“Knowing that Twalla is the solution to many problems, is not quite the same as having the Magical Thread, my sweet Jazmine Decker,” Trevor said on a low note. Looking at him she knew he had not been convinced.
~*~
Frankie hugged her knees as she rocked back and forth on her butt. She had shifted to Killarney Upper Lake in Ireland and sat high on the foothill overlooking the glistening water.
No one was telling her anything, but she knew the situation was about to unravel.
She was twelve years old and felt as though she had already lived a lifetime. She was tired of training. She was sick of jousting with a fake sword. She was ready to help. She was confident that she could help. She was quickly learning on her own.
She hadn’t reached the pinnacle of her powers. She knew she wouldn’t attain them until her majority, but she was probably more powerful than any Fae alive including the Royals. She knew this was more than a feeling and she was ready to test herself..
She held back all the time during her training sessions. She was afraid that if she gave in to the swirling magic building up inside of her, the human would be lost. She didn’t want to lose her human side. She wasn’t ready to let go of that part of her life.
Her life? She had been ripped out of her century, and thrown into Faery. She sighed and thought of Nuad.
Nuad had been training her to fight. Symba the Seelie Art director had been training her to adapt to the present human world and to the Seelie world. She believed she had assimilated everything they had taught her…..and more.
Still, no one took her seriously.
No one except Jazz treated her like a thinking person. She should tell Jazz what was happening and what was happening to her body magically, but Jazz was presently closeted in the War Room.
There was a slightly different breeze with the scent of pine and heather as she turned around. In spite of the fact that the Dark Ones were their sworn enemies, she smiled and said softly, “Graely.”
“Frankie,” he said and she saw him actually really smile for the first time since she had encountered him.
He dropped down beside her and sighed heavily, “Frankie, I know the Sluagh is your father.”
“Y—es?”
“He and Trevor will be meeting with my brother Pestale, and I cannot say for sure, but I believe it is a trap. I don’t want you to think I had anything to do with it although it was I who delivered the message.”
Frankie felt her heart skip a beat and her hazel eyes glittered suddenly with amber fire. “Graely, ye can’t let him hurt my da. Ye can’t.”
“They don’t trust me. I am not privy to their plans and if I intervene they will combine their powers and kill me. I am not certain why they haven’t done so yet, because I am sure Pestale knows I am not one of them…not really.”
“I must go to m’da and to Trevor…I must stop this meeting,” she said getting to her feet in a rush.
He took her hand as he jumped up and stood looking at her., “No. They won’t pay any mind to you, child. You may feel all grown up, but the truth is you aren’t. He won’t listen to you. You are just too young.”
“Too young? I don’t think so! I am a part of this and have been from the day we encountered Hordly in my time. Graely, you know that I have been to the Dark Realm and back, and you must also know that I feel things beyond my kin…and…,” she was about to tell him more and stopped herself.
He saw it at once. “Ah, you don’t quite trust me.” He sighed heavily. “I understand, but know this, Frankie of Sluagh, you can. I mean for you to trust me and I will never let you down.”
She looked into his black eyes. Some would call them dark as charcoal, but she knew better. Like charcoal, they could be ignited.
“Friendship is earned,” she said quietly.
“Then so it shall be,” he said.
“Help me protect Trevor and m’da.”
“I wish that I could, but I don’t see how,” he said and shifted off.
She was aware of a feeling of loss when he left. She was in many ways quite lonely in this new world so full with impending dangers. He was the only adult that seemed to listen to her.
“Now da,” she said out loud. “You are not leaving to meet Pestale without me.”
She shifted uninvited into the Queen’s War Room and looked around. “Where is da?”