“There is more,” Deimne said. “Pestale allowed his non-shifters to devour the residents of not one, but three villages. The people in those towns were totally wiped out--consumed. Those abominations will soon multiply.”
Z spat angrily, “Bastards!”
“That caste is helpless against us. They are no more than numbers we will easily put away and are meaningless in the fight we will take to them,” Queen Mab offered impatiently.
“So to sum things up we have the possibility of a thing called a Gorka, which from its name does not sound good. And we have hordes of monsters about to be released into the world,” Jazz summed up. “I’m guessing he wants large numbers of Unseelie out and about to distract us. They are perhaps meaningless to us, but not to humans who we have sworn to protect. He will keep setting them on the cities, distracting us from our purpose. I don’t think he has guessed our purpose, which is to bring our fight to them, but he doesn’t have to if he is keeping us forever at bay.”
“My Jazmine Decker is very right,” Trevor put in. “We must take the fight to him soon, before he can use the portal and send his creatures into the cities, and before he can find and retrieve the Gorka.”
“In the meantime, my mate has whispered into the ears of one of the human generals. She has told him to create bullets and rockets out of iron. That should help the humans defend themselves which will free more of our warriors,” Trevor added.
Radzia moved to Danté and he touched her cheek as she looked up into his golden eyes, and pulled at his auburn braid. He collected her and brought her in close and whispered a word of reassurance into her ear.
“We can also get the message across to the smaller communities,” Z said. “I’m not affected by iron. Next time the Unseelie attack a village, I’m going in holding an Unseelie up by its grossness and slicing its head off with an iron bar and telling everyone around that iron can kill ‘em. How is that?” Z said with a wide smile.
Trevor and Danté grinned and Jazz did a high five with Z and said, “I like that. I like that a whole lot.”
“A thought,” Aaibhe cut in quietly. “We will have a great deal to repair in the Human World when we finally get Pestale under control, and my brave warriors we shall. However, we will have to find a way to make the humans forget that we, the Seelie Fae, and our Druids exist. They have witnessed us in the fight to help them and even after we enacted the Féth Fiada, they knew something they couldn’t see what was killing the monsters. We shall have to take care of that.”
Breslyn grinned, took up his dark blond long hair and tied it at the nape of his neck with a leather string. “Leave that to me. I think I have the answer.”
“Are you going to share?” Jazz asked.
“Not just yet. One thing at a time, Jazmine Decker,” he answered.
Jazz didn’t like that Trevor had them all calling her by her first and last name as though they were one.
~*~
Pestale stood with his muscular long legs spread wide apart. He pushed the long black strands of his free flowing hair back and
tied them with leather to hold them in place against the harsh wind.
His eyes scanned the horizon as his sandals scraped along the stone flooring of the castle’s open parapet. He bent his elbows onto the stone ledge and gazed past the moat far below, past the stockade and down into the green valley.
Everything about Morrigu’s Castle called to and settled him. He discovered that he loved this place. The moment they had arrived at the castle in the Highlands, he knew. And then he stepped within its walls and he felt the power surge through him as he realized this was where he belonged.
He was a Royal. A Dark Prince, but a Royal all the same. This was Morrigu’s Castle and therefore his own. He was going to rename it eventually.
The land spoke to him. He was certain it whispered his name. He would be King of all the Universe.
He would rule and his word would never be challenged. In the end, all would benefit from his rule. The humans, though slaves would no longer suffer war. He would be the sole arbitrator of all. He would lay down his law. He was strong enough to wipe out all opposition until there was none. Then he would allow the humans their track of earth and their pleasures as long as they served him well.
Pestale grimaced as thoughts of Morrigu filtered through. As of late, she was no longer focused on ruling the Universe.
She was too involved with the male human, what was his name—Dude. No, the human used that word, but he wasn’t Dude. He was Ray Wicken.
He seemed to think he was magical, maybe even a warlock he said. This had made Pestale grin. He was a fool, but harmless.
Ray Wicken didn’t know what real magic was, but he seemed to be good for Morrigu so Pestale had allowed him to live.
He liked that this Ray had such a calming influence over her. It pleasured him to see her so happy. How odd that he cared so much.
The human male seemed to comfort her. He had been at first slightly jealous, but he put that sensation to rest as the human was useful as a good diversion for her.
Pestale was not emotional and although he could be kind when it suited him, he was not inclined to be. However, Morrigu was different. He had always felt an empathy with her. She had been used and then mistreated by his father. She had been discarded as though she was nothing, just as he had been. Besides that, she was in a manner of speaking, his mother.
Her genes were in part his genes, and perhaps now, she might enjoy the pleasures she was entitled to experience—the pleasures the Dark King had denied them all.