herself free from the moment and put up her hand. “I know you are upset, but I promise, I won’t get in your way … and I will watch your back.”

“
You are already
in my way,” he seethed. “Don’t you realize
that you
being
here
is a liability for me?
You are mortal
 … and I couldn’t bear it if they manage to capture you and hurt you … I …” He shook his head. “Pendant or no, I’m taking you back—I can’t have you in danger like this.”

“Waste of time,” she said and looked around more thoroughly. “They must know we’ve entered their realm. If you leave and come back, they will be prepared for you, and your mission will be in ruins,” she said and watched him as he thought this through.

All at once, Jazz shivered; the air was frigid. She looked down at the gown Trevor had ‘blinked’ her into for their meeting with the queen and said, “This is way not enough clothing for this place. Got any ski clothes handy?”

A moment later, she was warmer in a dark knit hat and a warm, downy, well-fitted ski jacket. Her jeans were back on her legs and her boots on her feet. She smiled and said, “Better—you are quite handy to have around.” She glanced over him; he was still naked to the waist. “What about you? Aren’t you cold?”

He grimaced at her, didn’t answer this, and said, “You shouldn’t be here, but since you are, you just stay close.” He put a finger to her face. “I won’t tolerate your disobedience in this realm. Even at risk to my mission, I will return you to Faery if you disobey me.”

She nodded and said, “Sure, sure, whatever.” She took a good look around and decided this had to be a castle. The long corridor was somewhere in the Dark Royal’s castle.
Whew
, she breathed as that sank in.

The walls, the floor, everything about where they were had a medieval ‘feel’, except for the wall sconces, which appeared to be powered by electricity—or whatever energy they had in their Dark Realm. That surprised her. She had expected to find candles and torches, not this modern convenience, and she said out loud, “Huh.”

“Shush,” he ordered.

Repentant, she went silent as she scanned the walls, which appeared to be made of thick stone. The flooring was made of some flat stone similar to the flagstone that could be found at home. The ceiling also appeared to be made of some kind of stone. Everything though felt bleak and barren, and although she saw no ice or snow, it felt as though she had stepped onto the North Pole.

In spite of the knit hat and dark navy ski jacket she was wearing, she shivered again.

Trevor pulled on her gloved fingers and brought her close to his body as he moved towards a long, lead-paned and arched window in the middle of the narrow corridor.

That window displayed a bleak world. They looked out on a horrible, dead landscape, dimly lit by an unusual moon. The scene was misty and barren, with nothing but dead and strangely warped trees and shrubbery making up the landscape of cracked, gray earth.

“Wow,” Jazz said. “Everything has died here …”

“No, not died, been killed. The Fae abominations have sucked the life out of everything. And it is perpetual dusk here—no sun.”

“Horrible.” Jazz shivered again. “Where are we exactly? What is this place?”

“Queen Morrigu’s Castle. The Dark King left it to her when he took his human as a consort. He left her here with the Dark Princes he had created. I am told she is quite mad.”

“Well, yeah, poor thing—left here like that,” Jazz said, looking around. “I don’t think I like this Dark King. He seems a selfish brute without compassion.”

“She chose to follow him. He did not ask her to, but Morrigu followed the Dark King here when he first banished himself. He was wretched that his war had resulted in Queen Bridget’s death. He never wanted that. Morrigu thought if she became his mistress, they could rule here … but then his experiments all went wrong. She turned to Dark Magic, and it took over her thought process, and although he wanted to return her to Tir, he couldn’t because of what the Dark Magic had done to her.” Trevor shrugged. “I am told the Dark King thinks on another plane,” he said. “Never mind all that now. We have to—”

“Have you ever been here before?”

“No,” he answered and pulled her further along the corridor.

“How will you know where to go?”

He touched his head with his pointer finger and grinned. “You do not give us enough credit, Fios. I have all that I need already implanted by the queen, right in here.”

“Like a set of blueprints?” Jazz asked, impressed, and then she stopped and clutched him. “Do you feel that?”

“What?”

“
Dark Fae
—everywhere … Dark Fae. You know I can sense them. It must be built into our DNA from ancient times when we had to alert the villagers before the Fae arrived.” She eyed him with a smirk. “Seems
I
can sense Fae approaching even before you can.” Her eyes teased him. “And I feel Unseelie all around.”

“Well,
we are
in the Dark Realm,” he reasoned with a grin.

Jazz was all too aware that she loved his grin. A boyish innocence played in that beaming smile, so at variance with some of the stodginess with which he conducted himself, and so at odds with the fact that he had lived thousands of years.

He began moving stealthy and said, “Quiet now.”

All at once, Jazz felt a strange sensation at her back, and her skin got prickly. She yanked at his hand as she spun around and discovered why her Fios senses had been screaming in her head and all over her body.

A Dark and Royal Fae stood, his arms folded across his muscular and tattooed chest, his expression contemptuous—a Royal, yes, but not Hordly!

He was tall, incredibly handsome, with shoulder-length black hair that fell loosely around his face. His eyes were black and glittering and held a look she couldn’t quite read. Was it amusement? Purpose? Bitterness?

He wore a silver torque, much like Hordly’s torque, etched to denote both his Royal status and his station as firstborn to the Dark King. His chest was bare except for a set of intricate tattoos. Covering his muscular thighs were black leather pants, and on his bare feet were sandals.

“Did you think you could enter my castle without my knowing, Seelie?” he said in a similar accent to his brother’s. The Dark Princes evidently spoke another dialect of Danu. Their accents were similar to Trevor’s but not quite the same.

Trevor’s words were super-charged with hatred, and Jazz felt it fill the air as he breathed just one word out loud:
“
Pestale
!”

The Dark Prince inclined his head, and Jazz was immediately aware that this one was very different than his brother. This one had a great deal of cunning, a sense of self-worth, and purpose.

He said, “Ah, no doubt you were expecting a change in me? Tell me, Seelie, did you think the Dark King would really be bothered to re-educate me after I drank from the Cauldron?” He shook his head. “Hordly knew better and saved me from its waters and the years of wandering aimlessly without direction.”

“I see one change,” Trevor said, his gaze traveling over the tatts on Pestale’s abdomen.

Jazz could almost see him thinking. He would call for his Death Sword and shift to the Dark Prince. She tensed as she waited.

Pestale smirked as he opened his folded arms and raised one well-shaped brow. “Ah, these?” he said, looking at the tatts. “They were needed for the very Dark Magic I have been working with in this last week.” He looked at Jazz and sucked in air as he allowed his gaze to travel over her. She felt as though he had stripped her of all her warm clothing, and she moved in closer to Trevor as he spoke again, softly, so softly. “
Lovely creature
. I can’t imagine why you have brought her to
my
castle, but I thank you. I shall be sure to enjoy her quite thoroughly before she dies.”

Jazz felt her Fios kick in again—more Dark Fae on the move and headed towards them. Two … two male Fae almost upon them.

She felt their presence at her back as they shifted in. She looked over her shoulder and discovered with a sinking heart that one was Hordly and the other, from the torque around his neck, had to be his brother. They were surrounded. This was
so
not what she had in mind. She had thought she and Trev would arrive and take the Dark Princes by surprise
and by storm
. It appeared, however, that the Unseelie Royals had the upper hand.

She had to do something—all her Fios senses were on the alert and ready to defend—but she waited, looking at Trevor, hoping he had a plan.

Trevor had to know, of course, they were surrounded, but he did not seem overly concerned to her. Was he bluffing?
He should be concerned
, she thought worriedly.
Lots of reasons to be concerned here.

All at once Trev was in motion, his Death Sword in his right hand. He swung it from side to side, slashing at air.

With his other hand, he held her. They shifted, coming up behind Pestale so that all three Dark Princes were before him and she was at his back.
She got ready.

Jazz knew this was it. Here was death staring at them.

The Unseelie Royals came at Trevor, and although Jazz flattened herself against the wall, she knew she had to do something. Then she remembered just what she could do.

The first one, Pestale, wasn’t aware she was a Fios, let alone a
slammer
, and Hordly was too busy concentrating on taking Trevor down to bother himself with her just yet.

This was the moment, as the last Unseelie prince seemed to be just along for the ride and hung about not doing much of anything.

She centered her magic first on all Pestale and Hordly, but as the middle brother inched closer to Hordly, she included him in the set.

Pestale had managed to get his hands on a Death Sword and was holding it between Trevor and himself, sneering all the while.

She took his magic, and the magic of his brothers, but it was an enormous burden, heavy with evil, and her mind nearly toppled with its weight. She had an overwhelming urge to puke.

She had to do this, she had to, she told herself. No puking—only
slamming.

She got control as she doubled over and then threw everything she had at all three. The Dark power she had momentarily stolen and hurled at them hit them with a force of a small bomb.

A resounding and thunderous rocket of black power knocked Pestale into both his brothers in midair as all three went flying. They landed hard at the far end of the corridor and were momentarily bereft of energy!

Trevor shifted in close to them, his Death Sword poised and ready to slash Pestale’s handsome, wicked head off his shoulders, but Hordly was the first to recover and diverted Trevor’s purpose by shifting away. With a look of dread, Trev turned, apparently aware of what he would find.

With a sinking sensation, Jazz felt Hordly’s arms go around her as he pressed her back against his hard body.

“Back off my brothers, Seelie, or she dies
now
,” Hordly growled angrily.

Pestale was on his feet, as was his younger brother, and they stared first at the human girl, clearly wondering just what kind of magic she owned, before turning to Trevor.

Jazz saw that, for a moment, they were at an impasse.

* * *

Pestale surveyed the situation and made up his mind. He calmed himself, for he couldn’t allow his anger to rule him. He made a show by slashing through the air with his Death Sword and said, “What now, Seelie?”

“She dies? That is your threat?” Trevor said with a shrug, “So she dies. It is not what I wanted. But she forced herself on me even though I asked her to stay behind. And my mission is more important than even a magical human. What I want, all I want, is to kill at least one of you, here and now.”

“You don’t fool me.” Pestale shook his head. “You Seelie Royals care too much for the humans, and I think you will bargain rather than allow my brother to snap her neck.” Pestale added thoughtfully, “Besides, that would be a loss. She intrigues me with her power.”

“You are right—I don’t want her dead, but not because of her minimal skills but because I had planned to bed her.” Trevor shrugged again. “But next to killing you and your brothers …” He shook his head. “No comparison.”

Pestale understood putting the mission above all else. He adored Morrigu for many reasons, but he knew he would sacrifice her if he were in the same position. He believed Trevor but said, “Still, I think we shall keep her alive for the time being.” He looked toward the human woman. “It will be interesting to explore her, use her, touch her pretty body, and see how it is she was able to …
do what she did
. Hordly, take her to Morrigu’s chambers.”

* * *