Jazz heard Ete shout out worriedly to Willow, “Shee Willow…behind you!” They were under attack by more than ten or twelve insect-like gross beings. They were drooling and spitting. Jazz wanted them dead. With her Death Sword in hand, she Slammed them, without hesitation. She then began the job of driving home their deaths quickly and quite thoroughly.
Jazz turned from the dead that were strewn all over the grassland and saw that Ete had moved on and into another smaller group.
Jazz took a stand and began something she had not tried before. She widened her scope to the maximum as she spun in place.
Shee Willow covered her. Taking off the heads of drooling giant insects as Jazz took their magic and threw it back at them full force.
Jazz grinned at Willow and returned her attention to the remaining hordes, taking them down for the kill with her Slamming.
Jazz stood and stared at what had once been a lovely grassy slope. She grimaced and shook her head when she saw the destruction in front her.
Trevor was at her side, he caught her up in his arms and whispered, “My sweet love, you have depleted yourself. I felt your energy sap…” He bent and kissed her ear and then held her face. “I will take you home.”
“No can do. No rest for the weary,” she smiled at him. “I am a Fae now, we don’t get tired.”
“I am not certain that is true when you use your Slamming ability. Remember that you are part human, and humans can feel fatigue. It is complicated.” He frowned as he stroked her cheek and added, “My sweet-life, I sense you are depleted.” He touched her lips with his own, brushing them lightly with a kiss. “And you will need to be strong for later.” His eyes told her just what he meant.
“Aww baby, don’t ya worry about that,” she said only half teasing. It felt good to kiss him, right there in the middle of a battle, to feel him, and connect with him. They had to end this war and get on with their lives. They had to take Frankie away from all this and give her a childhood.
He looked around, “Jazmine Decker, I think we have this well under control thanks to your Fios magic.”
“I’ll just go help Ete clean up. and then, you and me Trev…,” she smiled at him and felt a surge of adoration as she saw the look of love and passion in his glittering gold eyes.
~*~
Hordly and Pestale had taken to the lake and dived low beneath the Monoliths. The battle on the slopes of the Middle Lake saw bloodletting as it had never done before.
Through a careful mind linking, they worked the ancient words. These were no longer Danu Seelie words, but altered by Dark Magic. Pestale believed from an earlier trial that this was far more effective.
The trick was to work the spell before the Royals got to the monoliths. While the Seelie were busy destroying his Unseelie throng, he and Hordly transported the Monoliths to Morrigu’s Castle.
Their ravenous monsters had been sacrificed without a second thought. That was precisely why he had brought these lower castes to battle the Seelie. He had brought them to divert the Seelie, to test them and see their strengths and weaknesses.
Many of the Royals had a very clear weakness, and that weakness was love.
So many of them seemed to have lovers they would die for.
How odd to give up one’s life for another.
He thought he could use this against them. It made them weaker and more vulnerable.
The castes he was taking back to the castle with them had fed earlier in the smaller villages near the castle. They would multiply every time they fed on humans. The Seelie would have an unending distraction for the Royals and their warriors while they went about the business of taking control of Ireland and Scotland.
That was his first goal. Hordly had no goals other than to pleasure himself and would do what he was told as long as he was able to envision his rewards. He thought of Graely and wondered where he was.
Then he thought of Tir and Queen Aaibhe’s face when they would at last storm the Fae Isle and kill as many Seelie as they could.
Pestale’s dark eyes glimmered with the vision this created in his mind. It wasn’t that he hated the Seelie Royals as a whole, it was simply a matter of survival. They would not allow him to live in the manner he was meant to and they had to be eliminated.
He wanted to rule a world he had been denied.
He wanted to show his father what he was capable of achieving.
As Pestale and Hordly rose out of the lake, their dark hair was wet with glistening pearls of water; they hovered over the edge of the lake well away from the fray.
Pestale looked toward what was left of the battle. The Unseelie had been defeated. Because that one female had extraordinary power, there were only about fifty of them left standing.
Suddenly Pestale felt a piercing gaze.