Catch & Hold-Legend (Legend series) (5 page)

Another part of me, the unselfish part, hoped he hadn’t jumped into the pit, because I didn’t want him in danger as well. This was an unimaginably awful world, and its very air made me feel … haunted.

At any rate, perhaps Danté would not be able to track me in the Dark Realm, so even if he jumped in after me, he might not be able to find me. Would his Seelie senses and magic work in the Dark Realm? I was in the turmoil of the unknown.

“Yes, you need Danté because you are not using your Daoine powers at all. You may want Danté, but you are at the point where you can take care of yourself, if you would but apply yourself. You are a princess, Z. Why do you doubt yourself?” Rolo sighed.

I shrugged and looked around the ‘entertainment room’ Crystal and the Dark King must use when at this retreat. It was the chamber with all the large TV screens hanging about on a wall of glass. She knew about webcams, so they must be able to watch even our world from here? At the moment, the screens were all blank, and then one of them wasn’t blank at all but presented a moving, breathing, 3-D image live in full, big-screen color!

I saw his face, my Danté’s face, with a background that could only mean he was in Morrigu’s palace. I stepped forward whispering his name with a longing that made me sick with disgust for myself. I was a hopeless, lovesick puppy.

And then, all hell broke loose in my heart.

Morrigu was naked, and he was looking at her—I mean, you know the way a man looks at a naked beautiful woman. He was really looking, and I didn’t like it—not one bit!

Natural
, I told myself.
Silly, jealous, infantile girl
, I told myself.
He is a male … and even the most faithful male will look at a beautiful female when she is naked, and, even if she is the enemy, she is still an exceptional beauty and …
damn
!

Was that steam rising from the top of my head? Was that steam coming out of my ears and my nostrils … oh yes—
steam.

Morrigu was on her feet and moving towards him. “Shift out,” I said out loud to him. “Now, Danté—get out of there. You came here looking for
me
, so
look for me
!” and then Morrigu had her arms around his middle, she was doing something obscene to his thigh, and damn it all to hell—the screen went blank.
Blank, I tell you.

I banged on the screen and shouted out his name. This couldn’t be happening. Danté wouldn’t dive into the Dark Realm simply to make it with Morrigu. An important part of me knew that. The other part of me was just a crazy, jealous woman.

Rolo said, “Oh-oh.”

“Hush up!”

“I am a Seelie Hallow, and you should want to know my conclusions regarding the evidence we have just witnessed.”

“Well, I don’t.”

“However, if the screen showed you this and shut down at such inauspicious moment, there is a reason.”

“And what would that be?”

“Not sure.”

“Great, Rolo … just great.” I was beyond the ‘reasonable’ stage.

“It means that Danté is very capable of finding his way in the Dark Realm, but Danté, although a Royal, is not Daoine,” said Rolo.

“Yeah, so … he found his way right into Morrigu’s arms.”

“Chances are, Z, that he dove in after you and shifted to where he tracked you. We just came from the palace.”

“And he is looking for me with Morrigu wrapped around him?” I sneered, my brain still not operating in the normal mode. It was out there in loony tunes land with a vivid picture of him and Morrigu repeating itself as though stuck in that position.

“Morrigu, as I recall, was forever wrapping herself around anything that moved,” Rolo offered hesitantly.

I laughed in spite of myself and bit my lip. “Why can’t he track me here?”

“No doubt, it isn’t meant …”

“Why?”

“Because you are here to find your way out and more power along the way.”

“What more?”

“You need to come to grips, Z, with who and what you are.”

“And how do I do that?”

“Let go …”

“No—at least not until I get to Danté.” I shifted back to the palace and the chamber that held Danté and Morrigu.

I arrived in time to hear Danté say seductively, “There are better ways, Morrigu, to accomplish what—”

His lips were near her ear, his hands were on her upper arms, and her
naked breasts
were pressed against his naked middle.

I wanted to throw something at him, but all I had was my death sword. I looked around, grabbed a vase, and flung it with accuracy. It popped him one good one on the forehead, and Morrigu jumped away!

“Having a nice time?” I asked him sweetly.

He rubbed his forehead and frowned as he strode towards me.

“Creep!”
was the only word that came to mind and mouth, and I spat it out just before I shifted back to the TV chamber of the Dark King’s retreat.

~ Three ~

“WELL THAT WAS quite unseemly,” remarked Rolo, his tone obviously meant to display his disapproval.

“You think?” I was in a rage again, no logic to it. Logic was out the window, emotions were at war with each other and me, and Rolo’s attitude wasn’t helping.

“I do think, Daoine, that you are given to extreme emotions.” Rolo sighed. “Emotions are things you must set aside. I should also like to point out to you that you have left Danté in a precarious situation. He obviously followed you into the pit and might be as stuck in the Dark Realm as we are at the moment, if I know my Dark King.”

I didn’t have time to contemplate that suggestion as one of the huge monitors had a very lifelike and 3-D image of Danté just outside the Dark King’s glass structure. Evidently he had followed my scent here, but just outside was as far as he could get.

He was frowning as though he couldn’t quite see the retreat. He was shouting my name and obviously distraught.

I smiled to myself, but I did think it odd that the Dark King’s ‘place’ wasn’t inviting him in as it had me. I shrugged and decided to let him stew for a few moments out there.
And then it happened.

I felt myself enveloped in a cloud of what felt like feathers. For a moment it was suffocating, and I gasped as the house’s robot voice said, “Relax, Daoine … we must make a journey.”

My first thought was,
Danté. He’s still out there.
He
was outnumbered in the Dark Realm by those giant snake things, and I needed to keep him safe so I could kill him. He was here stuck in this awful place because of me, and now the Dark King’s house was playing games and sending me off willy nilly—God only knew where!

* * *

What does a male feel when he looks up, and there is his beloved, the one he came in search of, the one that makes him feel alive,
the one
—and not only is he in a room alone with a naked woman, but that naked woman is going off on his leg?

Aye, sick, is how I felt. It is no wonder I was thrown into a state of confusion. What does a male—Fae, human, any male—say?
I
t is not what it looks like
? Right—how was I to make her believe that?

After I fisted my hands in the air and regained control of a temper fueled by irritation and helplessness, I gave the situation some thought.

Here, to this barren land, was where I had tracked my Z
, twice
. Here was where the scent vanished. There was an answer, and it was all at once quite obvious. She had found the entrance to the Dark King’s mysterious retreat, a retreat he had built for his human mate. A retreat he, obviously at this moment, did
not wish me
to see, or enter.

I opened my Royal senses and demanded entrée. I caught a momentary glimpse of a structure made up of angled glass shafts of humongous proportions, and then it was gone.

I called for its return and for the next few moments was stuck in a back-and-forth battle for control of the situation as it appeared and disappeared right before my eyes. Damned annoying. For some reason, the Dark King didn’t want me following Z inside. There was an upside to the problem:
at least the Dark King didn’t want me dead
.

We, all Seelie Fae, have notions of what the Dark King is capable of, and we all know he is above our normal Fae (even Royal) mode of thought. My queen has said that he has evolved beyond comprehension …

Who knew what he thought reasonable or evil? Who knew to what lengths he would go to achieve whatever he fancied?

What to do? And then—all at once I realized that two more of the anaconda Dark Fae had slithered up too close and too personal. I had my hands full for the next few moments, as no sooner did I take the two giant snakes down but three more entered the scene. They seemed to be coming up out of the gray clay earth at my feet, and they were hungry!

Time to shift, and when I landed on terra firma it was in the middle of a gray, dimly lit, cobblestoned avenue teaming with Dark Fae of all different castes, sizes, and abilities. I am a Royal and thus have the power of shapeshifting. As much as it repulsed me to do so, I took on one of the gruesome appearances in front of me and mingled for the moment. While I waited for the Dark King to release my Z to me, the least I could do was a little spying …

* * *

“Radzia …” my father’s voice called me. No. This was an illusion. It couldn’t be real. My dad stood with his black hair loose and blowing in the wind at the MacDaun Dolmens, where he had been slaughtered. He whispered something to me about the death sword and the prophecy. And then he called my mother’s name.

And then I saw that we had been taken back in time to the moment when he actually realized something was coming at him. His Druid senses had picked up on the change in the atmosphere, and he knew he was about to die. He sensed it all, and his last words were, “I love you both …”

I felt my heart breaking all over again as I watched Gaiscioch, in his invisible state, step out of the dolmens. Obviously, he had found a way to come through the portal, if only for a little while. Obviously …

My dad couldn’t see him, standing there grinning like a mad, wicked bastard, but floating in time, helpless to change it, I could. My dad was about to be cut down by a murderer he couldn’t see.

I was but a ghost in this scene, but I jumped in and stood between my father and Gaiscioch, my sword pointed at Gais’s abdomen. This was my dream … my rules … and I had to make a push to save my father. “Want a target, Gaisy boy? Come on then—
here I am.
You have no qualms about engaging a female, do you? No, of course you don’t. You don’t have any qualms at all, and even for a Fae, fewer ethics. What can a female Fae—half human at that—
do to you
?” I made a small circle with my sword in front of his face, and I could see that he was, if not anxious, concerned as he studied me.

He backed up a half step, and I sliced my sword as I jumped forward. I beamed with so much satisfaction to see his head go flying in the air and land on the grassy plain …

I heard my father’s voice say my name one last time, and then he was gone. The scene was gone, and I knew it had been an illusion, taken from my head, my dreams, my hopes and nightmares.

“Why?” I demanded.

“You need to know exactly how your father was killed. You need to know what you have inside you and how to face and destroy Gaiscioch, Daoine Princess.”

“It was only a dream … nothing more,” I snapped back.

“Your dreams until now are the true illusions. What you were just shown was a truth. It will show you the way.” Crystal’s holograph warned me softly, “You need to face your insecurities and ‘feel’ what you can and must do. I am limited in what information I can provide for you.”

“Limited by what?” I demanded.

“By the laws of destiny,” she said sadly.

“I have to get to Danté.” I don’t know why that spilled from my lips. I didn’t want to look at Danté, or think of Danté, or …

“Even though you believe he has been unfaithful to you?” Crystal’s lovely eyebrow was raised questioningly.

“No, he wasn’t,” I snapped.

“Wasn’t he?”

“
No
—maybe … I don’t know.”

“Good, then you should find out,” she said, looking right into my eyes.
How does she do that?
I wondered. She was a holograph, but she felt so real.

“I mean to,” I said, and there it was, the truth smacking me in the face. I still believed in Danté, in spite of what I had seen with my own eyes. I took a fraction of a moment and reviewed the scene, as sickening as it was to me, and something stood out profoundly. It was the memory of his hands, which had not been precisely holding her but, rather, pushing at her shoulders …?

Nevertheless, he should not have been in that situation. He should not have allowed the naked Morrigu to come that close. He should
not have
, period!

“You mean to? Then find him and together find a way home. He thinks he can take you home, but my king has removed that particular skill and ability from him. It will be your job to get you
both
out of the Dark Realm and back where you belong. Z, you were meant to fulfill the prophecy or die. You must remember that.”