

### Contents

Through Time—Whiplash

Books by Claudy Conn

Copyright Page

~ Prelude ~

~ Prologue ~

~ One ~

~ Two ~

~ Three ~

~ Four ~

~ Five ~

~ Six ~

~ Seven ~

~ Eight ~

~ Nine ~

~ Ten ~

~ Eleven ~

~ Twelve ~

~ Thirteen ~

~ Fourteen ~

~ Fifteen ~

~ Sixteen ~

~ Seventeen ~

~ Eighteen ~

~ Nineteen ~

~ Epilogue ~

Excerpt: Through Time—Slamming

~ One ~

~ Two ~

About Claudy Conn

Read more about Claudy Conn's books

### Through Time—Whiplash

Books by Claudy Conn

### available at smashwords.com

Through Time Series

Through Time—Pursuit

Through Time—Whiplash

Through Time—Slamming

Through Time—Frankie

Through Time—Compulsion

~

Legend Series

Spellbound—Legend

Shee Willow—Legend

Prince in the Mist (Novella)

Prince Prelude—Legend

Aaibhe—Shee Queen (Novelette)

Trapped—Legend

Free Falling—Legend

Catch & Hold—Legend

~

Shadow Series

ShadowLove—Stalkers

ShadowHeart—Slayer

ShadowLife—Hybrid

~

Hungry Moon Series

Hungry Moon: Quicksilver

Hungry Moon: Destiny

Hungry Moon: Jodi

~

Witches, Warlocks, and Dark Magic

Dark Love

Netherby Halls

Lady X

Journey

~

Risqué Regencies

Myriah Fire

Oh, Cherry Ripe

Rogues, Rakes & Jewels

Taffeta and Hotspur

Wildfire Kiss

After the Storm

Runaway Heart

Lady Bess

Lady Star

Serena

Mandy

Disorderly Lady

Madcap Miss

~

Multi-book Bundles

The Complete Legend Series

Through Time Series Box Set

Claudy Conn's Bestselling Regencies

### Through Time—Whiplash

By

Claudy Conn

Copyright Page

Through Time—Whiplash

By Claudy Conn

http://www.claudyconn.com

Copyright © 2015 by Claudy Conn

Edited by: Karen Babcock

Cover Artist: Kendra Egert

All rights reserved

Published in the United States of America

Smashwords editions

First edition, March 2013

Second edition (in _Through Time Series Box Set_ ), March 2015

Second edition (as single title), April 2015

Excerpt of _Through Time—Slamming_

Copyright © 2015 by Claudy Conn

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Names, characters, and events depicted in this book are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

~ Prelude ~

AAIBHE, QUEEN OF the Seelie Fae, stood by her window overlooking the rose gardens of her palace on the Seelie Fae's Isle of Tir.

Morgan LeBlanc stood behind her, resting his chin on her fair head. She pressed back against him and whispered, "You must go."

He turned her to him and held her chin. "My love, I can't tell you enough what you are to me, like one of those rare blooms in your garden, exotic and beyond description." He frowned and asked, "And why must I go?"

Sadness filled her mind, but when he touched her, he made her feel as though they could come through this together. She rubbed her head against him, torn by what she felt and what she knew she had to do.

She could see he sensed her indecision as he whispered, "Let me stay, just a bit longer."

He was so easy to love.

An exquisite warrior, noble of heart and character.

She had not wanted to love him.

Love brought loss, and loss brought such pain...

He was the Milesian leader, and the Council would be horrified at such a union. The Queen of the Seelie Fae and the leader of the Milesians?

All her world would be shocked into censuring her. How could she lead them through the dark times ahead if they did not trust her decision-making? And there would be dark times ahead.

Indeed, but how could she deny herself? She had been too lonely too long, and he... was superb in every imaginable way.

"You must go now," she said softly.

His answer was to embrace her and kiss her long and hard, growling when he came away from that kiss to say, "I leave for you, because _you_ ask it, but I— _we_ —shan't be denied much longer."

He was upset, and he had a right, but they were from opposing forces politically. She had to be careful, as _did he_ , though he denied it. He had told her that he and his son Chance would lead their people, no matter who they took as their lifelong mates. He had pointed out the Milesians were very pleased with Chance's union with Princess Royce. So why not theirs?

She had said, "Because I am a queen, and you are, in essence, their king."

She would have to be wise for them both. She smiled at him and touched his face. "I shall come to you as soon as I may."

"If you don't, I will come for you—mark me in this, Aaibhe!"

He was a dominant male, equal in strength to her, and was, she thought, just what she needed. Although her subjects loved her, and some even desired her, they were still her subjects who owed her deference and to whom she owed wise rulership. As a queen she knew and ably fulfilled her duties, but as a woman, at times she grew tired, so tired of forever leading, forever making decisions that affected her entire Realm as well as the Human Realm.

She smiled when he growled and mumbled, and then he was gone.

Aaibhe turned once more to contemplate without seeing the rare blooms he spoke of just outside her windows. They were like her feelings for Morgan—riotous, undeniably beautiful, and dangerous.

She had not felt this way in well over a thousand years.

The future, she knew, was edged in darkness. A rim of fire framed what she had seen, threatening not only her relationship with Morgan but all life, not only human life, which was forever at risk, but Seelie Fae life. She knew her Druid and Fios team would have to help her contain it once again; war seemed inevitable.

She would need her best Royals, her best Druids, and their lives would most surely be forfeit for the slightest mistake.

She had no way of knowing, no way of seeing the outcome.

Her sight, which only gave glimpses of possible events, was just that, a glimpse here and there, with no definitive answers.

Time travel, which had been denied to all other Fae in the last one hundred years and limited even to her, might have allowed her to go in and tweak events to better serve both the Fae and the Human Realms, but even that was not to be.

Perhaps it had been the indiscriminate travel into time that had brought matters to such a pass?

A knock sounded at her door, and she turned to welcome one of her youngest warrior princes, Trevor.

He bowed his head and then respectfully stood, tall, erect, muscular, and more a warrior today than he had been only a few weeks ago. His flaxen hair fell about in loose curls to his shoulders, and as he raised his head, their eyes met.

She could see _he was still angry._

He looked so very much like his older brother, Danté, she thought as she stared into his deep golden eyes, but he was different, so very different. He still had to grow and learn.

Discontent glinted in the recesses of his Seelie eyes, but something else lay in their recesses, a sadness that went deep.

Trevor of Lugh must not be allowed to fall into bitterness, she thought. Pampering him wasn't something she had the time to do any longer, nor could she waste any time teaching him what eventually he would learn. He was going to have to absorb everything he needed to know in one quick lesson.

"Trevor, sit with me." She waved one elegant hand towards a high-backed chair, sat first, and waited.

He hesitated but did what she asked. She could see he didn't want to. She could see he wasn't just angry but discontented.

"Tell me," she said, "why you are not satisfied with the results of your mission. After all, Pestale has been stopped, and in a manner of speaking he is being punished—denied all he had strived to accomplish."

"Stopped? _For now_ , but not punished. He killed Lana... and what of the humans he killed?" Trevor shook his head. "In my humble opinion, my Queen, he has gotten off too easy."

"You do not think it is punishment enough to send him back to the Dark Realm, a place he loathed?"

"No, I do not, and, my Queen, how can you call it punishment when he has been taken by his father, made to drink from the Cauldron, and has no memory of his past deeds? No, that is not punishment, and that is not the justice I sought. If you wanted to keep him alive, you should have given him a conscience and allowed him to suffer the agonies of regret and guilt."

"Even I cannot give one a conscience." She clucked her tongue and waved this off. "I maintained the balance between the Realms, my Prince. The Dark King would have allowed us to put Pestale to death, yes, _but at what cost_? He would never have forgiven us. The Dark King is a complicated, unfathomable being, and we could not, cannot, afford to go to war with him. Pestale has always been his favorite creation. He seems to believe that Pestale, whom he calls his son, can be redeemed."

"I don't want him redeemed. I want him dead," Trevor spat.

" _Fie_ —such emotion is unbecoming a Seelie prince," Aaibhe said gently.

"I beg your pardon, my Queen," he said, but she wasn't sure he did.

She studied him before saying, "I have a mission for you because I, like you, _do not_ believe Pestale can be redeemed simply by drinking the water of forgetfulness." She sighed. "I will be calling on your brother, on Breslyn... on many in the days ahead. We have more to concern us than justice or revenge, much more."

"What, my Queen?" He stared at her, and she saw his puzzlement.

"I am not sure how it will come or when, but I saw destruction, not only the complete destruction of the Human Realm, but ours as well."

He crossed arms and shook his head. "I should have driven my Death Sword deep into his body!"

"Hush now, Trevor. Are you mine to command?" she said gravely.

He dropped his arms and then made a fist of allegiance that he pounded against his upper chest. "I am yours to command, my Queen, as ever, as always."

She smiled softly. " _I know_. In my vision, I saw Pestale... very much who he always was. Something has gone wrong. I do not believe he actually drank from the Cauldron. I also saw Morrigu steal something from the Dark King. Either the Dark King did not care or was not aware. In his present form, many things escape his notice. Or perhaps she took it from him eons ago before he met his human, when they were lovers. I have no way of knowing. However, she doesn't know how to use it— _yet_. However, if she or Pestale learns how to open it and use it, there will be no stopping them, for it will open a portal through the Prison Walls large enough to allow Pestale to bring an army of his Unseelie monsters to raid our two worlds, humans and Seelie alike. Our numbers cannot compete with the hordes of Unseelie he will bring. Our only advantage is our light magic."

Trevor frowned. "You have seen this—with your 'sight'?"

"Yes, but my ability only allows me to see limited scenarios in the future, and those events don't necessarily have to occur. Your mission, as well as all my Royals, will be to help make certain that Pestale remains where he is." She smiled again at him. "Your brother and Z left earlier for the Highlands, where I felt a disturbance. Breslyn and Ete are just outside Dublin, where I felt another, and you must go to Killarney, where our Shee Willow and her Druid, Shayne, await your arrival."

Trevor stood up. "As you wish, my Queen." He frowned again. "What of Princess Aida?"

"She watches over Trinity with Willow's father, Shee Desmond." The queen's hands were folded in her lap, but she wrung them at this juncture and said, "However, there is a force building at the Middle Lake— _I can feel it even now_."

He inclined his head, and this time when he brought up his gaze she could see the bitterness had been replaced with something else: _d_ _etermination and fury._

"Trevor, do not allow your emotions to get in the way of your logic. The Dark Princes are cold and calculating and will think in steps. Try and do the same. Your goal is first to stop, not to kill unless it is the _only way_ you can stop them."

" _It is the only way_! If we do not kill them, they will never stop coming at us. So I tell you honestly that this time I shall drive my sword deep into his cold-blooded essence and see him draw his last breath!"

~ Prologue ~

JAZMINE DECKER LEFT the Charleston Aquarium at her back with a bounce in her step and a smile on her face.

She walked briskly down the avenue and headed towards The Landing, only a short walk away. She made a victory sign, putting her fist up and pulling it down to exclaim right out loud, "Yes!"

In a few months, she would be a marine biologist at the aquarium. _Timing is everything_ , she thought as she clicked along the pavement.

When a couple of guys in a convertible slowed down to look her over and wink, she was happy enough that she smiled back.

They called out words of devotion as she continued her heady pace. She was so excited she could spit. The assistant she would be replacing had been offered a prestigious job at the aquarium in Atlanta, and voila— _timing!_

What was even better, she had the summer to continue her job as guide with the tour company for which she had been working part time. It wasn't great pay, but tips were always good, and she got to travel. They were leaving in the morning and heading for Ireland—Dublin first stop and then to Killarney. Luck, finally, after years of none, had finally found her!

The Landing was a fun place to eat and listen to music. It was on the long pier overlooking the river, and as she approached the band was already in full swing. It was tourist season, and they played all afternoon and into the night.

Spotting her friend as soon as she walked in, she waved and, as she walked towards her, did a little wiggle to the music.

Tammy came rushing up to her and dragged her off to the ladies' room to say, "Did you see them? Hot—they are both so hot! You can have Tony, 'cuz Stevie boy is mine."

Jazz dropped her purse on the counter and looked in the mirror. She felt like she was glowing. Was she glowing?

She gave her long white-gold hair a tweak with her fingers, and her happy blue eyes stared at Tammy's reflection in the mirror. "I got it! I got the job."

Tammy jumped up and down and hugged her close. "Fate, you got the job, and now you can have Tony. Damn, but that has to be fate—he is just your type."

"Yup, got the job, and maybe it was my skills that impressed them, not fate." She stuck her tongue out at her friend. "But your Tony... I don't know if I want to start anything tonight. Tam, I'm leaving in the morning."

"So, enjoy him tonight." Tammy winked at her.

Laughter filled the air as three girls entered the large bathroom, their heads together, their bodies still swaying to the beat of the live band's music.

"One-night stands," Jazz answered with a sigh, "are not my thing."

"They don't have to be your thing—and you don't have to bed the guy. Just go and dance with him."

"Tammy, I just came in to see you before I left..." She didn't meet Tammy's gaze as she rooted about in her purse. "... give you a hug, and then head on home for a frozen dinner and TV. I need some sleep before heading out in the morning."

Tammy looked at her. "Jazz, you look at a guy and run. That is what this is about. You were supposed to spend the evening with me... eat, drink... it has only changed because a guy has entered the picture." Tammy yanked her hair and shook her head. "Jazz, you have to get out of this funk you are in. It has been a month since you broke up with Joe the Creep."

"I know, but... I thought Joe the Creep was special. What kind of judgment do I have, if I thought he was special?"

"Forget him, or put him down as a learning experience and move on. You can't move on till you start flirting with the opposite sex. Sometimes, that's what you go with, honey. Just forget all the rest—and have fun for _one night_."

Jazz thought about this but couldn't get herself wrapped around the idea. She was often sure she'd been born in the wrong century. Her problem was she never felt she fit in. She wanted that knight in shining armor to ride up and carry her off. She wanted Heathcliff from _Wuthering Heights_ , who would pledge his love forever. She wanted... more, so much more than what was hulking around, bumping and grinding out on the dance floor.

"Tammy, here is the thing. I don't want to flirt up Tony at the bar. I have had a long, full day, and I'm flying out in the morning. I only stopped by to say so long for now and see ya when I get back." She nudged Tammy towards the bathroom door. "Go have a great time."

Tammy took her shoulders and pointed her at the mirror. "Look at you. A natural blonde... a shade that most girls can't even find in a bottle. Look at those eyes, so blue—so big with natural, dark, thick lashes that took me thirty minutes to put on myself tonight. Babe, you are so beautiful, and you can have whoever you want—"

"That's just it—don't want anyone because I am happy on my own. Enough, girl," Jazz said and laughed as she hugged her friend. She disliked being defined by how she looked. Hated that so many people saw her outside and never looked deeper than that.

Tammy sighed. "Okie dokie, honey. Go on, do what ya gotta do, and email me when you get to Ireland." She eyed her. "Maybe you'll meet your knight in shining armor over there in the land of the fairies and elves."

Jazmine Decker hugged her friend fiercely. "You are the best, you really are, and I am a terrible friend." So saying, she rushed out of the bathroom and headed for the front doors. She looked back and around one last time. The band had taken a break, and an oldie blasted through the speakers, Bonnie Tyler's "Holding out for a Hero". She smiled ruefully to herself. Yup, that was what she was doing, letting her life pass by, holding out for someone who in this day and age would never show up.

"You are not going to find one," she said out loud as she stepped out into the night air. _They don't exist anywhere but in romance novels_. Then her attention was caught by two exquisite males walking her way, evidently heading for the lounge. Both were tall, golden-haired, handsome, and dressed to show off their muscular bodies. They wore human Glamour to perfection, but she hurriedly and sharply turned away.

_Habit_. She always turned away when a Fae came into view. She had been doing that since she was a toddler—she was a Fios and couldn't afford to give herself away to them.

Being a Fios meant she could see Fae whether or not they disguised themselves in human Glamour, as the ones she passed just now were doing. She could see Seelie Fae and Unseelie Fae through their Glamour, even through their Féth Fiada of invisibility. She could not be compelled by their mesmerizing gaze, and she was immune to their sexual ability called Lianhan that seduced human women and sent them into a rapture from which they could never emerge.

Her mother had taught her to never display that she saw them for what they were. The fear was ancient, but it was there, the belief that they would spirit her away to Faery and keep her imprisoned in their Realm so she could not give their secrets away— _yeah, right_ , like anyone would believe her in this day and age.

She saw a cab, and luckily it was empty. She hailed it, it pulled up, and she jumped in, not aware she was holding her breath until she let it out inside the cab.

Damn, but the summer job she had taken would do her some good. She needed to get away; managing a tour group would keep her busy and earn her some much-needed money. Her job as a marine biologist was a dream job if you didn't count the fact that the starting pay was beyond awful.

This would be great. She had been to Dublin with her parents a few years ago but never to Killarney.

She recalled Dublin and the time she had spent with her parents. She would treasure the memory forever. It had been their last vacation together before she lost them to a drunk driver. She had been with them; they were laughing, and her father had turned just a bit to tease her when it happened. A driver, passed out from intoxication, veered and hit them head on. She had been thrown clear of the wreckage and lived, but they had not.

Then Joe had entered her life, and she'd thought, wow! He turned out a 'wow' all right.

Tammy had tried to warn her off him, and Tammy had been right. Why couldn't she see what her friend saw almost immediately?

Mooning over Joe when they first split had been stupid and a total waste of time. She was certainly over him; now she was very sure she would never again allow herself to be swayed by a handsome face and a killer smile.

She knew now she had only been infatuated.

Her heart had always whispered that he was not the picture she had painted of him. He was and always would be a _player_. He had an eye for the ladies and did not even try to control himself.

She didn't think it a total loss. When she'd met Joe she'd been so ready to spread her wings, and _he_ had been all about that. For almost a year, it had been a thrilling ride.

He had never really loved her, and the truth she made herself face was that she hadn't really loved him either. _He had been fun._

Okay, chapter closed, and now she was off to her mother's homeland with a group of seniors.

Just what she needed to relax—simple, easy, and no complications. Then in a couple of months, _Charleston Aquarium,_ _here I come!_

~ One ~

THE NARROW SIDEWALKS of Killarney were teeming with locals going about their daily business and tourists heading for eateries and pubs after a long morning of sightseeing. Jazmine's group of jolly seniors was certainly in the latter category; having just disembarked from a boat tour of the lower of the three Lakes of Killarney, they were ready for a pint and a bite.

As she guided them to a lovely pub for lunch, they continued to ooh and ahh about the breathtaking views of the mountains they'd enjoyed on the boat and of the Ross Castle ruins that rose majestically near the pier. She saw them seated, made sure they knew how to get back to their hotel, and left them happily chattering away, pleased with their first sightseeing event in Killarney. Most, she knew, were planning to devote their afternoon of free time to exploring the nearby shops in search of gifts and mementos.

Their free time was also hers, and she had a yen to go off hiking and take a look at Middle Lake, which had not been visible from the tour boat. She also wanted to spend more time admiring the mountains that served as a backdrop to the lakes, edging, enclosing, and offering up the mysteries of the ages. She focused on the montage of mountains, ageless and spectacular in their shades of dark purple, browns, and spotted greens, undulating, and they whispered promises to Jazz as they rose and hovered like guardians of the quiet waters in their valley.

Jazz gazed at them and imagined the breeze wafting over her skin, touched by the oaks and pines of their rolling foothills, spoke of ancient secrets. How she would have loved to live a couple of hundred years ago in this valley...

Something about Killarney, about the way the earth felt beneath her feet, thrilled her. It was as though the earth stroked her with affection, welcoming her home.

She imagined it in the past, when horse and carriage was the mode of travel and life was simpler.

After making sure her backpack contained water, a cell phone, and an apple, she set off and within an hour found herself quite alone on a narrow footpath that led away from the main trails of the national park. She wanted to get close to the Middle Lake and the water's edge.

An odd shape caught her eye, and she frowned. It didn't quite make any sense to her; she needed to get a closer look to see if her vision was playing tricks with her mind.

However, as she approached she realized the glistening apparition was something almost no other humans would see. She should have known. After all, she thought, pulling a face, she was in Ireland, one of their favorite haunts!

It was invisible to most humans because a Fae spell of concealment had been performed to hide its presence, but she could see clearly that where water met high grass, a huge structure hovered, just inches above the water. _Monoliths!_

The sarsen stones were arranged like a large, open doorway, much like the ones she had seen in pictures of the stones at Stonehenge, in England.

However, these were a single set, three huge stones, two standing and one lying flat across the top of the two sarsen Standing Stones. And then she noticed a much smaller one, set back just a bit from the land, also hovered over the lake.

This sarsen was shaped like a pyramid and stood as though to block the entrance. One would have to squeeze left or right to get past. _Hell,_ what was she thinking?

_This was crazy_.

What was even more disturbing was the fact that the pyramid-shaped stone suddenly whispered her name. "Fios Jazmine," it murmured, "come, you must come."

Her instincts shouted, _Run for your life_. Her curiosity made her step forward, transfixed on the pyramid now talking to her.

She stood mesmerized for a long moment before she took another step forward. She extended her hand towards one of the Standing Stones, wanting to feel its texture. The entire experience was almost hypnotic.

" _Don't touch it!_ "

Jazz whipped around so fast she nearly snapped her neck, to find not only a Seelie Fae but a Royal Fae Prince bearing down on her.

Had he heard the stone call her a Fios? He must have.

_Oh no, oh no_. She could be in trouble here. She had turned to the sound of his voice. A normal human would not only not have seen him but not have heard him either.

She had given herself away.

He was not in human Glamour but cloaked with invisibility, yet she had acknowledged his presence when he'd surprised her. What was more, he was a Royal, and her mother had told her tales of what Royals did with their kind. She knew the tales of Royals, all Seelie Fae, visiting, discovering what they were, seducing, and then whisking them off to Faery.

_Now what_? Play dumb, _yes_ , that was it; she could do dumb. What moved her to peek at him she didn't know, but she did. He saw her interest with narrowed eyes. What was she doing—what was wrong with her?

She had never seen a Royal before, but she knew by the torque around his neck, which was gold and etched with the insignia of his Royal House, that he was one.

Royals were the most magically potent of all Fae and therefore the most dangerous, and this one was the hottest Fae she had ever seen. She was mesmerized by the way his long, thick, flaxen hair blew in the wind all about his handsome face. She was so damned taken by his good looks and his smokin' body. Oh, this was not good. There was only one thing to do.

She took off at a speed, even greater than the one she knew she possessed, aware that it was probably useless. No matter how fast she could run using her Fios magic, she couldn't out distance him. He was a Fae, with the power to 'shift', which allowed a Fae to step from one place into another in only a matter of seconds. She didn't know if that was science or magic, but she knew she would be trapped.

Fae seers had many extraordinary gifts. However, not all Fios had the same gifts. One of her particular gifts was speed. She held the hope that she would hold no interest for him, that he would not bother himself to stop her. Wrong.

_Evidently, stopping her was what he wanted to do_.

She ran into a brick wall that she realized was his chest, bounced off like a rubber ball, and fell backwards so hard she had the wind knocked out of her.

The Royal Fae Prince stared down at her as she lay back against the grass trying to catch her breath and asked, " _What, by Danu, are you?"_

* * *

_Pretend you don't hear him! Pretend you don't see him_ , she told herself. _Yuh,_ _duh,_ _he knows you turned when he shouted at you. He knows you ran away from him._

_Doesn't matter—just pretend._ She said out loud, "Huh... what did I run into? A tree? I don't see a tree. Must be just clumsy me, tripping over nothing." She got to her feet and brushed herself off.

"Don't be foolish. I know you can see me—my reflection is in your eyes, and your eyes are _not_ quite human," the Royal Fae scoffed. "Now answer my question. _J_ _ust what are you?_ "

"Don't you know? I thought Royal Fae were all-powerful, all-knowing... all-magical. You should know, but if you don't, well, one up on ya, mister," said Jazz, starting to walk off.

He reached out and clasped her arm with one hand, gently stopping her. "You are going nowhere until you tell me what you are and why you were about to touch the dolmens. You should not even have been able to see them."

"Well, there you are— _saw them_ , meant no harm, just curious, so that's it. You go your way. I'll go mine."

"Are you working with Pestale?" He glared at her.

"Don't know him, _so, no_ , not working with him," Jazz said, hoping she could find a way to make him let her go. Then he surprised her by bending to put his nose near her ear and taking a long whiff of air. He sucked it in deeply and then moved to repeat the action just under her chin.

She had been so stunned that she had gone rigid, but she couldn't deny the tingling sensation his nearness elicited from her. She looked up to find his deep russet-gold and alien eyes full with what appeared to be glitter. His gaze was hypnotically difficult to turn away from.

They were Seelie Fae eyes but not coldly calculating as she had been told by her mother, who had been taught this by _her_ mother. His eyes seemed to hold a fire in their depths. She formed a thought in that moment, a silent acknowledgement that what she had been taught might not be right. And that made her frown. She had never looked into the eyes of a Fae. She had never been close enough. Her mother had told her Fae were rigidly disciplined, without souls, without empathy— _no heart_. She had never doubted her mother, but... this Fae made her wonder.

"You don't smell of him," said the Royal Fae. "However, that in itself means little. You have a choice—tell me who and what you are. Tell me your purpose here, or remain with me indefinitely until I can get to the bottom of—"

Suddenly the earth beneath their feet began to rumble.

The air began to swirl with dust and leaves all around them. A crack of thunder, deafeningly loud and with a power of its own, joined with the rumbling earth and created a deafening fissure right where they were standing!

The earth beneath their feet began crumbling away.

"What, by Danu?" the Royal Fae exclaimed and grabbed her, bringing her right up against his hard body.

Swirling winds surrounded them, and Jazz thought a tornado had hit.

Misty atmosphere invaded Jazz's nostrils as earth fell away from her feet. They were going to be swallowed up by the ravine that was forming.

Was this possible? Did Ireland get earthquakes and tornados?

No time for clear thought as he held her tightly; she relied on him to somehow transport them out of danger. Odd that she should find herself relying on a Fae...

She, however, did not have a choice. He seemed to have her in his arms, and the earth she had just been standing on was no longer there. _Ha, no longer there_ , she said to herself, which meant... oh, yes, it meant he was holding her above the widening crack, and together they were floating about in the air.

_Sure, why not, Jazz_ , she said in her mind. _It fits with everything else you don't understand._

Blackness enveloped them, and she found herself holding tight to the Royal Fae with no intention of letting go.

They were falling but not just straight down. They were being battered through what seemed like a wind tunnel, though she couldn't see it through the blackness—she only felt the stickiness of walls as they bounced from side to side. She hoped he wouldn't release her, because now he seemed the only thing standing between her and sure death.

He shouted above the roar of the wind, "Don't let go!"

"Damn straight I won't! What's happening?" But she never got her answer, because just then the wind force managed to yank her out of the Seelie prince's hold and sent her flying off and away.

She couldn't see through the blackness and felt as though she couldn't breathe. She struggled not to pass out as her lungs seemed to be collapsing.

_Dying_? Was she dying? She felt as though she were dying.

And then, just as she began to lose consciousness, she felt strong arms surround her and heard an Irishman's rough brogue declare, "Well, bless me, where did ye coom from, lass? And not that I be complaining, but whatever is that ye be wearing?"

~ Two ~

THE FIRST THING Jazz did was look up and into the rugged face of a burly stranger who leered back at her. The second thing she noticed was that he was wearing an old-fashioned style of clothing. His form of dress made him look as though he belonged in the eighteenth century.

She frowned as she tried to take it all in. Where was she?

He shook her and said, "Are ye daft, lass?"

He looked like a blacksmith... how odd, but he had that look about him. They appeared to be standing outside an old-fashioned stable, she thought, so a blacksmith was what he must be. She gave him a tentative smile and said, "Ah... um..."

"Aye, daft it is." He laughed and gave her rump a hearty pat.

She backed away from him and put up a finger. "Hey!" Deciding it was time to vamoose, she took a quick glance around and saw they were in a village of sorts.

Huh, she thought, it looked like the restoration village she had taken her seniors to just yesterday.

It was no longer afternoon—the sun seemed to be setting—and she glanced down the sandy street, wondering how she had gotten there.

A ruckus caught her attention, and she saw a tavern across the sandy avenue. Two men with their arms about each other's shoulders went in to the cheers of other men.

Where was she? What was this place?

No sense. It made absolutely no sense.

"I don't know what ye be wearing, but no matter—we'll soon have it off ye, darlin'," said the burly man, who then reached for her top.

She slapped his hand away. She didn't need to know where she was to know she was in a bit of trouble and needed to get away—and fast.

He laughed. "Frisky lass, aren't ye? Well, there be no one about to bother or interrupt us, so give over, do," he said on a slur as he grabbed hold of her and pulled her roughly to his leather-vested chest.

Although Jazz possessed several very different Fios powers, each unique in its own way, super-strength was not amongst them. Even so, she had a few tricks up her sleeve.

She didn't know where she was, she didn't know how she got there, but she knew what and who she was. She waited for the opportunity to break away from him.

Thinking perhaps she was hoping for too much, she decided the situation needed a bit of manipulation. She went into action.

Relaxing, she pretended to faint, hoping it would trick him into easing up on his hold.

It worked too well—he almost dropped her.

She, however, steadied herself and, before he knew what she was doing, stomped heavily with the heel of her booted foot, planted it right smack onto his foot, and dug in.

He yelped and bent over in pain, and she took that opportunity to give him a good, solid kick right in the shins. He shouted out with rage and agony, and she slammed her now aching foot into his crotch.

That was the final blow. He couldn't move, but he sure could howl!

She didn't stick around but zoomed into super speed and was gone in a whirl of dust.

_Speed, she had speed_ but no idea where she was speeding to, and within a short span of time she slammed into a hard, tall body. Very hard, very tall, and also unmoving.

Two hands held her shoulders.

_Breathe_ , she told herself, _breathe_ , as she tried to shake free from the grip that held her in place.

A familiar and, she decided, a very welcome voice said, "What the devil were you thinking?"

* * *

This rebuke incensed her. "What was _I_ thinking? _Me?_ Thinking? Like, there I was, minding my own business when you came along, a Royal Fae out of nowhere, and whisk me off to this." She waved her arms about. "I don't know where this is, but I know that I didn't ask to come here, so take me back!" Her fists went to her hips, and she glared at the Royal Seelie.

He grinned, and this incensed her further.

"Are you laughing?" she demanded. "Laughing— _now?_ Why are you laughing? Oh, that... that just beats—wait." She shook her head and then put one finger up high and in his face. "Never mind. Just tell me, where the frig are we?"

The grin vanished, and he looked around with a frown. "As far as I can fathom, we are in the past."

" _In the past_?" Her mouth opened and closed, and she then demanded, "Are you frigging kidding me?"

"No, not kidding you, frigging or otherwise—what is this frigging? Humans have so many idiomatic expressions it is difficult to know all of them," he answered, frowning still at her.

"Never mind that now. Tell me that you are mistaking a restoration village for being in the past. That is what you meant by the past, right? It must be a restoration village, I know, because what other explanation is there?" She eyed him. "That smithy must have gotten a little drunk and forgot himself... that's right, that's what it is, because right here in Killarney there's a restoration village. And there's a cafeteria where we can go and get something to eat. I think I would like that now. Tea... yes, with pastry... lots of pastries." She glared at him. "So, are you going to take me to the cafeteria and feed me? It's the least you can do."

When he didn't answer and only regarded her as though she were insane, she said, "Why are you looking at me like that? I am not the one who thought they were in the past simply because we got spit out of the tornado into a restoration village."

"We are not in a restoration village. We are in the past," he answered her slowly.

"Nope, can't be. Stephen Hawking does not think it is truly possible—because of some curve or other—to time travel, and he, let me tell you, knows what he is talking about. I should know—I've tried reading his chapter on time travel." She was rambling, she knew, but couldn't stop herself.

"By all that is earth, wind, and fire, stop chattering at me and let me think!" He sighed. "Well, at least Shee Willow and Shayne will be able to report to our queen what has happened. I got a message off to them as soon as I found the dolmens and was waiting on them when you appeared out of nowhere."

"Not out of nowhere. I was hiking—it is a National Park—and _I_ was hiking, minding my own business, doing what is expected when on a trail... hiking, enjoying the sights—"

He cut her off. "Stop going on and on about it." He considered her and shook his head. "Mad, the experience has made you quite mad."

"Damn straight it has. How would you like to be hiking, minding your own business, and accosted by a Royal Fae? Mad? I am furious."

He chuckled. "That is not exactly what I meant, but indeed, from your point of view, matters are quite intolerable." He sighed heavily. "I wish for your sake that _we were_ in one of your human historical villages, but _we are_ in the past. When I inspected the village earlier, before I located you, I discovered a newspaper that denotes the fact that we are in the year of 1816, in the month of August."

"Noooo, didn't you hear what I told you about Stephen Hawking? Ha, in the past, not likely."

"I did hear what you told me, and your human, Stephen Hawking, is quite right. However, Pestale has been obviously playing with dark magic, and dark magic can do what science cannot."

"What are you saying?" She took a step away from him, not wanting to accept what he was telling her. Maybe she had fallen and clunked her head? Maybe that was it, and she would wake up in a hospital?

"The Dark Prince must have opened a portal, no doubt attempting to get to the Human Realm, but was sucked into the past instead. Something went wrong."

"You think?" She pulled a face at him and then asked, "He opened? Who—he? Sucked in? Dark Prince? You mean like in the devil, Dark Prince... or someone else?" She shook her head. "Not liking the sound of this, but never mind all that. How do we get sucked back to the present?"

He eyed her ruefully for a long moment and said, "To answer your questions, no, not the devil humans refer to. He is the Dark Prince Pestale—an Unseelie Royal. He has done this before, gone to the past before, but on purpose. This time, I rather think he did not mean for this to happen. It was a completely clumsy effort, not like him at all." He shrugged. "No doubt, he has been affected by the waters of the Cauldron. As to getting back just yet, _we don't_." He frowned and reached for her chin. "You are bruised."

"Not sure I understand any of this," she said, pulling away from him. "Maybe you are the one who is... mad?"

"Were you bruised in the time portal?" He wasn't letting go.

She sighed and grimaced. "That big oaf put his grimy, rough hands on my face when he tried to force a kiss out of me."

The Fae Prince's face suddenly took on an ominous expression, and he said on a low growl, "I shall go teach him some manners! Such behavior cannot be tolerated."

She laughed, but when she saw he was serious she shook her head. "I doubt anyone could teach that Neanderthal manners. But never mind him. I'm okay, and we need to keep a low profile and find a way home. Home—let's just concentrate on getting home." A tentative smile curved her lips, and she offered, "Thank you, though, for your concern."

She watched him as he looked out into the distance and said with an off-handed wave of his big, strong hand, "Of course I am concerned. You are here in part because I failed to stop the Dark Prince. Thus, I must consider you a lesser being under my protection."

" _A lesser being_?" She hauled off, smacked his chest, and then resisted the need to cry out in pain from the impact. She said with a hiss, "I'll show you lesser being." It occurred to her, though, that however much she did not like hearing him call her that, it was in fact precisely what she was.

"Why do you attack me? It is, of course, a waste of time, but why do you do it?"

"Did no one ever teach you about manners? You don't insult someone by calling them a lesser being!"

"But it is the truth," he said, looking at her with puzzlement.

"Truth? Whether it is truth or not, it is not nice, and it wasn't necessary. You are a Royal, yes, but you are also, arrogant and as cold-blooded as a... shark. How do you like that?"

"But you are not being factual. I am not cold-blooded." He suddenly moved even closer to her. "I am, in fact, quite warm-blooded."

If she hadn't been so annoyed with him, she might have admitted he had just sent chills up her spine. However, she _was_ annoyed with him and not admitting anything. She wagged a finger and said, "You go about _your business_ because it is _your business_ , regardless of the consequences to others trapped by your... your... whatever it is your business is. You haven't got a clue how to conduct yourself when in the company of those who aren't Fae—Royal or otherwise. That is cold-blooded, that is thoughtless, and, and... _never mind_ _!_ " She threw up her hands.

He eyed her for a long moment and then offered, "You are very emotional, but perhaps we can get past that and begin again. Before we proceed, you may tell me your name."

She glared at him. She realized, however, she was in a precarious situation and would need to rely on him to get her out. He didn't seem intent on doing any of the things Fios had been taught to fear. He didn't, in fact, seem to wish to scurry her off to Faery as she had been raised to believe. Thus, she said, "Jazmine Decker, and I am _not_ emotional! I have just been, according to _you_ , shoved into the past—the year 1816 in fact. I have been accosted by a brute of a smithy and told we are stuck here in the past. What do you expect from me, _hearts and roses_?"

He eyed her thoughtfully. "I am not really certain what to expect from you, as you are a human female, and why should I expect hearts and roses? It seems a very odd thing to expect, but back to the human thing... I find that you are not quite human— _are you_?"

"Oooh!" She felt the urge to punch him again but calmed herself. "Okay, give me something to call you."

" _Something_ _?_ It is more than something," he said, his chin up and one well-shaped eyebrow arched. "I am Trevor, Prince of Lugh." However, after a brief pause he made the mistake of adding, "And, yes, you _are_ emotional. In fact, I find you _more so_ than some of the humans I have interacted with recently. Although Red says humans can be quite practical and logical, I have not yet witnessed it."

"Oooh," she seethed again. She glared at him and then once again quieted herself as curiosity got the better of her. She inquired, "Who is Red, another one of your cold-blooded Royals?"

"Red is what I have called Princess Royce since childhood—because of her flame-colored hair. We are very different, she and I, but also the best of friends, and _Red_ is anything but cold-blooded."

She eyed him. "A childhood friend? I never thought of Fae as ever being children."

He ignored her and said, "What you need to know, Jazmine Decker, is that we were taken through a time portal. Pestale, the eldest Dark Prince of the remaining three Dark Princes, did this not so long ago when he meant to take over both the Seelie Fae Realm and the Human Realm. We, of course, defeated him, but against my wishes he was allowed to live." Trevor paused as he gritted his teeth and composed himself to add, "See now what comes of it?"

"I'm with you on that. Never let your enemies live to come back at you one day." She frowned and then asked, "Right, okay, if he escaped, why did he try to get into the present if he meant to come here to 1816? That doesn't make sense."

"No doubt something went wrong in his calculations. Opening the portal from the Dark Realm is not easily done."

"Well, this time I hope you intend to finish him off. This playing with portals and time is so not good," Jazz said irritably as she looked around. She was venting; she needed to vent. She really wasn't sure that she wasn't just hallucinating. It would be so much better if she were having some kind of fantasy.

"Indeed, perhaps you are more intelligent than I had at first assumed." He put up his hand to stall her when her finger came up and pointed at him, and he hurriedly added, "Obviously, he meant to travel to our present time but miscalculated and was sent into the past. We were taken with him, as the portal must have encompassed a larger area than he anticipated, and anything living was sucked in with him. I am certain he is still working on a way to get to our time, which _we_ must counter at all costs."

"WE? There is _no we_ trying to stop a Dark Prince. There is _you_ trying to stop a Dark Prince and _me_ trying to get home."

He shrugged. "You are here and perhaps capable of distracting him while I take him down. You might prove useful in this manner."

For a moment, Jazz was sure she felt steam rise in her head and exit her ears. "I might prove useful?" She poked him in the chest and said, "I want to get home, so I am hanging with you. Big ol' period to that!"

"In order to get home, we must first capture him and discover how it is he got here."

"You are a Royal Seelie. If _he can_ time travel, why can't you?"

"Time travel was something we once were able to do. Something went wrong some years ago with the curvature, probably because somewhere along the line someone did something in the past they should not have. Now time travel eludes even the Fae. I am certain the Dark Prince did not wish to time travel but wished only to enter the Human Realm."

"Yeah, well _, here we are_ , so now what?" Jazz pulled a face and started pacing. What was she going to do? Her senior group would be waiting for her to guide them first thing in the morning. This would mean no tips, and she needed that extra money to see her though the summer.

"Indeed, Jazmine Decker, _here we are_ ," he said and went into deep thought.

She waited a few moments and then nudged him to ask, "I repeat, _now what?_ "

"We find him—Pestale, who must be responsible for this anomaly—and return him to the Dark Realm where he belongs, and hopefully we'll find a way back to our time."

" _Hopefully_ _?_ That is all you can give me? Hopefully?" Jazz was beginning to worry, really worry. She was so going to be oh so fired!

As an answer, he took her hand, and before she knew what he was doing, they did what she had heard all her life Fae did to get from one place to another in a matter of seconds: _they shifted._

* * *

Once again, and this time more comfortably, she was traveling with a Royal Fae, her hand clasped in his large, strong one. Only this time, it was nothing like the black hole that had earlier swallowed, battered, and parted them. This form of travel, while momentarily disorienting to her, was over quickly, taking only a second or two, and she found his hold oddly assuaging to her frazzled nerves.

Man, she thought, this sure didn't feel like a dream or a nightmare; _it felt real._

A moment later, they stood in the middle of a busy avenue as pony carts laden with supplies, riders on horseback, and elegant coaches traveled past them. The dust drifted upwards, and she coughed. Oh, yeah, _so real._

He pulled her out of the way of an oncoming carriage. Once they were both on the curbing, he stood for a moment looking around. "We are protected by the Féth Fiada. We cannot been seen by humans."

" _We_ —meaning, I'm invisible as well?"

"Yes, as long as you are near me."

"How near?" She eyed him doubtfully.

He grinned, reminding her of an adorable, naughty boy. She banished this thought. "Right, okay, so _now what_?" she asked again.

" _Now what, now what_ _?_ You don't have to keep repeating the same question. Be content that I am working on a solution to our problem."

All at once, she realized that one of the things that seemed to travel through her mind, soothing and intriguing her, was his accent. He had an accent, one she could not quite place. Something of an Irish lilt, but something else as well. She couldn't name it, for it was nothing familiar, but it was incredibly beautiful. And his voice was masculine and full of confidence. Absurdly, she felt safe with him, sure he would get her home.

Lost in these thoughts, she jumped when his voice echoed loudly in her ear.

" _Aha!_ His scent is fresh!" he pronounced with a sneer. "We have tracked him to earth."

She looked in the direction his strong chin pointed and saw a lovely Tudor-styled inn at the edge of town. "Tracked him to earth? You make it sound as though he is an animal."

"His actions have made him little else," replied Trevor on a hard note. Then she felt herself pulled speedily along, felt that same 'shifting' rush, before finding herself standing on level ground, this time in front of the inn. She looked his way and stared wide-eyed as he sniffed the air.

He was sniffing the air. Like, _holy cow_ , so her mother had been right. They did use sense of smell to track. She knew they were capable of incredible feats of tracking, but she couldn't believe it was through sense of smell. So, then, he was tracking this horrible Dark Prince? She swallowed. This meant they would soon come face to face with him. Uh-oh, that was fine for him... _Royal Fae, there. Mere mortal, here_.

She then studied the ring of tattoos on his huge bicep, and as she looked him up and down, she admitted once again to herself that in spite of his arrogance, he was one fine-looking male! _Oh, was he ever_. She frowned, silently berating herself for giving in even for a moment to such a thought.

A puzzled expression took over his face, and he said, "You frown a great deal, Jazmine Decker."

"I have good reason," she answered, still frowning.

He laughed, and she discovered that his smile was absolutely mesmerizing, as was the sound of his laughter. How could he be so coldly overbearing one moment and so incredibly sexy-boyish the next?

She said, "Look, I have to find a way to get back. I have people in our time waiting for me, _depending_ on me—what will they think? I have a job to do, and, well, how will I ever explain this?"

"I am sorry for your problem, but if Pestale is here, then _here_ is where I must be to do _my job_ , and doing that, you must see, will also be the solution to hopefully get you back in time to do yours." He said, "Now, before we go inside the inn, you must tell me just _what you are_ , Jazmine Decker, for we both know you are quite a bit more than human."

She realized she wasn't afraid of him any longer. For one thing, she had remembered the Treaty: Fae were prohibited from causing any permanent injury to humans. She sighed, for she knew the Treaty didn't stop them from playing their pranks, but it did prohibit them from doing more than that. In addition, her inner self told her _this Royal_ would consider it beneath him to bother playing planks on her. He seemed sincere about returning her to her life, but would he still do that if he knew what she was?

Should she just tell him that she was a seer? He would guess it in the end. She opened her mouth but instead of telling him said, "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you!"

"No, that is correct. _You would be dead_ ," he answered pragmatically. "Now, if we could get back to my question. _What,_ Jazmine Decker, are you?"

"Listen here, Royal. I am a tour guide, and very soon, this fall in fact, I will be a marine biologist at the Charleston Aquarium, and... oh, never mind." A sudden urge to cry tickled her throat.

"Yes, but that is not what I am asking," he said, displaying something close to a temper, which surprised her. She had been raised to believe the Fae were an alien race, superior mentally and thus coldly detached and unemotional. His constant change of facial and body language disputed that old theory and gave her pause. She would have to rethink this later.

Her reticence had obviously annoyed him, and her brows went up as he shouted, "Now, tell me not _who you are_ , or _what you do_ , but WHAT YOU ARE!" Clearly he had lost patience as he hovered threateningly.

"Rude!" she declared as her own temper came to the fore. She had been hauled off to another time by forces out of her control, and he was treating her with anything but compassion. Out of frustration she hauled off and kicked him in the shins, and then she gasped at her audacity.

Pain did not register on his face, but she was certain from his slight flinch that he had felt some. Then he put a finger in her face and warned, "Do that again, and you will be sorrier than you ever dreamed possible. Now, back to my question before I lose interest and leave you here to fend for yourself."

She hesitated, and then said, bending her neck back slightly so she could look up and meet his gaze, "You must first promise not to take me as a prisoner to Faery."

"Why would I do such a thing?" he asked incredulously.

"Because it is what the Seelie Fae have always done."

"What are you talking about, Jazmine Decker?"

" _I am a Fios_ , as was my mother before me and her mother before her and so on." She saw his expression of dawning understanding, and a shiver of dread went through her.

He slapped his forehead. "Indeed, why did I not realize immediately? _Absurd creature._ We have not carried off anyone to our Isles of Tir since the Treaty was signed. If you are a Fios, why do you not know that?"

"We are raised to be cautious," she answered.

"I should have known. A Fios... I am acquainted with a Fios. My brother had some interest in her awhile back." He frowned at her and added, "You are very different than BJ, who is _a very_ talented Fios. You do not seem as talented as she."

She put her hands on her hips. "How do you know? You haven't seen me in action."

"True," he said on a laugh. He bent towards her, wrapped an arm around her, and held her close. "I look forward to that—seeing you in action, Fios."

She felt herself blush, but he was already straightening up and telling her, "Very well, then, we have no time for this. We must track this fresh scent and see what we may find."

"Why wouldn't he disguise his scent?" she asked. "I mean if he is a Dark Royal, doesn't he have dark magic? My mother said Fae are capable of disguising, concealing, themselves from one another."

"Not exactly true, but, yes, for short periods of time even the Unseelie, at least the Royals, can conceal their scent, but he doesn't know we are here, does he?"

"Right." She shook her head. "He doesn't know we were sucked into the portal." She sighed and then frowned once more to ask, "Why didn't you immediately realize I was a Fios?"

"Your scent misled me. As I said, BJ, who is a part of our ragtag team, and I have an acquaintance. We fought the Unseelie together not so very long ago. Her scent is very different than yours." He bent, took a long whiff, and mumbled softly, "Very different."

She stepped back and said sharply, "Hey! Well, as to that, early in the Fios history, way back in the day before the Treaty, we seers found a way to disguise our scent from the Fae. A different genetic formula for each of our family lines so that Fae could not pick up on any one common link."

He considered her with a thoughtful gaze and said, "Very well, then, more than human, _not_ immortal, and with only limited powers."

She wanted to kick him in the shins again but controlled herself and said, "Tell me more about the Dark Prince."

"You know all you need to know. He is deadly. He is without moral compunction of any sort. He wants out of the Dark Realm so he can rule the universe and will do anything to accomplish that final goal. Get in his way, and you will die."

"Dontcha worry, bud. I am not about to get in his way." Jazz's tone added weight to her words.

He glanced at her as he went suddenly very still, and then, before she could utter a word, he took her hand in his and they were traveling once more, shifting through what she thought of as a 'wormhole' until they touched down inside the old inn.

"He is in that room at the end of the hall. His scent is very strong here, but be careful, Jazmine Decker. Do remember that if you truly are human with only a tad more, you had better stay behind me when we enter his room!"

"Are you telling me we are going in there—face to face with the Dark Prince?" Jazz didn't try to hide the fear in her voice.

"Aye, he has a human female, and from the scent of it he has already gone too far with her. She won't live many more days." So saying, and ignoring her protests, he held her up against himself and shifted.

~ Three ~

SHE WOULD NEVER, she immediately knew, forget what met her gaze in that suite of rooms.

Trevor stood by her side, though he immediately shoved her behind him. She peeked around his massive back, simply because she could not believe what she'd seen.

A hot-looking, muscular, and erotically feral male, wildly handsome with glittering black eyes, looked around. He was just too beautiful to be evil, she thought.

The Unseelie Prince clearly knew they were there but chose to ignore them, as though they were mere insects; his attention was all for the woman he was manipulating on his bed.

Everything about the Dark Prince pulsated with sexual aura, and even though Jazz was immune to his Lianhan _,_ she felt its pull, and that pull was strongly magnetic. She felt a certain wetness between her thighs and silently called herself to order, but he was vibrating with sex, and she couldn't deny that even her Fios was not totally immune. She was able to resist, but she felt the power.

_Hot dayam!_ Her mind exploded with sexual tension. His Unseelie sensually erotic spell over a human would be every bit as dangerous as that of a Seelie Fae's Lianhan _,_ which addicted humans to sex and sent them into a downward spiral, unable to do anything other than seek sexual gratification. A human subjected to the Fae Lianhan would not eat or drink and would doze only briefly, waking and immediately needing, wanting, thinking only of getting, more sex; the afflicted human would eventually die in this state of constant desire.

Jazz could feel his sensual, hypnotic vibrations travel through the airwaves and stroke her. That aura wrapped itself around her body in a way that made her immediately feel lust from her toes to her nipples. Oh yeah, she was able to resist, but she felt its might course through her and tickle all her sensory nerves.

She hurriedly decided to increase her immunity with the shield she had discovered was hers some years ago, and she silently chanted the spell to put it in place. Not all Fios were blessed with this gift, and though she had never had to use it before, she was certainly glad she had it now. _Whew_ _!_ A cool waft of air swept over her at once.

She was still able to sense the hot vibrations surrounding him, but her shield kept her from reacting at all.

Everything that happened next seemed to take place in slow motion.

She was locked in a scene with a primal, savage Fae. His vibes didn't read at all like Trevor's. Everything about the Unseelie was dark and menacing. Everything about him was cold, unfeeling, and murderous.

She was sure he didn't need to use his Lianhan to get women to fall at his feet. She was sure women would succumb to him without it, for he radiated a promise of sexual gratification, and yet, knowing in advance he was killing them, he chose to use the Lianhan.

It occurred to her that Trevor had never tried to subdue her with the Lianhan, even though she knew he had the power and could have tried. _Score one for the Seelie Royal._

It was all surreal, and it was all happening in the blink of an eye. She watched the Dark Royal on the bed, on his knees, like she was watching a porno film. She snapped herself together. It was as though she had been trapped in some kind of trance.

The Dark Prince turned at this juncture, his hands still stroking the woman he was using. It was impossible to look anywhere else but at this incredibly beautiful, tattooed, magical, and yet cold-blooded being.

He sneered at them as she took in the spectacle. He was naked but for the silver torque around his neck.

Even as she tried to avert her gaze, she could not help but take in the vision of his huge cock as he shoved it into the mouth of a very willing and naked young woman. He grinned, tauntingly, as though he owned the world, before his voice thundered at them, "How dare you intrude on me!" He had slowed mid-movement as he spoke. Then he glared at them both and said on a sneer, "Ah, Seelie Royalty, eh?"

His stare was charcoal black, frigid; without wanting to, Jazz found herself stepping behind Trevor even more. She peeped out from behind his bare and enormous back simply because fear made her want to know just what was happening, but fear also made her want to close her eyes and make believe she wasn't there.

Suddenly she realized that the Dark Prince was concentrating his gaze on the little he could see of her behind Trevor. Too late, she realized he had locked his glance with hers. Yup, they were on lock-down gazing! Those eyes of his took on a red glint, and he said on a low-throttled and sensual note, "Ah... _a beauty_. Come, human, join us."

Jazz looked up at Trevor's face for the first time as he turned to frown at her; he wore a shocked expression. Even as this became apparent to her, she felt him take a menacing step forward as his voice fiercely demanded, " _What the hell are you doing here_ _?_ _And where is Pestale?_ "

The Dark Prince dropped his hands from the woman, but she held his thigh longingly as he moved away. He laughed before saying, " _You know me and my brother?_ Pestale has been detained, but eventually you will have the opportunity to see him beside me once more as we storm Tir with our Dark Soldiers at our backs."

"I don't think so." Fury rocked Trevor's voice. "I will be sending you back to join him in the hell you deserve!"

"Seelie Royal, you don't obviously don't really know me or what _I_ can do, what I won't hesitate to do," the Dark Prince said on a light note. "We are not very alike, Pestale and I, for I am darker and full of hate, which makes me want to destroy. He wants to take over the universe and will destroy to do it. Do you see? There is a difference between us." He inclined his head. "I am Hordly, third son of the Dark King, and I have no idea how you got here, nor do I care. I shall let your human live if you go now... Off with you, then, on your way." His sneer was obviously derisive, and Jazz worried that Trevor would be taunted into doing something rash.

"My way," said Trevor, "is putting myself in _your way_."

_Good, good, good_ , she thought thankfully. He was still in control of himself. Maybe Fae didn't do rash things—maybe that part of what she had been taught was actually correct?

"I suggest you leave before I decide to kill you," said the Dark Prince.

" _Not leaving_ , so why don't you, as humans are so fond of saying, _bring it_. Leave the little human you have ruined and _try and kill me_ ," Trevor said on a sneer.

The Dark Prince ignored him and, as though goading the Fae Royal, fondled the woman's full breast.

Trevor roared with his rage as he put up his hand and called aloud for his Death Sword.

_Ha,_ so much for not doing anything rash, Jazz thought as the sword appeared in his hand. She had been taught about Death Weapons. They were from Danu and were the only weapons that could kill Fae. She realized she didn't want Trevor hurt. _Well, duh_ , she told herself, _of course you don't. He's your way home_. Yes, but it was more than that. She actually liked him.

She stepped away to give him room and said to him, "Look, Royal, don't get killed and leave me here."

He laughed and said on a low and feral hiss, "Only one getting killed here today—and it is a Dark Prince named Hordly!"

The Dark Prince jumped away from the woman he had been using and reached for something under the nearby pillow.

His face was a mask of hatred as he bellowed, " _You and I_ ,"—his finger pointed at Trevor before he touched his own chest—"you and I, Seelie Prince, _another time_."

And so saying, he was gone. He had shifted away, taking with him what had looked to Jazz to be a crystal ball.

She asked, "What... what was that he took with him?"

"An Orb. No doubt it was what he used to get through to this time. We will need it, I think, to get back." He frowned as he tried to detach the naked woman, who had crawled to him and held him around his waist. She was trying to get into his leather pants and stroking his thigh for some attention.

When he stopped her, setting her firmly but gently aside, she stretched out on the bed and whimpered, "More... please... _more_..."

Trevor sighed. "I don't really like humans, but I don't like to see them suffer." He shook his head. "I can't do anything for her to make it stop. In the end, she will die, and it will be a slow death in which she will suffer an agony of need."

" _Then find a way to fix her_ ," Jazz said with distress. "You can't leave her like this."

"We don't have that ability. What she suffers now is a form of madness. We Fae can cure many things but not madness."

"How horrible— _horrible._ How can we just leave her like this?"

"Because we don't have a choice," he said and sighed heavily. "As I said, I don't care to mingle with humans, but I don't like to see the poor things suffer, either."

"Can you ease her discomfort—can you try?" Jazz touched his arm, her voice a plea.

He looked at Jazz and said softly, "I will try. Perhaps a spell of compulsion will work."

He went to the young woman, and in the voice of many, strong and sure, he looked into her deranged eyes and said, " _Be at ease_ , sleep, eat, live, sleep, eat, live..."

He unbent from the naked woman, turned to Jazz, and said softly, "Perhaps that will ease her discomfort... I just don't know."

The woman curled up on the bed and fell asleep.

"I think it's working." Impulsively, Jazz threw her arms around Trevor. "Well done, Seelie Royal, _well done_ _!_ "

Though he didn't acknowledge her comment, she noticed a slight smile curve to his lips before he said crisply, "We can't lose any more time. We will have to try and follow his scent."

"Won't he disguise it now that he knows you're here and on his heels?"

"Aye, he will blend with his surroundings, take on the scent around him, but Seelie Trackers have special abilities and can get past that." He sighed heavily as he put up a finger to stall her. "I know, you are going to say we don't have a Tracker, but, Jazmine Decker, you do have a Royal, and while my tracking ability is not as proficient as a Tracker's, it is quite exceptional. We need that Orb, so let us hope my tracking skills will be enough to find him."

"Then what? We can't just flip in, flip out with the Orb."

"Obviously," he answered, taking her hand in his. "However, after I find him, I will use my unique ability to locate Seelie artifacts to help me retrieve the Orb. It travels in his sphere, you see. Where he goes, so goes the Orb." He put her hand to his lips and said quietly, "You are a brave little Fios."

A shiver went through her. She knew he had only taken her hand because they were about to travel, and yet the contact flustered her. And then his compliment had made her hot from her toes to her... oh, yeah, hot was a good word for what she felt. She covered up the feeling by frowning and asked, "So, how do we do this?"

" _We_ do not. _I will do this_ —you will stay out of my way," he answered.

"Oohh, now that was just... dismissive. Why are you so uncivil?"

"Uncivil? Am I _?_ " He seemed surprised by the accusation. He shook his head. "You are mistaken, Jazmine Decker. What I am is a Royal Seelie Fae, and with that comes a sense of what I owe to my house and my queen. However, what I also am is, in the human vernacular, _pissed off_ , very pissed off. Pestale killed _my Lana_ , and when he did that, he made a lifelong enemy of me. I should have killed him, I had the chance, but... my queen deemed otherwise."

"Your Lana?" She heard a possessive sound in the statement. She heard something else when he said the name: feeling—he said the name with feeling. An odd twinge traveled through her system at the realization.

"Aye, we, Lana and I, had only just met during the battle with the Unseelie. She is—was—a Milesian. It seems so long ago but in fact was not. She killed Pestale's brother while _saving me_ , and Pestale killed her. We tracked him, we being her brother Chance and Red—Princess Royce—and I." He looked away as though seeing another time. "Chance and I meant to slice him apart and feed him to the demons, but the Dark King interceded and took him back to the Dark Realm." Disgust blanketed his last words.

"Why?"

"He wanted to start over with Pestale. He told the queen that he sensed Pestale was redeemable. He said it was his fault Pestale had turned into a monster. He said if Pestale, his eldest and most favorite son, drank from the Cauldron, he could start over with him, perfect his character, help him to evolve." Trevor sneered. "All absurd. The Dark King doesn't know what he needs to do to be a parent, doesn't have the inclination, or the time, but our queen decided it would be better not to incur his... displeasure."

"The Cauldron?"

"Like Lethe's Stream, it holds the purest form of water known to Fae. It is from Danu, and it is never-ending in the Cauldron, always replenished." He sighed. "But it wipes out a Seelie Fae's memory. Our queen cautioned the king. She advised him, reminded him, that it might not work in the same manner on a Dark Prince as it does on a Seelie, but he took Pestale away, and as far as I am concerned Pestale got away with his crimes, got away with killing my Lana."

Again, she felt a ridiculous twinge of something she couldn't understand when he spoke of 'his' Lana. What was up with that? She shrugged it off and with brows upraised said, "I see, but now what are you doing? Going rogue and tracking him on your own?"

"No. The queen has the gift of 'sight'. She can see limited things in the future, but those things don't necessarily come to pass. She saw Pestale escaping the Dark Realm with some of his memory intact."

"Ah... and your mission is to find and stop him."

"A quick study," Trevor said, coating the sarcasm with a winning grin.

She ignored this and said, "Okay, Royal, so it wasn't Pestale who has escaped—"

"Yet," he stuck in.

"Right, _yet_ , but a brother of his, Hordly, but this Hordly seems like he's more interested in playing around than taking over the world."

"He is amusing himself until he can find a way out, nothing more. His purpose is very clear," Trevor answered her grimly.

The next thing she knew, his arm was around her waist. Just before he shifted them, he touched her chin with one finger and murmured, "Don't worry, Jazmine Decker, I will allow no harm to come to you." Then they were traveling through space so fast that as she blinked they touched ground.

This time, she found herself still in his hold as they stood in a small village tavern, surrounded by locals.

The building was constructed of hardwood, its rafters of thick, round logs. A long mahogany counter that was well worn and yet well polished ran along part of one wall. Oak logs that stretched from the low ceiling to the wood floor made serviceable partitions for the many round tables that filled the huge chamber.

Jazz stepped away from him as she looked at the crowd of men, a mixture of peasants, gentry, and farmers, seemingly all bent on forgetting the hardships of the day as they enjoyed their food and drink. She couldn't help but marvel to herself. She was standing in the past, watching history—1816, in fact. She had always thought she would like to live in the past; now that she was there, she wasn't so sure. Ironic.

As Hordly was not present, she looked up at the Fae hunk who had reached for and was holding her hand and said, "Now what?"

"You are forever asking that question." He gave her a rueful smile. "It may appear to you that I am all-knowing, but the sorry fact is that I am not. Capable, aye, but not all-knowing." He sighed. "I suppose we play this one by ear. Come—we are invisible to this crowd."

He pulled her along and saw her seated at a table in the darkest corner of the room. He pulled her chair close to his as he sat beside her so that their backs were against the wall and they had a view of the front double doors.

Jazz again looked up at him, and as their eyes met, something happened to her. She felt it whiz through her system, a sudden 'feeling' she could not explain, and that feeling was a connection. She felt connected to him.

She couldn't explain it, didn't know how it was, but it slammed into her head and stared down all other considerations. It was as though a fully charged wire reached out of her heart, wrapped itself around him, and returned to wrap itself around her. He felt it—she saw that _he felt what she felt._

He bent his head in that one electric moment, and she was sure he was going to kiss her. She suddenly needed his kiss, wanted his kiss, and she waited for that kiss. She felt a tingle of anticipation, so sure he had bent to kiss her!

Regarding her as though he were looking at a madwoman, he said, "Jazmine Decker, your breathing is irregular—are you unwell?"

She realized he had bent not to kiss her ready and pursed lips but to adjust his sandals.

* * *

_Okie dokie_ , that soaked her in frigid water. This was trouble. She had to admit she had a thing for him. She didn't know what kind of thing, but definitely _a thing._ She cleared her throat and tried to make idle conversation. "If we are invisible, how come no one tries to sit at this table?"

"They don't see the table," he answered simply.

"Huh," she said and digested this. He was not looking at her but seemed to be intent on studying the entrance.

She grimaced at him as she tried to recapture her sense of self, tell herself that, sure, he was the most attractive male on the planet, but what did she care? It was all in her head, she told herself. Sure, he was a hunk parading his muscular, naked self without a care, sporting abs she wanted to run a hand over, and _stop it!_

She had to remember that he was a _Royal Fae_ and she was _a Fios._

No way could there be a link between them. Just wasn't happening. Never could be any kind of link...

How could there be? She was just giving in to a very normal, red-blooded instinct to touch a hunk of a male. It was nothing more.

She thought of her friend Tammy whispering, urging her in her ear, _Go for it, girl! Take that hunk and have your way_.

This made her break out in sudden, irrepressible laughter. Nerves, she knew it was nerves. So much to absorb, too much, and it left only one thing to do: laugh until her tummy hurt. She couldn't stop and knew he was regarding her with open concern.

She managed to talk herself steady and got it under control. She was talking to herself in her head, she knew, but when she snapped her fingers across her face with attitude, she realized how very disturbed she had become over this new problem, and how very disturbed she must appear to him.

He eyed her as though she really had lost her mind. She couldn't blame him. She had just been laughing uncontrollably and was now snapping her fingers while she had a conversation with herself in her head. No wonder he was really convinced she was a loon.

This nearly made her burst out with mirth again, but she managed to control herself.

Perfectly understandable, she told herself. After all, she had been sucked into 1816 with a Royal Fae. She had encountered an evil, oh so hot, but evil, very evil, Dark Fae named Hordly, and her senior group would be waiting for her in the morning. This thought made the giggles return, but after a few choked sounds, she had it back under control.

She saw his gold eyes watching her as she bent over with rollicking laughter once more. She saw him patiently waiting for her to stop before he took her chin and looked into her eyes. Then he said, as though he were speaking to a child, "There, there, Jazmine Decker. I don't mean to allow any harm to come to you."

She had to look away because she knew he was being kind and trying to comfort her, and she didn't want to laugh right in his face, which seemed a real possibility.

She managed to glance away and studied the men and women in the local tavern. Her mind took it all in and got control of her nerves. She had to face the fact that she had been transported to the past. Here she was in 1816, unless of course she was unconscious in a hospital and making all this up in her mind?

She could hear men talking about one of their own not being 'right' after Waterloo. His body evidently had survived but not his mind. She heard another talking about purchasing a cow from a farmer having troubles down the road. These were not restoration actors; these were real people talking about real problems, real life.

She pinched Trevor, and he released a growl. "Why did you do that?"

"Wanted to see if you were real," she answered.

He said nothing to this but shook his head, and she returned to studying the occupants of the tavern.

The men for the most part were in shirtsleeves, well-worn leather vests, breeches, and boots. A few well-dressed men strolled in and joined a group of what she assumed were local gentry at a far table. She loved historical romances and had read enough to know that the superfine cutaways of dark colors and waistcoats had replaced the colorful, bright satins of the 1700s. She was really in 1816. It was a movie playing right before her eyes. Gone were the wigs, as men in 1816 wore their unpowdered hair either tied back or cut short. She watched it all unfold before her with avid interest.

Trevor spoke to her, his very fine brows drawn together. "By Danu, Fios, you are making some very odd noises."

She realized she was oohing and aahing and felt a giggle begin to return. She suppressed it. "The style of dress... the manners... everything," she answered. "We damn well are in the past. We really are." She eyed his naked chest suddenly and asked, "Aren't you cold? Shouldn't you cover up?"

"No, we Fae regulate our temperature to accommodate the conditions in which we find ourselves. _Why_ , are you?"

"Yes, a little," she said, hugging her arms around herself. Evening had descended, and they weren't close enough to the enormous fire at the far wall for her to catch any benefit. They were invisible to everyone who came in, yes, but she was not unaffected by the conditions.

His lashes moved almost imperceptibly, and she was covered in a lovely dark knit shawl. "Better?" he asked.

"Where did that come from?" She laughed. "That was quick knitting."

He seemed pleased with himself. "I brought it with a thought from the shop down the avenue."

"Huh? Oh no—did you leave money in exchange for it?"

"I left a gold piece. I think that will do," he answered blithely.

"Then, I will allow that was really well done."

"Of course," he said impatiently.

"Oh, you are such a... a..." She gave it up.

"Red enjoys humans, but I have yet to understand why."

"Again with this princess of yours. Are you in love with her?"

He choked on a cough. "May I be struck down before ever that could happen. No. We don't agree on politics—in fact, there are a great number of things we don't agree on—but even so she is amongst my dearest friends. She is also now wife to Chancemont LeBlanc, the Milesian."

"Ah, you mentioned him, Lana's brother," Jazz said, putting everything together. She sighed. "Why don't you blink us some clothing of the time, and then we wouldn't have to be invisible and could ask the locals a few questions—"

He cut her off. "We must not do anything to upset the balance of this time. We shall stay invisible and hope that Hordly's intrusion will do no harm." He glanced around.

"That's too bad, because if we could question some of the locals, they would know if they saw some gorgeous hunk of a Dark Prince," she teased to lighten the mood. He was always so serious, and whether she was in a coma or actually in the past, she needed some levity to ease her tension.

He frowned at her.

She said, "You said I do it, but you do it more."

"I do what more?" he asked.

"Frown," she answered. "So what do you think?"

"I do not do more frowning, and why do you call him gorgeous? He is evil. You witnessed what he did to that poor human."

She immediately felt contrite. "Right, yes, you are right, but I was trying to..." What was she going to say, make light of it? Put a spin on things so she wouldn't have to dwell on the mess she was in? She said, "Why not just answer the question?"

"I already told you, we don't want to upset the balance, and besides I don't mingle with humans well," he said.

"Yes, but I do get along with them. Maybe I should go and see what I can find out," she said, smiling.

He reached over as though to take her hand but stopped himself. "You are resilient, Jazmine Decker. I suspect most of your kind would have suffered great distress had this situation been shoved at them all at once as it has been on you. In fact, I fully expected you to do some human crying."

She rolled her eyes. "What good would that do? It is what it is."

He didn't answer her. Instead, his attention was centered on the tavern doors, where a huge male dressed in the clothes of the day and holding a woman on each arm walked in. _Hordly._

"Hush," Trevor said on a low note as she touched his arm, and then, "Stay here."

She stood, unable to do much more as he shifted away. She had no idea what he meant to do, but what she didn't expect was what happened next.

A seductive male voice whispered in her ear, "You and I, pretty one, _you and I_."

And the next thing she knew she was traveling through space wrapped in the arms of a Dark Fae Prince.

~ Four ~

TREVOR WATCHED THE Dark Prince Hordly enter.

He saw the Dark Prince was occupied and sneered as the Unseelie locked lips with one woman before turning and running his hands over the other.

He was disgusted by Hordly's careless gluttony. A true warrior would be working on a solution to his problem. Maybe his little Fios was correct, and this Dark Prince was all about play...?

However, he immediately realized he had made a tactical mistake.

He had assumed the Dark Prince was too busy, too engrossed with the women, to bother looking around the tavern.

He assumed the Unseelie was careless. He had underestimated him.

He should have been prepared for this, and as dawning came over him, he felt a moment of sudden, sickening emotion, felt fury at himself ride hard through his mind. He turned and witnessed it all with a dread he had not thought possible to feel. He witnessed it all but was unable to stop it.

Suddenly, where Hordly had been were only two women groping one another while some of the men in the tavern inched closer to them.

And Trevor knew.

Hordly had shifted to the back of the open room. He was Fae fast, and he took Trevor's little Fios up in his strong arms and shifted off, disguised in a scent that would be nearly impossible to track immediately. By the time Trevor got there, Hordly could kill his little Fios. The thought made Trevor rail with agony.

He would never underestimate Hordly again.

Not only had the Dark Prince seen him in the tavern, but he had planned and executed his attack.

Trevor had promised her he would keep her safe.

This couldn't be happening. Hordly could snap her neck without a thought, and her lovely life would be over. No... no... he could not allow it. He would find Hordly.

Something ferocious welled up inside Trevor. He clenched his fists as he raised his eyes heavenward and declared, "I am going to find you, Hordly, mark me on this!"

The notion that the little Fios was in the hands of something like this Dark Prince, who was without empathy, without a shred of compassion, made him mentally and almost physically ill, a thing that Fae rarely experienced.

Jazmine Decker mattered to him, but he had not realized the extent of protectiveness he felt on her behalf. She shouldn't matter to him, he told himself sternly. Only his mission should matter.

In the past, he had never bothered with humans. He had believed they as individuals were of no consequence. However, watching Hordly abuse the little woman at the inn, leaving her to suffer, hurt something deep inside him. This new feeling was what his friend Red had tried to tell him about when he'd argued with her that, if a human were lost during a battle, he would be sorry for it, but he would simply chalk it up as an unfortunate casualty. It should not matter, and yet it suddenly did matter. What was more to the point was the undeniable fact that, in particular, the little Fios mattered. She mattered a great deal, though why, he could not say.

Perhaps it was that 'look' in her lovely human eyes always so brightly infused with honesty, concern, and courageousness. And she was courageous. Look at how she had handled herself from the moment they met, after all she had witnessed and experienced. He had seen only recently during Gaiscioch's war that most humans ran for cover when presented with insurmountable dangers.

He had one hope, that Hordly would want to keep her alive as a hostage.

He felt desperate. He could not allow the Dark One to hurt her. He had so little time. Odd that his hope was Hordly would want to use her for negotiations.

Again, he chastised himself for the sick concern he was experiencing on her behalf. His opinion of humans had always been very poor. He thought them an infant race without purpose, but this one— _was different._

He excused himself, telling himself that, for one thing, she wasn't quite human. Besides, she might be useful as a seer. He reminded himself that his queen prized all Fios as 'special'.

Plus, this was his fault.

He had left her alone. She had put a certain amount of trust in him, and he had failed her. This absolutely grated at his nerve endings.

He felt a fool—tricked by an Unseelie.

He went into tracking mode and centered all his magic on one thing: finding and following the Dark Prince's specific scent.

He knew the Dark Prince would expect to be followed and would try to redesign his scent to blend in with his surroundings as he shifted. However, that would delay the Unseelie, so time, in this case, was on Trevor's side.

He meant to make good use of that.

He reminded himself that no Unseelie alive could measure up to a Seelie Royal.

He discovered almost at once that the Dark Prince Hordly was jump shifting. He had used the scent of pine and earth but appeared to have forgotten his dark and hellish sorcery left a trace amount of putrid scent behind. Trevor centered his tracking on that.

Surprised, Trevor used caution when he realized the Dark Prince wasn't going long distances. This was both wearisome and useless. Why would Hordly use this mode of travel? It certainly would not help Hordly elude him, so the question was why? Why jump shift?

The answer came all at once and as a sure conclusion: the Dark Prince was hampered by some unknown. Hordly couldn't do more than jump shift. Something had gone wrong with his skills in the transition from the Dark Realm into this past.

What held the Dark Prince lassoed and limited like that? When the Dark Prince used the Orb, a Relic Trevor was certain was a Seelie artifact, had something gone wrong?

Did the Orb not work quite the same for an Unseelie?

As these thoughts presented themselves in logical formation, he continued to follow and track. Suddenly, unexpectedly, he found that Hordly had decided to take a stand.

They were in an open field with a dark pine forest at Hordly's back, and it was in this moment that Trevor decided this one was nothing like his brother Pestale, who was cunning and careful and who enlisted his black magic with purpose.

This one, this Dark Prince, vibrated with pure evil—enjoyed being evil, or so it appeared to Trevor as he looked into black, cold eyes. This one would make mistakes.

Hordly was an iceberg of unemotional purpose. He radiated disinterest towards all other beings, but what was worse, Trevor realized, what distinguished Hordly from Pestale, was this one, Hordly, enjoyed torturing and killing his victims.

Pestale had been a worthy opponent, but he had weaknesses that Hordly did not. Pestale killed for an end game. Hordly was just happy to kill. Hordly didn't care about the long-term results. He enjoyed the moment. He enjoyed the chaos, but his brother, Pestale planned the chaos as a means to an end, he took no pleasure in it.

Jazmine Decker squirmed in the Dark Prince's hold. Trevor's fists clenched as he watched Hordly bend and put his lips to her throat.

And then Trevor was momentarily shocked.

This Dark Prince had fangs!

_Another of the Dark King's experiments gone more than wrong._ Did the Dark Prince also have vampire tendencies?

Hordly nipped her, and Trevor winced to see her blood flow freely down her neck. Hordly then sneered and said, "You can't be so stupid as to think I was doing more than playing with you, Seelie Prince." Hordly licked her blood and then made a sound of pleasure before he bit again and made another wound.

Trevor watched her blood ooze out from four small wounds and then took a hasty step forward as Hordly continued to lick at the blood. He tried to maintain his composure and said, "Think what you will, jump shift as much as you have to, but know that in the end I will have your head severed from your body, Dark King be damned. Let her go, and we will talk, perhaps more reasonably." Trevor put his hand up for his Death Sword, thankful once again that it automatically stayed within his sphere, going where he went.

" _No,_ I think I will keep this one as hostage. I like the taste of her blood, so different than what I had in the Dark Realm, so different than the humans I have tasted thus far." He ran a hand down her arm. "I want to study her and discover what it is that makes her immune to my Lianhan. Perhaps I will remove her brain for dissection. But first, I think I will use her pretty body... over and over, and when I am tired of her, I will drink her blood until she expires." He sneered at Trevor. "Tell me, Seelie Prince—is she immune to you as well, or have you already bedded her?"

Trevor's sword hand twitched, but if he shifted in while Hordly still held her, the Unseelie would shift off with her and perhaps do her harm before he could find them again. He had to find a way of getting her free of the Dark One for just a moment... just a moment, so he could move in.

All at once, and surprising both the Dark Prince and Trevor at the same time, the little Fios decided to demonstrate the consequences of _making_ _the mistake of underestimating her!_

* * *

Jazz had been waiting for the right time; now that Trevor was near and would have her back, the time had come.

The two were obviously locked in a testosterone battle, and she could use that to her advantage. Neither one was aware of all the powers she possessed.

She was a Fios with 'slamming' power. She could take a Fae's magic and redirect it back so it affected the Fae. She had been waiting for the best possible position and timing, and here it was. Trevor had his sword in hand, so all she had to do was utilize her own very special gift.

She closed her eyes and concentrated. She felt the Dark Prince pulsating with power, and she took that vibrating energy and created an electric current that pulsed with his dark magic. It turned into a ball of electricity—white hot and loaded with evil, his evil—at his back. She waited for just the right moment and slammed him from behind. She knew he would never see it coming.

He was lifted off the ground, and as she ducked he was sent crashing into a huge oak tree more than thirty feet away.

She stood for a moment, amazed it had actually worked. She had never used this magic before. Her mother had of course told her that she was a 'slammer' and had told her _how_ to use it, but she had never tried it on a Fae for the fear of giving herself away. As she had never been in danger from a Fae, she had never had to. _Well, now_ , she thought, silently patting herself on the back, _not bad_. This in turn made her grin as she said brightly, "Well, hot dayam!"

Trevor, with his Death Sword in hand, moved into action, but just as he spanned the distance, with his weapon pointed at the Dark Prince's chest, Hordly was able to summon enough strength to jump shift away.

"Damn his soul to bloody damn hell!" Trevor shouted as he lost the prince to the winds.

"Let's follow him," suggested Jazz.

"So we shall, for he can't get far, but we need a plan. Can't just rush after him willy nilly. We have to put some cunning into this and out-think him." He gazed at her, and their eyes met.

She felt a bolt of sensation sweep through her and tried to make light of what she was feeling by saying, "What?"

"You have power, little Fios," he said with a touch of admiration. "That Fios I mentioned earlier—BJ, who is married to the Druid Daremont—she, too, is a slammer."

"Yeah, well, there you go. Told ya I had power," she said with a short laugh. "Now what?"

"You are always asking that, and I have told you, some matters must be worked out... played by your ear, as you humans say."

She laughed. "Not by your ear, just by ear."

"Just so." He put up his chin.

"You are a Royal Seelie, and according to you, you have just gone through a war with the Dark Fae and then tracked Pestale and could have put him to death, so, yeah, you may not realize it yet, but _you've got the answers_ ," Jazz said, partially because she believed this and partially because she knew he needed to be reminded of it. He might be a Fae, but he was also a male.

He eyed her for a long moment and said, "What we really need is Nuad and his Golden Net."

"Who is that, and what is a Golden Net?"

"Nuad is our Chief Tracker, and the Golden Net is a netting made of enchanted gold thread. No Fae, Seelie or Unseelie, can escape it. They can't shift out of it. It is how we transport an unruly Fae who has broken the law—not that we actually have any unruly Fae, if you don't count the traitor Gaiscioch," he mused out loud.

"Trevor," Jazz said, surprising herself, for his name came easily, "if the Orb allowed him to escape the Dark Realm, why then did the Orb bring him here? Why can he only shift in spurts? Why can't he go back to the Dark Realm and start over?"

"It is called 'jump shifting', and I can only speculate that the Orb is not responding to him accurately, either of its own free will—"

"Its own free will?" she cut in, her brows arched. "We are talking about an object, an artifact—how can it have free will?"

"Seelie Fae Relics and Hallows take on a life of their own through time. They evolve because they are infused with powerful magic. Magic begets more magic, and they get stronger, they initiate their own divine purpose, they often take sides, and they have preferences." He shrugged. "A human would say, _it is what it is_ —at least I was told that humans often say that."

She laughed. "You were told?"

"Again, my friend Red—Princess Royce. Besides, you have said it, and it made sense to me... sort of. Red has often tried to make me see there is more to your race than I have observed. I am beginning to agree that some of you... can be endearing."

Jazz grinned. "Some of us, eh?"

He ignored this and said grimly, "What I have to do now is find a way to call to the Orb with the hope that it will be able to link to me and perhaps use it to return him to the Dark Realm and then us to our time period," he answered.

"I might be able to help you with that," Jazz said.

He snorted. " _You_ —help? You are not even Fae. Why would it respond in any manner to you?"

"Hey, who just sent that Dark Prince flying?" she countered.

He considered this. "Indeed, little Fios, you have a formidable power, but you have no connection to our Relics. I, on the other hand, have the ability to locate Seelie Fae Relics."

"I can locate them when they are near because they in turn respond to me." She eyed him and said, "We Fae seers have lots of abilities. Not all of us have the same ones. I have three very important ones. Speed—I can be very fast. I am a slammer, and I'm also a sounder." She gave him a superior smile.

He laughed right out loud and patted her head as though she were a favorite pet. "Well, then, this grows interesting. Shee Willow, who is Fae on her father's side and Fios on her mother's side, is a sounder as well. Right, then, sweet Fios _, sound_ away!"

She shoved his hand off her head and pulled a face at him. "Don't do that. I am not your kitty cat."

"No, and you are _not immortal_ , so try and remember that and stay close to me so the Unseelie Royal can't take you hostage again," he said irritably.

"Hey, you told me to stay where I was, and against _my_ better judgment, that is what I did." Jazz gave it right back.

"Even so, be more careful," he answered obstinately.

"Oh, of all the arrogant—"

"As soon as we can get our hands on the Orb, Jazmine Decker, you will be able to go home. Isn't that what you want?" he asked.

His gold eyes seemed to look through her. She knew he had used Glamour to mitigate the Faeness of his ancient brilliant eyes, but even so, as a seer she could see the 'alien' in him. It was, she reminded herself, what all Fae really were— _aliens._ Her mother had taught her that. They were another race from a place called Danu. But she still felt something for him growing inside her. She had to wrap it up in ice and throw it out; she simply had to.

"Yes, it is what I want." Silently, however, she asked herself, _Right?_ _Isn't that what I want?_ A part of her whispered, _No,_ _you want to stay and help fight against the Dark Fae. It is in your blood._

"Then I suggest, little Fios, you get to work and find the Orb with your 'sounder' ability," he said authoritatively.

She pushed at him with all her might, but he didn't budge, standing there like a huge, sculptured boulder, and she said agitatedly, "Oohh!"

"I have annoyed you. _W_ _hy_ _?_ " he asked on a frown.

"You can't help it—you are what you are," she said on a heavy sigh.

"Well, of course I am. You have a knack for stating the obvious, Jazmine Decker."

She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. She wouldn't think of him. Instead, she would do what her instincts told her she could do. Only once had she been put to the test. Her mother had a small pendent, handed down from mother to daughter for centuries. Oddly enough, the story went that it had been a gift from the Queen of the Seelie Fae, Aaibhe, for a service her ancestor had done.

Her mother had hidden it, and Jazz had located it with her 'sounder' talent, over and over again. She touched the locket now, but before she could proceed, Trevor moved in so fast the air rushed around her like a small wind. He took the locket in his hand and held it. " _This_... belongs to my queen. It is not only a Fae artifact, it is the queen's _loi_ _céad_. It holds very unique magical properties. What are you doing with it?"

She slapped his hand away. "It was given to one of our ancestors by _your queen!_ "

"Why?"

"I don't like your tone," she answered, glaring at him. Didn't he believe her? Did he think it had been stolen? Like anyone could steal something from the queen! Ha.

"You don't like my tone?" he returned, looking both annoyed and perplexed. He shook his very handsome head while she studied him, but finally he grimaced and asked, "Very well, then, do you know how to use it, Fios? Because _I do_."

"Well, not sure. The family story was that we could call on the queen if an injustice against one of us was being committed. That is all I know." She shrugged. "I just wear it because it's pretty, and I used to think maybe it would bring me good luck." She looked around. "Not so sure about that anymore."

"Why did you think it would bring you good luck?" he asked, looking at her with obvious curiosity.

She thought for a moment. Her mother had given it to her the day of the accident, telling her to always wear it, as though she knew something was coming...

She had been thrown clear and lived. Luck was a double-edged sword. She lived, but she lost them. She returned her gaze to his golden eyes. "It doesn't matter."

"Well, then, what does this tell you, Jazmine Decker?" Trevor asked with a growing smile.

"I don't know, but I am certain from the look on your face that you mean to tell me."

"It tells you, little Fios, that we have found our way home— _I think_."

~ Five ~

HORDLY STOOD AT the edge of the monoliths that hovered over the Middle Lake of Killarney. He was confused and looking for answers. What had gone wrong? Why had the dolmens been sucked into the past with him? Why had _he_ been sucked into the past? And why the year 1816? Was it significant or just an accident of fate?

Dark Fae could not touch Seelie Fae relics. Nor could they successfully command them, but he and his brothers were not just Dark Fae. They had their father's Seelie essence. They each represented a different Royal House, and each had precious gifts. However, because the Dark King had used dark magic and the preserved genes of beings extinct in the Seelie's beloved Danu when creating his sons, they were neither all Unseelie nor all Seelie. Thus, Seelie artifacts never reacted quite as they were supposed to when he or his brothers tried to use them. Was that the reason he had been sent back to this time period?

He had been careful not to touch the Orb when he used the incantation, hoping it would not feel or sense the Unseelie in him. He had been specific in the use of that incantation, limiting it only to the opening of the portal, a portal that Gais had used to travel to Killarney. Gais had been a Seelie Fae, and it had worked for him, but it had also worked for his brother Pestale.

Why then not for him? Was he darker—less Seelie than Pestale? Was he readily recognizable as Unseelie by the Orb?

Without the Wheel of Being, the Dark King had needed more than his own and Morrigu's essence to create true Fae, so he had implemented the use of the darkest magic he could find and combined it with the science he had perfected. Thus, the first of his sons, Pestale, had been created. Later, with the others, he had altered the method so that none were exactly alike.

Hordly knew Pestale had been favored in his father's eyes. He had stopped caring about that centuries ago. However, now it seemed it was Graely that held the Dark King's true affection. This was unacceptable. How could his father hold Graely in greater affection? _Graely was a stupid, soft-natured dolt!_

The Dark King had made small alterations when he had finally created Hordly, Graely, and then Donwith, now dead by a Milesian's hands. For Hordly, that alteration had given him fangs, but he liked that. He liked the feel of ripping something apart...

But all that didn't matter. Soon, they would take over the universe. Their father didn't care. He was off with his whore... his Crystal... evolving into pure energy.

He and his brothers had a secret they could use as a weapon against the Seelie Fae: the fact that they had Seelie inside them waiting to be utilized.

The Seelie Royal had looked at him as though he were nothing more than an evil being, and that angered him.

He was more. Yes, he had wicked desires, but he also had the ability to feel affection. He had affection for his brothers and for Queen Morrigu, whose essence had been used to help create them. He had a sense of loss for the brother killed by the Milesian Lana. He was more than the Seelie Royal saw. But, he also knew, he had a strange desire, the need to feed on blood from time to time. It was because of the genes the Dark King has used when creating him.

He sighed over it. Soon, however, he would find a way out of the past, and then he and his brothers would enter the Human Realm and rule the whole damn universe, Faery included!

Freeing his brothers would be difficult because of his present predicament, but he would find a way. After all, it was he who had planned to keep Pestale from losing his memory. Pestale was whole because of him.

Because the Dark King had evolved beyond understanding, he had only been mildly interested in watching Pestale drink from the Cauldron. He had not really seen. He had not expected his third son to outsmart him.

Hordly smiled as he thought of the tray of water he had installed in the Cauldron. That tray held plain water from their Realm's Dark streams that had been only mildly contaminated by the Cauldron's magical libation. Pestale's memories had been affected but not removed, and when the Dark King had withdrawn, as he always did, to his universe with his evolving human consort, _he_ —not Graely, but _he_ —had begun Pestale's reeducation!

Now, he had to find a way to free him and Graely.

He'd also free Morrigu, who was quite mad, but was lover, mother, friend, and the only female being they had been able to enjoy for eons. She would finally have an outlet for her cravings, perhaps find peace once she was free of the Dark Realm. Pestale thought he was the only one who had affection for Morrigu, but that wasn't so; Hordly also had some caring for her.

He had many purposes now, and one of them was to avenge his youngest brother's death. Lana, the Milesian, had killed him. True, Pestale had killed Lana, but for Hordly it did not end there. He wanted to destroy every Milesian that existed. He could not rest until he, with their Dark Army, charged into their little Milesian world and took them down to the last child.

His youngest brother, Donwith, who had always made him laugh but would never make him smile again, had to be avenged.

Pestale had been with Hordly when he'd told the Orb to open the portal to Killarney and had followed him in, but it must have sent Pestale back to the Dark Realm, for Hordly had found himself alone when he was spit out of the portal. He'd stood at its mouth and known something had gone wrong.

What he didn't want to do was return to the Dark Realm. He had to find a way of getting his brothers and Morrigu out from this side of the portal.

Ruefully, he thought it was better to be in the past than in the Dark Realm.

This would have to do. At least it would have been a partial answer if the Seelie Prince hadn't appeared to make things more difficult.

He had never thought of himself as a problem solver. That had always fallen to Pestale. He had, however, surprised himself as of late, but even so, he didn't want to charge into the human world alone. He needed his older brother and even his resistant brother Graely at his side. He wanted them all. They were familiar. His brothers and Morrigu had been with him for all time. He sneered as he thought of the Seelie Prince, for he was aged, and experienced. He had so much more knowledge than the young Seelie Prince who dared to challenge him.

He would not make the same mistakes Pestale had made. Pestale would be dead if the Dark King had not interceded.

Pestale 'felt' too much. Pestale had doubts about how far he would go to attain his needs. He, however had no such doubts.

He had two problems to deal with: the Seelie Royal and the little human who was not quite human.

The little pretty had power.

He liked that. He also liked the look of her. Her form was more than pleasing, and something in her eyes caught his attention. She was more than human, less than immortal. Intriguing, and what was even more exciting was the fact that he could not seduce her with the Lianhan _._ He could, however, force her to have sex with him, and the notion was damned thrilling.

He was amused that she had managed to best him in their first encounter. He liked that. He had never been challenged by a woman before. Pestale would be surprised to see how well he handled the setback. Pestale thought him cold and dangerously self-centered, and he was, but so much about him was growing. Each day in the Human Realm, even in the past, he was discovering more about himself.

However, he had not anticipated a Seelie Royal running him to earth like this so soon. He thought he would have had more time. Fate was a bitch, and apparently that bitch had somehow put the Seelie Royal in his way. He would take him down. It was just a matter of time.

If only he had the Death Sword that Pestale had managed to obtain. For now, he would have to do without this invaluable weapon.

When he got his hands on one, though—then the Seelie Prince would meet with death, and the woman would be his.

She was a beauty, a piece of artwork he would enjoy exploring. Perhaps he would even take the time and seduce her, use her... damn, but he wanted to use her! In the meantime, plenty enough peasant women awaited him.

A smile curved his lips as his cock distracted him from his goals. He turned back to the two women he had brought with him. They were lying in the grass playing with one another, calling to him. Did he have time?

He thought of the Royal Seelie and frowned. No, he would have to keep on the move. _Leave the pretties._ Time enough for more of that later, when he completed his plans and brought Pestale and Graely, and their Morrigu, through the monoliths. Soon, the stars would align and the future would be theirs.

* * *

"You think?" Jazz said in some exasperation.

"Indeed, how can I know for sure when I have never had it in my possession and, therefore, am uncertain just what it does?"

"Okay, but—" Jazz cut herself off and frowned at the scene taking place only a hundred feet down the road from where they stood.

A man was shouting at a child Jazz assumed was his daughter. She was a dirty little urchin no more than eleven or twelve years old. Jazz felt a moment's irritation with the man, until she saw his hand rise and the child cringe.

Irritation turned to fury when the man smacked the child across her face and sent her flying backwards to land hard on the ground.

The beast of a man took hard, long steps to stand over her. He bent and grabbed the collar of her worn sack of a dress, but Jazz, using her hyper-speed, arrived in time to catch his attention by slamming her boot down on his foot.

He yelped and hopped on one foot, stood, and turned to her, a fist in the air as he bellowed, "I'll kill ye, ye little tart!"

Karate was a human skill, one that her father had made certain she acquire and perfect. She used it now and with great pleasure. Her leg came up and into position, landing him a round kick that sent him flying. He tripped over himself and went down, hard. Winded, he lay there while Jazz put the child behind her.

Visible now, as she was out of the prince's circle of Féth Fiada, she stood in position, ready to dole out more.

The brute lifted his head and stared at her as he made his first attempt to get up, saying, "Eh... whot the hell?" He got to his knees and then rose from there. "Where did ye learn to hit like that? And whot be ye wearing there, she-devil?" His voice was hushed, and caution laced his movements now.

All at once, apparently thinking Jazz had just landed him a lucky blow, he released a low and ferocious sound and charged, bent like a bull.

"Ah, foolish beast..." Jazz sneered, and he paused. She waved him to bring it. "Come on and get some more." She wanted to taunt him; he needed hurting, and she wanted to be the one to dish it out.

He completed the charge at her, all brawn and fury, and got his head kicked in for his effort. He lay there on his back again, but this time he was unconscious.

Jazz turned to the child. "Are you okay?"

"What is 'okay'?" The girl's Irish lilt was lovely, but her hazel eyes were bright with worry.

"It means are you all right?"

She nodded. "Aye, that I am, but when he wakes up, he will kill me for this... och, but he will."

" _No,_ he won't. Is he your father?"

"No, I be an orphan, and he bought me from the orphan home... to help on his farm, last month." She said this in a resigned tone, sounding so much older than she looked.

"Did he?" Jazz said in some disgust. "Well, you don't belong to him anymore."

"But I have nowhere to go," the child said pragmatically.

"Yes, you do. You will come with me, and we will see about finding you a better home. How is that?"

"What are you doing?" Trevor demanded as he stepped forward and leaned into her.

"What do you think I am doing?" Jazz answered, thinking, _Oh no, the child will think she's going crazy. One minute I'm here, the next I'm invisible._

"I can't have a child in tow," he answered. "And besides, we are not supposed to interfere in human matters and events."

"Well, I am not bound by your rules," Jazz said.

"A Royal," the child whispered and reached for Jazz's hand.

Both Trevor and Jazz turned to the child in shock, and Trevor asked, "You can see me, lass?"

She lowered her gaze and did not respond. Jazz bent to her and said, "It's safe. You don't have to worry. Are you a seer?"

When the girl looked away and would not answer, Jazz realized she must have been taught never to reveal what she was.

She said softly as she took the girl's chin and looked into her hazel eyes, "You don't have to be afraid. _This Royal_ will not hurt you. I know because I had to reveal to him that I am also a Fios."

The girl's eyes opened wide, though she still did not speak. Jazz continued, "That's right. _I can see_ Fae." She waved towards the prince. "This Royal will not carry you off or harm you. Instead, he will keep you safe, won't you, Trevor?" Jazz straightened as she turned to him with an arched look.

The prince released a low curse in what she assumed was Danu, but when Jazz pinched his arm he frowned at her and told the child, "Of course—isn't that what we Royals do? _Babysit?_ " He grimaced at Jazz and murmured as he bent to her ear, "Sure, what is one more piece of baggage?"

"Oooh," Jazz seethed and glared up at him as he straightened. She played with her pendant and said, "Ah, but, Royal, _I_ am the one with the charm, remember?"

He grinned suddenly. "So you are, though you haven't a clue how to use it."

She turned away from him and bent once more to the girl. "What is your name, sweetie?"

"Francine McGilley." Her voice was quiet and still tinged with uncertainty as she kept her eyes focused on the ground.

"Well, then, Francine, I am Jazmine Decker, and this big, handsome Fae is Trevor, Prince of Lugh..." She smiled up at the prince, noting that he appeared taken aback. She smiled to herself and said, "Oh, aren't you used to being called handsome?"

* * *

Surprise raced through him. She had called him handsome? Well, of course he was, but until this moment he thought she was not aware of it. He frowned and then felt a wave of satisfaction. She thought him handsome. It shouldn't matter, but perversely it did.

Jazmine Decker was complicating matters irrevocably for him. He spent too much time thinking about her, wondering what she was thinking, looking at her. Damn but he couldn't stop looking at her. Everything about her attracted him to her. Her golden hair framed her piquant face... her nose upturned slightly, and he constantly had an urge to touch it... kiss it, lower that kiss to her full, luscious lips and taste her tongue.

No time, absolutely no time for this.

And then he had stood back and watched her fight for the child's well-being. In that moment, he thought he had never seen a more beautiful creature in all his thousands of years.

He was affected by the child's plight. He shouldn't be, but there it was.

It was most disturbing.

He had always been very detached from humans, even more so than his brother, Prince Danté, yet he had felt fury establish itself, and he'd stepped forward with every intention of picking the brute up and throwing him into another dimension.

Even though interference was prohibited, it had been his intention, but then he saw that his little Fios had it under control.

Idiotic pride swelled forcefully through him as he watched his Jazmine Decker take on a brute twice her size.

Why should he find himself proud of her? Ridiculous. Why should he feel any pride about anything she did? It had nothing to do with him, and yet he could not deny that he did.

Perhaps his admiration for the courage she constantly displayed had confused him about what he felt for her?

_She was mortal_. She could be hurt. She could die. She could be maimed for life, but being faced with these possibilities did not stop her from taking on a man of great size to spare a young human hurt.

In spite of his cool attitude about humans, he immediately was aware of feeling two things: respect for her and pity for the human child.

However, _now_ what she was doing would plunge them into further complications. He didn't have time for this. He had to track Hordly, obtain the Orb, and use the pendant to call on the queen—if she could be called on from this time period.

He could not be embroiled in human affairs. His queen would be most displeased, but neither could he leave the girl to be beaten by the brute once they had departed. _Quandary._

Interference in this time period could be devastating for the future, but he didn't think saving this child from harm would adversely affect anything. To the contrary. Maybe, in fact, that was why they had been pulled into the past. Perhaps saving this Fios child was their destiny?

However, they would have to be careful about other matters. It would be dangerous to do anything of consequence when in another time period. Even small matters, once altered here in the past, could mushroom towards the future and cause the fates to be altered. One could never know if that would be good or catastrophic.

However, the child was a Fios. That might work well when he presented his explanation to the queen.

At any rate, he could not refuse to take the child under his protection. He simply could not.

Would his brother, Danté, refuse to see the child to safety? _No_ , nor would Danté's mate, Z, allow the child to go unprotected. And he knew what Prince Breslyn would do. Bres would scoop up the child and find a way to wash, clothe, and feed her without delay. Bres would make certain his humans were safe. Suddenly, he smiled to himself. Could he do less than that? _Hell no._

"Very well," he said. "The child remains with us until we can find a solution to the problem."

And then, something inexplicable happened.

Jazmine Decker threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around him, and a wave of happiness flooded his senses. He had never felt such pleasure. He had never before felt such satisfaction. She, his little Fios, was pleased with him. His agreeing to care for the little one had found approval in her eyes, and he found himself absurdly thrilled by this.

Without thinking he hugged her back and put his chin on the top of her head. "Very well, then," he said. It occurred to him he could not, must not, become attached to his beautiful Fios.

She was mortal, and that was that.

* * *

A rush of emotion swept through Jazz. _The child was a seer_. It was fate! Fate had sent her and Trev back in time. They were supposed to save the girl from the horrible brute and keep her safe.

Jazz knew there were others of her kind but had never encountered one before, and now... here was this lovely little girl, and all her protective instincts kicked in.

And then Trevor, for all his show of 'unconcern', was, in fact, concerned. She was so thrown off kilter by everything Trevor, Royal Prince of Lugh, was proving himself to be. He was a complicated being with so much more heart than he wanted to let on.

Before she knew what she was doing, she dove at him. Locking her arms around him as though holding on for life, she whispered, "Thank you."

He set her apart and gruffly answered, "We must get her bathed and fed."

She couldn't believe her ears. Fae were _so not_ cold-blooded, or at least _this one_ wasn't. He had thought of it all on his own—getting the child safely away, cleaning her, and feeding her.

She turned back to the girl and asked, "How old are you, Francine?"

"I like to be called Frankie, if you please," the dirty-faced girl said, still not smiling.

"Frankie, then, how old are you?"

"Eleven, but I'll be twelve next month."

Jazz grabbed her in a wave of sympathy and held her tightly until Frankie remarked with a groan, "Ye be crushing me..."

Jazz laughed and loosened her hold as she turned back to Trevor. "Yes, you are right, she needs a bath, some food, and some clothing."

He rolled his eyes, but the next thing she knew he had blinked, and Frankie was clean and wearing a simple but pretty dress of pale green. Her hair was brushed and, though short, had a matching ribbon worked into the strands.

Frankie looked down at her dress and new shoes and at her arms where the dirt had been removed. Then she looked at Trevor, openly and with a warm glint in her eyes. "'Tis a lovely dress, it is," she said simply, and Jazz thought she would burst into tears.

Jazz looked at Frankie's face and said, "Huh? That bruise you had on your cheek seems to have faded."

Frankie lowered her eyes and said, "I heal fast, I do."

Jazz hugged her again and said, "Now, we need food."

A sudden swoosh of air enveloped her; she looked at herself and realized Frankie was not the only one who had gotten a makeover.

She pulled at the pretty muslin gown of blue and laughed when she realized she was still in her comfortable hiking boots. A warm knit shawl of cream covered her shoulders, and her hair was a pile of curls at the top of her head. She touched the small pin box hat angled on top of her curls and wished she could see what she looked like.

She turned and found her Royal Fae had donned human Glamour. His blonde hair was slicked back, braided and tied at the nape of his neck. He wore a fashionable superfine of dark navy, breeches, and gleaming hessian boots. His cravat was tied intricately, and his pale blue silk waistcoat fitted his hard, muscular body in a way that made Jazz lick her lips. This was crazy, she told herself. She had to stop looking at him like he was something to explore. _No exploring_. He was Fae. She was Fios. _That was that_.

It all seemed too fantastical, and she thought she was going to have a fit of the giggles again. She got control, regarded him with an appreciative smile, and said, "So, then, we are mingling with the locals?"

"I suppose eventually we must." He sighed heavily. "In the meantime, if we must be seen, we should don the clothing of the time." He suddenly reached for her hand and murmured, "Take the child's hand. We need a place to stay."

She took up Frankie's hand and gave the girl a reassuring smile as Frankie clung to her, a desperate look in her eyes. Jazz said reassuringly, "It will be okay, honey."

"Ye won't leave me, will ye?"

"No, you and I— _friends for life_ —and I won't leave you till you are ready for me to go."

"I'll never be ready for that," the girl answered softly, and Jazz kissed the child's hand.

A moment later Trevor shifted them, and Jazz opened her eyes to look down at Frankie.

The girl was sniffing the air, and after a good long whiff said, "Hmmm."

Jazz smelled it too. From somewhere the aroma of freshly baked bread and simmering food wafted on the air.

They stood in a great hall of what appeared to be a lovely and well-maintained mansion. No cobwebs, no sign of neglect, and yet it was empty. Jazz had the feeling it had been empty for a long, long time.

She looked at Trevor and whispered, "Whose house is this?"

"You don't have to whisper. There is no one here except us," he replied.

"No one here? But... it looks so clean, and... I smell food."

"Seelie Magic. Humans can't see this place and pass it by even as magic maintains it ever ready for its owner."

"Who is its owner?"

He laughed, and all at once his fingers lifted her chin, and he said softly, "So very inquisitive, Jazmine Decker." He frowned then and dropped her chin as he stepped away. "All you need know is that we can remain here safely. It is heavily warded, and no Dark Fae may enter, not even a Dark Prince."

"I see, but, again, whose house is it?" she pursued.

"As I said, it doesn't matter—why do you want to know? You don't know him." Trevor looked around, as Frankie had broken away from them and was heading down the hallway.

He took Jazz's hand and started to follow the girl, but Jazz pulled out of his hold and demanded, "It does matter. I need to know. Tell me." She couldn't say why, but somehow she knew that the more she learned the better equipped she would be to handle what was coming—and all her Fios senses told her something ugly was coming soon.

"We Royals enjoyed time travel until a few years ago. There were rules, and Prince Breslyn broke them more than he should. This place was one of his rule breakers. We are not supposed to set down roots in the human world, but he loves Scotland and Ireland." Trevor shrugged. "Breslyn does what Breslyn wants, and most of the time the queen forgives him."

"But he can't get back here anymore?" she asked thoughtfully. "So we can't expect him to swoop in and rescue us?"

"No, he can no longer travel through time. We are not certain, but we believe that even our queen cannot..." His voice trailed off, as Frankie was now out of sight.

"Come on—let's go, sit, and have our dinner," he said on a laugh.

"Oh, yes, that wonderful aroma... I am famished. How did you do that?"

"I am a Royal, Jazmine Decker. I can do many things. You would do well not to forget that." His voice was low, and suddenly Jazz was sure he was going to kiss her. He was bending towards her. He was putting his arm around her waist. He was pulling her close. _Yes, yes, he was going to..._

He bent to her ear and said in a low, husky voice, "Perhaps, one day, you will ask me to show you some of the things that I can do..."

He unbent and led her to the kitchen, where they found Frankie already seated at the table, eating a basketful of biscuits and with a drumstick in her free hand.

~ Six ~

THE DARK PRINCE Hordly looked around at the old barn he had converted to serve his requirements. It had taken some concentration and a great deal of magic. He felt strangely drained from the effort.

He had never had to construct anything so elaborate. His life in the Human Realm during that final battle with Gaiscioch leading the charge had been short-lived. Pestale had always been the one to plan, construct, and execute. He had never had to build anything anywhere. It had all been provided for them by the Dark King; this had been a new and taxing experience.

He sneered when he thought of the Dark King. Hatred oozed through his body. Pestale still thought of the Dark King as a father, but he no longer did. How could he? The Dark King had always viewed him with distaste.

He shut down such thoughts. He quickly cast a spell of concealment so that his habitat would be hidden from the outside world.

He needed this place, this refuge where he could work and think and find a way back to his time without plunging himself into the Dark Realm.

The Orb had closed the portal at the monoliths. He could not use that portal in its present state, but he was trying to recall the spell his brother had once perfected. Perhaps that spell would enable him to open another door from the past to his own time period... right in Killarney, where it had sucked him back instead of allowing him to remain in the present. Once in the present, he could work on a way to get his Morrigu and brothers out of the Dark Prison.

What might help was the residue created and left to linger in the atmosphere when the Orb first opened the portal, before it realized he was Unseelie. Could he harness that power? He would only have a few more days to collect it before it was too weak to be of any use. The question was how—how could he collect it?

However, now he needed rest. He needed to return to his full potency because the Seelie Prince was hunting him, and he knew sooner or later the Royal would find his hideaway.

He went to the cabinet drawer that held the Seelie Orb and held it in his hands, no longer concerned that he would be recognized as Unseelie. The Orb already knew.

The feel of the Seelie artifact made his skin crawl. It was as though the crystal was repulsed by him and in turn gave his skin the sensation that hundreds of Dark Fae bugs skittered all over his flesh.

Hurriedly he set it on the round table he had created. He sat with the window flanking him so he could look out on the meadow. _It was all so beautiful._ Green and fresh no longer existed in the Dark Realm, only decay—decay left by the hapless monsters the Dark King had created and abandoned.

At his back, two human women played with one another on his large bed, ignorant of anything other than their sexual needs. He found his lust for human women was bottomless. He couldn't get enough. They were lovely and moved so beautifully beneath him. They expired so easily but were also easily replaced.

He enjoyed their passionate displays, but that was for later.

He spoke the words of enchantment and asked to be shown where the Seelie Royal, Prince Trevor, could be found. The Orb did not respond.

"I am Seelie— _you must_ obey me," he told the Orb, as he had the first time he had used it.

It had responded immediately then, unaware of the Unseelie inside him as he had been careful not to touch it. Too soon the Seelie Orb realized its mistake and withdrew its magic. That was why and how everything went wrong. It was what had landed him in the past.

"You are tainted," the voice rebuked. "You are not Seelie but a Dark Fae!"

"Obey me. I am the Dark King's son!" he snapped.

"You are the Dark King's abomination," it murmured contemptuously.

"Don't tease my temper, Orb. I am made from the Dark King's essence, and you must obey," he said, using a threatening tone.

"You have Seelie in you, but the Unseelie in you prohibits me from granting you what you want. It is enough I allowed you into the Human Realm."

"You threw me back in time, _and that is forbidden_." Hordly sneered as he spoke.

"I did not throw you back in time. I granted your request before I recognized you for an Unseelie. My magic pulled back—thus, here you are."

"Show me the Seelie prince, help me, and in the end I will return you to Faery," Hordly offered.

The Orb was silent for a long moment and then said softly, "You have no magic to return me to Faery."

"I will leave you for the Seelie prince to find once you get me back to the Human Realm in my time."

Again, the Orb was silent. "Your word is meaningless."

"You can scan me for the truth," Hordly returned.

The Orb turned dark, and Hordly felt as though something had entered the center of his brain, something with feathery tentacles.

When the Orb spoke again, it was a simple word: " _Witness_."

The Dark Prince saw at once that the prince was within a warded estate. He could not look inside the huge mansion, and he fancied he heard the Orb chuckle over the fact.

"Damn you!"

"Did you think to trick a Seelie Relic?" Then the Dark Prince did, in fact, hear the Orb laugh.

He picked it up and threw it across the room. It fell hard, rolled, and continued to laugh before it said, "You have many choices, Dark Prince. It is yours to choose wisely."

Hordly controlled the rage threatening to overtake him. He needed a plan. What would Pestale do? What would Pestale caution? Suddenly, he had a plan that could work.

He knew the Seelie Prince would not remain safely behind the wards. He would, without a doubt, venture out to locate him, and he would have the lovely he had called Jazmine Decker with him.

What he needed to do was get a hold of her again and, this time, imprison her. That would make the Seelie Royal come to him.

His grin spread, and he turned to the human women in his bed. He liked his plan because, damn if he didn't want to explore the human, Jazmine Decker!

* * *

Dinner was over, and Frankie had been tucked comfortably in her bed. She oohed and aahed over the softness of the mattress and the sweet scent of the pillow and the coverings. She clung to Jazz for a long moment before she whispered, "Please... don't leave me... promise you'll take me with you when you go."

"I promise that you will stay with me until I find you a proper home," Jazz said, stroking Frankie's brown curls.

"No, _I_ don't want any other family. Just you"—her chin pointed towards Trevor—"and him," Frankie said vehemently.

"Well, Trevor and I aren't going to be to, well... we... well..." Jazz sighed and decided to give up on that explanation. "Tomorrow is a brand new day, and we'll see what it brings."

She left her then and, as she closed Frankie's bedroom door, saw Trevor shift off. She sighed worriedly to herself. However, no sense fidgeting about it now—other matters needed attending.

She found her Royal seated by the fire in the library poring over an ancient manuscript. "What are you doing, Trev?"

"Remembered this manuscript. It might help, and what do you mean, calling me Trev? Since when did I become Trev to you?" He frowned at her.

"From the moment you displayed that big open heart and helped me take care of Frankie. So, I repeat, whatya doing... Trev?" The tease was alive in her voice, and he responded with a grin.

"Just thought I would investigate your pendant... _the queen's pendant_."

"Huh?" Her eyes narrowed. "You don't really know how to use it, do you? Oh, I should have guessed when you didn't immediately try!"

"I do know how, but it can do many things. I want to be certain I manage it correctly."

"Well, I tell you what. This is what I'm going to do." Jazz held the pendant in her hand and whispered a spell that had been handed down from generation to generation. No one had ever been able to translate it, and it had occurred to Jazz that perhaps it had something to do with the queen's charm.

And it did.

Suddenly the atmosphere in the room changed. It was warm, almost tropical. For a moment, Jazz actually expected coconut trees to pop up. And then it was as though the air right in front of them took on shape and folded back to display a dark, round opening. That opening filled with light, Jazz smelled gardenia and pine, and then the face of the most astoundingly beautiful creature she had ever seen appeared. Jazz knew this had to be the face of Aaibhe, Queen of the Seelie Fae!

"Ah, Trevor," the queen said softly. She then directed her gaze to Jazz and added, "And you, my dear, are a McWallen."

Trevor rose to his feet and bowed his head briefly before he spoke. When he did, he put one arm and fist across his chest in what Jazz fancied was a warrior's salute of allegiance to his queen. "My Queen, it is not Pestale who escaped but his brother Hordly. However, he did not make it to our time in the Human Realm but to the year 1816, and we were dragged into the past with him."

"I see," the queen said thoughtfully. "And what is your plan?"

"I have my Death Weapon and am on the pursuit," Trevor answered.

"And you must keep my Fios safe," the queen said with an urgency that surprised Jazz.

"I mean to whether she wills it or not. She, however, wishes to return to her time," the prince said and sighed heavily.

"No, no, I don't," Jazz said. "I mean, I did, but now... there is Frankie, and I think I can help the Prince get Hordly, and—"

"I accept your very brave offer, Fios, but tell me, who is Frankie?" the queen said softly.

Jazz made a lengthy explanation, and the queen's bright eyes glittered. "You both may remain with my prince for now, and I expect that you, my Jazmine, will watch over the Fios child."

"Can we get out of the past using this pendant?" Jazz dared to ask. "My... er... Queen."

Aaibhe chuckled. "Indeed, in a manner of speaking, but I should like you to retrieve the Orb that Hordly has in his possession and return him to the Dark Realm first."

"Big order," muttered Jazz.

"But we can handle it." Trevor grimaced at Jazz.

"Tell me something," the queen said suddenly. "You have taken up residence in a mansion whose wards are strongly infused... so strong I can feel them. Tell me now, Trevor, whose home is this?"

"Er... ah... well," said Trevor.

"It has Breslyn's style and scent, so there is no need to tell me." She shook her head. "It always astounds me that each time he breaks my rules, it turns out for the best." She sighed and said, "Pestale has remembered everything. The waters of the Cauldron were tampered with, no doubt by his brothers. He did not receive its full strength. The brothers should all have been made to drink at once." She sighed heavily. "The Dark King has once again found other matters to divert him from his promise. It is always thus, and so we must handle the situation we are left with. I am depending on you, Trevor, and on the Fios McWallen."

She paused and then softly said, "Pestale has sent me a message. Imagine the gall—he managed to crack open the Prison Wall long enough to shove through a drone who delivered the message before Morgan LeBlanc put it out of its misery. It was galling to have an Unseelie in Tir. It has never happened before, and that in itself was a message. Pestale believes he will be successful in his renewed efforts to take control of Tir and the Human Realm. _There is_ something different in him. I feel it, know it, saw it in the language and style of his delivered message. I believe he has received the means inadvertently from the Dark King to break free with an army. I have assembled my team once more, but I need you to contain Hordly. He and Pestale must not be reunited outside the Dark Realm."

Once again, Trevor's arm crossed his chest as he bowed his head. "So it shall be done, my Queen."

"To do so, you must retrieve the Orb," the queen said as she faded from sight.

Trevor and Jazz looked at one another, and then without warning he took two long strides to her and pulled her hungrily into his arms as his mouth sought and found hers!

~ Seven ~

HE COULDN'T HOLD back any longer. He had watched her stand before his queen, knowing that everything she had been taught told her to be afraid of the Queen of Seelie Fae.

Jazmine Decker had stood—a brave lass, enchantingly beautiful and willing to put her life on the line to do what she could to stop a force so powerful it could wipe her out of existence with so very little effort. She knew that and was willing. It was as though her soul glowed brightly all around her, mesmerizing him, holding him, drawing him closer.

She had stood, lovely and strong, with those deep blue eyes filled with courage and honesty, and he found he couldn't control himself any longer.

_He wanted her_. He had been wanting her and denying it to himself. She was mortal, and he shouldn't intrude on her life, but even if it was for a short time, he wanted her—had to have her. _But_ _did she want him?_

He moved in, and when he took her into his arms, it felt so right, it felt so undeniably right, and her lips parted for his. Ecstasy—the immediate understanding that she wanted him as well! Her tongue danced sweetly, hotly, with his, and she was too delicious to deny. He tasted her; she was honey and vanilla and life, and ready and his. She had to be his!

In that moment, he wasn't just kissing her; he found himself adoring every nuance that was Jazmine Decker, every move she made, every delicious breath she inhaled and exhaled. He felt her take his kiss with hunger and return it with passion, and he felt himself on fire with feral need. He pressed his hard shaft against her body, and she pressed back. Hot, hot, hot, hot—no thought, just hot.

It was as though a net of primal desire had wrapped itself around them, and he couldn't stop kissing her, tasting her, touching. By Danu, her breasts even through the muslin gown she wore were delectable, and he wanted to lick her nipples and see their fullness and—

She put a hand out to his chest and pushed at him.

He heard her murmur the word 'no', and he was jolted, couldn't believe, but stopped himself nonetheless.

It took such great effort, but he stopped and held her away by her shoulders. He stared down into those blue eyes that kept him captive still and whispered questioningly, "No?"

"No," she said softly. "My friend Tammy recently told me to have fun, even for one night, _just have fun_ , and if ever a girl could have _fun_ , it would be with _you_ , but I am not about 'fun'. I should be, but I am afraid I would get lost in you, _with you,_ and we are from different worlds. When this is over, you will return to Faery—your Isles of Tir—and I will hopefully be off for my permanent job as a marine biologist. I am very certain I would compare every man I meet in the future _to you_ , and none would measure up—so, _no_." She turned from him, and he released her.

Prince Trevor watched her walk away and followed a few steps after her. He saw her take the stairs to her bedchamber and felt a loss that was so much more than he had expected.

Her words about no other man being able to compare to him had lifted him. Her words about meeting and being with another man in the future had dropped him into a pit of depression.

How could he think of her with someone else?

It was what he had to do—let her go to someone who would be there for her, grow old with her...

She had spoken realistically. One day he would go to Tir, and she would remain in the Human Realm, and she would take a human man who would have what he never could. And this thought brought his fists heavenward as he silently bellowed!

* * *

It had been three days since Trevor had taken her into his arms and kissed her. She could feel and taste him still.

It was all she dreamed about. It followed her everywhere she went, through everything they did. At least she was busy with Frankie most of the time.

She had asked Trevor to return her clothes to her and had also requested him to outfit Frankie with breeches and a shirt instead of a dress.

Frankie had laughed to see herself dressed like a boy but loved the comfort, and Jazz had taken her outdoors and started teaching her the art of self-defense. It was at the end of one of these training sessions that she asked, "Frankie, did your mother have any opportunity to help you grow as a Fios? Do you know what you can do... with your magic as a seer?"

Frankie looked down at her boots and did not answer, so Jazz took her chin. "Don't you think you can trust me with this?"

Frankie still did not answer, but Jazz tenaciously prodded. "Come on, Frankie. You told me you want to stay with me, so I guess that means you trust me, right?"

"I trust you with m'life, Miss Jazz," Frankie said solemnly.

"I know your mom probably told you never to speak about what you are, but you and I... we are well past that, so, tell me, show me." Jazz looked right into the girl's sad hazel eyes.

"I be that afraid... not of ye, but of it..."

"Show me, and I'll help you learn how to control whatever it is you are afraid of. Okay?"

She smiled at Jazz and used the word she had adopted days before. "Okay. This thing I can do... doesn't work against people, only Fae, and m'mum said that I must never use it unless it was a last resort... something to help me escape, and she said if humans saw me do it, they would burn me as a witch."

Jazz put an arm around her. "You know that is never going to happen. We are well past that, and no one can see you use this 'thing' of yours, as we are on warded and concealed ground. Humans and Dark Fae can't see us here, so trust me."

"Okay," Frankie said and smiled.

"First, tell me, have you ever used this against a Fae?"

Frankie shook her head. "Never had to. Always pretended not to see them."

"But if one was coming at you, and you needed to escape, this would be something that would buy you time?"

"Yes," Frankie said gravely. "I call it my fireball."

"Show me." Excitement infiltrated Jazz's system.

Frankie concentrated with her eyes closed and held her hands out, palms up. Sparks began to fly in a circular motion around both her palms. The sparks attached to one another in quick order and within moments formed a ball the size of a baseball.

Jazz clapped her hands and said, "Throw it at an imaginary Fae. Think... there it is, right in front of you... twenty feet."

"I've never tried to throw it," Frankie said tentatively. "I was always afraid someone would see."

"No one will see. Throw it, sweetie, with all your might!"

Frankie threw the ball, and it went well past the distance of twenty feet and landed in the tall grass. It ignited a small fire, and Frankie again surprised Jazz by closing her eyes, blowing softly, and extinguishing the blaze. She said solemnly, "Don't want to burn the field."

Jazz hugged her. "That was superb! Frankie, I am going to work with you and teach you to control your fireballs so that you can perfect your skills."

"M'mum said that the fireball once thrown will attach itself to a Fae and then remove their magic from them long enough for me to run and hide," Frankie said in that lilting Irish as though she were reciting a poem. "But I don't know if it would really work, as I never used it."

"I wonder..." Jazz said, formulating an idea.

Frankie now began to chatter as she shook her head and shrugged. "M'mum didn't have the fireball magic in her. She said she had speed and the sight... little more, but that she thought I might grow up to be the most powerful of all Fios. Said it was in our blood."

"Speed? How fast can you run, Frankie?" Jazz asked excitedly.

"Well, now, Miss Jazz, I can run... very fast." Frankie beamed, but then her smile vanished. "I used to run from Farmer Higgens when he first brought me to his farm. He would drink and call me lazy and raise a hand to me, and I used to run, but it only made it worse for me the next time."

Jazz hugged her again and thought of going back to visit Higgens to teach him a lesson he would never forget. "Never mind that, because he will never hurt you again."

"There is something else—I heal... very quickly. M'mum said it only proved I was meant to do great things." Frankie shuffled her feet. "He noticed it... Farmer Higgens, he noticed that I healed quickly, and it would make him angry... and he would hit me again." She sighed. "I heal, but I do feel the hurt, ye know."

Jazz held Frankie's shoulders. "When you are done, you will be a proficient little fighter, and you will have all your Fios skills lined up and ready to use. You will be the greatest Fios ever born. I can feel it, Frankie."

"But..."

"You will be a force, Frankie. Right now, we have a Dark Fae Prince by the name of Hordly, and he means us harm. He is here in the past by mistake, and we are going to have to find a way to send him back to where he came from before he does something in the past to terribly alter the future."

"I know. I've heard ye and Prince Trevor talk about him." Frankie put her hand in Jazz's hand and looked up at her. "I also heard ye say you need to get back to your time, and it worries me."

"Why, sweetie?"

"When ye go... I want to go with ye. Please don't leave without me."

Jazz thought about this. Could she somehow adopt Frankie? Could papers be created saying she was her 'sister'?

"There's time enough to deal with that, but I will never leave you unless you wish me to. I promise that I will look out for you one way or another. Okay?"

Frankie smiled. "Okay, but I don't want another family. I want you and Trevor."

Jazz was already more attached to Frankie than she cared to admit. She flicked Frankie's nose. "We'll see, but one thing is for sure, I will look out for you."

"Then you'll never leave me," Frankie said with such a serious face that all Jazz could do was hug her close.

And then it happened.

The sky turned black—as though someone had turned a switch.

Dark, billowing clouds filled the heavens but not overhead, only on the other side of the wards.

She knew at once this was dark magic. She knew it was meant to impress, but was it the Dark Prince's magic? _It didn't have his feel._

Overhead everything was still clear and blue, a lovely day at Prince Breslyn's estate. _Bizarre,_ she thought as she watched and waited.

Bolts of fire struck, but instead of hitting the ground or a tree and then dissipating, they took shape. They slithered through the sky, slithered over the earth... snakes of fire testing the wards.

Glinting daggers of blood-splattered metal slashed through the atmosphere, and even though Jazz knew they were safe on their side of the invisible fence, she pushed Frankie back towards the house and commanded, "Go on, get Trevor—he has to see this." She watched Frankie run towards the house and then turned back towards the slithering fire-snakes that filled the atmosphere. While the blood-tinted daggers slashed the air with no discernible pattern or target only feet away, Jazz bolstered herself and walked towards the anomaly.

_Oh, yeah_ , she thought, this was most definitely dark magic, _but it wasn't_ Dark Fae magic. _This was sorcery._

She had met a wizard once in her life, but he had been like a Dumbledore, with a beautiful smile and bright, warm eyes. _He_ wouldn't do this.

The Wizard Rysdale was all about light magic. She had been lucky enough to encounter him when she was younger and traveling through Ireland with her parents. He had saved her life when she had tripped and fallen backwards into traffic. He had simply looked her way, and she felt his magic wrap around her and lift her back onto the curbing.

The Wizard Rysdale knew at once what she and her mother were and had introduced himself before he vanished.

This was not anything like the Wizard Rysdale, and yet, she mused, it felt familiar.

Suddenly a dark, round hole similar to what she thought of as a wormhole appeared, and a being began to take shape right before her eyes.

Standing with his arms outstretched, he brought them together with a clap of thunder, rubbed them, and glanced her way to cluck at her.

_Holy shit_ , Jazz thought, opening her eyes wide. Damn, but he looked like Rysdale's twin—could be his twin, except this one had dark gray hair while Rysdale's hair and beard had been white. This one had coal-dark eyes full with the flames of dark magic displaying explicitly what he had become.

His robe was styled like the Wizard Rysdale's but was black with flame-lit stars throughout, as was the black cone hat on top of his head.

Who the hell was this, and what did he want?

Instinctively Jazz now took a step backward as she wondered if the wards would withstand a wizard's power. "You are by now wondering who I am," he said with a soft and coaxing tone.

"Yes, I am," she answered, giving nothing away.

He laughed, but it was an unpleasant sound. "Ah, allow me to introduce myself. I am the Wizard Baudali."

"You look like someone I know," she said before she realized she shouldn't tell him anything.

His expression became keen as he asked, "Someone you know in the future? You are from the future. Do not deny this, as it is something I know." He waited, and when she said nothing he added, " _So_ , my brother survives to your time? Ahh... but still, I might yet alter your time, as you are here now, and that changes everything."

"Rysdale is your brother?" Again she spoke without thinking and cursed herself in her mind. She had already told him too much.

He didn't respond at once but said instead, "Such a small human world... isn't it. One never knows who one will run into." He grimaced. "That decides my next course of action, you see." He stepped towards her but took a half step back as he cringed from the obvious affects of the ward's power. He put up a hand. "Ah, a very intricate ward, _a Royal's magic_? So, then, you are protected by a Royal and know my twin, Rysdale. How very intriguing." He paused and looked her over, and his lashes seemed to snap before he asked, "You are not quite human, are you?"

"Not quite," she answered cautiously, wondering when Trevor would appear and hoping to get the wizard to reveal more in the meantime. "Why are you here? What do you want?"

"What I want is to make a deal. My brother has beaten me at every turn. I loathe him. _I want his woman_ , I want Charm, and I want him _dead_ , but—" He put up his palms. "—thus far, I have been unsuccessful. So I need more power. I have traced the disturbance in time to this region and discovered three beings from the future. A Dark Prince has established a habitat not far from here. And then here you are with a Royal Fae, in the home of yet another Royal, and one who has not been here in quite some time—all very interesting." He eyed her speculatively.

"What do you think we can do for you?" she asked, stalling. She wasn't going to be a part of anything that would hurt the Wizard Rysdale, and she was fairly certain her prince would not make such a deal either. Trevor was not about deal making, and this made her smile and feel a swelling of pride. Why should she feel pride in Trevor? How very odd.

"As I said, I want more power, and only your Royal Prince, or the Dark One, can give it to me. I have always believed that the Seelie Fae Royals have far more might than the Dark Ones, so I came to you first."

Jazz felt the prince, with Frankie in tow, shift in beside her.

He immediately shoved her and Frankie to his back and stepped up closer to Baudali.

She heard the derision in his voice as he spoke. "What do you want, Baudali?"

"Ah, you have the advantage—you know _who I am_ , but I haven't the slightest idea who you might be. Have we ever met?"

"No, but I know that Rysdale has an evil twin. You seem to fit the part," Trevor said with contempt.

"A sharp tongue. This does not bode well for our future," Baudali said, pointing a finger. "Be warned. I have dark magic enough to do what you fear most."

"What I fear most? Right, then, so have at me, wizard— _here I am_ ," Trevor snapped as he took a step towards the warded and invisible line.

Baudali's smile was twisted. " _Oh no._ I don't mean to try and match my magic against yours. _I am not a fool._ That is not how I mean to win. You see, _I play dirty_." So saying, his wormhole opened, and he was gone as quickly as he had appeared, taking his blue lightning, bloody snakes, and fire daggers with him.

" _By wind, earth, and fire_ , this is a nuisance," Trevor said with a low growl. He turned to Jazz. "Stay with the little one. I mean to track him."

She pulled on his arm. "No... please don't go."

He snorted. "You can't fear for me _against such as that_?"

"I am afraid of anything unexpected. This was unexpected, and he is on his way to make a pact with the devil. I don't like it," Jazz said.

He touched her face gently. "I shall be back soon. A wizard has never been a match for a Seelie Royal." He started to leave and turned back to grin boyishly. "Nor has a Dark Fae, for that matter."

And he was gone.

* * *

Jazz stood for a moment looking at the place he had just been. What did she feel? She was going to have to face what she felt because it was slowly eating her up. She couldn't go on like this.

From the moment she had first come in contact with Trevor, she had seen him as larger than life. _Well, yeah_ , she told herself, _he's a Royal Seelie Fae_. He _was_ larger than life. But even so, those were words, an old cliché— _larger than life_ —ha, but now she actually knew what it meant. Who, in her human world, swooped in and took charge of evil without fear, without hesitation? Her Trevor did.

When he stood back to watch her with Frankie, he seemed to eat up more space than he actually occupied. He seemed to glow...

He exuded energy beyond his physical form. His every movement displayed strength of body, character, warrior determination, and courage. She had found even his Fae aloofness endearing and quite in contrast to the kindness of his actions.

She was so darned attracted to him, in every single way. No, that wasn't the right way of putting it. She wanted to lie down on a sheet of clover and offer herself up to him. She wanted to see him naked and touch his body, from his beautiful locks of white-gold hair to his... oh yeah, she had looked at that bulge in his leather pants more than she should, and he seemed to have a perpetual hard-on forever ready. The memory it presented, even now, made her lick her lips and yearn for him.

She wanted to feel his hands on her body, to look into his golden eyes, and— _stop_!

This would get her nowhere but hurt. It wasn't happening—it couldn't, for she knew once she gave herself to him it would be forever. Even if he cared for her, and she did think he cared for her, he would eventually move on while she aged.

_Yeah, but in the meantime, Jazzy girl_ , Tammy whispered, _think of the fun you_ _could have._

_But, Tammy, you know me_ , she answered with a sigh. _I am not about fun. Well,_ _I am, but I need more than that._

She thought about his luscious lips, his shoulders so very broad, and his muscular arms around her and realized she was nearly panting. Right. Maybe a little fun couldn't hurt, she argued with herself.

But it could hurt—it could hurt for a lifetime. She would want him forever. For her forever, and he would leave...

He was such a prominent being, in control of every situation. He was clear-sighted, dominant, and yet his smile held a touch of innocence at times that captivated her.

He was not the type to take what he wanted and leave a female hurting. He wouldn't do that, but time... human time would take her away from him. There was just no getting away from the fact that she would age. He would not. In the end, he wouldn't have a choice. His world was Faery, and there was also no getting away from the fact that, as a Royal, he would be needed in that world. And he was immortal, would always be strong and beautiful and virile; she would wither, no longer be desirable. She would die alone if she gave herself to him. _This was all so impossible._

If she gave herself to him, she would never take another lover. How could she? No other would do; even now, now before she had given herself to him, she could not imagine ever giving herself to anyone else.

She was doomed. No matter how she looked at this, a bright future up ahead did not seem a possibility.

The truth hammered at her: she could never really have him, and that realization was nearly overwhelming.

_Why not_ _? If you are going to end up always wanting him anyway, why not have him now, while you are young?_

She could not deny that his glittering gold eyes drove her into a passion she had never known she could feel. And there was more—all in his eyes. Who was it that ever said Fae did not have souls? _They were so wrong_. Trevor's eyes allowed her to see the soul housed in his body.

If all that weren't complicating her life enough, she was stuck in the past, with a Dark Fae Prince trying to take over the universe!

How were they ever going to defeat Hordly? And now, if horrible Hordly wasn't enough, they had to contend with a Dark Wizard as well.

Holy cow, this was so not good.

Evidently Frankie, who had been gazing up at her, sensed Jazz was unhappy. She slipped her hand into Jazz's and tugged at it.

Jazz gave the child a reassuring smile and said, "Not to worry. Trevor has this one under control."

"Aye, I know that, Miss Jazz... _but do ye_?"

Jazz squeezed Frankie's fingers gently. "Do you doubt it? Of course I do, my little Fios. You are in the company of a _Fios extraordinaire_." She began tickling Frankie, who yelped with laughter.

Trevor reappeared at that moment some twenty feet away _._

Jazz couldn't stop herself. She ran to him, only controlling herself at the last moment, managing to stop and stand stiffly when all she wanted to do was throw her arms around him and hold on for dear life.

Instead, she asked, "Well, what did you find?"

"I followed Baudali to the Dark Prince's habitat. Hordly has constructed a living area out of what appears to be an old barn." He sneered and added, "He has it warded, but his wards cannot keep _me_ out—the wards will merely warn him of my arrival."

"Do you think they are making a deal?" Jazz frowned and absorbed what he had just told her.

"They have indeed already made their pact." He touched her cheek with the back of his hand and rubbed it gently. "Royal Fae hearing can be adjusted, and I did hear a great deal of their conversation. However, they only have each other—dangerous companions who do not trust one another. I, on the other hand, have my two girls on my side," he said, reaching out to ruffle Frankie's hair as she stepped up close and looked up at the two of them, her hazel eyes wide with concern.

The girl's face had gone white with fear. Jazz realized they had to drop the subject and get onto another.

"Trevor," Jazz said, tongue in cheek, "Frankie has shown me that she has a special Fios gift, but she has never seen it in action, and I was thinking—"

"Oh, and what would this gift be?" He interrupted, smiling at Frankie.

Frankie shuffled her feet, shyly intent on studying the ground, so Jazz answered him, "She can create a fireball, and her mother told her it would attach itself to its target and usurp the magic of the Fae it is attached to. We are not sure how much power it will steal or for how long, and it is something we need to know, as it might come in handy—sooo, the only way to do that _is to practice_."

A frown descended over his face, and he backed away while wagging a finger. "Oh no— _oh no_! You are not going to find out by using _me_ as a shooting gallery— _I_ am not a practice target, _but a Royal_. One does _not_ test things out on a Royal." He had already backed quite a distance away towards the mansion.

"Frankie, do your thing," Jazz said, ignoring his protest.

"Oh, but I couldn't do that to himself," Frankie objected. "I just couldn't..."

" _Now_ , before he shifts," Jazz demanded.

She was surprised when Trevor stood his ground and said softly, "Go ahead, little Fios— _do your worst_."

Frankie hesitated, and Jazz encouraged her. "Hesitation can get you and those you love killed. _Never hesitate_."

Frankie put out her hand. The sparks started making their circle over her palm, and she stared intently at those sparks. This time the ball the sparks created was much larger than the one she had shown Jazz.

Trevor grinned and produced a low whistle, obviously impressed. Then he said, "Very well, then, you have a Fae in your sights, Frankie, but _he has seen_ you create your ball of fire. Perhaps you have intrigued the Fae enough to study it for a moment, but only for a moment. Perceiving an unknown threat, this Fae will most definitely shift away. _What then do you do?_ You must know that when he reappears, it will be at your back. Remember that, little Fios."

Frankie threw the ball, and it headed directly for Trevor. It appeared that he waited for as long as he could, trying to choose the last possible moment an unknown Fae would wait, and then he shifted off.

The ball of fire vanished with him!

When he reappeared, it was attached to his chest. He growled with his discomfort, and then the ball of fire exploded, shooting flame all around him before vanishing.

He stood and looked himself over, putting a hand to his chest, but no burn marks had been left behind. Trevor pulled a face and said, "That _was not_ pleasant."

Jazz and Frankie went to him and hugged him before Jazz stepped away and said, "Do you feel different?"

"No," he answered doubtfully, "but then, I haven't tried to use magic."

"Go ahead— _try_ ," Jazz encouraged.

He blinked, calling out loud for his Death Weapon. They waited and watched his open hand, but the Death Weapon did not appear.

"What? What is wrong?" Jazz asked.

"I can't seem to use my magic," he murmured. "Evidently my ability to use my Fae magic has been suspended." He then quite suddenly grinned. "But, we must remember, Fae have many abilities beyond their magic."

"Like what?" Jazz asked curiously.

"Like this," he said. Taking both her hand and Frankie's, he shifted them back inside the house.

"Right. Magic gone, shifting ability still present," Jazz said thoughtfully. "Which means we still cannot outrun a Fae should one choose to follow."

"Yes, but there may be a difference on how it works on Dark Fae. A Seelie's resistance is greater than an Unseelie's."

"What about an Unseelie prince's resistance?" Jazz asked.

"Ah, we shall have to wait and see," Trevor said and turned to Frankie. He and Jazz had been taking turns giving her a couple of hours schooling, picking up where her mother had left off on her lessons.

"Frankie, time for you to finish your writing assignment."

She pouted and objected, "But I want to stay with you and Miss Jazz."

"Indeed, and we shall see you in an hour's time, but for now, I wish to speak to your Miss Jazz privately— _adult matters_."

She eyed them for a moment and smiled. "All right, then." She started off, turned halfway around, eyed them once more with a wider smile, and then skipped off.

* * *

"How long do you think you will be without magic?" Jazz asked him curiously when Frankie had left them alone.

"I was without it a full five minutes. It has, however, returned," Trevor said as he took Jazz into his arms. "Stay in my arms, Jazmine Decker... this time, stay," he said softly.

She did, and he continued to chat her up as though they were simply conversing on the sofa. "The effects of Frankie's fireball lasts five minutes." He stared hard at her as he bent and kissed her cheek.

"What are you doing?" she asked breathlessly.

"I don't know. I have told myself I shouldn't, I can't, I won't, but here I am doing what I have forbidden myself. Jazmine Decker, everything you are touches something inside me... you are in my head, you are..." His kisses traveled to her neck, and then he nibbled up to her ear, where his tongue tickled her senses in a way that made her knees turn to mush.

"I... you... this..." she squeaked incoherently.

"When you came rushing at me—just before, when I returned from tracking the wizard—there was a look in your eyes, sweet Fios, such a look. I want to see that in your eyes again." He locked gazes with her and then visibly sucked in air as he murmured with great satisfaction, "There— _that look_."

He resumed nibbling and kissing her neck and earlobe and seemed in no rush to move towards her lips.

More than one part of her wanted him to get to her lips. She whispered hoarsely, "But this is... will complicate—"

He cut her off. "Not complicated at all. I am attempting to show you that I am at full potential already," he answered, crushing her into his embrace.

His deep accent always swept through her senses. She loved his voice and the way he had of putting things.

His nibbling, kissing, licking scorched her flesh and made her want more, so much more, but this wasn't meant to be. It just wasn't. She had to find the strength to stop him. She simply had to stop him.

_Why?_ Tammy asked in her head.

_Well, because_ , she answered her friend.

_Idiot, didn't I tell you to just let yourself enjoy the moment? Jazz, here is your moment,_ Tammy clucked at her.

"Okie dokie," she answered her friend right out loud.

"Okie dokie?" Trevor repeated with a boyish grin. "I like that... it has a promise in the sound.

She said, hearing the huskiness in her own voice, " _Full potential,_ yes, yes, I see that. I believe you are at full potential." Something inside her still resisted, and she added, "But we have other matters to attend to... _now_."

"None like to this," he answered in that Old World style that drove her libido into overdrive.

She groaned, and her lips parted. She so wanted his nibbling to find her lips, and then his mouth covered hers, and his tongue dove inside with an intensity that made her toes curl _. Yes,_ she thought. Her toes were curling, and she wanted out of her shoes, out of her clothes.

It was as though he read her mind.

He scarcely blinked, and her clothes were gone.

She was fully naked and still in his arms, her flesh pressed up against— _oh yeah,_ she thought. Now his clothes were gone, and he was pushing her back against the wainscoting of the library wall, pressing his naked body into hers.

_Fire_ —her body was on fire, itching uncontrollably for his touch, but she was also stunned at the suddenness of it all. Who was this woman responding to him with such abandon? She was always slow and steady. She didn't just jump into bed with— _holy shit_ , his hands moved just right.

She tried to find her voice, but it came out as a croak. " _Clothes_... put on my clothes."

"But they will be in our way," he answered reasonably.

He stood at full attention just a bit apart from her, and her eyes swept over him, lingered on his huge, dancing shaft, and then snapped up to his face. She swallowed and repeated with a moan, " _Clothes_... yours, mine... _on_."

He immediately complied but ran a frenzied hand through his flaxen locks. His gold eyes held confusion as he said, " _I am sorry_... I misread you..."

_He hadn't_. He simply hadn't misread her. She had been dreaming about him, wanting him, imagining him on her, in her, and when he had so generously allowed Frankie to practice her magic on him, she realized all in one thought that _he was the one._

She had finally found her hero, and he could never really be hers.

~ Eight ~

PRINCE TREVOR DIDN'T need much sleep. After Jazmine Decker's rejection, he couldn't have slept even if he had tried.

He spent the night, instead, trying to devise different scenarios and various plans to deal with the threats at hand. He had made light of Hordly's and Baudali's union, but theirs would be a formidable power.

Even so, when morning came, even though he had expected it, he thrust a hand through his hair and wondered how he was going to keep his hands off Jazmine Decker. He found he needed her more than he could express, wanted her more than was bearable. He had been with beautiful Fae experienced in the art of lovemaking, and yet they were nothing compared to what he felt for this beautiful human.

Somehow she had taken over his mind, his essence.

He had to concentrate on Hordly and Baudali. He simply could not allow his thoughts to wander...

He shifted outside to watch the show and realized even passing humans would be able to witness the fever of nature being used at its worst. Humans would put it down as the worst storm they had ever seen, but see it they would.

He knew because he had listened in on their conversation that the Dark Prince and the wizard had already figured out how to use their combined black magic to open a portal to his and Jazz's time period in the Human Realm.

Thunder, resounding thunder that made the sheep in the neighboring pastures run madly in fear, boomed, clapped, cracked, and threatened overhead. A natural occurrence during a storm, there was nothing natural about this thunder, and it was not accompanied by rain.

Once again, dark magic was at work, and this time Trevor took it all in, became familiar with its scent, with its power, with the fact that it was being wielded by the joint partnership of a Dark Sorcerer and a Dark Prince.

The earth moaned as though filled with excruciating pain, and Trevor, at one with the earth, felt its agony with growing fury. The ground begin to crumble as jagged lines slashed through the pasture outside their warded lands.

Prince Trevor watched what was happening with restraint. He had to wait for the right moment.

If Hordly and Baudali were allowed to succeed, they would cause great harm to this time period. Trevor knew he had to stop them; _they could not be allowed to succeed._

More intense than an earthquake, the fissures widened and swallowed up small bushes and trees into their yawning depths. Above, a horrible visage appeared. It was Baudali, but his face was contorted, pockmarked, and his black tongue hung from a mouth whose fangs drooled bloodied saliva as his power grew. Trevor knew this was because Hordly was beside the wizard, helping him with a spell never meant to be so carelessly cast. They had but one purpose, and they didn't bother with the precautions required for such a spell. They only cared about one thing: opening the door to the future, the future he and Jazmine Decker had been sucked out of.

The sky was a blanket of charcoal-colored clouds hovering menacingly over the broken earth except above Prince Breslyn's estate, which remained untouched by all this and invisible to the human eye.

Trevor clenched his fists and closed his eyes as he worked his Seelie magic. He had known what Baudali meant to do and had been preparing for this moment, although he had not expected it so soon.

He would have to eventually get to the source to repair the damage the Dark Ones had created. That would be the tricky but important part of his plan.

_Timing,_ however, was everything.

He had to wait, for he would use his own very controlled, very powerful dark magic for only a moment and combine it with his Seelie magic to put an end to their first efforts.

It wouldn't stop them, however; he knew they would keep trying until he could send the Dark Prince back into the Dark Realm. That would put an end to Baudali, who could not achieve time travel without Hordly's Unseelie magic.

The Wizard Baudali had summoned the worst of dark magic, using it to draw on the elements of earth, wind, and fire, and it raged before his eyes.

Hordly had added his own Dark Fae magic as well, and combined the two became a viable power. And so it had begun— _the wormhole to the future_.

Ordinarily, even a Seelie Fae would have difficulty confronting the remaining element, since its power was a force the Seelie Fae could not always contain. However, as a Royal, he had been trained and knew the knack of patience. He knew the knack of it all was _timing._

The Dark Ones couldn't be allowed to get to the future. He had to find a way to stop them, or life on earth would be forever and horrifically altered.

Trevor knew the wizard, who was from this time, had lived through this century into the next and the next after that. He could not be allowed to enter the future, where he might confront his future self—if he did, it would be catastrophic.

Trevor sighed heavily as he considered both the wizard and Hordly. They had drawn on the three elements, yes, but one element was left for Trevor to use to advantage, and that one he had control of now. He was ready, for it had reached its maximum power.

He had to wait for just that right moment.

Jazmine Decker and Frankie had come running outside and stood flanking him.

Jazmine Decker's nearness had an unexplainable effect on him. She had denied him, but he couldn't stop himself from wanting her. He needed as much as wanted to hold her. He needed to keep her safe from harm, he needed to touch her, kiss her, reassure her and make her his own, and _by damn,_ when this was over, he would win her human heart—confound all the rest of it!

He couldn't think of that now, but he damn well was going to keep her safe. He said authoritatively, knowing in advance she wouldn't listen for her sake but perhaps for Frankie's, "Take the child and go indoors. I have to go to the source and stop this."

"We are staying with you," Jazmine Decker answered.

"Aye, _with ye_ ," agreed the child with such a grim little face that he just wanted to hug her and take her away where she could play and lead a normal life. Then Frankie added solemnly, "We mean to help ye."

"I can't have you two in danger. It will inhibit me," he answered roughly. He was growing overly fond of the child—what by Danu was wrong with him? He knew she would have to go to parents who could love and care for her, but even in their few days together he had grown accustomed to her presence, to giving her lessons, to the daughterly affection she bestowed on him, and he found that _he bloody well liked it_. She made him feel oddly warm inside.

"We won't be in your way, Trev. We will be your extra arms. _We can_ help. I know it." She put her hand to her chest. "I know it in here—" Her hand then went to her stomach. "—and I know it in my gut. Call it a woman's instinct, Trev. Please, take us with you."

"I have to go into _their lair_ , Jazmine Decker. They won't be expecting me, but it will still be very dangerous. I have to stop what they are doing, for they are attempting to warp the curvature of the universe and open a time portal."

"How can they do that? How?"

"It cannot be done without peril to the earth. What they are doing is attempting to create a bridge between now and the future. They are going about it the wrong way and not taking the necessary precautions. I must stop them. If you come, you will be a distraction."

"We will be a distraction for you to use _against them_ ," she answered with excitement. "You could deposit us where we could catch their attention, while you do what you have to do. We can hold our own—I know we can—and then you shift in, grab us, and off we go," Jazmine said, now sounding feverish to stay with him.

She had a point, and Trevor was quite used to fighting side by side with female warriors, but the thought of his mortal Jazmine Decker and the mortal Fios child being in danger made him feel nearly sick with concern.

"Frankie can use her fireball on Hordly, and perhaps I can distract Baudali, play on his ego? All you would need is a moment..." she added

His mind, usually so pragmatic, was now in a frenzy of indecision. Suddenly, he knew she was right. If this was to succeed, he would need their help.

"Well, then, get ready, my sweet girls," he said softly.

" _Yes!_ " she made a victory fist and then immediately demanded, "How—what are we going to do? What do you want us to do?"

He touched her face and looked long into her blue eyes, such exquisite eyes. They seemed to glow and draw him inside her. He wanted to be inside her—

He abruptly stopped that line of thinking and stepped away. "You should know a little about the spell I am about to invoke. It is an ancient Danu spell, created by our Queen Bridget before she and the Dark King separated and went to war, before he inadvertently caused her death. We were taught how to draw on the best of the elements and use them. All Royals were taught to perfect this skill, a skill practiced repeatedly until maturity. I was taught to wield the elements, all the elements, as soon as I was able to walk." He eyed his Jazmine Decker and added, "Baudali and Hordly are using the elements to warp the curvature of the universe. They believe if they are successful it will open a portal to our future. The danger is Baudali lives in the Human Realm. He is, to all practical purposes, immortal and has survived the centuries and has a life in our century, Jazmine Decker. So, you see, he cannot be allowed to occupy a space that his future self occupies. He must know that but doesn't care... and one can only speculate why."

"Then what are we waiting for?"

Although he'd said they could help, he wanted to tell them he'd decided against it, to insist they stay safely in Breslyn's castle. However, he knew her, knew she would do whatever it took, which would mean she would not stay behind the warded lines. She could get herself hurt—or worse.

Better to have her and the child where he could protect them. He didn't seem to have a choice. He took her hand. She already had Frankie's hand in hers, and so he shifted them off.

* * *

They emerged at a distance from the barn. They were hidden in the dark of the woods, but a great fissure had opened up and swallowed the earth just a few feet away, leaving a jagged, gaping hole.

Trevor scooped her and Frankie up and did something—she had no idea what—that left them floating a few feet off the ground as he scanned their surroundings.

"What are we doing?" she whispered.

"Hovering—now quiet," he answered.

She held Frankie tightly to her, and they hovered. It felt very strange, but they were able to watch Baudali, who stood in the field just outside the barn with his legs spread wide beneath his black robe, his arms outward, palms held up to the sky.

At his side was the Dark Prince.

They were both reciting ancient words, and then Hordly said with great disdain, "Well, Wizard, it doesn't seem to be quite working."

Baudali ignored him and kept on chanting.

And suddenly Jazz knew. Her Trevor had one advantage that she knew of. Hordly hated Baudali. She sensed it, saw it, _was sure of it._

They could play one against the other. Both had huge egos.

"I have to wait for just the right moment..." Trevor gritted his teeth.

"Set me in the field... near enough so that I can slam Hordly," Jazz said.

"No, he will recover and kill you with a thought," Trevor said, "but I do have another idea."

Jazz and Frankie moved in as he bent closer, all of them still hovering above ground, and explained his plan.

Impressed, Jazz pulled back and said, "Trev, that is brilliant!"

He seemed to preen, and she almost giggled but managed to restrain herself, and then a thought popped out. "Aren't Fae committed to non-interference?"

"Yes, but there are exceptions, not for individual gain, but for the world as a whole, and now we have two worlds, yours and mine, at stake." He bent and kissed Jazz's nose. " _Be ready when I bring you back..._ "

"Bring us back? Back from where?" The next thing she knew, she and Frankie were being thrust through a tube whose walls, which appeared to be made of a sticky material, checked their speed. Even so, suddenly, and while she still held onto Frankie's hand, they were spat out like discarded chewing gum and found themselves rolling through a field of blue grass.

_Blue grass_? Jazz looked around with a sinking heart and then turned her gaze upward; the two suns only slightly obscured by clouds confirmed that Trevor had sent them into another dimension.

She closed her eyes and then opened them to shout, "Trevor, Prince of Lugh, I am so going to kill you!"

"Where are we?" Frankie asked as she stared at everything, wide-eyed.

"Evidently our Royal wants us temporarily out of the way. I'm guessing this is another dimension, one he must know is safe, so don't worry, Frankie. We'll be okay until he decides to fetch us back."

"I never worry when I'm with you or the prince," Frankie said and smiled warmly up at her.

Jazz gave her a hug, but her mind was elsewhere. She couldn't believe he had done this.

He had agreed to let them help—and then, out of nowhere, _poof_ , he had sent them off. She couldn't tolerate this and would definitely tell him he had stepped out of bounds. Oh yeah, she was going to tell him all right.

_Oooh_ , she silently seethed.

* * *

Prince Trevor turned back to the problem at hand. He knew he had just created another, but he also knew in the end his Jazmine Decker would understand. He smiled as he imagined her angry, lovely, furious eyes.

He then put up his hand and said in a voice that resonated with the voice of many, all of them Lugh ancestors, "You will stop or pay the consequences." He was stalling for time. He didn't need to request them to do a thing. In a moment, they would have no choice.

However, he had, in fact, distracted Baudali from his chanting. Hordly also turned his face to him, his countenance contorted with hatred.

Prince Trevor stomped towards the Dark Prince, brought himself face to face with him, and sneered as Hordly roared out his fury.

"Seelie Royal," the Dark Prince yelled, "you are a fool if you think you can stop us— _it is almost open_." He pointed at the mass of swirling debris inside a mouth no larger than five feet in circumference. It was a few feet off the ground, and Trevor could feel the force of its suction power. It did not look quite fully cooked, and it did not look inviting.

"Is it?" Trevor smirked at the Dark Prince. "Think again, Hordly." Without warning he went into action, taking hold of the wizard with an invisible force that sent Baudali reeling into a dimension he had prepared for this moment.

Trevor did all this without taking his eyes from Hordly and said softly, "Want to try and get through me?"

Saying this, he immediately brought her and Frankie back through the sticky wormhole.

They landed lightly at his side, and he could see Jazmine Decker had a great deal to say to him. However, she made a face and said only, "Oh, ready for us now, huh?"

He laughed and said, " _Now_ being the operative word. Now, just as we planned."

In unison, Frankie called for her fireball and sent it hurtling at the Dark Prince while Jazmine Decker slammed him hard. He went flying backwards, reeled, stood up, and was hit by the fireball. He hissed filthy curses in a voice racked with pain, and Frankie held on tight to her arm. Trevor had not felt pain, only discomfort, which meant it did as he suspected work differently on Dark Fae, even Royal Dark Fae.

His girls, Trevor thought with a pride he had not thought he could feel. They had bought him the time he needed.

He touched Jazmine Decker's nose because she had one more job to do, and he knew she was the only one who could do it. He sent her and Frankie into the Dark Prince's barn.

This done, he turned to the startled Dark Prince, who was picking himself off the ground, and grinned as he chanted. His element, an element he had been preparing, was now at its peak. Water, a great deal of water, was ready for him now.

All at once a dark and ominous cloud appeared over the yawning time portal. The dark cloud descended and surrounded the portal.

Trevor gave the next command, and the cloud opened up and spewed forth a tsunami of rushing, foaming white water.

It was a contained and controlled force and worked its powerful magic on the time portal, closing it in an instant and sending it off, not to be recalled.

Fists clenched, Trevor watched the powerless Dark Prince stand helpless as the torrents of water filled the portal until it imploded on itself. In a moment or two, Hordly's magic would return, but he would no longer have Baudali to aid him, and the spell that had opened the time portal would no longer be available.

He turned on Trevor and rushed him like an animal gone mad. Trevor landed him a facer that sent him flying backwards. Hordly jumped to his feet and dove at Trevor again, but Trevor waited till the last moment and called for his Death Sword.

Hordly stopped in place and sneered. "You need that? Is that what you Seelie call fair?"

"I am not interested in being fair, only in ridding the world of you and your evil. However, as much as I would like to kill you and am looking for the slightest reason to kill you, I shan't kill you if I don't have to. It is my queen's wish you be returned to the Dark King and the Dark Realm, even though it is my educated opinion that you should be returned in _bloody pieces_."

The Dark Prince released a long, agonized growl and shifted.

Trevor knew a moment's fear. Hordly would go to the barn. He had thought to stall him a bit longer. Jazmine Decker and Frankie might still be in the barn. They were supposed to retrieve the Orb and race into the woods, where he would meet with them and shift them back to their mansion. But had they had enough time?

* * *

Jazz and Frankie stood in the middle of the large, open room, and Frankie said, "Miss Jazz, do ye know where it is, this Orb we have to find?"

"Yes, sort of. I can feel it, and as I get closer that feeling grows. The Orb knows I am here looking for it, because it is humming. I am a sounder, and one of my gifts is the connection I have to Seelie Relics."

"Okay, then, Miss Jazz, do let's hurry," Frankie said, clinging to Jazz's hand.

Jazz looked around, trying to decide just where the sound was coming from, when suddenly the power kicked in and she knew. She went right to the cabinet and opened it without any trouble. The Orb glowed and said, "Ah, welcome, _Fios_."

She shook her head. After all she had experienced and witnessed, she didn't know why it should surprise her that the Orb could talk, but it did. She said, "Yup, and I am taking you to a Seelie prince who will get you home."

"Thank you, but we must hurry—I can feel him coming..."

She tucked the Orb against her chest, wishing she had a bag to slip it in to make it easier to carry. A growl sounded behind her, and she whirled around to find Hordly standing in the middle of the room, looking like a rabid, wild, and dark creature.

Fleetingly she wondered how could anyone look so evil and yet be so beautiful all at once.

His fangs displayed themselves, and his voice filled the air like a blast of frigid wind. " _Put it down._ "

She put Frankie behind her, and together they backed away, "I don't think so," Jazz said, chin up with a bravado she was far from feeling.

"I can kill you and the child with a thought and take it from you" he snarled and looked as though he were about to do just that. His black eyes made him look as though he were the devil himself, risen from hell and ready to scorch the earth.

Jazz immediately erected her shield around herself and Frankie. Well, here was the moment when she would find out if it would work against a fully charged Dark Royal.

Trevor appeared behind the Dark Prince, his Death Sword in hand. "Give me an excuse. Come on, Hordly... I so much would rather take your severed head and burn it on Fae for all my brethren to see than send you back to your prison whole."

The Dark Prince turned to him and in a low voice filled with hatred said, "You think you have won? I will wreak such havoc in this century, on these humans. The future will be forever changed. You will wish I had traveled to the future, where I meant to be a benevolent leader with my brothers. This, Seelie Royal, is far from over!"

He vanished. Trevor shifted after him but returned a few moments later and said angrily, "He has shifted to another dimension. I have no way of knowing which one, for their numbers are beyond measure. However, at least it is still in the past. I don't think he means to change the future, but it is of great concern." He shook his head. "The moment he reenters this dimension, the Orb shall tell us, won't you, Orb?" He put out his hand for it.

"Ah, Seelie Prince Trevor, may we go home now?" the Orb said.

"That depends on you, Orb," he answered. "Can you warp the curvature and take us back to our time?"

If an Orb could smile, Jazz thought this one did just that. The next thing they knew they were encased in a soft white cloud, all three of them.

~ Nine ~

BANZAR SAT COMFORTABLY and smiled as though enjoying the concert being conducted in the pavilion by the queen's favorite musicians, but he scarcely heard the music because his mind was deep in thought.

He wasn't a Royal, though he was a distant cousin to the princes of the House of Lugh. He had been a loyal Council member for eons, but damn if he got enough recognition, and he was weary of being regarded as 'just' a Council member. He wanted more.

He had nearly as much age as Queen Aaibhe herself but had taken the waters of the Cauldron to stave off the madness that came to Fae who did not, and he had been re-taught all he needed to know in good order. He was a faithful Fae, ready to fight for his peers and keep Tir ever safe.

He had never liked Queen Aaibhe—perhaps because she had never invited him to her inner circle.

No, that was reserved for her damn Royals—and, of course, her 'special' Druids!

When Gaiscioch had broken away and decided to take her on, Banzar had secretly sympathized with him.

Unlike Gais, however, Banzar did not wish to go to war with his beloved Fae in order to take over the Isles of Tir and rule Faery. He preferred a peaceful 'takeover'.

Gais had been a traitor and was now dead. Banzar was no such thing, not a traitor, and he knew the limitations of his power. He could not beat the queen's warriors in a fair fight.

However, it was time for her to step down, and now he had the means to force the issue.

He had no desire to rule the human world. They were disgusting creatures better left to their puny lives. No doubt they would end by destroying one another in a final World War.

He wanted only one thing: to rule the Fae as their king.

Perhaps now was the time the Council would see matters had gone too far with Aaibhe?

First, she allowed—no, welcomed—the union of Seelie Princess Royce with Chancemont LeBlanc, _a Milesian._ Somehow the Council had agreed with the queen that the union would bring two strong worlds together to be ever vigilant against the Unseelie monsters.

But, he fancied, they would not want their queen to take as consort over them a Milesian king. _Impossible_! And that was what Morgan LeBlanc was. Calling him their leader was tantamount to calling him their king.

This latest behavior of hers, linking herself romantically to the Milesian leader and, he believed, involving herself intimately with the Milesian? Unacceptable!

Her choice of mate would not bode well for her, but it would for his cause.

She must have realized this, for she was very secretive about her visits to Dravo. She was very secretive about Morgan LeBlanc's visits at the palace, calling them matters of security. _Ha_ —he knew better!

Indeed, she had finally fallen in love, and the thought made him sneer. Even all the fuss over her fallen Druid lover, Conall, would not garner her sympathy if she tried to take a Milesian as her consort.

It was, in his opinion, deplorable behavior, and he rather thought he could sway public opinion to agree with him. After all, his many Fae friends could still remember that final battle with the Milesians just before the Treaty.

It was time the Fae gave over their belief that theirs should be a society ruled by a matriarch.

It was time for her to step down and allow a king to be appointed—and he knew he was the one that could, that should, fill the job. Why only a Royal? Why not one of the common Fae? It was an argument he had practiced many times.

The Royal Princes would take her part, and they were popular on Tir. The Fae, in fact, adored the warrior princes, for they had been ever ready to defend Tir and always won their final battles.

Yes, they would be a problem.

They were loyal, all of them, loyal to her leadership. Even Breslyn, who so often balked at her edicts and broke her many rules, would stand faithfully at her side and fight to the death to protect her.

Therefore, this could not be a bloody battle but a _peaceful takeover_ , won with a show of votes rather than with a battle of swords. Soon, very soon, he would start working behind the scenes.

Banzar of Lugh, not born a prince but with Royal blood flowing through his veins, smiled to himself, visualized himself a proud and ethical defender, working to do everything Tir needed to be done. He was not a warrior, and the truth was he had not fought in the war with the humans and the Milesians—though who would remember that now?

He knew that he presented an impressive picture of a masculine Fae, with his fiery red locks and the glittering black eyes he was so proud of, which so few Fae sported. Theirs was mostly a race of sparkling, light-colored eyes.

He had always thought of himself as unique.

Even in the regal white and gold robe of the Council, he imagined that other Fae regarded him as kingly. Indeed, he already had two of the twelve Council members ready to hear what he had to say, but he had to be careful and not appear to criticize the popular queen too overtly. He was the ultimate politician. It was that trait that had brought him to his present position as a leading and respected Council member.

He knew, too, who would vote against him when it came to a show of hands, and who would do more than that. Breslyn and Danté would not only vote against him, they would take offense; he would make himself powerful enemies. He would have to watch them, perhaps keep them busy with a distraction?

Perhaps he could arrange to have their mates out of the way when he called for a final vote. Perhaps he could arrange for an 'emergency vote' and override the need for all twelve members to be present? He would have to work behind the scenes to accomplish this. Obviously, the queen as the thirteenth member would not be present. Ah, a very good solution if he could get a majority.

Intermission allowed him to get up and slowly make his way down the aisle crowded with Fae socializing and enjoying themselves. He exchanged a jest with one here, a pat on the back with another, a flirt with a pretty Fae, and he smiled to himself. Indeed, he knew how to work the crowd.

It was time; he began slipping in a word here, another there, starting the rumor that the queen had taken up with the Milesian leader.

He stopped beside Council Member Alana and inclined his head to ask, "I am surprised the queen is not here to enjoy her favorite vocalist?"

Alana was the queen's friend, but she was a stickler for rules, always had been. She was the perfect ear to drop a hint to.

"Indeed, no doubt something important to attend to. Our queen is forever working," she said absently.

"Perhaps not always," Banzar said with just the right inflection to intimate that he had not told the entire story.

She turned large, sparkling eyes to contemplate him. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Only that I believe our queen has another interest that keeps her away this afternoon."

"Really, and what would that be?" Alana asked, her brow up.

"Indeed, Banzar," said Prince Breslyn at his back, "tell us _, do_ , what would that be?"

Banzar spun around and displayed more irritation than he had meant to but quickly got it under control. The prince was an annoyance, but he could not show it. Breslyn was too well respected and, damn him, he always seemed to know too much.

"Only that I have noticed she has been spending a great deal of her time... _dealing_ with the Milesians."

Alana frowned and gave Breslyn her hand. "Breslyn, where is your sweet Ete?"

The prince turned and smiled widely and warmly. "Ah, here she comes now... _with the queen_."

Banzar's eyes narrowed, and he felt a deep-seated hatred begin to form. Breslyn would be in the way, as would his wife. It would give Banzar great pleasure to watch Breslyn suffer the loss of his mate, even for a little while, though it would take some doing, as she was a Daoine Seelie Fae and would not be easily captured.

He did not bother to excuse himself but turned and left abruptly, thinking the prince would be sorry for all the rudeness he had exhibited towards him over the centuries. He knew Breslyn didn't like him because the prince made no secret of about it. _Damn his Royal blood_ , when he was done, _they would know_. They would all know who they were dealing with!

* * *

The prince was very aware of Banzar's hurried departure. He knew, in the gut humans had taught him to use so long ago, that _this_ Council member was up to something, but he couldn't yet figure out what.

Ete laughed and touched his cheek, and he smiled at her as she asked, "What? You look... concerned."

He took a lock of her beautiful auburn hair and tugged. "You chose that word carefully." Then as the queen turned from greeting her friends to give him her hand, he took it and bent over it, saying as he straightened, "My Queen, I believe that Banzar means to make mischief, regarding your... er, friendship with Morgan LeBlanc."

"I know, and I am forewarned," said the queen quietly. "It is a delicate matter we shall discuss at another time."

He nodded, but he had always believed that Banzar meant more than just mischief, _much more_.

~ Ten ~

JAZZ HAD NEVER seen a sky so blue, nearly aqua in variegated shades that looked as though a brush had just gently stroked the heavens with fresh paint. No clouds interrupted the skyline, the temperature was perfect, and the scent wafting on the breeze was unfamiliar but delicious.

The beach stretched out forever, the azure water lapping gently at the pink sandy shoreline. The landscape appeared to be tropical, as palm trees, pines of various types, and flowering fruit trees, all planted with style and precision, filled the scenery.

Birds of every type, some she had never seen or even imagined existed, flaunted their colors and their songs.

She stood in her boots and jeans in Faery, though if she didn't know better, she might think she had just stepped into a Disney painting. Everything was so rich with color.

She looked at Trevor, who gave her a reassuring smile, and then she turned to Frankie, who gaped at her and said, "Gawd!"

"Right you are," agreed Jazz. To Trevor she said, "So this is Faery?"

"One of the Isles of Tir, yes, part of it." He looked at the Orb. "Why the beach and not the queen's chamber?"

"I thought you all might wish to freshen up before presenting yourself to our queen," said the Orb.

Frankie stared at the crystal and asked, "Be ye a girl or a boy? I can't tell."

"Neither. I am the Orb of Time and once belonged to the Dark King," said the voice, which was indeed genderless.

The prince said, "I have a bit of a problem, Jazmine Decker."

"What? We are in the present, I mean, I know we are in Faery, but it is the present, right?"

"Aye, but we have left the Dark Prince in the past. That won't do. I shall have to go back and—"

"Be at rest," said the Orb. "When you took me in hand, Prince, I had the power to correct my error, and I returned him to the Dark Realm where he belongs." The voice, though genderless, sounded proud as it added, "I did this while I brought us home."

The prince grinned and kissed the Orb. Then, with a flick of his wrist, Jazz was clothed in a close-fitting gown of soft blue silk, much in the Grecian style, and Frankie wore a lovely little yellow schoolgirl's dress with Fae-styled sandals.

Jazz looked down at herself and then touched her blonde hair, which his flicking wrist had piled high on her head. She looked at Frankie again and saw that Frankie was pulling her hair out of the ponytail Trevor had put it in.

Jazz laughed. "Why so formal?"

He took her hand, she took Frankie's, and he said as he looked them over, "We are off to see the queen."

Jazz laughed. "As long as we aren't taking the yellow brick road."

"What is that?" A puzzled expression flitted over Trevor's face.

"Never mind, Trev... _lead on_."

He shifted them to the inside of the castle, and before Jazz could take in their surroundings, she turned her head to the sound of a deeply sensual male voice that said, "Well, well... what have we here?"

Jazz's mouth dropped open as she stared at a huge, incredibly sexy hunk. He wore his dark blonde hair slicked back and tied at the nape of his neck with a string of leather. His silver Fae eyes glittered with humor and warmth. Intriguing tattoos banded his biceps, and a torque of gold around his wide neck made her wonder just who he was.

Trevor grinned like a boy and went forward. Jazz and Frankie watched the two Royals grab one another's shoulders to give each other a warm, comradely shake.

" _Breslyn_... it is good to see you—better than you can imagine," Trevor said with a gusty laugh.

"Aye, I heard you were stuck in the past with Pestale's brother Hordly. How did you get out, and where is the devil now?"

Trevor held up the Orb. "We managed to get this. It is what sent him into the past when he tried to enter the Human Realm. The Orb realized he was Unseelie and retracted its spell, hurtling him into the past. We were in its sphere and ended up there with him, but now he is back where he belongs—in the Dark Realm with all the other abominations."

"Aye, then, but not for long. There is a small portal that repeatedly tries to open. Ete and I have just come back from the Highlands. We shut it down, but there is no saying when he will get it open again," Breslyn said grimly.

"Who—it can't have been Hordly?" And then dawning lit in his eyes. " _Pestale?_ Pestale is at it, isn't he?"

"Aye, and he is stronger than ever and even more determined," Breslyn said and then stopped to return his attention to Jazz and Frankie, who were both watching him with their mouths open. He laughed and said, "Who do we have here, Trev, my boy? It seems you have been busy."

Trevor had just managed to make the introductions when the queen opened her door and raised an eyebrow. "Are you planning to talk all day out here in the hall for anyone and everyone to eavesdrop on?"

Chastised, Trevor lowered his gaze, but Breslyn threw back his head, laughed, and pinched the queen's chin as they entered.

Jazz felt Frankie clinging to her and gave her a warm, reassuring smile, which helped to dissipate her own fears. _Here was the Queen of the Seelie Fae._

She was tall, ethereal, graceful, and almost too beautiful to behold. Her eyes glistened with a hint of rainbow colors, ever changing. Her skin was exquisitely soft in appearance, and the radiance surrounding her was both seductive and reassuring. And when the queen tempered her alien eyes, donned human Glamour, and came to stand before her, Jazz had a moment's urge to drop to her knees and kiss her hand. She was so much more than the vision she had presented when she appeared through the magic of the pendant. So much more!

Aaibhe held her chin and said in a voice that enticed and bewitched, "Ah, my Fios, Jazmine Decker. How pleased I am that you are here." She turned to Frankie. "And you, my little one. I hope that you will not be frightened. You are very special to me, so be at ease."

Jazz felt Frankie's hand relax in hers and realized the queen had indeed calmed Frankie's fears.

Aaibhe turned to her two princes and said, "Do you both know what we must do next? Yes?"

"Aye," Prince Breslyn replied. "Danté and Z are guarding the portal we just closed, my Queen. Chance and Royce were on their way to the village of Swords when Ete and I saw them only moments ago, to guard over Daremont and BJ. We were concerned because they are not immortal, and if Pestale tries to open the monoliths on their land, they could be harmed attempting to stop him. Ete and I are headed for Trinity, as Ete believes he will strike in a public place in Dublin."

"Has she seen this with her sight?" the queen asked, one brow raised.

"She isn't sure. She only received bits and pieces, but she felt the scene was in Dublin, and there were so many young people... students, that she surmised it would be Trinity."

"Pestale means to send each brother to a different location, thus spreading our power off and away from his direct and first hit. We have no way of knowing which one he will hit and with how many of his monsters at his back," the queen said as she pyramided her fingers.

"Does he have the power to open a portal that large?" Trevor asked, his face drawn.

"I think so," said the queen. "I have tried to contact the Dark King, but he is off with his Crystal... and is unaware of time. I know that he was determined to convince her to shed the last remnants of her human essence and evolve as he has. While he is centered in that, he will be of no help in this."

"Where do you want me to go, and when do I leave?" Trevor asked.

"Now," said the queen. "Trevor, my young prince, I am asking you to enter the Dark Realm to contain the Dark Royals. I know that I am asking a great deal, and I also know you are up to the task."

He put his arm across his chest and made a fist of loyalty as he bowed his head. "It is an honor to serve."

She had taken the Orb from him while they spoke and said, "This will get you to the Dark Realm and back."

Although part of her had listened to the discussion, Jazz had also been deep in thought. How long had she been away? She knew her travel agency would have immediately enlisted a tour guide to help her poor seniors, who had been left stranded, but just how long had she been gone? She sighed; she had to set this aside, for she could do nothing about _that_ situation. She could, however, do something else—she could help rid the world of the damned Unseelie!

She stepped up and found the courage to say, "I am going with him."

Trevor rounded on her. "No—you are not."

"I can help you, Trev. I am coming."

"So am I," Frankie said in a small voice.

"Jazmine Decker," Trevor said, his voice was a mixture of admiration and authority, "you must remain behind with Frankie. You can help by being with her and giving me peace of mind that you are _both safe_."

"I can't do that this time. Frankie will be safe here with the queen. You know that, so I am coming with you." She turned to Frankie. "You trust me, Frankie, don't you?"

"Yes, but... I be wanting to stay with you... and Prince Trevor."

Aaibhe bent to her knees and looked at the child directly. "You are the last of the Fios McCutchems on your mother's side. And you will grow to be strong and sure. I need you to remain with me and train. Can you do that? When Trevor returns, he will be so very proud of all that you will learn while with me." The queen rose and took Frankie's hand.

"You see, you will need to stay here with Frankie," Trevor said to Jazz and turned to the queen. "Remind Jazmine Decker, my Queen, that she is mortal. She will not survive the Dark Realm."

"I cannot tell her that because she is _more_ than mortal," said the queen softly. She took a step to Jazz, picked up the pendant that was around her neck with her free hand, and began to chant. When she was done, she murmured, "While this won't make you completely invulnerable, it will help keep you safe, because though you are more than what you appear, you are _also mortal_ , and _I will_ need you in the future."

Frankie tugged on the queen's hand. "I have a fireball. I can help them. Send me, please send me with them. I can help."

The queen smiled warmly and shook her head. "No, my little one. You will stay with me and meet Nuad, our Chief Tracker, and his team, and one of them—you may pick which one—will take you to the training center and teach you how to use all your Fios skills, for you have more than the fireball. You have ways it can be used that you are still not aware of."

"But..." Frankie said on a worried note.

Jazz hugged Frankie fiercely. "None of this is normal, but you and I, we are not normal. However, we have found _our place_ —finally, both of us know really what we are and why." Jazz then whispered in Frankie's mind, another skill she had learned from her mother, how to 'mind-speak' from Fios to Fios. _I am going with him, no matter what he says... so you be ready to show us everything you learn when we get back._ Jazz didn't know if the mind-speaking would work on a Fae—though she wished she could use it with Trevor. She smiled to herself at the thought.

Frankie's eyes filled with tears, but she staunchly nodded her head and said, "Right, then."

Breslyn, who had been standing back from this scene, folded his strong arms across his chest and said to his queen, "You do know what is going on here?"

She eyed him with one brow up. "Do you question me, Breslyn?"

"Well, not exactly, but..."

"Then let me answer you, my Prince," said the queen. "Fate is taking its natural course." She turned to Trevor and said, "It is time for you to leave, and, Trevor, after you ask the Orb to take you to the Dark Realm, spell it so that it will remain suspended with your Death Sword, both yours and both out of reach."

Trevor inclined his head. "As you wish, my Queen." He then looked at the Relic in his hand. "Orb of Time," he said, "I need to travel in the present to the Dark Realm. Can you do that?"

"I can, but I do not wish to. I have only just arrived home... and would prefer to remain with my queen."

"Orb, it is your duty," said the queen.

"Yes, my Queen," said the Orb, and Jazz's eyes opened wide when she heard it sigh.

"Not only does it talk, but it sighs? Do Fae Relics have feelings?" Her mind began to enumerate the things she had learned: Fae had feelings. Fae Relics, which she'd supposed were inanimate objects, could speak. Relics even evolved and 'grew' feelings. Everything she had been taught as a Fios was so out of whack.

"Our Hallows are capable of much," said the queen with a soft smile.

Jazz nodded and made up her mind. She knew Trevor would not willingly take her with him, but she also knew she had to go with him, and her reasons didn't matter at that moment. Her gut told her to go with Trevor at all cost. She would use her Fios senses and wait for the right moment. Doing this, she knew the very moment the Orb's spell opened the portal.

Just as Trevor stepped into the swirling dark hole, she ran, grabbed hold of him with everything she had, and planted herself against his back. Her arms wrapped around his hard abs, and her eyes closed as her head rested at his broad back just as the portal sucked them deep inside.

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're 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 Royals' 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 processes, 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. 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 entire stance was 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 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, as well as 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—it had worked!

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 knowing 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."

* * *

Bile worked itself into Jazz's throat. She was pretty sure Trevor could not, did not, mean what he had said, but even so it hurt to hear the words. However, she had a few tricks up her sleeve. She took Pestale's magic, this time only his magic, and slammed the brother he stood closest to. While both Pestale and his younger brother were still sliding across the stone floor, with all her might she pounded the heel of her boot on Hordly's sandaled foot. When he yelped with pain, she turned, kicked him in the balls, and at the same time took his magic and slammed him.

Trevor shifted to her at once and wrapped her in his tight embrace. In the next instant he shifted them away.

~ Eleven ~

TREVOR CONCENTRATED. HE knew he had to focus.

A looming structure stood before them. It was made of huge blocks of opaque glass in long, thick shards going every which way. One could not see in, but he imagined every room inside could see out.

It was the only safe haven in all the Dark Realm, but getting inside would not be easy. Danté had had a very difficult time of it when he was here with Radzia. It was the special retreat the Dark King had created for his human love, to keep her safe and comfortable where the world outside was anything but.

Trevor couldn't allow anything to happen to his Fios. He couldn't breathe when she was in danger. She was his Jazmine Decker. She had asked him why he continued to use her entire name, because it sounded so formal, and he had told her it was because he liked the sound. In truth, he loved the sound. He would always call her Jazmine Decker.

The first difficulty lay in the fact that he couldn't find a door—anywhere. He had Jazmine Decker's hand in his as he dragged her along while he searched for an entrance, a window, some way to get inside. His efforts proved fruitless, and he was left standing and studying the building, deep in thought. He knew that when the Dark Princes figured out where he had gone with his human, they would be after them once more.

* * *

"Wh-where are we now? Maybe we sh-should just g-go?" Jazz stuttered with the cold. She was pretty sure her lips were going numb. It was below freezing, way below, and she wasn't certain she could take much more. She could see Trevor was trying to get her inside, so she didn't want to burden him by telling him her entire body felt as though she were suffering from frostbite.

"We have to get inside—it is the only place you will be safe from them. They cannot enter this retreat, as it belongs to Dark King's consort, Crystal, and is warded specifically against them."

"Okay," Jazz agreed. "But I don't see a way in. Maybe it is warded against us as well? Maybe we should just go check out the Prison Walls. M-maybe it is warmer there."

He eyed her suddenly and took her into his arms. "Are you cold, Jazmine Decker?" He breathed a soft, warm air all around her and said, "There, sweet. That should keep you more comfortable for a few minutes."

"Wow, it's like having my own instant sauna," she said, impressed.

He frowned, once again deep in thought, and mumbled, "Breslyn and my brother, Danté, will locate the cracks in the wall from the outside and seal them. I have to find a way to distract the Unseelie Royals, which, thus far, I believe we have done."

"When was that discussed?"

"It wasn't discussed." He grinned. "The queen mind-linked with me before we entered the portal."

"Huh," she said to this.

He glanced at her. "You shouldn't be here, but you did serve to keep their minds off the walls. Hopefully they will be busy searching for us and we will be inside by the time they realize we have found a way into the retreat."

"See, I am an excellent distraction," she offered.

He pulled a face at her. "The only advantage I have is that they think I am here to kill them, so they will center their efforts on locating me. You are a distraction for me as well as for them." He touched her nose. "Keeping you alive will be no easy task, because you are mortal, and in spite of the pendant and Aaibhe's spell, I don't like that you can so easily be destroyed."

"Hey, don't make so little of me."

"You don't understand, do you? It is the queen's directive that I accomplish my mission without killing any of the Dark King's Royal sons. I, however, would like to find a reason to kill them—one that cannot be disputed. You are turning out to be that reason, but there will be consequences."

Jazz decided to change the subject. "Why didn't the queen tell you how to get inside? Seems like an important detail, huh?"

"It forever changes. Those who wish to enter are judged worthy or not. That is all she was able to tell me."

"Huh," said Jazz consideringly. "Well, didn't she have any idea what would be worthy?"

"No, for each of us it is different. The way is different for each of us..."

"What does that mean, really?"

"It means that anyone desirous of entering must I suppose pass some kind of test."

"You mean we each have to prove ourselves. You mean it might let you in but not me? Not liking this."

"Something like that, and I'm not liking it much either." She watched him as he looked around at the glass structure and added, "This is oddly shaped... look at its protruding angles. It makes the place look like an impenetrable ice statue.

"What now?"

"I'll use arcane Danu and see if I can telepathically communicate with the structure. It is a living thing... it should respond to my status as a Royal Prince of the House of Lugh."

Nothing.

Jazz snickered and said, "It wasn't impressed with your royalty." However, at that moment she heard something, and not with her Fios senses but with her human senses, which meant it was something close by. She turned around. Her mouth dropped open, and she gasped.

Charging towards them, looking absolutely magnificent and just as terrifying, was a huge, tawny, horridly menacing creature. The closest description she could give was that it was like a lion, only warped, and this thing was fifteen feet in height and ten feet wide. Something had gone wrong when it had been created; the hulking thing was misshapen and adulterated. Its fangs dripped yellow saliva as it charged towards them, and Jazz realized this thing wasn't just hungry— _it was starving_.

Ordinarily, she would have felt compassion for it and looked to feed it, but the problem here was that she was afraid it had already found food: _h_ _er._

_It was immortal and starving_ —forever hungry in a world where food was limited, which meant it was determined. _Oh, yeah_ , she thought, it looked determined!

Jazz then noticed its open mouth and thought, _Oh no! That can't be a mouth_. The dark opening held her horribly fascinated; it was full of spiked hairs, and those hairs had living, biting snakeheads at their tips. Lots and lots of mouths to feed, she told herself, thinking she was in an awful place and that she really needed to leave.

Her confidence vanished. Sheer and complete terror took over. "TREVOR!" she screamed.

Trevor cursed softly. "I know this beast!" he called out to her. "It has its origins in Danu."

"Where can we go?" she wailed. "It is coming fast!"

"Don't worry, I have a plan. This thing was created without benefit of the Wheel of Being, a derivative of the Krill."

"You're giving me a history of this thing's family tree?" she asked incredulously. _"Just tell me how we kill it!"_

It stopped suddenly and looked directly at Trevor as though puzzling out just how to get past him to its food.

It obviously had decided she was just what it needed to eat, immediately. However, the creature appeared to be leery of Trevor, and it clawed the ground angrily.

Jazz wondered, did it recognize Trevor as Fae? She looked into the beast's soulless eyes and did, in fact, think she saw intelligence seated there. She felt a pang of sympathy for the beast. What was this Dark King that he had created so much havoc and pain, leaving all these creatures to fend for themselves?

Trevor had his Death Sword in hand and yelled over the beast's roar at her, "Stay out of its way—STAY PUT. Its saliva is poisonous— _to you_ , poisonous. Do you understand?"

She nodded vigorously. She had every intention of staying out of its way.

Trevor shifted onto the creature's back, stood, and got ready to plunge his Death Sword. Then the unthinkable happened.

The beast stood and swiped the air with its huge claws, and Trevor lost his balance and fell.

The beast went back on all four and looked as though it was about to devour Trevor whole.

Jazz reacted; she ran forward, getting in its face to distract it. " _Hey—you!_ Come on. You don't want him— _you want me...!_ "

It growled ferociously at her and forgot Trevor for the moment as it shook its enormous tawny mane and lowered its head while stalking towards her.

Trevor was already up and shouting at her to run, and she did, wondering how Trevor had recovered so quickly.

The beast was nearly on her, and she said a silent prayer as she looked over her shoulder to see Trevor once again on its back.

He plunged the Death Sword deep inside the beast. As it toppled to the ground, he shifted in front of it, saying ancient Danu words as he raised his sword again, this time with a slashing expertise that left it decapitated. What he apparently didn't see as he got busy calling on a fire to burn the head was that, as the beast fell and rolled, it disgorged its last meal, one that _was still alive._

Jazz's eyebrows rose with her horror as a creature no taller than she but with many more legs, spidery legs, jumped onto the dry, dead earth and paused.

It looked like an overgrown tarantula until its protruding eyes discovered her standing there. She swore to herself that it somehow smiled... an evil, _I'm coming for you_ smile.

Something grotesque popped out of the top of its hairy body, and Jazz saw that it was another head—this one the size of a melon. In addition to the many eyes that this head sported was a row of gnashing, chomping, razor-like teeth.

_She ran_. There was nowhere to go but towards the oddly shaped glass building ahead. Maybe someone there, assuming that _someone was_ there, might take pity on her situation and let her in.

She switched into Fios and used her Fios speed. She knew she shouldn't, but she couldn't help herself—she looked over shoulder to see if the beast was gaining on her. It was. _She was so dead._

She was almost at the glass house... almost, when she looked back once more and discovered that the monstrous spidery thing had stopped. It raised up onto four of its eight legs and gave what appeared to be a victory cry

_Magic!_ Because of her fear she had forgotten what she could do. With her back to the wall, so to speak, she turned and centered all her thoughts into one. She took whatever Dark Magic the creature had inside it and slammed that Dark Magic right back at it. _YES_ , she told herself, _Fios slamming._

It took the hit like a cannonball to its center, a center that had produced a suction-cup mouth with canines, and the beast went flying backwards.

All this had happened in less than a minute.

Trevor hadn't yet noticed any of this as he made certain the krill was burned and unable to rise up.

Jazz turned back to the glass building and began pounding on its walls but got nothing. After what was only a moment though seemed an age to her, she turned to see the thing had righted itself and was coming at her once more as though it were driven by steam engines.

When it was less than one hundred feet away, it emitted something from one of its orifices, shooting it through the air to splatter her legs.

She felt a tingly sensation.

It felt hot and gooey, and when she tried to move, she found she was stuck in place. And the thing was still coming for her!

She screamed out Trevor's name, but she didn't have to— _he was already there,_ plunging his Death Sword into the melon head, and then he cut the creature in half.

She watched him set the body on fire and then walk towards the head that had rolled some feet away.

She felt an odd twinge of pain begin to scurry up her legs. The twinge became a stabbing, sharp pain and seemed to increase in strength. She wondered if she had twisted a muscle trying to get out of the goop.

Trevor was in a fury as he stomped towards her and shouted, "I told you to stay put. _Why don't you ever listen?_ "

"Well, _you are welcome_ ," she snapped in spite of the fact that in addition to her being stuck in goop, her legs felt like they were on fire. She found one hand was quite paralyzed, so she brought up the other to point at him and was surprised to hear her voice was no louder than a whisper. "I was saving you from being eaten."

"I am a Seelie Royal. Did you think I was unconscious? I was waiting for the beast to come closer so that I could plunge my sword into its throat!" He threw up his hands with exasperation and then seemed to see for the first time that she was standing in a horrific substance.

"What the hell?" he said.

"Well, then," said Jazz, ignoring this. "There you are—and who expected that thingy to come out of its insides?" And, so saying, she felt herself sway.

Something was wrong, very, very wrong, and the last thing she remembered was Trevor, crying out her name as he reached for her.

* * *

Trevor's lip curled with fury as he exploded the slimy substance away from her with a flick of his wrist. It turned to gray dust and filled the air with a thick cloud of putrid odor before the breeze dissipated it.

Even as he did this, he saw that she was unsteady and reached for her as she began to pass out. He caught her as she crumpled and held her cradle-like in his arms.

He couldn't think.

He had to find a warm place for her human body. He had to break all the rules, just as Breslyn would do, and save her, for he had no doubt she had been covered in a poison that had gotten into the pores of her skin.

He shifted with her, and came to stand at the oddly shaped and impenetrable glass building. All at once, and without his asking, a ten-by-ten-foot sliding glass door appeared and opened. A robotic voice invited politely, _"Enter."_

Trevor carried her inside and found himself teleported with her still in his arms to a large and comfortable-looking chamber. Warmth enveloped him, and he saw that a fire burned invitingly in a corner pot-bellied stove. It struck him as odd, but he was thankful, for it would help warm his Jazmine Decker.

At the far end of the room was a huge and canopied four-poster bed with soft blue velvet hangings, and he deposited her there.

He stroked her head and fixed her long, tangled blonde hair, blinking it smooth and then gently pushing it away from her face. He took off her gloves and rubbed her hands with his own. He dropped a kiss on her nose and then on her frozen lips and murmured, "Jazmine Decker, you will be fine. Do you hear me, sweet Fios? I shall warm you and heal you."

He took her pulse, bent over her to put his head to her heart, and heard its faint beating. "There you are, sweet Fios, _my Fios_." He sighed, laid hands over her chest, and said out loud, "Now, I will absorb the poison from your body." A tendril of power traveled from his body, through his hands, and into her, but very little of the poison was drawn from her. He frowned. "What is wrong, by Danu? It is not working!" He was frantic; suddenly, for the first time in his long young life, he was afraid, truly afraid.

The robotic voice said, " _She is dying._ You cannot heal her, as the poison has already begun shutting down her human organs. You may use our facilities to make her last moments comfortable."

" _Dying_? No— _she is not._ I won't let her," Trevor spat as he turned around, looking for a body to match to the voice.

"You are Seelie. You may not interfere with the human life force—they live, they die."

"Damn you. _She is not_ going to die." He took her hand in his, which he discovered was shaking, and his insides clenched. "I have never healed anyone, human or otherwise. I am not certain why it isn't working. The poison should have been drawn out of you, Jazmine Decker. Listen to me, sweet love, don't go... I _won't_ , can't lose you. Please, Jazmine Decker, fight the poison. Let your Fios fight the poison."

The robotic voice clucked at him. "A Fios is not immortal. She cannot fight the poison."

"Damn you!" he shouted. "Why didn't you allow us entrée at once? YOU knew what was out there. If you had let her in—"

"Destiny moves on its own," the voice said, interrupting him. "I was created to guard and protect only my mistress and promote non-interference in all other matters. However, my mistress was once human and has instilled other directives in me, and at times they collide, as they did when I observed that your Fios was dying. It is not interference to give shelter at such times."

Trevor decided to ignore the voice as he took a survey of Jazmine Decker's body and realized that some of the spider's paralyzing formula had certainly gotten into her organs. They were shutting down.

If he didn't find an answer soon, he would lose his Jazmine Decker. He could see her skin start to turn red; a rash was forming over much of her body. He knew too much of the poison had been absorbed. _No_ , he thought. _She can't die._ He had to heal her organs—but how? He had never seen it done. He knew nothing about human anatomy.

Then, the unthinkable occurred.

In that moment, Trevor of Lugh was sure he had somehow grown a heart, for he felt it expand before it broke, and then he felt the two halves break again. Agony tore through his body and exploded in his brain, tearing his world into shreds.

Jazmine Decker had somehow woven her spell around his essence, and he was fairly certain he no longer wished to live without her. But she had just died in his arms. All that she was had ceased to be.

How could he bear this?

_He could not_. He _would not_.

All Trevor of Lugh's sacred rules of Fae ethics were demolished. He raised his hands heavenward and howled with his agony.

~ Twelve ~

AAIBHE RAISED HER iridescent eyes to Morgan LeBlanc as he pulled her in close and whispered in ancient Gaelic with that burr she loved so much. She couldn't answer him, though. How could she allow this to continue? She was Queen of the Seelie Fae, and she owed—

"Doona ye feel the same, m'darlin' lass?" he murmured in her ear.

She bent her head back. How she loved being his 'darlin' lass'. He made her whole, and she knew, looking into his blue eyes, that she could not give him up. "I do, but—"

"There is no _but_. Aye, ye be Queen of the Fae. So be it. I am leader of the Milesians, and together we stand against the Dark Fae, stand between them and our worlds. The humans canna take them on without us. Together, we can unite our worlds and forget what was and think only of what will be, could be."

She touched his handsome face. "I know, but there are some here in Tir that would be..." She softened the word she was about to use and said, "upset."

"Aye, but we should no care. I doona care, and ye be queen. Ye have given everything for your subjects. Now 'tis time they stepped back and let ye be, let ye enjoy what is yer right to have— _a life_."

"You are, of course, quite right, but still I have to be careful," she said, frowning. She heard two sets of footsteps approach her private chamber door and knew, at once, who it was. _Her favorite princes_. She turned towards the door, still holding onto Morgan's arm, and said, "Enter."

Danté, Prince of Lugh, and Breslyn, Prince of Dagda, came in. Breslyn, who already knew that Morgan was with his queen, hurriedly closed the door at his back.

"What is it?" Aaibhe said, dropping her hand from Morgan's arm and stepping towards them.

The two princes, regal, warrior-like, and full with their news, first stepped forward and heartily greeted the Milesian. Shoulder to shoulder they had fought the Dark Prince, Pestale, and his monsters, and it had made them comrades.

They shook hands and slapped shoulders in greeting and then Danté, ever ready of purpose, turned to his queen, his face grave. "Z and I have closed a portal we found at her monoliths, but we believe it was a decoy. It didn't have enough power to allow more than a lower-caste Unseelie through."

"Aye." Breslyn nodded. "The same as what Ete and I found. These portals are meant as a distraction. There is something being created that will open wide and large, but I haven't been able to pinpoint just where that will be."

The queen listened to this and paced a moment. Then Breslyn suddenly, hurriedly said, "My Queen, I can feel him. Banzar approaches." He looked at Morgan. "Perhaps it would be better if Morgan was not here?"

Aaibhe made up her mind in that moment. Hiding her relationship was no longer an option. Morgan was correct. She had every right to form both a romantic and political alliance, and the Council would just have to swallow it!

A knock sounded. Excerpt for emergencies she should not be disturbed whilst in her private chambers without a formal request. Banzar did not have leave, and he did not have a prior arrangement; however, she said, "Enter, Banzar." Her brow was up, clearly displaying her displeasure at his intrusion.

At his back were two other Council members; he turned to them and said, "What did I tell you? She entertains a Milesian in her private chamber!"

The two male Council members shifted uncomfortably and inclined their heads to the queen. One said, "But, Banzar, Prince Breslyn and Prince Danté are present."

"So they are," said the queen. "However, they were not present a few moments ago when I was very much alone with Morgan LeBlanc," she said, daring them to object. She had made up her mind to take them on.

Breslyn and Danté immediately stepped up to flank her sides and folded their arms across their massive chests. Clearly they had chosen their allegiance, but then they had always displayed their loyalty to their queen.

The two Council members with Banzar seemed to make a quick decision, and that was obvious to all in the room. They might not approve of their queen cavorting with a Milesian, but they weren't about to take her on, at least not without first checking where she stood with the remaining Council members. They bowed their heads and backed out of the room.

Banzar glared at her. "This is not over."

"You may be certain of that," Aaibhe said.

As he stomped out of the room Breslyn barked a laugh, but Danté said grimly, "This will mean trouble—they are coming after you, my Queen."

"Aye, Banzar has always wanted the throne." Breslyn sneered. "But he'll have to go through us to get it, and I don't see that happening, eh, Danté?"

"If he gets enough Council members to vote with him, they have the power to depose the queen."

"Never going to happen," Breslyn said. "I have always wanted to take on those sour-faced fools. The time has come to weed out the useless and bring in new life, and we are just the ones to do it."

"Bres, it can't be done with a sword. It will need politicking behind the scenes, and neither one of us has ever been good at that," Danté cautioned.

Aaibhe said nothing to all of this, and Morgan slipped a hand around her waist and said, "Am I ruining your life, my love?"

"No, you are making it—you have given me life. If my position as queen is so fragile that someone like Banzar thinks he can depose me, well, then, 'tis time to take a stand."

"Damn straight," Breslyn said, his silver eyes alight with the challenge.

"The timing is very poor," said the queen. "One should never fight a two-front war, and Banzar is putting us right there between two fronts, a political one on one hand, which can be distracting, while we fight to keep the Unseelie imprisoned."

"You have four Royal Houses at your side. You have the Daoine Fae at your back. There may be some who will take a stand with Banzar, but though we shall have to suffer the fools, there is no doubt we shall take them down!" Breslyn said in high spirits.

Aaibhe looked into Danté's golden eyes and saw what she knew already. This was going to be a fight to the death, and she was in grave jeopardy.

* * *

" _Enough_ ," said a soft voice, and Trevor snapped his neck back as he looked up, tears flowing freely down his cheeks.

It was not the robotic voice that had spoken only a moment ago, and at the moment he couldn't think and had no idea to whom the female voice belonged. She was not visible, and he realized she was merely projecting her voice from somewhere else as she continued to berate him. "There is no time for this display of emotion, though I applaud your feelings. There is only a moment left before she will certainly be gone from _even your_ ability to save her."

" _By Danu_ , help me. I don't know how to bring her back!" He heard the anguished plea in his own voice. Would she help? He could heal a human; he knew that much, but he had never witnessed one being brought back from death.

"Of course. I may be in the process of evolving because I must do so to save my love from himself, but I have not forgotten who I am." She allowed him to see a holograph of herself, and she was not only stunningly beautiful but radiating with kindness. "There... you may be more comfortable speaking with my image. You have very little time. She has not yet crossed over, and you must do this before she does. Seelie Fae, she needs your blood," the woman said grimly.

Trevor had heard the ancient tale when he was a boy. It was one of those stories that was repeated and had turned into a legend. He had never thought much about it. Still, he knew that even a Royal Fae could not bring back the dead without dire consequences.

However, he would pay any price; he was willing to exchange his life for hers, suffer any consequences.

The old tale spoke of an ancient Fae King, presumably the Dark King, who had brought back a human from death by giving her his blood. Was that what she meant? "How is it done?" Trevor's voice shook with emotion.

"You must pour your blood down her throat. But hurry now—cut yourself, and before you heal, get as much into her as you may."

Without question, and from the desperation of hope beyond what he understood, Trevor slashed his wrist. He cut into an artery and hurriedly squeezed the blood into her mouth as he pulled her head back and manipulated her lips. He needed to get his blood down her throat even though she could not swallow; he knew that his blood would attach itself and do its job. He managed to pour just enough blood into her gullet before his wound began to repair itself.

" _Nothing is happening_ —was I too late?" he yelled, his voice filled with a fear he couldn't control and wasn't ashamed to show.

" _Wait,_ Seelie Prince," the three-dimensional image whispered. "She is a _Fios,_ more than human, and that fact will help her to absorb your blood."

"It is just an old story children tell one another," he said angrily, damning himself for letting Jazmine Decker stay in the Dark Realm with him. He should have returned her to Tir.

"It is more than a story. I know of one time when it was done. When the Dark King found _me_ after our first meeting, I had been mortally wounded and died in his arms. _I died_. He brought me back with _his blood_." The voice paused and then sighed. "Ah, I am pleased—your _Fios wakes_."

It dawned on him in that moment this was Crystal, the Dark King's consort, of course. Hope began to spring alive in his mind.

Trevor turned back to his Jazmine Decker and felt her stir in his arms. Laughter and sobs mixed into broken formation as the sounds of joy beat away his fear and burst out of him. He had not thought himself capable of feeling such extreme emotions all at once, let alone expressing them. He held her tightly to himself. He held her head up to keep it from flopping, and as she choked on his blood, he placed his palm over her forehead and whispered ancient Danu words to relax her throat muscles and help her magically absorb the blood. He saw this worked, and he hugged her to himself as he whispered Danu words of love: " _Anam me, ta anam_ _me, Fili me_." Then he repeated them in English, hoping she would hear them and know what he felt, understand what she meant to him _._ "My soul, my love, my Fios."

Suddenly she opened her eyes. Her lashes fluttered and closed, and then she began to shake uncontrollably in his embrace. She was gagging, trembling, and flailing her arms. He held her in place to keep her from injuring herself and shouted towards Crystal's holograph, "What the bloody hell is happening to her?"

" _Transition_ —you have the power, Seelie Prince, to keep her calm... use it."

Trevor, Prince of Lugh, held her against his chest and concentrated all his thoughts into one compulsion, _Be at ease._

They watched as Jazz relaxed and fell limp against him. He embraced her, held her tightly wrapped in his arms, and rocked her a moment without knowing why.

"Good," said the image before him. "You may come and go from my retreat as you please, Seelie Prince, but I must leave you," the soft female voice said.

" _Wait_ ," Trevor called out. "Thank you." His voice shook on the words.

She inclined her head. "You will have to help her through transition. I wish you well, Trevor of Lugh, as I did your brother."

"Again, thank you," he said earnestly. "Is there anything I should know—anything more I can do for her?"

"My time is dear, and I have only one thing I must do at this moment. My beloved has even a greater need of me than you and yours. He is losing himself to energy, and the process must be stopped immediately. I must go... but before I do, yes, you must train her to deal with her new blood, her new body, for she is no longer human. And... tell your queen that to seal the Prison Wall you will need a magic thread my King calls _twalla._ She has the power to create this, but it will be very difficult. She must go into her mind and find the source that only she can call on. It is the magic of Queen Bridget, of Danu, and has been long forgotten."

He felt a shift in the atmosphere and knew she was gone. Jazmine Decker trembled in his arms. He rocked with her, kissed her forehead, her nose, her ears. He buried his tearful face inside the hollow of her neck and whispered her name.

~ Thirteen ~

JAZZ BLINKED INTO consciousness. Had she been sleeping?

Where was she? What had happened?

The last thing she remembered was everything going dark, but then... nothing more. She opened her eyes wider and tried to focus on her surroundings.

Trevor—where was Trevor?

She touched the blankets and realized she was in a bed. She looked and saw that she was in a bedroom. Had Trevor found a way into the glass house?

Everything was so hazy... yet, her eyesight seemed better than ever!

She looked at the walls of her room. They were odd, cloudy glass walls, but a fire burned in the large, pot-bellied stove in a corner of the room.

She started to prop herself up onto her elbows and felt a surge of strength flow through her body. She felt... wonderful, strong, stronger than she had ever felt in her life.

She must have had a great sleep.

Damn, she thought, it was as though some kind of secret power surged through her, leaving her feeling resilient and ready to take on the—what the heck was going on?

It wasn't just her body—her mind felt different.

It was as though a computer chip was compartmentalizing information, storing, wielding, and setting it all in place in her brain. She put her hands to her head. It felt the same on the outside, but inside? Way different. A part of her began to panic.

"Trevor...?" she yelled. And then she remembered goop—she had been covered in the thick, sticky, disgusting substance, and Trevor had been shouting at her...

She sat up completely, and the sudden rush of movement nearly sent her flying into the air. What the hell? She realized she was naked and hurriedly sank back down as she grabbed for and pulled the quilt all around herself. "Trevor?" she called again uncertainly.

What the hell was going on?

Wherever she was, gravity seemed to work differently. How could he just leave her alone like this? Where was he? Where was she? Sudden panic took over, and she released a scream. "Trevor-Trevor-Trevor!"

He shifted in, and she wanted to dive into his arms. Instead, she held herself in check and regarded him gravely, one eyebrow arched inquisitively.

He sat beside her on the bed, took her hand to his lips, and murmured, "Jazmine Decker."

His voice sounded like a caress, and all at once she couldn't stop herself. She threw her arms around him and hugged him like she never, ever wanted to let go.

It was odd, but she felt as though all her thoughts, all her emotions, had been heightened. She held on tight and said, "Where are we? What happened? The last thing I remember was being stuck in goop. I see that you got me out, for which I thank you... but where are we, and why don't I remember getting here?" And then she was aware of something in her mind, something that was calm and practical, something that was aware of things beyond the room, sights and sounds that were outside, in the Dark Realm. She could hear beasts screeching in pain... yes, hungry beasts, just outside. She put her hands to her ears and sank back against the pillows.

"Something is wrong with me, Trev! Am I hallucinating because of that stuff? Did it get into my system—am I sick?"

Her quilt had slipped, displaying the fullness of her breasts, and she saw Trevor's gaze linger there for a moment before he lifted the quilt to her neck. He was such a gentleman, she thought—and then wished he weren't.

But for the moment she couldn't think of that. She had to get a grip. What was wrong with her? She held her head and whispered, "Ugh... things are moving... outside—fighting and killing each other, I think. I hear them—how do I make it stop? This isn't normal... why do I hear them?"

"Hush, Jazmine Decker, _quiet yourself_. Think in waves of calm, and it will be so," Trevor said and touched her cheek with his palm.

Silently she yelled in her head, _Calm—_ _waves of calm_ , but it didn't work. She scowled at him. "What is that supposed to mean? Think in waves of calm? I don't know how to do that." It had to be an adverse affect from the goop.

"Think of a mill pond, how gentle, serene... and quiet yourself. We will work on getting your hearing adjusted and teach you how to lower the volume when you wish."

Jazz considered him. "Oh, yes... my Fios sometimes could hear things my human couldn't... but this... is different." Her pulse beat out of control. She felt flushed suddenly and confused. She needed to do something, and so as he suggested, she pictured a dark pond. Sure enough, all at once, like turning off a switch, it worked. Her mind settled in, and she had control of her hearing, of the jabbering going on in her head. She sighed gratefully.

The nerves in her body still throbbed, but they were no longer wildly out of control, and she felt a state of composure take over her frazzled mind _._ Something else disturbed her, something that wouldn't let go. It wasn't only her hearing; it was everything she was.

She felt magic exploding in her veins, like fireworks on the Fourth of July. It didn't hurt; it felt... empowering. Super-charged power rippled through her blood, and she felt different inside, as though her organs had somehow blossomed into something else and shifted inside her.

She eyed him and said, "It isn't only hearing—did I have some kind of a reaction to that awful stuff—is that what's happening to me?"

* * *

He choked on the strange constriction that took over his throat when he thought of the moment in which she had died. He couldn't think of it without hurting. It was still too fresh in his mind.

Now, he was going to have to tell her. Humans were unpredictable, and though she was no longer human, her learned and natural behavior would still be so.

He said on a heavy sigh, "You could say that." He reached for her chin. "You have to listen to me and not get yourself worked up. There isn't time for hysterics, and I know what I am about to tell you might, in fact, elicit such human behavior—"

"Trevor, just tell me what you have to tell me, or I will get hysterical before you say another word."

"Yes, right, very well," he said, feeling miserable. "As I said, I have something to tell you, and I am not certain you will be able to comprehend it all. You are, however, _a Fios_ , which might help you understand. You were to begin with not quite human, so you should be able to comprehend it all, as you were aware of Fae abilities and culture. Indeed, it might not sound all that strange to you—"

She reached up, grabbed his mouth with her fingers, and pinched his lips together. " _Shut up_ and tell me already."

* * *

He took her fingers off his lips and then brought them back to kiss them. She felt her entire being react to his touch, and her eyelashes fluttered _. Hot dayam_ , she thought. She wanted him more than ever!

He said softly, "I will start by telling you where we are." He eyed her hopefully before proceeding. "The Dark King, as you know, created a habitat for his consort, Crystal, called the Retreat. We are in Crystal's Retreat. This structure is almost like a living thing and responds only to her. However, she has allowed us to remain here while we continue our mission. In fact, she created this room especially _for you_ to be comfortable in when you... came through the first part of your... _transition_."

"Transition?" Jazz didn't like the sound of that. In fact, she was getting a sick notion that the career she had planned as a marine biologist was a lost hope.

"Yes, I found some reading material she left for me about the process you have gone through and what must be done next. I have made myself acquainted with what to expect," Trevor said and took her hand. "We will work through this together."

"Work through what?" Jazz asked as that awful feeling grew.

" _You died_ , Jazmine Decker. You died."

She stopped and considered him, thought out in step-by-step clarity what he had just told her. _Well_ , people died, and then they used a defibrillator to shock them back. She was certain that was how it was done. She had seen enough movies to know that was how it was done. That was what he meant, _right?_ Sure, she decided and asked, "Huh, how did you get one of those defibrillators here? _Amazing_. So you are saying you shocked me back?"

" _No_ , it wouldn't have worked even if I had had one of those human inventions on hand at the time. _You were gone_ and just about to cross over. I had no choice, so I used something else, something we Seelie Fae are forbidden to use, forbidden..." His voice trailed off.

_She had died_ came through loud and clear. Trevor had told her that she had been gone and that he had been aware she was about to cross over. Did that mean she would have gone to heaven? As pleasant as that might have been, she wasn't really ready to go yet, so thinking about this she was damned grateful he had broken the rules.

Her mind, her brand new, expanded mind, wrapped around everything he had just said and was oddly at peace. Why would he think she would be hysterical? The knowledge of what he had done for her superseded all other considerations. And that overwhelming truth, the one that spoke the loudest, was that he had turned his back on everything he believed to save her. "Ah, Trevor... just what did you do?"

"I used my blood to bring you back. The giving of Fae blood is very different than the healing power we have. You see, our healing ability works off our energy, but even a Royal's science and magic cannot bring back a human that has died and is about to cross over." He shook his head and paused before saying, "The use of Seelie blood will revive a human from death, yes, but it also changes that human. The act cannot be taken lightly. That is why it is forbidden—because it changes the human."

"You... you used your blood?" She was, in spite of the fear that came with this information, impressed. " _How_ —you mean in a transfusion?"

"My veins would not have stayed open long enough for a transfusion. I did two things. I poured some blood down your throat... and then later, I made an incision directly into your heart and opened my vein again and poured some into your heart as well. Your body took to my blood immediately, almost as though it had been waiting for it all your life." He paused and frowned. "Our queen believes in the dictates of fate, and in that moment, I did wonder if that _was your fate_ — _our_ _fate_." He held her hands now, both of them tightly in his own.

"Your Fae blood, down my throat, in my heart. You made a hole in my heart?" Jazz looked down at her chest but found no scar to indicate that he had cut her to receive his blood. "You could have killed me... I could have died... again."

He smiled sweetly and touched her face. "No, you already had Royal Seelie blood working inside you. You wouldn't have died, and what I did sped up the transition for you, made it simpler."

"So, I have Fae blood inside me." Jazz's thoughts were clear. She wasn't a fool. She had already assimilated the fact that something was different inside her, and she had accepted it. She loved life, and what was more, she loved this big hunk of Royal Fae. She couldn't, would never, forget, that he had broken rules he held dear for her. Did that mean he loved her? Perhaps he cared for her, but did he love her... the way she loved him, above all else, all others, above herself?

"Not just Fae blood—but Royal Fae blood," he corrected. "It is forbidden because, well, allow me to explain."

She nodded and smiled encouragingly. "Yup, explain."

"In the days when we Fae walked amongst humans in Ireland and Scotland, we were worshipped as gods. Your people called us the _Children of the Light_ amongst other names indicating their affection for us." He frowned. "Something went wrong. Perhaps some of our Fae went too far... at any rate, there came a time when your ancestors wanted us off the land we loved." He shook his head. "Fios warned their villages of our warriors coming, and bands of your human men would attempt to fight us and died during their show of defiance. It wasn't until the Milesians arrived that humans were at last able to stand against the Seelie Fae."

"Yes, I know some of this," Jazz murmured. "Go on."

"Gossip came to light about some Fae, not Royals but Seelie Fae who had taken on human lovers, some of whom had been killed during battle."

"Ah, those Fae healed their lovers with their blood?"

"Yes, but only one or two of those humans survived the process. Most humans cannot cope with the transition, and Seelie blood lacks the Royal gene that tempers that transition. Seelie Fae blood works spontaneously. As a result, those that did not survive transition went mad and killed themselves. Thus, this was a forbidden tool."

"I am happy, Trevor, that you took the chance— _happy_ ," she reassured him.

"Mine is Royal blood, and I am not repeating this out of immodesty, only to indicate how very different it is in many ways. Yes, I knew that I was taking a chance and depended on you, what you have inside you both as a Fios and as one of the bravest female humans I know I will ever encounter. It was Crystal, the Dark King's consort, who appeared and told me to use this method, implied that you would do well with my blood, and helped me along."

"The Dark King's consort—darn, I didn't get to see her." Jazz's reaction to this was disappointment. The thing she kept telling herself was that she felt great. It was difficult to be upset when one felt fantastic.

He chuckled. "Indeed, she is quite stunning." He sighed then and said, "You are still human as far as your mindset, but you are no longer really human, not your organs, not your blood—only the human traits that were learned over your lifetime. You will have to cope with that during your training, as they will get in the way. You will have to overcome them," he said and stroked her long blonde hair. "Your human will interfere with who you must be."

"I kinda like my human traits and don't mean to give them up." Jazz cocked a brow at him and tried to assimilate everything he had told her and put it in context with the fact that she had been dead and now was not. "Does this make me a zombie?" she teased to lighten the moment because he looked sick with concern.

He laughed. "No, you are not the walking dead. Zombies are not really the 'living dead' as you humans like to call them. They are dead and without any directive of their own. They walk, they eat, but they are still dead."

"Are you telling me that zombies exist?" She was temporarily diverted.

"Never mind them. What you are is quite vibrantly alive. You are... changed and have skills and magic, and you must be trained to use those things." He eyed her tentatively and said, "Let me show you, so that you may fully understand." With a flick of the wrist, the mirror that hung over one of the wall tables was in his hands, and he held it up for her.

Jazz leaned forward. Remembering she was naked under the covers, she hurriedly held the satiny quilt up to her neck and gazed into the mirror.

Her blonde hair seemed thicker, sexy and full around her creamy skin, whose texture was unexplainably different. However, it was her eyes that held her in place. Blazing royal blue eyes sparkling with a myriad of stars stared back at her. Her eyes, though not alien, not Fae, _were definitely not human_.

She scooted backwards from the image of herself and hugged the covers tightly around her body as though to ward off what she had seen. "No," she said, shaking her head. " _No_ —that wasn't me."

" _Yes,_ it is, it is you, but, Jazmine Decker, you are and will always be the person you have always been. Nothing can change that unless you allow it, but now, you are also _immortal_."

~ Fourteen ~

BRESLYN, PRINCE OF Dagda, stood in the Council chambers, his massive arms folded across his tattooed and muscular chest. His dark blonde hair was tightly braided and tied with leather at the nape of his neck. He looked prepared for battle.

His mate, Princess Ete, the queen's Daoine cousin, stood at his side, clothed in warrior leathers, an indication of what they expected.

Beside them were Danté, eldest Prince of the House of Lugh, and his half-human, half-Daoine Fae mate, Radzia, at his side, also clothed in warrior leathers. Breslyn looked them over and smiled. He could see that Z was in full temper.

Radzia, known by all as Z, was ever impulsive, and she was at that moment furious as well. She threw her dark hair over her shoulder, stepped forward, raised a wagging finger at the Council, who had called this meeting, and rebuked them. "How dare you! All of you who sat back and watched while our queen, _your queen,_ worked and fought to aid us in the war against the traitor Gaiscioch." She shook her head. "I don't get it. I don't get any of you who have called this meeting. It is a total waste of time. Your warriors— _us_ in fact—have been working to rid Tir and the Human Realm of the threat from the Dark Prince, his brothers, Morrigu, and his monster army. Just what is wrong with you?" She clucked her tongue. "You are so quick to forget. Our Queen Aaibhe is beauty and wisdom and power, and she has taken you to a time of peace out of the ashes of war. You destroyed Danu with just this sort of temperamental bulldookie. Your Seelie nation was floundering through the most horrendous times, and she stepped up, ignored her personal needs, and put the needs of her nation ahead of her own. She helped you create a world of music and art, harmony and peace. She kept you safe in times of war and showed you how to maintain the peace most of you have always wanted. Some of you here— _some of you_ —call yourselves her friend. So I ask you, _how dare you!_ "

Breslyn's eyes were alive with amusement as he watched the Council members' reactions.

A lovely Fae, not a Royal but gentle of demeanor, cast a thoughtful glance over Z and said softly, "Respectfully, as I know how much you worked and fought with all our warriors against the Dark Ones, I still must tell you that you are not part of this Council and have no business here. However, I will address your statement. _We dare,_ because it _is our right_. Having said that, I must make a note to my fellow members that I am in agreement with everything you have pointed out and against this meeting, and I find the matter being addressed here today, at best, repulsive and, at worst, very near traitorous. I should like my objection to be noted for the record."

Breslyn inclined his head. "Thank you, Council Member Ruthla. It has been so recorded."

Two male Council members stood up at that point and displayed they were in accord with her by ceremoniously clapping their hands and added their own objections as well.

Breslyn studied the remaining four members that Banzar had swayed to his side, as he had needed five members to call a meeting. Breslyn noted to himself that he could see one of these Council members was obviously uncomfortable and ready to cast his vote against Banzar.

Today, he knew the vote would _not_ go against Aaibhe, but matters were now dire. He had not expected Banzar to gain so many to his side so quickly.

Banzar stood up and said grimly, "I would also like it noted for our records that the queen has taken in a Fios child and has been seeing to her training!"

Ruthla's lovely brow went up as she cast him a withering glance. "It is the right of the Seelie Queen to hold, as our guest, any and all Fios in Tir that she finds and deems necessary to detain here. No rule, ethical or otherwise, has been broken, Banzar. It does not need to go into the record."

"Indeed, but since when do we train them to use their skills?" Banzar pursued.

"The child is being taught and trained to fight with us against the threat of the Dark Princes." Z once again took a step forward, her lovely face a mask of fury. "And besides, she is just a kid. You seem to be looking for a fight, mister, and if you want a really good one, I am happy to oblige."

Danté pulled his impulsive mate back to his side and eyed her, but she shrugged and said on not such a whisper, "He is a jerk."

Breslyn chuckled but stepped in front of her and said, "Let's get this over with." He, Danté, and Ete were Royal members, and though they could only cast one vote each, _what they said_ and did would most definitely sway the others.

"The first thing I request is a secret ballot." Banzar stood and addressed the seated members, ignoring Breslyn and the other Royals.

" _No_. You wanted this meeting, _so be it_ ," Breslyn pronounced. "First, for the record, Banzar has called this meeting in order to start a movement to overthrow the queen." He glared at Banzar, and his lip curled. He spoke to all the members, though he looked only at Banzar. "You cannot wish to overthrow our queen and remain anonymous. That would appear cowardly and, as Ruthla mentioned, on the verge of traitorous. _We will have a show of hands_. Let us be open about this. What is the nature of your objection to our queen—why have you instituted this meeting?"

"Our queen cavorts with the Milesian leader and for such traitorous behavior should be deposed," Banzar said with contempt.

"Where is the crime?" Breslyn said quietly, but a threat seemed to linger in the air and behind his words. No one in the room could doubt that he wanted to step forward and land a blow to Banzar's face.

"I have it on good authority that she wishes a legal union with Morgan LeBlanc! It was not enough that she condoned the union of Chancemont LeBlanc and Princess Royce—apparently, that was not enough. She wishes to unite our two worlds by taking Morgan LeBlanc as her consort."

"Again, I ask you, where is the crime?" Breslyn found he could no longer contain himself and took a threatening step towards Banzar.

"It is written that our queen may not take as consort an enemy leader."

"The Milesians and the Seelie Fae have been at peace since the signing of the Treaty!" Danté said calmly. "Where is your enemy leader? Your point does not apply."

"We Seelie Fae do not wish such a union with the Milesians whom we have held in contempt for centuries. It is our belief that the queen has lost her sense of direction and should be deposed before she leads us down the wrong path," Banzar growled, evidently not willing to back down.

Breslyn strode hard and looked Banzar up and down before walking to each seated member and staring at them. " _Despicable_ —all of you who stand with Banzar, who is a Council member by the good graces of our queen! _Mark me_ on this, all of you—when this absurdity is at an end, _I shall have your seats_. If you stand with Banzar on this today—you will lose, and in the end you will lose _everything!_ "

"There ya go!" Z said with approval. She turned to Danté. " _Right_ —I am a Daoine Royal. I think you should replace one of them with _me_."

Danté pinched her cheek. "We have four Royals already as members." He looked at the opposing members. "Princess Royce is with her Milesian as we speak, working to shut down yet another portal the Dark Ones have attempted to open. However, you may rest assured she has authorized Breslyn to cast her vote."

"Yes, but I think you should appoint me to the Council," Z again suggested.

"My love, as it happens we have a rule that allows only four Royals to serve as senior members, and only senior members may vote." He eyed the assembled Council members and said darkly, "But perhaps it is time to change all the rules?"

Breslyn grinned, but absolutely no warmth was in it, only a threat as he said, "Right you are, my friend. Fact is, I think we need now to know where everyone stands, right now, before we proceed any further." His sneer returned to Banzar before he added, "Plain speaking so that no one can misinterpret. Who stands with Banzar in this and is looking to depose the queen?" He knew that they could not deny him a show of hands. It was his right as a Royal to request it. He also knew that those willing to plot in secret were seldom willing to do so in the open.

Hands went up to depose the queen, and Breslyn was pleased to see Banzar had already lost one of his followers. That was something, but Bres knew it was just a matter of time. He took a count. "Banzar, Bathwin, Trula," Breslyn said out loud. "Your votes are recorded in the ledger for all to see." He eyed the remaining members. "Now, those against?"

Four hands went up, and he counted them out loud: "Ruthla, Alana, Darkam, Tandwith, and thank you, yes, I see you are outraged at these proceedings, Tandwith, and it shall be duly noted." He turned to Makwith, who had arrived with Banzar but had not yet voted. "And you, Makwith?"

"I abstain," said Makwith, looking away.

Breslyn pulled a face at him but refrained from comment as he looked each member in the eye and said, "I am calling this meeting to an end, but I feel it is my duty to inform those of you who have voted against my queen that this will not be tolerated. We Royals— _all of us_ , including Prince Trevor, fighting even as we speak in the Dark Realm for the welfare of Tir; my sister Aida and her mate; Princess Royce, a senior Council member, and her brothers; all of those who could not be here today—have taken an oath to support and defend our queen. What you are proposing will surely send us into a civil war, something that destroyed our world, Danu. Think long and hard about what you do." So saying, he and the others shifted out.

They came together in the courtyard, and Breslyn said quietly, "You know what to do now?"

"Yes, but will it work?" Z asked on a frown. "I don't like that guy, Banzar. I think we need to take him out."

"Your mate is bloodthirsty," Breslyn said to Danté with a laugh.

Ete put her arm around Z and said, "We need to end this. If we murdered Banzar, another would take his place one day. We can't go about murdering every time someone does what they shouldn't. We need a better solution."

Z pulled a face and shrugged. "Still—don't like him... I think he needs dying."

Danté laughed and turned to Breslyn. "We need to attend to this diplomatically."

"Aye, we need public opinion on our queen's side. She will not like it, but we need to get the word out there. Remind our brethren about all she has sacrificed. Most of them still don't know about Conall and how Gais murdered him. We need to tell them. We need to start working on how everyone views the Milesians, pointing out that they stand with us against the threat of the Dark Fae or any other force that might try and challenge our authority. Play it thick and liberally. Most of our Seelie adore Aaibhe and will stand with her, but... _some will not_." Breslyn sighed. "After today, we will know what the numbers are, because Banzar won't be stopped by today's vote."

Danté put a large hand on Breslyn's shoulder. "Perhaps it is time to stage a coup in the Council and appoint members better equipped for the job, such as Trevor and one of Royce's brothers?"

"It won't work. They will say the membership is over-laden with Royals and needs to be more of representative Seelie. The only coup _I_ would like to stage is an assassination. I tend to agree with your little Z. _Banzar needs killing_ , but it is against our most sacred Fae law and one that I don't mean to break, _just yet_. Thus far, he has not, like Gais, become a traitor. He has taken the proper steps, gone through the proper channels." Breslyn's words were spat out with frustration.

Ete moved over to Breslyn, stroked his arm, and said, "My love, let us not dwell on him but on swaying public opinion. He won't get the Council votes if they see that it will cost them prestige."

He played with a long strand of her lovely auburn hair and dropped a lingering kiss on her lips.

Z rolled her eyes and turned to look up at Danté. " _They_ never stop." She used her eyes and flirted with her mate playfully, and Danté broke his rule that dictated no display of affection in public. He pulled her hard against his body and lowered his head to growl in her ear, "You are ever the naughtiest Daoine..."

Ete laughed at them, broke away from Bres, and took Z's hand. "Come, we will work the lovely Fae at the Fashion Pantheon." She winked at Breslyn, and then she and Z were gone.

Danté shrugged. "The problem, Bres, is that we both know that many of our Seelie believe the Treaty cheated us out of Ireland. Banzar means to dwell on that fact and turn opinion against Aaibhe."

"He will have a difficult time of it, since he was on the Council when the Treaty was enacted and it was unanimous but for Gaiscioch's vote."

"Still, I don't like this... we need to do something more viable than talk," Danté said practically.

"Aye, so we do, but first we have to get through to our queen. She will not agree to force unless we can show her we have tried everything else." He sighed heavily and said, "Danté, Ete had a vision last night. She saw Tir, our beautiful Tir, laden with bodies and covered with blood." He shook his head. " _I am worried..._ "

~ Fifteen ~

"IMMORTAL?" JAZZ SAID out loud. She went silent as what was left of her human energy wrapped around the notion. Immortal? What did that really mean? The question poised itself, and because she was still human in nature, she began blabbering. "I am immortal. Right, okay, so what exactly does that mean? Immortal doesn't have to mean what I think it means. It could mean well, something else, couldn't it? Maybe, Trev, you're just using it as a figure of speech? Like a classic book becomes immortal, legendary, but if you burn the book, the story still lives on— _that kind of immortal_? Here is the thing." She paused and suddenly wagged a finger at him. "Not sure my brain is handling your blood very well. I mean, _it_ —my brain—feels bigger. Not _empty_ bigger, but full with stuff, all kinds of stuff, and there's a little person in there now, sorting, dividing, storing. That's kinda nutsy, isn't it?" She eyed Trevor thoughtfully and asked, "Immortal? Huh?"

He looked at her doubtfully and said encouragingly, "Yes, you are immortal, and there are many things you will have to learn about your new self. We shall have to spend the next few days in training..."

* * *

Trevor was so overcome with relief that it displayed itself in mirth. Suddenly he couldn't contain himself.

He threw back his head, and all his pent-up emotions, emotions he, a Royal Fae, had always had under control in the past, were released. A floodgate opened, and the first thing that came pouring out was laughter.

His love took everything on the chin and then moved on, just as she had from the first moment he had met her. She was the bravest, most practical little being he had ever known. Transport her into another time period, and what did she do? She dealt with it. Throw a Dark Prince at her, and she dealt with it. Take her into the Dark Realm, and like everything else, she managed to, as she would no doubt say, _go with the_ _flow._ And Trevor of Lugh, who had never cared for humans, suddenly realized he loved everything about this human and had loved her from the start— _all of her,_ especially the human in her. She had displayed how much heart and courage humans were capable of experiencing and how selfless they could be.

He admired and respected everything about her, her courage and fortitude unique to herself, the manner in which she accepted facts and moved forward. It dawned on him that he didn't _just_ love her, he adored her more than any other being of his acquaintance— _ever!_

Adored? The word did not have enough letters in it to express the extent of what he felt. For him, life without her would be meaningless. How this had happened, he hadn't a clue. But he meant to claim her for his own!

He touched her face, and she sighed sweetly. He could see she was thinking about immortality. He could see she was trying it on for size, and he reached for her arms and drew her to him. The quilt fell away, and he glanced down at her naked breasts and sucked in air with the explosion of desire that swept through him. The laughter was gone, and in its place was a primal, needful, all-consuming, and savage hunger.

She gently pushed off his chest and hurriedly covered herself. "I, I have a lot of questions about this immortality stuff, but I'll deal with that later. First, tell me, Trevor, just how did I get this way— _naked_ I mean?"

"I took your clothes off you, and I am sorry, love. They were ruined."

"You took them off me? Like... piece by piece?" she asked warily.

"No, they were covered in poisonous saliva. I removed them Fae-style." He grinned and then thought he would explode with all he felt for her. "I think the next time I remove your clothes, I would like to take them off you slowly, peeling one article off at a time... little by little..." His voice was low-throttled with an urgent need he was helpless at that moment to disguise.

"Peel them..." she murmured and shook her head at him. She put out her hand as though to stop him, but he felt the half-heartedness of her effort and reveled in the hope that she wanted him as much as he wanted her. She said, however, "I need to know more about everything."

"The only thing I want to tell you now is this," he said and leaned forward to take her back into his arms.

This time, she did not resist, and he was filled with joy as his Jazmine Decker seemed ready, so ready to receive his kisses...

* * *

The new blood in her system was bubbling over with the intensity of a red-hot fire, its flames lapping at her sensory buttons. His laughter, his obvious joy, thrilled her, and she felt her throat constrict as she watched him.

Jazz had wanted Trevor when she was human—now, she wanted him with a desire that was feral and all-encompassing. She felt wild and almost violent with her need to hold him, touch him, have his mouth on hers.

She was oh so ready when his mouth finally closed on her lips, and something akin to a volcanic eruption of heat and pleasure burst from inside her and threatened to engulf her with mindless wanting. She parted her lips for his tongue, and when he thrust his to join with hers, she went off. She clung to him with the rocket take-off she experienced. She couldn't believe she had climaxed just from his kiss and shuddered in his arms in the immediate aftermath.

He moaned her name, saying it with that accent of his, saying it fully as he did, and she pressed against him. She was beyond fever-pitched, and she knew he was as well.

Passion created vines of red-hot gold, Faery gold and entwined them both in uncontrollable and undeniable bonding.

She felt his hand as it moved to cup and fondle her breast, twitched at the sensation he aroused when he wildly played with her nipple. This time, she flung the quilt away from herself. She was hot, too hot to be covered.

He had with the flick of a wrist removed his leather pants and sandals, Fae-style, and she glanced over his naked body and licked her lips. His shaft was huge and pointing meaningfully at her, and she knew she had never wanted anyone like she wanted him. It was as though every nerve ending yearned to be touched by him, satisfied by only him.

Hesitation wasn't a part of anything they did in those first moments, but he did, at some point, try and hold back as he whispered, "My sweet love, I need you to know that you make me come alive, so alive, and I have never known this feeling before... _not this_..."

Was he telling her he loved her?

She was immortal now. Did that make it different for him? Was it more acceptable to be with her now she was immortal? Was he able to love her now, when he couldn't before? The notion irked her. She pushed away and said, "Is that because of what I have become?"

" _No_ ," he scoffed. He shook his head as he brought her back into his arms and whispered, "I have loved you from the start, I have loved you because of what you were then, and I love you now because of what you will become— _mine!_ But, my sweet Fios, now, now you and I, we can begin _our forever..._ "

Those words sent her plunging into overdrive. She threw her arms around him again and kissed him hard, thrusting her tongue into his delicious mouth, taking his flavor of honey and vanilla, tasting it with a groan of satisfaction she wasn't ashamed to allow him to hear.

Everything seemed surreal. Immortality, monsters, Dark Princes, all of it, except for Trevor of Lugh. He was her reality, he was her anchor, and she clung to him as he molded her to his hard, muscular body.

He moved his fingers over her with an expertise that sent her reeling and clamoring for more. His kisses melted into one another until she didn't know where she was, where he began and she ended.

Her body felt like silly putty in his hands, and she gave herself to his touch. At that moment, only her ravenous need to touch him was important. She had to have him touch her. She wanted to be with him in every imaginable way.

She took his cock into her hands and started stroking it with a boldness she had never experienced before. She moved into position and began first licking its head and then its length before taking it into her mouth and sucking him hard. Pleasure filled her senses at the feel of him, and she sucked harder, faster, until he said her name right out loud. She heard the hunger in the sound and was filled with lust, love, and wild abandon.

He pulled away and laid her back on the bed so he could straddle her, fondle her, lick her nipples, and then suckle there. He murmured, his voice tinged with passion and longing, "I have been wanting you so much, little love, so much that it hurt holding back."

"Yes, wanting, and I wanted you from the beginning," she whispered.

He pressed hot kisses to her belly and then parted her thighs with his hand as he lowered his head there and began nibbling at her nub.

She experienced a sudden, sharp reaction and arched her back with the pleasure he gave her. His finger joined his tongue, and she shouted, "Trev... yes... Trev..." as she found sweet release once again.

He knew at once, and he grinned with pride as he came up and stroked his dick on her thighs and asked, "Are you ready for this now, sweet Fios... _are you ready?_ "

" _Hell, yes_ _!_ " she answered, and he got into position, sliding the head of his shaft just inside her before waiting only for her to pump and grind for more. He gave her more then, ramming her hard and fast, moving inside her so that he found her pleasure points and catered to her needs.

She rocked and pumped against him with wild abandon. She didn't think of tomorrow; she didn't think of anything except the sensations he aroused in her at that moment. As far as she was concerned, tomorrow didn't exist.

He moved deftly inside her, and she grabbed his arms as she exploded once more, groaning and calling his name. She heard and felt him as he moaned and shot his seed into her before they sank together onto the mattress. She closed her eyes.

He grinned and said, "Open your eyes, love."

She did. She looked deep into those gold eyes of his and said, "Yes...?"

"Tell me," he said, his face drawn in a frown. "You haven't told me."

"Tell you what?" she teased. She knew what he wanted to hear. It was written all over his beautiful Fae face, and it thrilled her. Something deep inside her heart, now repositioned, altered, and capable of perhaps even more than she had dreamed possible, pulsated with the enormity of what she felt. Her throat constricted, and for a moment she couldn't speak.

" _Tell me_... tell me how you feel," he repeated, sounding desperate. "I need to hear— _know_ how you feel."

She took his hands and kissed the fingertips, marveling at them. So large and yet so capable of gentle manipulation. " _I love you, Trevor_ , Seelie Prince of Lugh. I love you beyond the here and now."

He grinned, suddenly looking like that boy she loved so much about him, and he said right out loud as though he wanted the universe as witness, "I pledge myself to thee, Jazmine Decker— _do you_ pledge yourself to me?"

" _Damn,_ but I do," she said.

He laughed, and it was a joyous sound. Forgotten was the world outside. Forgotten was their mission, the Dark Princes, the threat ever-present. All she could do, all she wanted to do, was hold on tight.

"I didn't know it at first, but everything that made you human moved me to love you beyond hope. I love the human in you still, for you have not lost it—through all that you have just gone through, you have not lost who you are, and, Jazmine Decker, I love who you are."

She didn't think she could be happier and told him, "There you go, who would have thunk it, here is Prince of Lugh—a human-lover." She laughed and held onto him, resting her cheek against his hard chest. "I will never let go of the human in me, so it's a good thing you love her, too. It is part of who I am... and I guess who I will be."

"Jazmine Decker?" he said in an odd, husky tone.

"Yes, Prince Trevor?" she returned on a tease.

"It is time now for you to get on your hands and knees, turn your butt to me, and let me in..."

And she most willingly did just that.

Her body belonged to him, to his touch, to the exquisite and savage pleasure he instilled in and drew from her. She jumped into position for him, pushed back against his thrusts, felt his hands on her rump, and whimpered with the hedonistic feelings that filled her.

He was everything to her. He made her world level and steady and yet wildly lustful. And for now, her world was made up of only the two of them...

She had said she loved him. _Loved_? The word was inadequate to what she felt. Not enough of a word for such an enormous meaning. Love did not come close to describing what she felt.

He was big and strong, handsome and powerful, and yet gentle and kind and good and, " _Oh_ , oh, oh," she breathed as he brought her to a climax.

He exploded inside her in that moment and shouted out, "Jazmine Decker, _how I love thee!_ "

As she sank into his arms she knew she loved everything that made him who he was, even the Old World way he spoke now and then, and as they made love, his words melted and melded her to him.

He covered her face in kisses as he held onto her and pulled the covers around them both. Oh, and his kisses of vanilla honey were beyond description, as was his touch, she thought as she settled into a spoon position and snuggled back against him.

His lovemaking had sent her on a journey into herself, and she knew everything about what they were together was right.

"So, my Fae he-man, is this one of those times when you sleep?"

He laughed. "Sleep? Now?" He nipped at her shoulder with his teeth, and the action sent a thrill through her nerve endings. "My Fios, you don't really think that is all I am going to give you, do you?"

"Oh, is there more—is this what you meant by spending a couple of days in training?" She laughed.

"Part of it, my sweet Fios." He dropped a kiss on her back, and then on her butt. "And, yes, there shall be more of this, and more, and more, my love, an eternity of more..."

He held her tightly from behind and whispered words in ancient Danu she did not understand but loved the sound of, and she knew she had surrendered her life to him.

~ Sixteen ~

"YOUR HUMAN ORGANS have reinvented themselves to accommodate the blood that has taken over your body, my love. So in that sense, yes, your inner body has been altered." He answered her question as he pushed the heavy stick towards her. "Pick it up and use your knowledge of human karate to come at me."

"Wait, what about my head?" Jazz asked. He had been working her all day, and she wasn't exhausted but... confused. Her mind was still having a difficult time learning everything he was trying to jam into her. _Like shifting_. He thought she should learn shifting with the snap of his fingers, but she still had not been able to absorb it all.

Trevor had used Jazz's pendant to communicate with the queen, who had simply told him to train her well. They had been at it for days, and he just wouldn't give up. He insisted she learn the knack of it, but every single time she tried, she ended up only a few feet away.

"What about your head?" He grinned at her. "It is beautiful. Don't I tell you enough?"

"No, no." She slapped his big, muscular arm and then moved in close. She was having a very difficult time keeping her hands off him. She wanted to touch him, lick him, have him all the time. "I mean... I can't wrap my head around everything. It's all coming at me too fast."

"I know, sweet Fios, but you have to. We have been at this for three days, and you were unconscious for two more. All this time, we have done nothing to hinder Pestale and Hordly from opening the portal at the weakest point of the Prison Wall. They know we are holed up here." He paused and touched her cheek with the back of his hand. "I have not wanted to worry you, but they have visited outside here on more than a few occasions. I have seen them, and I am certain they are wondering what we are plotting. Hopefully, they will continue to worry about what we are plotting, and perhaps it will keep them from going forward, but for now..."

"Yes, you are right. Way too much time wasted," Jazz agreed with a frown. "Okay, have at me."

He did, and she was thrilled when she actually thwarted his lunge with the strength of an immortal and the skill she had learned as a human. "Ha!" she said, bouncing like a boxer in place.

"Good, only good, not great." He chuckled.

"Why doesn't it all come naturally?"

"Even we Fae have to be taught from infancy how to use our magic, learn our sciences." He shook his head. "And you are not Fae—at least, not quite, not yet."

She arched a look at him. "Does that mean I will be Fae one day?"

"In a manner of speaking. You will be..." He grinned at her and feigned a punch. "A half-breed."

"Hey!" She shifted behind him and swatted his rump with a bright smile.

Chuckling with pleasure, he grabbed for her and took her into his arms. "Well done, Fios. You have the jump shifts down. Now you have to get control and be able to shift longer distances, as I taught you—let your mind find the coordinates and then go there."

She sighed, picked up the long fighting stick, and jabbed playfully at him. He shifted in behind her, took it away, and said, "Pestale would now have you... take you wherever he wished, and you don't know how to shift back to me."

She turned around to face him, and sank into his arms to hold him tightly. "Okay, let's try it again."

He gave her back the long wood pole, and she took it up and gave him a saucy look. This time when she jabbed, she shifted above him.

He took a minute to look for her, and she came down once again behind him and slammed him lightly with the wooden pole. "Tagged! Whoop, whoop! If you were Pestale, you would have been stabbed with my sword. Ha!"

He grinned as he turned to her. "Well done, sweetness." He folded her into his arms and sighed. "Let's do a reconnaissance."

"Yay, reconnaissance—how?"

"I'll do the shifting for now. You just hold onto me—don't let go."

"Never letting go," she said, tucking her hand into his leather pants at the waist. He grinned down at her.

"Do not distract me," he cautioned, trying to look solemn.

She crossed her chest, where she hoped her heart still was, and said, "No distracting."

And they shifted.

* * *

Trevor had felt a disturbance in the atmosphere. It cranked with power, and he heard a creaking of the Prison Walls that vibrated and fought the magic threads created by Queen Bridget. They had been reinforced by Queen Aaibhe after Bridget's death and maintained with the help of her best Druid priests, but Pestale had found a way to weaken those walls. Sooner or later, he was going to open them wide enough to create the portal he needed.

With Jazz in hand, Trevor shifted to the location he felt drawn to, and what he found horrified him.

He stood with his mate beside him, viewing the treeless and barren landscape. The earth was gray and cracked from lack of water. The world had not been able to withstand the devouring, hungry hordes of monsters set loose upon it. Nothing grew any longer. When the Dark King had first created this Realm, this had been a grassy plain where he had intended to place deer and antelope, but his experiments had not turned out the way he planned.

However, that wasn't what horrified Trevor. He knew what all counties of the Dark Realm had become. It was the crack of light across the barren earth, about five feet wide by twenty feet in height, that kept him momentarily transfixed.

Trevor had no way of knowing how long Pestale had been working on this particular break in the wall, though he guessed it couldn't have been too long, for he had not felt it until just recently.

Light streamed through the crack, but the magic threads that held the Prison Walls together reached towards one another, as though moved by another, outside force, evidently attempting to bridge the gap. Trevor smiled to himself. His Royal brethren were hard at work on the other side.

Pestale was there and standing with his back to them. He was totally naked, his arms outstretched towards the light. He appeared to be in some kind of trance as he chanted the word _osclaitear_ over and over again.

"What is he saying?" Jazz asked as she clung to Trevor. "Wait... it's translating itself—it means 'open', doesn't it? He is chanting 'open'."

Flanking Pestale on each side were his two brothers, their heads lowered as they murmured the same command as a backup chorus. All stood naked as the essence of their magic worked itself into a breathing, living thing. That living magic left their bodies in a stream of dark mist, and deafening thunder cracked overhead.

As Jazz and Trevor watched, the sparkling black threads of evil magic burst into flame. The Dark Princes were trying to override the white magic on the other side, but their combined effort was fruitless. Trevor saw this at once. Why put so much energy into something destined to lose?

Pestale howled. They could see from the expressions that ravaged his face that he was beyond distressed.

"I will get through, Seelie... I will get through... Do not think I cannot break through," he told the Royals he obviously knew were on the other side. He turned to his brothers, and then they heard his growl.

Trevor and Jazz stood and knew Pestale had seen them.

Without a word, the Dark Royals shifted.

* * *

Even as they vanished, Jazz felt the change in the atmosphere. It was as though something in her mind had taken over and allowed her to assimilate minute changes beyond her immediate perception.

She smiled to herself and shifted as well. She wanted to counter any attack they might have in mind. She managed to put herself thirty feet away from Trevor.

All she knew was that she didn't want Trevor in danger. Three Dark Princes were enough to handle, without her being a liability and a distraction.

She knew he would risk all to save her. She had to be smart and prevent that; she had to be one step ahead. What she had, the only things she had, were human ingenuity and surprise—they had no idea what she was now.

The hilt of Trevor's Death Sword was in his fist, but Hordly pushed forward at him regardless. They came to stand for a moment, face to face.

Hordly, still naked, grinned wickedly and turned towards Jazz to point his hard shaft at her. He stroked it, saying, "You aren't made to fight us, _woman._ This... this is what you were made for—play and pleasure. Come, beauty, let me show you, while my brother attends to the Seelie."

She snorted. "Put that _little_ thing away—it does you no credit."

Jazz saw that she had landed a solid hit to his ego. His face darkened with his anger, but Pestale and his other brother laughed at Hordly.

Pestale, now clothed, flicked his wrist. All three were clothed in what could have passed for a motorcycle gang's black leather uniform. They wore heavily zippered black leather jackets over their tattooed bare chests, tight-fitting black leather pants, and silver-tipped boots.

Pestale waved a hand over his clothing and said, "I saw this in one of your movies while I enjoyed myself in the Human Realm. Do you like it, pretty woman?"

"You look, all three of you..." Jazz said in a sexy voice. "Like. You. Are. About. _To_ _go down_."

Pestale laughed and raised his hand to stop Hordly, who had taken a threatening step her way.

Jazz noted that the other one, the middle brother, whom she had heard Hordly call Graely, had stayed back and was quiet, watchful. Their eyes met for a fleeting moment, and she was struck by something she couldn't name. She didn't have the time to contemplate it and shoved it to a back burner.

She saw Trevor had shifted up close and oh so personal to them. He swung his Death Sword in a slashing motion through the air. His voice was hard and purposeful. "Which one wants to meet eternal nothingness first?" he growled at them and swelled with confidence. She felt a wave of pride. Three stood against him, and he did not balk.

Pestale frowned darkly at him. "You do recall that your queen does not wish you to kill us."

"Yes, I know, _but I wish to._ Always have."

"Yes, but you should worry about the human at your back." He clucked his tongue. "Are you still pining over the lovely Milesian, Lana?" Pestale taunted him. He then looked at Jazz. "Has he told you about her yet? She killed our youngest brother when we stormed Dublin, not so very long ago." He shrugged. "What I did next was what you humans call _payback._ I took _my_ payback and killed her. Your Seelie lover was distraught over the business. Who could blame him? She _was_ devastatingly beautiful." Pestale had been watching Jazz and added suddenly, "Ah, I see it is as I thought. He has not told you how much he loved her and vowed vengeance for his loss. Why is that, do you think?"

Trevor growled at him and jabbed with his sword. Pestale laughed, and then he and Hordly shifted away. The middle brother lingered a moment and then shifted off as well.

* * *

They had been gone only seconds, and during that time Trevor sent his sword with the Orb once again into concealment. He then turned to Jazz, saw her face, and cursed softly, for he could see Pestale had gotten to her. He stomped over to her, took her shoulders in his hands, and looked intently into her eyes. "My Jazmine Decker, do not allow him to get to you," he pleaded.

"Tell me," she said.

"I have told you. There is nothing more to tell. Yes, Lana and I were just beginning... we never got past that first look, that first kiss, and, yes, I loved her, but it was different than—" He touched her face and then shook his head. "—different than you and me. It was real, and I won't make little of it by denying that what I felt for her was enormous, yes, but it was my first real attachment. Lana and I had just begun..." He sighed heavily. "I believe in facts. My queen believes in the fates. Here are both for you to consider. The fact is, I lost her early on in our beginning, and perhaps the fates have always intended to bring you to me. Are you listening to me, Jazmine Decker—are you listening?"

"Yes." She rubbed her face against his naked chest and then looked up at him. "Trev, don't misunderstand me. I am not jealous—well, maybe a little," she admitted with a smile. "I just wanted to know everything, so that when a monster tries to cause trouble, I know just how to respond." She kissed his chest all over.

He took her head in his hands and kissed her lips, and then without another word, and kissing her still, returned them to their bedroom in the Retreat.

With her curled up in his arms on the bed, he told her about their last days fighting Gaiscioch and Pestale—how it had all come about and why. He told her about the first time he saw Lana and how he had felt. He told her how she had saved his life by taking the fourth, and youngest, Dark Prince by surprise and killing him with her Death Sword, and how he had felt having to watch Pestale kill her—because of him.

"I was helpless... Jazmine Decker. She saved my life, and I could not save hers. Her brother, Chancemont, and I formed a union to track Pestale and kill him. Princess Royce joined us at the queen's command. We did track him. He was ours to destroy, but the queen intervened, saying the Dark King wanted to take him home and make him drink from the Cauldron and start anew."

Jazz frowned. "She had no choice, Trevor—she had to avert a battle with the Dark King."

"I agree, but it was a difficult time for me, and in the end, look what it has wrought, and where is he, this Dark King who has thrust his son upon the universe?"

"It sucks," Jazmine pronounced.

Trevor regarded her for a serious moment and then let loose with uncontrollable mirth. "It sucks," he repeated and began laughing again.

She hugged him fiercely then and said, "Trev—something is wrong."

He forced his laughter to die down and took her chin. "Yes, we should be lying on a bed of green grass in Tir—"

"Trev, listen to me. I know it is only human instinct, but something in my gut tells me those brothers were putting on a show for us. Like us, distracting them while the other Royals work to close the gaps on the other side, the Dark Ones are trying to distract us from the real door they are opening through the Prison Wall." She put a fist to her stomach. "I feel it... here..."

"You feel it, but that doesn't make it so." He frowned.

"Well, then logically, Fae logic, think about it. What the heck were they doing? Standing there naked, chanting just one word— _open?_ You don't really believe it would have stayed open long enough for them to get through? And where was their army?" She shook her head. "I don't think they mean to go through without backup. This time, when Pestale goes marching into our worlds, I think he will have his two brothers and Queen Morrigu at his side, yes, but he will need that army at his back. And they will be dressed for battle, with whatever weapons they have accumulated at their disposal. Think about it—he can't cover the globe unless he has numbers. Trev, he has to have his dark monsters come through with him... he has to, because he damn well won't risk coming back for them."

He considered her, and then dawning lit over his face. "Your human gut is very wise." He began pacing. "Right, then, where would he be working on this portal, for, my sweet Fios, it will have to be enormous and bursting with living power."

"I'm guessing it has to be somewhere we wouldn't think to look. Somewhere he could line up his army and have them available for the trip. Somewhere, hmm, somewhere where he is in control of his surroundings."

"Queen Morrigu's castle then—it would have to be at the castle. But there isn't enough room there for the—"

"Yes, there might be. Do you know how cavernous the dungeon part of his castle might be? He might have a tunnel that could extend for a mile for all we know. He is a Dark Prince—he can create with the flick of his wrist, and he isn't Hordly. Everything he does, he does with forethought and purpose." She got onto her knees on the bed and held his hands as she continued, "Think about it. A tunnel for his monsters to line up in while he opens the real portal to the Human Realm. Wouldn't that be convenient? And convenient is what I think Pestale will go for. Trev, you can't underestimate him. He isn't a raging bull like Hordly. There is more to him. He arranges his plans with a certain flair—I feel that in my gut. I can see that although he is reserved enough to control himself to achieve what he wants, he is ruthless."

She put a finger to her lips and tapped. "Yup, I think that is what he has been building, a portal underground that will lead him to the human world and _then to yours_ once he and his army are out of here."

~ Seventeen ~

QUEEN AAIBHE STOOD on her balcony and looked over the courtyard. It was a distance, quite a distance from her private quarters, but she was Daoine, the highest of the Seelie caste, and able to turn up her Fae hearing volume even more than most and at will.

Some of her favorite acquaintances and friends were in a heated debate. She was thankful that none seemed to think she should be deposed. None seemed to think it was even their legal right to do so; no, that was not at the meat of their arguments with one another.

And their arguments divided them, females against males.

Female Fae reveled in the notion she had at last found someone she could love. Male Fae were outraged it wasn't one of them but a Milesian.

Their arguments had escalated, and sides were being taken.

Aaibhe felt the pain of this.

Peace amongst themselves was what they had enjoyed until she had fallen in love with Morgan LeBlanc. If she gave him up, peace would be restored. She had no choice.

She turned to him and felt as though her life would soon be over. She was reducing her eternity to a form of robotic duty—nothing more.

"Morgan, you know of course... it must end for us."

"I know nothing of the kind. I mean to take you away—to Milesian if you will allow. You don't need to bring harmony and peace to subjects who deny you personal happiness."

"They need me," she said softly and touched his cheek.

He took her hand and feverishly kissed her fingers. "I need you more. Tell me, Aaibhe—tell me you don't want to live without me, for I shan't live without you. I would give up my kingdom for you. Tell me you will do the same."

She was Queen of the Seelie Fae, and they were in dire circumstances. She knew Pestale would find a way to break through and that the Dark King wasn't even near enough to know or care. She knew that Banzar did not have it in him to lead. He was too self-centered to put his people first.

Morgan stepped away and planted his fist into his open palm. "Tell me, Aaibhe, that you and I matter enough to fight for!"

Aaibhe saw it all so clearly, and he was correct. Their union was her right. Her Fae subjects were asking too much, but could she win this battle and keep them safe? Even if she won the political battle, would they be able to defeat the Dark Ones?

"I do, Morgan, I do love you, beyond what is seemly. And, yes, I think our union will be good for both our worlds... _so, yes_ , I will fight for the right to be with you."

A knock sounded, and Aaibhe smiled warmly as she said, "Come in, Frankie."

Frankie had just come from training with Nuad, the queen's Chief Tracker. She skipped into the room and curtsied to Morgan. She then took the queen's hand to drop a light kiss and said, "My Queen?"

"Yes, sweetheart?" Aaibhe already adored the child, but she knew what was coming. Had known it was coming; after all, Frankie, though quiet, had begun to open up. She knew that, sooner or later, Frankie would need to know the truth.

"I have a question, my Queen." She regarded her sandals, and then she lifted her eyes to the queen's face and took a long breath. "I know Miss Jazz would have told me if she knew, but I be thinking she didn't."

"If she knew?" Aaibhe probed gently.

"Aye, the longer I am here... amongst ye, well, it isn't something that will go away, so I trust ye to tell me the truth of it," Frankie said, sounding years older than she was.

"You are quite correct. You may trust me," the queen said softly.

Frankie rolled back the sleeve of her closely fitted green exercise top and displayed bruises, faded bruises. She regarded the queen solemnly and said, "I go all black and blue trying something Nuad says I wasn't ready for. When the bruise first comes on, it is dark and purple and hurts—it has always been so."

"And soon afterwards it fades and does not hurt so very much," the queen said with a gentle and encouraging smile.

"Aye, exactly, my Queen. A human, even a Fios human, couldn't heal so fast, could she?"

"No, a Fios is not immortal and cannot heal herself," the queen answered and waited.

"After m'mum died and I was bought by the farmer Higgens, he would hit me in the face, and then hours later the bruise and the pain were gone. It made him mad."

"You don't have to think about him any longer." The queen put her arm around Frankie and hugged her close.

"No, I don't suppose I do, but, m'Queen, why do I heal so fast? I used to think it was because I was a Fios, but Nuad, like you, says no. He also said Fios are mortal and can't heal themselves."

"I suppose it is time to give you the truth." Aaibhe sighed and said, "I am not certain you are ready for it, though. You are still too young to understand affairs of the heart." Aaibhe got up and paced.

Frankie watched her with solemnity, her eyes wide, her thoughts clicking the queen's words into place. Aaibhe saw this at once and immediately returned to sit with her. She cast a quick glance at Morgan, who gave her an encouraging smile. He made her feel whole. He banished the doubts—every single doubt.

"Shall I leave you two to talk?" Morgan suggested.

Frankie reached out her hand, and he walked over and gave it a squeeze as she said, " _No_... don't go." She turned back to the queen. "I am that ready, I am, to hear whatever it is you are going to tell me."

Aaibhe took Frankie's chin and asked, "How much do you remember about your father?"

She shrugged. "He was good and kind and... _why?_ "

"Did your mother ever speak of anyone else?"

"No." Then Frankie eyed her strangely and said, "Once I saw something—someone—he was half-hidden from view, and it bothered me, for m'mum seemed... well, _he_ seemed important to her." She drew in air and said, "I saw her in the barn. She was talking with a Fae... there was no mistake about it. He was a Fae—not a Royal, but he was a Seelie Fae. I was angry with her, because she was breaking her own rule. She said never to look at them, and there she was _with one_ — _holding his hand_ like they were friends. I heard her tell him to please leave _me_ be."

"I see, Frankie," the queen said and then slowly added, "I am going to shock you now, my dear one." She paused then once again asked, "Are you sure you are ready for this?"

"I don't know what it is ye be about to tell me, my Queen, but I do think truth is always the right way." She shook her head. "Ye see me as young, and mayhap I be young in years, but... I'm not blind."

"Young people today know a great deal in the human world, but not in the time you lived," the queen said, still uncertain how to proceed.

"I know." She smiled brightly. "Nuad showed me American TV, and that was quite fun, but I saw that everyone is very different in manners and behavior to m'own time. I do like the way they dress—so free."

Aaibhe hugged her and then lifted her chin. "Well, then, where do I start?"

"I don't need the talk about the birds and bees as m'mum used to call it. I lived on a farm."

Aaibhe laughed. "So you did."

"That Fae I saw her with... it has something to do with him, doesn't it?"

Aaibhe paused and said gently, "Yes, it does, because your mother knew him before she met and married your father."

Frankie digested this. "So they were old friends, m'mum and this Fae? She warned me off the Fae... and yet, she was friends with one?"

"These things occur," said the queen softly.

Frankie giggled. "Aye, they do—look at me, a Fios in Faery!"

The queen smiled. "You are now eleven years old... so young to have to deal with this." She looked at Morgan, whose look of love stroked and encouraged her forward.

"I'll be twelve in a couple of days," Frankie objected.

Aaibhe touched her face. "You still have quite a bit of growing up to do, and so you shall."

"My Queen." Frankie lowered her lashes. "Please... tell me the truth about m'self. I need to know everything, and _I know_ there is more. It is something about me being a Fios, isn't it?"

The queen made her decision and dove right in. "Very well, then, child. The truth is, you are _more_ than Fios, which you are because of your mother's bloodline." She paused, and her voice caressed Frankie when she continued. "And _you are_ _Fae,_ on your father's side."

"No, that can't be right—m'da was no Fae," she said on a frown.

"The man you called your 'da' was, for all purposes, your father. He loved you and raised you, and you loved him, but he wasn't the one who gave you life."

Frankie got up and walked away from the queen; when she turned her eyes were narrowed with her thoughts. "So, then, ye be telling me I am half Fae?"

"Yes, I am telling you that, though a little part of you knew something... always suspected there was more inside you. Your Fae genes have remained dormant during your childhood, as there was no one to call on your powers and train you, but you have felt 'different' during your training time with Nuad, haven't you?"

"Aye, I jest thought it was m'Fios growing." She pulled herself up and returned to sit with the queen. "Kindly tell me who m'Fae father is then?"

"There is time for that. I need you to remember that you have been snatched out of your time period. You were living in the 1800s... you would have grown to maturity and at some point realized you were immortal. At maturity, your Fae genes would have expanded and taught you who you really were..."

"But now I know who I am, and I want to know _who he_ was," Frankie said calmly.

"Our job now, Nuad's job, is to unite the Fios with the Fae in you and bring out your strengths to make you powerful for the immediate future, because the universe is about to be plunged into the deadliest of all times."

"Aye, and though child I be, I will be fore and center, my Queen, in the fight. But my da... m'father, the man who raised me as his own— _did he know_?" Frankie chewed at her bottom lip.

Aaibhe had no way of knowing the answer to this, but she lowered her lashes and shook her head. "No, Frankie, he did not. As far as he was concerned, he was your father." She was pleased to see the sigh of relief Frankie released.

"Right, then, if ye please, can ye tell me now who this Fae is... who is m'Fae father?"

Aaibhe arched a look at her. "I can tell you he must have cared for your mother a great deal. I can tell you he left you to lead a normal life for your sake, not his. I can tell you he is a good and faithful member of my very special team and I can't have him distracted just now."

Frankie cocked her head. "But he already knows about me, doesn't he?"

"Yes, but remember, he doesn't know _you are here in Tir_ , or even if you lived through the centuries. I believe your mother must have asked him to let you be raised as a human with her."

"Please, m'Queen, please, who is he? Can I not go see him?"

"Not right now. He is on a mission, and I can't recall him. The time will come to reunite you." The queen squeezed her hands and said softly, "Frankie, we have a threat approaching from the Dark Realm, and I need you to continue your training. Will you do that for me and trust me to choose the time and place for you to meet your Fae father?"

Frankie hugged her close. "Aye, then, for ye must know, my Queen... I do trust ye... and Miss Jazz... with m'life, and I would lay down m'life for either of ye."

Aaibhe sighed and held her. Her vision of the future had been filled with blood, and she knew life—the life they prized, where art, music, and harmony ruled—was coming to an abrupt end.

~ Eighteen ~

TREVOR LOOKED AT his Jazmine Decker and wished he could send her safely to Tir. She didn't have enough training yet. Her powers needed time to evolve.

How could he put her at risk? He had been raised to know that Fae females fought beside their mates as equals. Their monarchy was female, for bloody damn sake! He could not remember a time when this had not been so, and yet...

All he wanted to do was keep her tucked in safely in Tir, away from all the dark ugliness of this world, away from Pestale and his wicked brothers.

He had the Orb of Time, safely hidden with his Death Sword. He could call on it and return her to Tir, but would she ever forgive him?

Could he manage it? Her newfound Fae powers would allow her to see it coming. She was a fighter, a brave and resilient Fios as well as an immortal. She would not allow him to send her off. So that option was for the moment discarded.

Still, he made an attempt. "Jazmine Decker?"

She cocked her head and chuckled. "I love the way you say my name. It sounds so formal and yet so sexy all covered with that delicious accent of yours."

_Bloody hell_ , he thought, pulling her in closer and nipping at her ear. He loved everything about her. She made him feel alive, truly alive in each moment. He raised his head and said urgently, "I need you to go to the queen and tell her of your suspicions. It will take the queen's physical presence to close a portal of such size. We cannot do it from this side of the Dark Prison, and I doubt that even the Royals can do it without her lead on the other side."

"Trevor of Lugh," she said archly, "you are not in the company of a fool—well, _not a total fool_. I am _not_ going anywhere. If you want to communicate with the queen...?" She held up her pendant. "Tada!"

He sighed. "Sweet love, can't you see? They will target _you_ to get to _me_. Don't you want me safe?"

"You are trying to trick me. There is nothing any of those dark creeps can do to you—a Seelie Royal. So, what you are suggesting...?" She shook her head. "Not going to happen." She frowned at him and added, "I am not stupid enough to get caught by any of those Dark Royals, because now I have Fae blood in me and have been trained by the best." She inched closer and said. "Come on, baby, let's boogie, as there is no time to lose."

He grinned and shook his head. "Baby? It is odd that I rather like the sound of that on your lips, and yet, I must wonder how it is that you call me baby. I am not a baby."

She laughed right out loud. "You are my big, hunky, handsome, strong baby." And she laughed again.

He wondered at it, at the feeling she drew from him. She always made him smile; through it all, she made him smile. Even now, faced with horrendous danger and a mission that was beginning to look doomed, she made him smile. _Absurd._

He took her hand and wondered how it never ceased to thrill him when he touched her. From the first moment... she thrilled him.

Damn, but what was he doing—mooning on and on now, when they had to plan strategy? No time remained for this.

If she was right, and the Dark Princes were working on opening a portal deep within their castle, they had to get there fast and destroy it.

If the bastards succeeded in opening such a portal they would surely have an Unseelie army at their back. It would be catastrophic unless they were able to contact the queen and get her to close the portal in time!

"Right, then, sweet Fios. Do not leave my side."

A moment later they had shifted into the darkest part of the castle. They stood at the top of a long, winding, and narrow set of stone steps that led them to a small, weathered wooden door.

Trevor hesitated. He didn't want to shift directly into Pestale's midst, for he hoped to take them by surprise. He murmured a gypsy chant to disguise their scent in the spell of concealment. It would only buy them some time to evaluate the situation before making a move.

"Was that language you spoke Danu? It sounded different in my head."

"Quite right." He smiled at her. "It was Romany—a Gypsy spell Bres taught me a few months ago. Romany will translate, as will any language in your head, now that you are Fae and that Fae is growing in you, but the spells have to be learned. Breslyn said that the Dark Ones were not adept in Gypsy spells and would not see through them immediately. It will only buy us time before they realize we are near."

A moment later they entered the huge dungeon chamber, hovering in a mist of darkness, near the rafters, a skill he had taught her just that morning and one that she had picked up easier than she had some others. The room was full to overflowing with Unseelie of every imaginable caste, horrifying to look at, repulsive to smell, but what was worse was the swirling dark opening that went from floor to ceiling. Although it was only a few feet in width, it seemed to be getting larger with each moment.

They took in the scene with eyes wide open, and Trevor knew they were in for serious trouble.

* * *

Jazz's mouth fell open as she stared at the horde of Unseelie monsters. They jostled one another, and little skirmishes broke out, diverting attention to the fights. Pestale had more than once put up his hand and called for an end to it.

The dungeon had to be at least fifty feet wide and eighty feet long.

Insect-type beings the size of cows, snakes that stood on two legs and were the size of basketball players, and grotesque, elephant-sized pig-like creatures snorted and bumped and grumbled. And then she saw a horde of green humanoid types, standing quietly behind the three Dark Royals.

"What are those, the green guys? They look almost like—"

"They are the Green Babblers. The sound they make can kill a human a hundred feet away, and then they feed on the dead body." He pointed with his chin. "Those, _the giant insects_ , they like to feed on live humans. Now and then over the years, one or two escape and feed until we locate them and return or destroy them."

She grimaced and swallowed hard. She had even in her worst nightmares never pictured so many monsters of so many different castes collected into one chamber. Their numbers spilled over and into a long hall she could only assume led outdoors. They were, as she had worried, lined up and ready, so ready for their trip into the Human Realm, and they were going _en masse._ They looked anxious, and they looked damned hungry!

"Trev..." she whispered, feeling her body go numb.

_The time has come to use the pendant. We must inform the queen._ He didn't speak out loud but in her head. Another skill he had taught her and had her practice over and over yesterday.

It was a unique sensation to hear him inside her mind, but she complied immediately. She grasped the pendant and mentally recited the required chant.

_Nothing_ , she said in his mind.

_Don't stop. Keep calling for her_ , he answered.

Another moment went by before the queen's image appeared, and she said, "I know—I have felt the shift in the universe. There are two voids in the atmosphere, and we are not certain which one he will try and use."

"My Queen," Trevor whispered, "he has the Green Babblers at the head of his army—we must stop him, or the loss of human life will be... disastrous."

"Indeed, do what you can on your end." And the queen was gone.

"Jazmine Decker... this is... grave," he said as he turned to her.

"What should we do first?"

"There is something stored at the Retreat, something Crystal showed me when you were in transition. I will have to get it into the heart of the portal."

"What is it?"

" _Iron_ , hundreds of iron rods, spelled by the Dark King, but I will have to get to the Retreat and manage its delivery here. Because iron can affect a Seelie Fae as well—and in that quantity there is no saying what it will do to me—I will need you to help me shift it here."

"But you are a Royal. Iron affects Royals?"

"In quantity, it can."

"Well, I have human in me, so I betcha I'm immune and can help you get it here."

Trevor considered her for a moment and said, "No time to talk."

He took her hand, and they shifted to the Retreat into a dimly lit room filled with iron bars.

She saw at once that Trevor was almost immediately affected by the potency of the iron. Its effects showed in his eyes. She also was sure that it had no effect on her whatsoever. "Okay, Trev, what do I do?"

"Can you help me move these, like I showed you—when you lifted the bed with your mind? Remember how you went into your mind? Do that now, my love, with me."

She concentrated and discovered she could help him. The bars lifted as one unit, and she grinned. "Are you doing it too?"

"Yes, but I can feel myself getting weaker. I need your help... the iron... is poisoning me..."

"What?" She lost her concentration, and the iron mass fell with a heavy and resounding thud to the wood flooring.

He touched her shoulder. "No time, and you needn't worry—it is only temporary. As soon as we are rid of it I'll be fine."

She turned on the room full of the iron bars, and with scarcely an effort it went up as one unit and hovered. She turned to Trev and said, "Shift us, baby— _shift us_ _now_."

She could see he was in pain and rubbed his arm, wishing she could do something. He was stoic about it, simply patting her hand, and managed to shift them back to the dungeon.

They had shifted into the recesses of one dark corner, hovering near the rafters as they surveyed the bevy of movement and grunts below. Jazz found she could keep the iron bar collection up with very little effort and concentrated on helping Trev stay conscious, for he looked like he was going to pass out.

These monsters, all shapes and sizes and varying degrees of repulsiveness, had Jazz grimacing with disgust. She could never have imagined such horror. It was like being in what she always envisioned the pits of hell would look like. Unseelie creatures shuffled about, bellowing, groaning, grunting—some would throw back their heads now and then and howl like rabid animals.

And then Trevor shifted them to the cold stone floor, laying the pile of iron as a circular wall around them. She could see it had taken a great deal of his determination and strength to fight the affects of the iron to accomplish this.

Trevor was in trouble. She could see it. The iron was a deadly poison to the lower-caste Dark Fae, but apparently it had a debilitating affect on Seelie Fae as well. She knew whatever they were going to do next had to be done immediately.

Unseelie everywhere hung back with sounds of horror and began screaming in bellowing terms.

"We need to get the iron into the mouth of the portal..." Trevor said, but his voice was a weak whisper.

The Dark Princes had surrounded the iron-clad circle, but it appeared all of them, including Pestale, were helpless to get inside, as they couldn't approach the iron.

The odd thing that Jazz noticed at once was that Pestale and his brothers didn't seem overly interested in trying to get at them.

Trevor was in no condition to shift the iron into the mouth of the portal, but _she could_. She hadn't learned the knack of true shifting yet, but she had learned how to jump shift, and the portal was close enough that she could jump shift to it.

She said softly, "I've got this, Trev."

Even as he reached out to stop her, yelling something about a mistake, even as she mentally lifted and jump shifted right smack dab into the middle of the portal's black, cavernous mouth, she realized something was wrong.

She felt it as she shifted. How could she not have realized in time? That was her, always impulsive, leaping with that damned faith leading and never looking, 'just in case'.

The iron went flying in different directions but was sucked up into the gooey walls of the portal. She saw the mouth close, and she heard Pestale laugh just before he said, "Now, my brothers! Now, my Morrigu!"

"Nooo," she heard Trevor yell, and her heart sank.

Her Fae blood had enlarged her brain all right, but she hadn't listened to it in time. A trick, her Fae brain told her now.

This had been a diversion.

This was _not_ the portal to Earth but one to another dimension!

And as the swirling black hole consumed her and sent her flying she heard over and over again what Pestale had told his army: _"Now..."_

~ Nineteen ~

A FIRE-WORLD OF molten lava met her gaze when she was spit out of the portal, and she hovered, looking for a place where she could stand.

There wasn't any.

Spouts of clay—opening mouths no larger than three or four feet in width—covered the landscape and spit sprays of red, burning puke. These geysers were scattered as far as she could see and spewed their insides at regular intervals. Fire sparks exploded as they burped hot, black, crusted lava. She thought of the geysers at Yellowstone when she looked at them, except this landscape was red, as was the sky above.

Jazz adjusted her inner temperature just as Trevor had taught her, and she remained calm in the face of what could be a horrible death. She had to find a way out of this dimension. Would Trevor find her?

She took a breath, and it burned to the taste. She was in serious trouble.

She said out loud, "Hey, Trev, trouble here—come and get me." She then tried the mind link and repeated, _Hey, Trev... now would be a real good time_. Nothing. No response. Was he okay? _Oh, please let him be okay._ She looked around and added another request: _Please let me be okay_.

How could Trevor find her when she didn't know where she was? She needed a Fae GPS system. Good idea; she would talk to him about one.

She felt a moment of panic and calmed herself again. Yup, she was in trouble because she knew he would have no way of knowing into just which dimension the portal had taken her. The iron had neatly shut the portal down.

_Right_. Well, she couldn't hang out over these hot mud tubs forever, now could she? _She had to do something._

She scanned the horizon and discovered something interesting. Was it a mirage?

She took a series of 'jump shifts' in the air, careful not to touch ground, and after what she assumed was about fifteen or so minutes found herself at the edge of a cliff.

At the bottom of the cliff was a narrow, bubbling foam of water, and it was moving with a great deal of speed. Were there rocks beneath the foam? Was it too far to jump shift? Was foaming water better than hot lava? _Ah, yeah_... at least, she hoped so.

Across the divide was what looked like a forest that had seen better days. Could she jump shift the distance—would it be cooler there? The trees were black and dead and the earth charred, but at least the lava-spitting geysers would no longer be a threat.

She came lightly down from her hovering position and found the earth beneath her boots very hot. She did an 'ooh-ahh dance' a few times before she remembered her internal temperature. Still, her shoes weren't made for this heat. She was going to have to make it to the other side sooner than later.

She heard Trevor's voice as he'd whispered to her just this morning, _Think about where you are going... think hard, and your mind, which has the science, will pull up the coordinates for you. Think, my sweet._

"Okay, Trev... _I'm thinking_ ," she said and set her goal to shift to the other side of the ravine.

She didn't quite make it!

* * *

Trevor realized too late what Pestale had done.

The portal they could see was not the one Pestale meant to use. It was a diversion. The other portal was hidden down the long corridor.

The iron had depleted his ability to sense the other opening, and no doubt Pestale had installed a magical wall around it earlier, bringing the attention to the portal his Jazmine Decker had just flung herself into.

Where would it take her? He was damn sure it wasn't to the Human Realm. It had been a trick.

He had felt the real portal before he had seen it. The Gypsy spell had not fooled Pestale earlier. The Dark Prince had known all along that they were there watching, and he had put on quite a show.

Trevor shifted and tried to spell the portal closed, but its mouth just continued to widen, like a dark funhouse grin.

The numbers of Unseelie were too great for him to cut down. Pestale and his two brothers were surrounded by their grotesque brethren, and he would not be able to get to them.

He had to hope that the queen would locate this opening and get to it in time on the other side, for already Pestale, his brothers, and Queen Morrigu were stepping inside its swirling chamber with a flood of Unseelie at their backs.

And his sweet beloved—where was she? He called for the Orb, and as he stood in the now empty dungeon, for the portal had sucked in the last of the army that Pestale had called upon, he demanded, "Show me—where is my mate?"

"In trouble, my Prince," the Orb said as its gray cloud cleared and showed Trevor Jazmine Decker falling into a rushing, foaming river.

He closed his eyes and whispered in his mind, _Jazmine Decker... hear me, beloved, hear me... hover, before you hit the water, hover... you can do that_.

And then the gray cloud returned inside the Orb.

"What are you doing? Show me," the prince demanded.

"Something interferes... and, my Prince, I must transport us to the queen," the Orb cried frantically.

Against his will, he found himself transported back to where it all had started— _Killarney Lakes_.

~ Epilogue ~

TOO LATE, JAZZ realized she could have avoided the deep plunge into the frigid, swirling stream. She could have hovered before she broke water.

However, suddenly she found herself caught up in a human moment.

As the rushing stream pulled her along, she found herself tossed and flung about. She hit a few smooth, algae-covered rocks as the raging river took her downstream.

The current was strong, and she was temporarily confused; however, as the water's force began to ebb and she felt the current's pull lighten up, she realized she could jump shift out of the river and find some dry land.

She swam for a few moments as she tried to regain her senses and saw a grassy slope up ahead. With something of an effort, she jump shifted, landed on her butt, and stayed there as she recovered from the experience.

She knew that she had, somewhere in her new mind, the skill to blink her clothes and shoes dry, but just as she tried concentrating on this, something else caught her attention.

She cocked her head as she watched the water in the middle of the narrow river begin to part. "Huh," she said out loud.

She froze in place for a fraction of a minute as she watched a red, horny, glaring thing that looked much like a prehistoric creature rise partially out of the river. Then she saw the little arms and then the talons—it was an oversized prehistoric raptor!

Its pin-like eyes took a sweeping gaze of the surroundings. Those eyes were cold, and suddenly its gaze was directly on her. It was as though it smelled her presence. It was as though she could hear its tiny brain say 'food', just as she watched it take a flying leap.

It was no more than ten feet from her.

She didn't wait for more; she jump shifted.

However, in her panic she did not calculate where she was jumping to, and she hit a tree with a force that left her on her butt.

At her back, she could hear its thunderous clumping over brush and small trees, so she jump shifted again. It still came at her. She wasn't getting far enough away!

_Okay_ , she told herself, _Hover—hover high!_

She was pleased with herself when she accomplished this and found that she was well out of its reach. Then a swooshing sound through the tree tops caught her attention.

The next thing she knew, she was dangling in the air, flying, held in the talons of what looked like a prehistoric and a hairless vulture the size of a Cessna plane!

" _So not good_ ," she told no one in particular.

*** *** ***

Jazmine's story continues in _Through Time—Slamming_. Read on for a preview...

### Life for Jazmine Decker

### is like nothing she'd ever imagined,

### and the changes just keep coming in

Through Time—Slamming

~ One ~

AN ASSORTMENT OF things could bubble up in one's mind as one dangled from the talons of a prehistoric and flesh-eating, pterodactyl-like creature.

What bubbled up in Jazmine Decker's mind and out of her mouth as she looked down at the lush green landscape below was an Eden Phillpotts quote her mother had been fond of: "The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." She then screamed, very loudly, and while this did not help her situation, it did relieve some of her stress.

She might be in the talons of a giant flying beast, but her Trevor had taught her the skills she needed to escape her situation.

The landscape was changing faster than she could take it all in. She would have to make a decision fast. _Yup, time to leave._

She shifted out of the sharp talons, and just before she landed in the mass of tall wheat grass below, she hovered with a smile on her face. She gave herself a mental pat on the back.

The feeling of accomplishment, however, was short lived, as an anaconda lifted itself high and slithered through the air to come face to face with her.

Screaming was her first reaction. The entire jungle vibrated with the scream that came out of her mouth.

Her next and instinctive reaction was to lift off and hover higher—much higher off the ground. "Never going to touch that land down there again," she told herself out loud. Then she once again attempted to mind link with Trevor.

Nothing.

Jazz remembered the pendant around her neck. _It had to work_. It had worked in the year 1816, so why wouldn't it work now?

Hovering well above the huge anaconda that had not given up on her and had curled into a coil ready to spring, she took the pendant in her hand and murmured the ancient spell that had been handed down from mother to daughter.

She waited, and then a swirl of black mist opened up onto a bright yellow aura, but, as suddenly as it had arrived, it was gone.

She thought she heard the queen's voice whisper just before the aura vanished, "Be patient."

Unsure it actually was the queen's voice, Jazz frowned with frustration. "What is the good in having this charm if you can't get through to help me?" she asked the queen, but she did not receive a reply. She shook her head and sighed heavily.

She was going to have to shift again and again until she could find a place to set down and shield herself.

However, suddenly a strong swish of wind blasted over her, and once again she found herself dangling from a determined pterodactyl's talons.

She swung in the wind for a moment while she tried to get herself together and decide where to jump shift to. Then _she saw them_.

She was being carried toward three hungry-looking pterodactyl babies whose wide-open mouths were as large and toothy as that of a great white shark.

Jazmine Decker screamed with total abandon.

* * *

In Killarney, the Arched Monoliths stood regally at the edge of the Middle Lake. A glow emanated from and surrounded the gigantic sarsen stones. The air vibrated and pulsated with magic, both light and dark magic, and the earth objected to the clashing forces.

The Seelie Royals could feel the power of Unseelie magic as it instigated tremors through the ground and shook everything within its immediate circumference. The lake bubbled and foamed. Opposing powers were contesting and challenging each other's might.

The queen stood, both hands out, palms facing the dolmens, as she silently chanted. She had to trust Jazmine to take care of herself, for at the moment she had a larger problem.

At her back were her finest and strongest: Princes Breslyn and Danté, Princesses Ete, Radzia, and Royce, and Milesians Chancemont and Morgan LeBlanc. Together they formed a pyramid of power and magic as they concentrated on keeping the portal from opening.

* * *

They looked grim, ready to kill or be killed.

This was Trevor's first thought as he stepped through with the Orb.

He felt a sense of pride, but he saw it was going to be one hell of a battle. The Dark Royals were already inside the portal, and in that regard they had the advantage. However, the portal was locked and, thus far, would not allow them to emerge. The Seelie Royals had managed to trap them for the moment, though it was a challenge that none of the Seelie Royals had encountered before.

The laws of nature could not be interfered with in this manner for long, and Trevor knew what they all knew. This was a losing battle. The best they could hope for as Aaibhe's army increased at their backs was to contain the Unseelie, to keep them from storming Ireland and beyond.

Nuad, with his white hair blowing in the breeze, arrived and took up a stance with all of his Trackers flanking the pyramid of Royals.

The queen's Royal warriors were gathering in numbers as the moments swiftly ticked by, but Trevor knew their numbers were not enough—they would have to rely on Seelie magic.

Aaibhe knew, Trevor thought at once. She knew the Dark Ones would break through. Even she could not stop a force of nature, and though it had been harnessed for an evil purpose by Pestale, the portal was still itself a force of nature.

The Milesian Army arrived and lined up with the Seelie Warriors. Forgotten were old wounds and differences as they united to defeat a common enemy— _the Unseelie._

The Dark Royals were pounding at the entrance to the Human Realm.

Trevor could hear them—all his brethren could hear them.

Although his duty was to stay and fight with his queen's forces, he would do so after he saved the life of his mate. He knew that without Jazmine Decker his life would be over. He could not live on without her. She came first, before all others. Before anything... _she came first_.

He would already have been searching for her, had the Orb of Time not brought him against his will to the queen.

This Orb had once been the possession of the Dark King, but now it had attached itself to the Seelie Queen Aaibhe. It would answer only to her.

"Danté," Trevor shouted over the roaring portal. It was nearly deafening with the explosion of power beating at its mouth. He touched his brother's shoulder and got right to the point. "I want to be here with you, fighting beside you, and so I shall be, but first I have to find and save my mate. You have enough help here, but she has only me."

Danté raised a brow. "Your mate?" And then, in spite of the immediate problem before them, he grinned and slapped his younger brother on the back. "Well, well... _our family_ is growing."

"So you'll explain? Jazmine Decker risked her life diving into the portal for us. You see, we thought it was the portal to the Human Realm, but Pestale tricked us, and now she is out there in another dimension."

"Do you know which one?"

"I have an idea. Something about it looked familiar."

"Use the Orb of Time—it is the most powerful one, and you should have it in your possession," Danté said.

"The queen called it to herself. She needs it to help fight the Dark Ones."

"Then I shall call the Lugh family Orb," Danté said and put up his hand. As he was the eldest in the House of Lugh, it responded first to him. An Orb appeared, and he handed it to Trevor.

"There... tell it what you need," Danté said and then shook his head. "And now, out of my way, brother!" He returned his attention to the portal, which had belched and spewed a blast of beastly, bat-sized insects as it tried to open wide.

Trevor shifted to a quieter spot and demanded, "Orb of Lugh, show me my mate, Jazmine Decker."

He received a very good picture of her hanging from the clutches of a huge and prehistoric raptor bird.

He closed his eyes. Pestale would pay for this. He knew of only one dimension that housed this particular species, and he shifted there at once.

He arrived in the prehistoric dimension and hovered in the air, looking around for the dinosaur bird of prey. Though he saw many, something felt wrong. For one thing, he and Jazmine had bonded, yet he could not feel her when he reached out to her. He tried calling her with their mind link. _Nothing._

He told the Orb again, "Show me my mate."

Once again, it displayed a raptor bird much like the ones flying nearby, with Jazmine dangling from its claws. He watched as she vanished from the giant bird's talons and saw that she had jump shifted into the air, hovering face to face with a giant anaconda.

He felt anxious for a moment but then saw her lift up higher, hovering well beyond the snake's reach. However, a moment later, down swooped the pterodactyl. It caught her again and then climbed high and still higher in the air. Trevor watched, helpless, as the bird flew with her, knowing she was too high to jump shift to the ground. She needed more confidence, more training. She needed... damn, bloody damn... _she needed him._

A moment later the bird was at its nest, where its young reached to eat what their parent had just dropped their way— _his mate._

Trevor gasped with some relief as his Jazmine Decker jump shifted, but then the Orb clouded over again. "Show me!" he growled, but the Orb sighed and did not clear.

Right, then, she was whole and relatively safe, or at least using her wits and her new skills to stay as safe as she could be. "Somewhere in this dimension, but where?" he asked out loud and then looked around. "Where are you, sweet Fios— _where?_ "

Something about the lay of the land was all wrong—it didn't feel as though he was in the right dimension. Although the Lugh Orb was not as powerful as the Orb of Time, he asked, "Am I in the right place?"

The Orb took on an inner shade and then displayed the very spot he occupied. He was in the right place. _He_ was, but where the hell was she then?

~ Two ~

A HUMAN SCREAM RESONATED out of Jazmine Decker's mouth. She couldn't seem to stop screaming as she dropped towards the pterodactyls open beaks.

She knew that she wasn't quite human any longer, but her mind went human on her as she fell towards the large mouth of one of the babies.

Her new Fae blood kicked in and took over instinctively, however, and when she shifted this time it wasn't a jump shift but an honest-to-goodness Fae shift.

This time, she had actually shifted quite a distance, and as she stepped out onto solid ground, Jazz knew her Fae blood had triggered a map in her mind and located a safe haven for her.

Jazz stood there, caught her breath, and looked around in awe. She was at the edge of a cliff on a very high mountain. A slab of flat rock about five feet wide protruded out about twenty feet, and she stared down into the ravine below and murmured, "Whoa." Okay, she thought and stepped back, took a look around, and headed for the safety of the grassy slope of earth at the side of the mountain. Rock walls met her as they reached toward the sky—straight up to another peak.

Wild and tropical vegetation filled the gaps in the rock wall before her. Lush green bushes and palms were scattered along the earth where she stood. Steam and heat engulfed her surroundings, which were so completely at odds with the world she had just shifted away from.

Further down the ravine she could see molten lava pits spurting out their insides, and with a heavy sigh she plopped onto the grass and put her head into her hands.

" _Trevor_ , find me, baby, find me," she whispered to him as she surveyed her surroundings. She scrambled back to her feet when she realized what lay behind her. _A cave!_

"Huh?" she murmured, brushing herself off as she went forward to inspect this new find.

_So it works_ , she thought, _just like Trevor said_. A Fae thought of where he needed to go... and, bam, he shifted there. Earlier, when she was plummeting from the flying dinosaur's talons, she thought what she needed was a cave to hide out in, and wham, _here was the cave._

How could she know there was a cave in this God-forsaken realm?

She didn't know how it worked, but she was damn glad it had. What she needed was a few moments to get control of herself and figure out what she could do to get Trevor to hear her. He had to hear her and come for her.

An answer was there somewhere in her altered brain, a brain that was now as much Fae as it was human—in fact probably more Fae than human. She had to come to grips with what she was becoming and used the skills that were hers, newly hers but hers all the same. She had already learned one valuable lesson: if it looked too easy, it was. Pestale had been too unconcerned when they found him opening a portal. She should have known it was a ruse. He wouldn't do that to her again.

"Okay," she said out loud. "This is good."

Trevor had taught her how she could use the elements. She had only been able to _nearly_ master the simplest of tasks, but he said her skills would improve with time. The Fae blood now surging through her and making her strong in ways she never could have imagined would eventually replace all trace of human blood. He had said the most difficult thing to overcome would be her human attitudes and assumptions, as they were embedded in her psyche.

One of the things she had enjoyed was discovering she had the power of what as a human she'd have called telekinesis. This was in actuality, Trevor had said, a science of mind, body, and the use of the elements. He had begun her training in this science, though she thought of it as _magic._ She told him she would always think of it as magic.

For the moment, though, she didn't need to transport anything with her mind. There were things she could use lying around the mountain ledge.

She picked up a long branch from a nearby tall tree, tore off a piece of her top, and laughed at herself. She probably looked like a castaway. Then she grimaced ruefully because, in essence, that was what she was.

She gathered some dried grass, wrapped the cloth around it, and then picked up some pine bark. The Fae in her kept telling her she didn't need all this—she had a link to the elements and could create fire with a thought—but her human side needed something to keep her busy.

Once her torch was ready, she sighed and resigned herself to do what only the Fae in her could do. She concentrated on one vision: _fire_. Just like that, she had a working torch. She couldn't help but grin, though that grin quickly faded when she turned to face the dark, though somehow very beckoning mouth of the cave.

The entrance to the cave was not a wide opening but narrow and partially hidden by a jutting rock. The cave narrowed even further as she went in deeper, and the light from the torch showed that it split into two passages.

Jazz worked the torch into the dirt to stand it up, used a bit of Fae magic to secure it, and looked around. She needed time to figure out what she was going to do to help herself get out of this situation, and she needed a safe place to do that. She was fairly certain the shape and size of the entrance wouldn't allow larger predators to stick their grubby claws inside and get to her, but what about from the other direction?

Sighing with a certain amount of resignation, and extremely wary, she looked down at the forked trails. Suddenly, she realized she could see in the dark, not as well as during the day, but so much better than a human. She left the torch at her back and moved to where the two tunnels diverged.

Something could come at her from either of these passageways, something her size, for the corridors at least at this end wouldn't allow for anything, or anyone, larger.

There would be no sleeping here, but did she need sleep?

And was she doing the right thing—hiding out like this?

Would Trev be able to find her if she stayed in this cave?

What if the cave was lined with iron? Was he like Superman? Was iron his Kryptonite? She had seen what happened to him when he handled iron. It had sapped him of his strength and even caused him severe pain. His senses would be affected, and he would not be able to find her.

_Stop, just hold on_ , she admonished herself. She was imagining things—there was no reason to believe this cave was coated in iron.

She was going to have to get herself together, venture out into this realm, and use the Fae skills he had trained her to use if she was going to stay alive long enough for him to find her.

Stay alive... did she even have to worry about doing that?. She was becoming Fae. Could dinosaurs eat Fae?

That was something she didn't want to chance.

She continued to explore one of the narrow avenues. It seemed dry, which surprised her as she had always thought caves were not only dark and slimy but damp as well.

The ground was solid. The low and rocky ceiling was smooth, just like the walls. The entire cave looked like it had been carved out with a file.

The path she had taken seemed to be headed downward, and she decided that was where the exploring would have to end.

As she returned to the torch-lit area, she realized she had forgotten an important fact. She was Fios, still a Fios, and that part of her wasn't completely human either. The combined force of her Fios and her Fae blood, when it matured, should be formidable.

One of her Fios skills was the ability to construct shields to protect herself. _Well,_ she thought, rolling her eyes, _why didn't you think of that sooner?_

Nothing human or non-human could get past her shields, for it was Fios and Fae magic weaved and interlocked. She put a shield in place between her and the two tunnels leading deeper into the cave and then another at the mouth. _There_ , she thought with some satisfaction.

Now, she would take a moment and plot out what she needed to do next to get back to Trevor.

She sank down onto the earth and thought if only she had a bed of at least some palm fronds—and before she completed the thought, _she did_.

Okay, okay. Think it, and if it was within range, you would have it, Trevor had said. _Food... like bananas, do they have bananas here?_

The next thing she knew at least ten pounds of bananas lay on the fronds beside her. She was starving and stuffed her face for a moment before she put down a half-eaten banana and said softly, "What are you doing, Jazmine Decker? We need to get home, so think. No eating, just thinking."

But as hard as she tried, even her Fae mental faculties had nothing yet to suggest.

*** *** ***

### In the mood for a stand-alone tale of paranormal romance?

### _Try Claudy Conn's_ Dark Love.

### One goal consumes Chazma Donnelly:

### find the dark sorcerer who murdered her parents.

### The trail takes her to Ireland and Jethro McBain,

### but will it take her soul?

*** *** ***

About Claudy Conn

Claudy Conn, a native New Yorker, now lives with her husband, Bob; their wolf, Cherokee; and Cherokee's son, Rocky Man, who weighs in presently at 190 pounds.

She loves horses and riding and raised her ten-year-old gelding Southern Pride from the moment he was born. She also loves gardening, swimming, skiing, hiking, and travel—and of course, reading, writing, but no, she says, no arithmetic!

To get her monthly news, her reviews for all her new paranormal romances, and excerpts, come on and visit her at her website: http://www.claudyconn.com

To see pictures of Cherokee—and her shepherd-wolf son!—have a look at her Facebook page:

 http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Claudy-Conn-Paranormal-Romance-Author/135826686471445

Read more about Claudy Conn's books

### available at smashwords.com

### Through Time Series

Through Time-Pursuit

Revenge is the driver. Will love be the equalizer in _Through Time—Pursuit_? Milesian immortal Chance LeBlanc and Fae Princess Royce are about to find out in this contemporary fantasy romance that picks up where _Catch & Hold—Legend_ left off.

Through Time-Whiplash

Prince Trevor has one goal: bring the Dark Princes to justice—preferably at the end of his Death Sword—before they can march out of the Dark Realm with an army of monsters at their backs. But complication arise when Trevor is thrown two centuries into the past along with Jazmine Decker, a Fios (a human unaffected by Fae concealment spells) who has more power than either realizes.

Through Time—Slamming

In book 3 of the Through Time series, Jazmine and Trevor's relationship develops while danger to both human and Fae worlds grows. As the Dark Princes use all the powers at their disposal to create an unstoppable army to destroy the human realm, Queen Aaibhe faces treachery from a traitor in the Council, Frankie discovers who her Fae father is, and Prince Breslyn is hit with news that will change his life forever.

Through Time—Frankie

Frankie is all grown up and ready to spread her wings, and she knows the man she wants by her side. But first she needs to convince her Dark Prince—and her family—that he is the one for her. And it will take all of them working together to deal with the Dark Prince's brothers, who are once again plotting to take over the world.

Through Time—Compulsion

_Through Time—Compulsion_ finds a new demon on the loose, and this one thinks he's a god. He isn't, but he is powerful enough to use time itself to get what he wants—and what he wants is Frankie by his side as he takes over first the Human and then the Fae Realms.

### Legend Series

Spellbound—Legend

Maxie is a reluctant heroine who travels to Scotland to find and save herself. Julian is a Druid priest in a modern age, and he is full of guilt. Can Maxie turn to him? Or will she turn to Prince Breslyn, a Royal Fae hunk offering her everything?

Shee Willow—Legend

Half-human, half-Fae Willow Lang has never felt she truly fit in either world, but she's doing her best to ignore her Fae nature. But when she finds herself in the middle of a conflict between the Seelie Fae and the evil Dark Fae, she must embrace her Fae powers in order to protect the Human Realm.

Prince in the Mist (Novella)

Fact one: By tradition and treaty, Fae do not interfere with the human world—it is against the rules. Fact two: For a Royal Fae prince who suffers from the ennui of immortality, watching and interacting with humans—especially lovely, spirited human females—can be entertaining. Fact three: When entertainment changes to affection, and affection becomes love, rules will be broken.

Prince Prelude—Legend

In this stand-alone tale and the backstory for the Legend series, we find ourselves in 1814. Gais and the prince come head to head over a woman. We will see Lamia DuLaine when she first sees Julian Talbot, and we will meet the first Maxie Reigate. Come along and see their world unfold...

Aaibhe—Shee Queen (Novelette)

This is a love story but it is fringed with envy, jealousy, and bitterness—oh and more. It is laced with the havoc those devastating emotions can bring. It is about the seeds of hate born of love, and what chaos that hate can wantonly roar over even immortals. This is a story of Aaibhe, Queen of the Seelie Fae, because she deserves that it be told.

Trapped—Legend

Magical powers, a castle, and a charming prince sound like the ingredients for a fairy-tale life, but for BJ Mulroy reality turns out to be a whole lot more complicated. The war between the Seelie and the Unseelie is heating up, BJ has been drawn into the fray... and there's the matter of the seventeenth-century hunk in the painting.

Free Falling—Legend

They call her Z, and she is a handful ready to explode. She has entered the war against Gais and the Dark Fae and means to take him on all by herself. She is driven. Aaibhe, Queen of the Seelie Fae, has other plans, and she sends in Prince Danté to execute and preserve her wishes. When Z and the prince meet, hackles go up on both sides.

Catch & Hold—Legend

Half-human/half-Daoine Fae Radzia MacDaun—Z to her friends—finds herself in the Dark Realm, where she'll have to fight Gaiscioch on his own turf. Danté, Prince of the Tuatha Dé and Z's lover, is not about to let her face this danger alone, however, and the two of them are thrust on a ride that takes them to the edge of life as we know it...

### Shadow Series

ShadowLove—Stalkers

Shawna Rawley has no choice but to run when Pentim Rawley, one of the most evil vampires who have ever lived, discovers she is his daughter. Chad MacFare has an offer for Shawna he thinks she can't afford to refuse: he'll protect her from Pentim and his minions. But Shawna doesn't trust the sexy immortal. She knows he has his own agenda—he wants to kill her father, and he wants to set her up as bait...

ShadowHeart—Slayer

Damon Drummond and Nikki Walker are on opposite sides. He is a potent vampire—she is a skilled and powerful vampire slayer. Problem right there... but when they look at each other, sparks of all kinds fly. Too much stands between them: He will live forever. She will not. And yet...

ShadowLife—Hybrid

WB and his clan have moved in, and section by section Dublin is going dark. When the team needs help, they turn to a shapeshifter, Roxie MacBran.

### Hungry Moon Series

Hungry Moon: Quicksilver

Ravena is running from who and what she is, but the more she runs away, the further she falls.

Hungry Moon: Destiny

Luke says Kelsey isn't his type, and Kelsey is sure Luke is a heart-breaker, but the hybrid and the wolf shifter must find a way to work together to fight a threat of unthinkable proportions.

Hungry Moon: Jodi

Jodi is a witch with formidable powers fighting a battle against an insidious dark force. She meets Shane MacGrath and needs him in so many ways, but she doesn't know if she can trust him. Can she trust him, and will she survive this battle?

### Witches, Warlocks, and Dark Magic

Dark Love

One goal consumes Chazma Donnelly: find the dark sorcerer who murdered her parents. The trail takes her Ireland and Jethro McBain, but will it take her soul?

Netherby Halls

Matters at Netherby are not what they seem, and neither is the handsome marquis. Unsure whom to trust, Sassy has to find her way through a maze of evil and magic.

Lady X

Exerilla has to run from her Dark Warlock father. Her mother sends her into the past to escape him and the marriage he plans for her. What is a modern American miss to do in nineteenth-century England?

Journey

What would you do if the man of your dreams walked into your life and you knew, absolutely knew, that one day he would leave because he was from another realm with secrets you couldn't discern? Would you seize the moment? Riley Doogan decided to seize the moment, and it cost her all the normalcy she had ever hoped to have in her life—a life that was now fraught with terror.

### Risqué Regencies

Myriah Fire

Myriah meets Kit under the worst circumstances and their meeting was an explosion of wills, and actions, and it was what finally set Myriah on fire...

Oh, Cherry Ripe

Cheryl Elton has been in London for three seasons and refuses to be courted. When her mother takes matters into her own hands, Cherry runs!

Rogues, Rakes & Jewels

What happens when an eligible marquis pretends to be a rake and a gambler, and the woman he is supposed to be courting disguises herself as a masked French card dealer? Find out in this spicy, risqué Regency romance.

Taffeta and Hotspur

Hotspur wants Taffeta—how far will he go to make her his? Taffeta has a secret—will it land her in trouble?

Wildfire Kiss

Lady Babs is a rule-breaker, but has she met her match in Lord Wildfire?

After the Storm

Jenny insisted she would never fall in love again, but she found herself drawn to the handsome Earl of Danfield. She also knew about his wild reputation, but it didn't matter. His proposal would give her what she wanted. Peace.

Runaway Heart

Chelsea takes London by storm, but the only man she wants thinks she is no more than a child.

Lady Bess

Lady Bess has fallen hard for the Earl of Dunkirk, but she has also fallen into a bevy of secrets. Evil hovers. Although Bess doesn't look for it, she finds it—and Bess is not your average, simpering female. She takes on danger and mayhem like she does everything else: full throttle. Adventure ensues as we travel with Bess through romance and the battle of her life.

Lady Star

Sir Edward meets his match when he meets Star, but is there too much keeping them apart?

Serena

Lord Daniel Pendleton has met his match in Serena. A game of twists and misunderstandings ensues, and a lively romance begins.

Mandy

Mandy's brother, Ned, is in trouble, accused of murdering the woman who had been clearly trying to seduce him. Their guardian, the Duke of Margate, is summoned to help. Mandy had always assumed he was an old man, but the duke is far from old. But first things first—they have to prove Ned innocent.

Disorderly Lady

A chance encounter with the Earl of Magdalen, a confirmed bachelor whose female acquaintances run to women of dubious reputation, results in Arabella Cullingham appearing to be a light-skirts. Bella, for her own reasons, decides to play along, never thinking that the game might cost her the man she truly loves.

Madcap Miss

Miss Felicia Easton, holed up happily at Easton Manor, is quite content with her unchaperoned state, thank you very much. The last thing she needs is to be summarily fetched to see her ogre of a guardian, the elderly Duke of Somerset. And so she flees with her childhood friend, Scott—only to run into a highwayman! Thank heavens Glen Aston happens along when he does.

### Multi-book Bundles

The Complete Legend Series

Containing all eight books in the series, _The Complete Legend Series_ will take you to a place where anything is possible, where strong and beautiful men and women—both human and Fae—must use all the skills and magic they possess to save their shared worlds, and where the path to love winds through intrigue and danger.

Through Time Series Box Set

Picking up where the Legend series leaves off, the Through Time Series pits humans and Seelie Fae against the machinations of the Dark Princes. Fueled by a desire for revenge and a thirst for power, the Dark Princes have discovered how to use time itself to achieve their goals, and no realm—human, Milesian, or Fae—is safe. Contains all five books in the series.

Claudy Conn's Bestselling Regencies

Claudy Conn's Bestselling Regencies take you into a time of romance and passion, humor and intrigue: the time of the Regency, when England's King George went mad and his beautiful son became Regent. Contains the full text of _Wildfire Kiss_ , _Taffeta and Hotspur_ , and _Oh, Cherry Ripe_.

