Through Time-Frankie (20 page)

“We cannot handle the iron ourselves,” Pestale said calmly. “Do you remember, our father threatening us with it?  I often wondered if he at times, slipped us some of the powdered iron into our food when we had been particularly unruly as boys. You never thought so, and as it turns out, he might one day wish he had made it lethal.”

Graely collapsed onto his knees as the iron infiltrated his system and sapped his Fae strength.

Pestale clucked his tongue, “Powdered iron, even in the syringe, causes us great discomfort, so we had Sventer fill it for us. Hordly bravely accepted to suffer holding the syringe. You see, we expected you at some point to come here outraged and threatening. We thought that we would keep you out of our hair.” Pestale sighed. You see, we can no longer trust you at all.” Pestale sneered and added, “You think I don’t understand what it feels to be so completely enamored and swept away by one female—
I do
.
I feel
what you
feel
,
I want what you want to protect and keep my female
.
Mine is loyal just to me.
She is worthy my protection and affection,
but, I would put a knife through her heart before I would allow her to interfere with my efforts to destroy our father and take over the Human Realm
.”

He turned to Hordly who was rubbing his hands. “Is that not so?”

“Damn straight,” Hordly grimaced, “But the next time iron has to be handled, you do it,” he told Pestale.

His brother ignored him and turned back to Graely. “I should put you to death right now, but I am loathing to do so. We have lost a brother in the Gaiscioch war, and I won’t lose another now if I can help it. But who knows. Maybe it has always been destiny for there to be but two Dark Princes, Hordly and me. Or, perhaps, one day you will come to your senses. In the meantime, I think I will simply keep you a prisoner until we are done, till we have witnessed the end of the Dark King.”

Graely could scarcely concentrate on what Pestale was saying. It was as though a thousand knives slashed viciously at his muscles, and stabbed into his vital organs. Bursting rockets of pain raced through his body, and it took everything he had to keep from losing consciousness.

A hammer pounded in his brain, and even through it all, he called to her with their mind link,
Frankie, Frankie, Frankie
…can you hear me, my love—I shall break free and come for you.

* * *

Eslym shifted into the hallway just outside the door of Pestale’s War Room chamber, as it was not her habit to enter this particular room without first announcing her presence.

However, as she raised her hand to knock and get his attention, she heard her lover’s raised voice and froze.

Tension flooded the air. She felt it pulsate and then she heard Graely’s voice—Graely the brother who had not been imprisoned in Conglam. Frankie’s Graely. She had seen them that night at the club and knew at once. She had not told Pestale about them, and she hadn’t been sure why that was.

She should leave and return later. Graely was never able to stay long. The wards would take him home. However, some instinct kept her standing stock-still.

She shouldn’t listen to their conversation, but she was curious about Graely, about his connection to Pestale, and the relationship between them.

However, they were arguing, and she chided herself for staying, and was just about to shift out of the castle when she heard Pestale say, those words, those awful mind-bending, slap in the face words, “
Mine is loyal just to me. She is worthy my protection
and affection,
but, I would put a knife through her heart before I would allow her to interfere with my efforts to destroy our father and take over the Human Realm
.”

She felt a jagged knife spear her through her gut as she heard those words. She felt an open hand slap her across her face. She felt a weight land on her shoulders and she crumbled as the words made their way to her heart.

Hurt flooded through her. She caught a sob in her throat as she held herself against the pain. It was as though he had sliced her open with a sword.

Through it all, she realized her heart, broken and bleeding had torn itself away from her body, displayed itself before her eyes and exploded.

It was just as Darmon had always told her.
She had been blind
.

She had committed foul acts believing they were righteous and for the good of all! She had believed in a monster,
a monster
that used others and destroyed them for his own needs.

She shifted out of the castle and into the woods not far from her home. She thought of rushing home, diving into her mother’s arms and confessing, but she was so ashamed. How could she tell anyone what she had been a party to? How could she tell anyone what she had done?

Eslym fell to her knees as the weight of the heinous act she had committed, tore her apart. She had lost a vision, she had lost an ideal and she had been in love with someone who had not existed in anything but physical form.

She meant nothing more to Pestale than what he could get from her. They had never bonded. They were not soul-mates as she had dreamed they were. How could they be, he had no soul, and hers now was tarnished.

Silent tears flowed freely before the sobs racked her body. She shouted to the heavens, “
What have I done? Oh no--what have I done?”

A strong male voice behind her said quietly, “
What have
you done, Essie?”

She turned and found she could not face him, and flung an arm over her countenance, burying it in the crook of her bent elbow.

He gently pulled her arm away and she felt the shame spill over as she told him on a racking sob, “What I have done is betray everyone who loves me. What I have done is betray myself, who I was—what I believe. I am the lowest of evil creatures, Darmon, not fit to have you as my friend. I have even offered friendship to someone who did not deserve what I did to her…”

Darmon sat beside her and said softly, “For Pestale?”

“Yes, for Pestale, but he is a false god. I thought that the sun rose and set with him. All the fairy tales came true when I looked at him, but, Darmon, I loved someone that did not exist! He is a wicked monster.” She sobbed uncontrollably.

He took her into his arms, “Tell me Essie, and we will make it right. There is always a way to fix things. Trust me to help you fix things.”

“No, I cannot. I can’t tell you what I have done. I am so ashamed,” she shouted and shrugged roughly out of his hold.

All she knew was that she wanted to hide. Her wolf took over, as she loped through the forest and away from him. She knew he wouldn’t follow, it wasn’t their way. Shapeshifters always gave one another their space.

How could she tell anyone what she had done? How could she face them ever again?

She loped through the woods unseeing, when suddenly she realized that someone was blocking her path, and she slowed as she looked for a way around him.

Sventer
stood apart from his soldiers. His arms were crossed over his chest. His eyes were narrowed and he asked, “What is it, little wolf?”

“Nothing, I need to run—I just need to run. Please get out of my way,” she answered.

“Oh, I don’t think so. The time has come for us, for Pestale to exert great caution. We haven’t come this far to have regrets, and I think perhaps you are having second thoughts—even regrets. Are you no longer committed to The Cause?”

She bared her teeth, “Get out of my way!” So saying she lunged at him, making him jump out of her jaw clamping path. Even as she lunged, she knew that she had to shift to a place they would not readily follow.

She shifted into the jungle and huddled in the heights of a tall tree.

Sventer had known somehow. He would tell Pestale and then her life would be forfeit. Perhaps she deserved to die for what she had done?

* * *

Frankie felt the drool make its way down from the corner of her mouth and streak across her chin.

She realized she had passed out. She had wasted precious time by allowing herself to pass out. Her eyes felt as though they were sewn shut but then she managed to open them and took a good look at Crystal.
Oh…no, oh no.

She had to buck up and take the pain, somehow get past it and do something soon, because it looked to her like Crystal was dying. Whatever Crystal had been given was killing her.

It hurt like hell to keep her eyes open, but she steeled herself and looked around for something, anything to help her get free. She knew she had to save Crystal and soon.

And then, like a balm, she heard Graely’s voice in her brain.

He said her name; he said he would come for her.

How could she hear him? He shouldn’t be able to get through the iron of her cell. Yet, she was certain she heard his voice in her brain, but his voice told her he was in trouble. There had been something about it? Something was choking him…but what? Where was he? What had happened?

She had to get to Graely, or die trying.

Stupid girl
, ye are just a simpleton, too cocky by half and forever rushing yerself into trouble, and then what did ye do?
Ye passed out.

Dumb as well as stupid girl.

What she needed to do was drown her Fae and dive into her Fios. She had to separate the two. It was so very difficult. For six years she had been integrating the two, and now, now she had to part them once again.

Her Fios is what got her out of Pestale’s iron prison in Conglam, and it would get her out now, she told herself, but this time something was different. The poison in her veins was so much stronger than the first dosage she had received, and it was laced with something else, something she could not recognize, but something that seemed to confuse her thinking.

It was fireball time
.

Her wrists—her wrists were bound and spread apart and over her head. No wonder her arms ached so.

Think, damn it! she screamed in her head, think. Can ye still call on yer
fireball? Can ye be accurate with it?

Okay then, stupid girl, be smarter now. Remember. Something about Eslym/alias Fiona had troubled her from the start and she had ignored it. She was in a tough jam, and the pain was making it difficult to think clearly, but...

Crystal lifted her head at that moment, and whimpered interrupting Frankie’s thoughts. She saw Crystal move, but when the Dark King’s consort did she was repeatedly injected with poison and groaned with the excruciating pain it caused her.

Frankie heard her trying to breathe evenly before Crystal managed to say, “Dearest Frankie…can you hear me, child?”

Frankie twitched with hurting, and restrained a groan. She wasn’t hallucinating was she? Crystal had talked to her, hadn’t she?

She tried to focus, but everything was a blur. Was that the voice she remembered? Was this really Crystal all wrapped up in netting? Wasn’t she like all powerful? “Crystal, is that ye or am I dreaming?”

“Frankie…I need ye to…” Crystal’s voice sounded breathless as though she had exerted a great deal of energy to speak. She stopped there as though trying to recoup.

“Don’t worry yerself, the Dark King will find ye and that will be that,” Frankie said through her pain.

“He won’t find me—
iron,
” Crystal responded on a whispery breath.

“The Dark King is affected by iron? How can that be? He is the most powerful Fae of all and isn’t he all energy now?”

“No, he maintains his Fae form within himself for me…
for us…
and even the energy he has evolved into is affected by iron.”

Frankie tried to wrap her brain around this but she was seeing stars as the poison played havoc with her muscles, making her feel like rubber, but rubber that was capable of sending waves of pain signals to her brain. Crystal who had been instrumental in saving Jazz couldn’t be defeated here. She just couldn’t, yet, here she was, trussed up like a slab of meat all netted and ready for cooking.

“Frankie, I have seen the future and fear the worst,” Crystal said and then seemed to slump.

“Crystal?” Frankie said hoarsely. “Oh no, Crystal…” she sent out wave lengths worried that Crystal had died, but no, she could hear her breathing. She was still alive.

She had to do something, and soon, but then Frankie was hit with another blast of mind-blowing burning pain, and it left her gasping for air.

She would not let herself pass out. She could bear this. She would bear this.

She felt as though she was standing on the edge.

Time had risen and slapped her harshly in the face.

Hope seemed a distant entity. Nothing was working, dissolution hovered, and darkness ruled.

What then?

She looked up as though staring at Pestale and said out loud, "Think I'm done? Think ye will win? Oh no, I'm not done yet. I'll just reach deep inside m'self, and find an answer. Ye know that I will, and if that answer means I've got to sink into hell, ye know, I'll do that too. Aye, watch out, ye devil, for I'm coming, and I won't be leaving till I have what I want, And when I have it, I'll come up like a shooting star and we'll blast ye out of the universe, aye, and take this  world back into the light."