Through Time-Slamming (21 page)

Trevor watched the ancient three-eyed dragon with disbelief. He watched the jets of fire scorch the land as it flew over. He found the sound of the monster’s roar deafening, and he saw death before him for both Deimne and himself.

Death Swords would not kill the Gorka unless the weapon was plunged into one of its three eyes and to do that, one had to get close to that lapping dangerous tongue.

Deimne took to wing, a look of horror and determination on his face and Trevor tried to stop him, calling out, “Wait, Deimne, don’t go till we get reinforcements!”

But it was too late; Deimne flew straight up ready to distract the beast from the village below.

The Sluagh had witnessed the devastation and havoc the Gorka had committed against his kind on Danu and Trevor could see that Deimne was determined to destroy it.

This was not acceptable.

Deimne was Frankie’s father. He couldn’t allow him to be killed. And then Trevor got an idea.

What he needed to do was shift onto the Gorka’s long neck. He would hang on and divert it, keeping a shield around his body against the poisonous goo oozing from its leathery flesh. He would call on his Lugh chain and beat at the beast to distract it from Deimne. Together they could do this, until Deimne could get a shot at one of its eyes.

Just as he was about to shift, he heard Pestale charging at him and turned to see the Dark Prince, with his Death Sword drawn and pointed at him. What was Pestale doing? He couldn’t hope to win in a hand to hand battle.

Trevor regarded him as he took a stance, a sneer crossing his face. He wondered where Hordly had gone, and then all at once, he knew.

Trevor couldn’t move.

Something held him in place.

He couldn’t budge and with a heavy sigh he saw what it was. A Golden Net... the
Gold Wiele
, one of the few things that could hold a Fae in place.

He should have known that Pestale could have stolen one from his father, who must have had a store of them.

He tried shifting, knowing that he would not be able to do so. He couldn’t go forward, he couldn’t go backward, and shame flooded through his blood as he tried to think. How had he allowed himself to be trapped like this? How?

Of all the possibilities they had considered, he had never thought of the Golden Net, or the Gorka for that matter.

He was helpless. His Jazmine Decker had been right. When they first met she had told him he was arrogant, and he was. He had insisted on meeting with Pestale, believing he could handle and manipulate the outcome. He had been wrong. This was no time to consider his faults. He had to find a solution to his present predicament.

He had already tried to mind link with the Queen as agreed, but he hadn’t been able to get through. He tried again with the same results.

He
would not
mind link with Jazmine Decker, for his beloved would shift in on the spot and be killed by Pestale. He had to keep her safe, he had to keep her away.

Danté, his brother.

He would try to mind link with Dante! He made the attempt, but got nothing. “What the hell was wrong? Where was everyone?” he said to himself

The next thing he knew Pestale was laughing victoriously. He pushed him down then grabbed his feet, and drug him over the grass and jagged rocks along the hillside.

Pestale stopped and laughed, “That was fun, but now I think I will shift us to your cell for as much as I would like to remain here and watch the Gorka kill and eat your Sluagh friend, I think Hordly and I need to get you secured.” He glanced at Trevor’s face and their eyes locked in hatred. “You know why, don’t you?”

Trevor did know why
. It had come to him in a gush of horror.

“That little woman of yours, the Fios is in my way. She needs to die and after I take her lovely body over and over and make it mine while you watch, then I will kill her slowly. When she is dead and you have suffered knowing you caused her death then, I will kill you.”

Trevor closed his eyes. So that was why he had called this meeting. He had the Gorka to keep Deimne busy while he took him prisoner. Pestale wanted to use him as bait to trap his beloved.

And the devil was in the right of it; Jazmine Decker would come to him.

He had to do something. He had to think because they were in what he had heard his beloved call shit’s creek. He knew that his sweet love would come to save him the moment she realized what had gone down.

By Danu, they were in trouble!

~*~

Breslyn and Danté stood side by side and in the silence they heard Nuad. When the ancient Royal Tracker had told them all he knew, Breslyn turned to Danté and shook his head, “You know of course, where the Scepter sent Aaibhe.”

Danté sighed heavily, and then arched his brow, “I do, but I’m wondering how you know, Bres.”

Jazz had watched these two with interest, and asked, “You know where it sent her? And why do you look like that?” They both looked defeated. She put a hand to her mouth, “Please don’t tell me she’s…”

Breslyn turned to her with a rueful smile, “Bloody Hell, of course not, but, getting her back will not be easy.”

Radzia touched Danté’s arm and said, “Will Aaibhe be okay?”

Danté patted her hand and nodded absently as Jazz watched the flitting expressions in his golden eyes, she couldn’t help but notice they were just like Trevor’s.

“What about Trevor? Shouldn’t he and Deimne be back by now?” Jazz stuck in worriedly.

Danté frowned and once again turned to Breslyn, “She is right, they should be back by now.”

“They are extraordinary warriors and know what they are doing. What you and I have to do now is find a way into the Pixie Realm and retrieve the Queen,” Breslyn answered, going over to drop a kiss on the top of Ete’s lovely head.

“Frankie our little Fios Sluagh, I shall entrust the safety of my Ete to you. While the Queen is elsewhere, Ete is acting matriarch so this is a very serious job.” He touched her chin and Frankie sat up straight.

“Ye can count on me, Prince Breslyn, but I am a bit worried about m’da.”

Breslyn looked at Danté and said, “Radzia and Jazz will secure the Lugh Orb and you can see your father and Prince Trevor. How is that?”

“Oh aye, that is good,” she smiled at him.

Danté took Z into his arms and said softly, “
Enfant
, you won’t do what I won’t like, in my absence?”

Jazz heard the question, not the order and smiled to herself. She absolutely loved these Fae, all of them.

Z sighed and said, “How boring.”

“That is not an answer,” he said dropping a kiss on her full cherry lips.

“Danté sweetheart, I love you. Now go and save the Queen,” she beamed at him.

He shook his head and shifted off with Breslyn. As they left, Radzia turned and looked at Jazz with a shocked expression.

“Jazz, something is wrong! Just as Danté left, I thought I heard Trevor call for him.” She closed her eyes and the Orb appeared. She set it on the table and Jazz felt her insides start to shake because when Z asked for it to show her Deimne and Trevor, all they got was black smoke.

“I’m going to them,” Jazz said.

“Not without me, you are not!”

They shifted and the first vision they got was horrific.

The land was black and smoke filled the air. There was a stench that neither Jazz or Z had ever encountered.

There was no sign of Trevor. They heard a bellowing sound from above, like an animal going full throttle after its prey. They looked up and through the dark smoke, they saw Deimne flying a zigzag pattern as he tried to escape the Gorka while keeping it diverted from the village of Killarney.

For a moment, both Z and Jazz were taken aback by the unbelievable sight of the powerful three-eyed beast and then as it dawned on her that Deimne was scarcely holding his own, Jazz went into immediate action.

This beast was more than flesh and bone, it was magic. It was different than Fae, but it was magic all the same. Those that use magic, must pay a price, Jazz thought as she got ready to enact a price.

She concentrated all her thoughts into one and for a second she felt grossed out by the impact of the creature’s powers. She brought those powers to herself, collected it into a mass, and then with a sweeping breath of Fios turned Fae, she then returned that mighty magic full force against the beast.

She
Slammed
it with all the magic she had collected and added a pinch of her own. The Gorka was stunned first and then from the impact went reeling backward in the sky. It tumbled over itself as it plunged downward toward the earth.

That was when Jazz saw Pestale standing at the peak of a rolling foothill. He held something in his hand and Jazz concentrated her vision on that something.

She was surprised to discover that it was a pendant of some sort. It hung around his neck from an unusual gold chain. She watched Pestale as he chanted and pointed the pendant at the Gorka.

Suddenly, she felt what should have been an invisible netting encasing the Gorka and easing its descent. Then the beast vanished. No doubt Pestale had used the link he had created with the Pendant to shift the creature away.

She hadn’t a clue how it was done, but she knew not only with her human gut, but with her newly settled in Fae senses that this was the case. Then Pestale turned and his dark eyes met hers.

The hatred he felt was palpable.

Even at the huge distance that separated them, she saw and felt the look he gave her. If he could he would have killed her with that look.
.

He turned away from her abruptly and then when he regarded her again. She heard his words carried by the wind.

Black magic brought his voice and it surrounded her like a web that repelled and disgusted her with its intensity, “Fios,
you will be mine
, you will bend to my will, and you will do as I say…”

His voice seemed to swipe at her soul. It held so much confidence that what he had just told her would definitely come to pass. She felt her body shake with fear for Trevor. All at once she knew and her heart sank.

She knew it was a fact. Pestale had Trevor! He had somehow overpowered and taken Trevor.

This repeated itself in her mind and she could think of nothing else. Trevor was Pestale’s prisoner. Where was Trevor? Where had Pestale taken him? And how was she going to free him? She had to do something before it was too late.

Deimne came in for his landing right beside her and fleetingly she realized he looked ragged as he took her shoulders and looked deeply into her eyes.

For the moment she was stunned. She was numb and unable to form a clear thought other than the fact that Pestale had Trevor. She found herself saying the words out loud as she tried to establish her next step in her mind.

Deimne drew in his wings and his expression was grim as he said, “I am humiliated to say that Pestale caught us by surprise. Of all the possibilities, we had not expected the Gorka. I have no idea how he retrieved the beast or how he got hold of the
Gold
Wiele
with which he trapped Trevor.”

“The Gold
Wiele
,” Jazz said parrot like and then snapped herself together and said, “Right. The Gold Net.” She dove into her Fios and then into her Fae encyclopedia and retrieved all that she knew about the Fae artifact.

“Jazmine, I have tried to contact Queen Mab with our mind link, but can’t seem to get through. Something is terribly wrong. I can’t get through to Queen Aaibhe or Prince Breslyn.”

Jazz waved this off impatiently. “Banzar somehow got a hold of the Royal Scepter. He used it to send the Queen off and your Queen, Bres and Danté have all gone off to wherever she is being held to save her. For the moment, we are on our own!”

She made up her mind.

She didn’t have a choice. She knew she was walking right into the devil’s den, but she could think of no other way to handle this. She was going to shift into Morrigu’s Castle and find Trevor.

Radzia, who had remained quiet during this time, put out her hand and caught Jazz by her forearm. “Wait. I have had experience with the
Wiele
. Jazzy girl they say that it takes two Royals to break the spell that holds the netting around him. If you can mind link with Trev, send him the message that while Pestale has some control over the
Wiele,
he doesn’t have full control. In addition to that I was taught a trick by Rollo.”

“Who is Rollo?” Jazz asked puzzled.

“Never mind. You’ll meet my little artifact buddy soon enough. Here is the thing; our Seelie artifacts won’t completely respond to Pestale. His is still Unseelie . The trick I learned was if the Gold Net doesn’t completely surround him, Trevor can shift into the ground beneath himself and come up no longer trapped by it. The
Wiele
holds him to the ground, but that is it. However, if they have wrapped him up in it then you are going to have to break the spell.” She grinned. “I am going now to retrieve Rolo from MacDaun, my home which he guards in my absence. I think we might be able to use his particular skills.”