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.