She was his bonded mate and he was certain that he could not go on living without her. Pestale was about to kill her. He had to think.
He had only one advantage. Pestale had not seen him.
And then he knew just what he had to do.
He shifted in behind Pestale with his sword ever ready. His free hand gripped Pestale’s shoulder and squeezed. “What now devil? You can’t shift anywhere without taking me as well.”
Pestale turned his head slightly and said with a sneer, “I can kill her you know, even if you manage to drive your sword into me before I cut open her throat. I can still cut her enough to give her a long agonizing death. Will you chance it?”
“For the good of all, I will,” Trevor bluffed and hoped the Dark One would buy it. In truth, he would rather die on the spot than chance it, but he told himself that the Dark Prince was unaccustomed to such a notion. He was unfamiliar with a sense of true love and loyalty.
“You don’t mean that. I have seen the way you look at her. You want her and she wants you. You are not ready to do without her,” Pestale said derisively. “I know you believe I don’t know about such things, but while I don’t understand such emotions, I do discern them in humans…and some Fae.”
Trevor’s sword tip was firmly in place and with but one pierce of the sword would give Pestale a slow death. “Release her demon and I shall release you. We are not at an impasse for if you kill her, you will die. I will make certain it will be long and torturous.”
“You don’t wish to anger my father. The Dark King will not readily accept the death of another of his sons”, Pestale said on a low hiss.
Trevor’s voice was lined with hatr
ed. “Do I give a damn what the Dark King wants or doesn’t want? No. I mean to put all his sons in the ground and end this once and for all. I am not a diplomat like my Queen.” He knew that Pestale believed this. He knew because he had spoken the truth and the Dark Prince had heard it. He felt his words take their place in the Prince’s complicated mind.
“If that is so, I think I will gut this pretty before I die”, the Dark Prince said on a low and threatening note. “Shall I let her go…shall we deal more elegantly than that?”
“I never want to see any pretty gutted, so deal,” Trevor said with a growl.
“You know if I slip and the sword cuts her, she will die a slow death in horrible agony,” Pestale said, “So be careful how you hold your sword to me.”
“You won’t slip, to do so means you die…slowly.”
“How then shall we accomplish both our goals at once? You get the pretty and you put down your sword.”
“In that order. I get her and then I release you,” Trevor said.
“Ha! I should trust you in this? We are at an impasse,” said the Dark Prince.
Chapter Twelve
FRANKIE WALKED BESIDE a tall young female Fae, whose thousand Fae years, put her at about a couple of human years older than Frankie. “Suade, I am afraid,” Frankie said.
Suade put her arm around her and sighed, “We all are, but I trust the Royals. My mother says they have seen us through terrible trials and shall do so again.”
“The problem is that the Dark Princes are very different. They do not think like Seelie Fae, even though they have Seelie in them. They have no…no…what is the word?”
“Empathy,” Suade supplied and smiled. “I know, but it doesn’t matter. In the end they will be beaten.”
“In the end our Royals will strike at the Dark Princes and defeat them at their stronghold.” Frankie said grimly, “I have seen the war ahead in a dream and it was frightening, because I couldn’t see the outcome.” She touched the spot in her chest where she still had a very human heart. “I feel so much in here, where my mother lives in my heart. The Dark Princes are planning a trap, I just know it.”
“You can be certain that every possibility to find a final solution is being explored,” Suade answered. “I am not of royal blood, but my father is Nuad, Chief Tracker. I hear a great deal when he and my mother talk.”
Frankie sighed. No one took her seriously because she was considered a child. Even Suade treated her like a child that needed to be reassured. What she wanted was to know the truth.
She wasn’t like the other Fae, Daoine or Seelie. She had Sluagh blood, and that blood, she realized when she had met her father, made her a very different kind of Daoine Fae.
She wasn’t sure what had activated this sudden mental and physical growth, but she knew that something was occurring inside of her. Also, her Fios powers had changed. They had blossomed beyond imagination. They were merging with her Sluagh bloodline and evolving.
She sighed and let the subject go. She told Suade she wanted to return to the castle, and she wouldn’t have to babysit her any longer.
Suade laughed and pointed a finger. “You are not a baby and we shall be great friends one day, for you are maturing rapidly. I can feel it in you, though I don’t quite understand it. Perhaps something happened to you during your time in the Dark Realm?” She shrugged, “Very well, I can see you are anxious to get back to the castle. Go then and I shall see you later.”