Through Time-Frankie (15 page)

“Not sure, but he has used the Gold Net as a base, and coated it with the oils of
Dragon’s Breath
,” she answered on a testy note as she rocked to and fro.

“Stop it Frankie, don’t move. Conserve your strength. This won’t take might to break, it will take thought,” he said softly.

“Graely, the net is full of needles…they keep pin pricking me, they do, with the poison, but eventually the needles will dry up. ‘Tis what I’m trying to do…dry them up.”

He loved her brave never give up attitude. He loved everything about her, but the constant agony she was experiencing was something she couldn’t hide as she released groan after groan.

He knew the poison was attacking her nerve endings, inflaming them, making her suffer beyond endurance. He had to do something.

“Frankie,” he said louder than he meant to, and then with his mind. He didn’t want to draw any attention. Pestale couldn’t know he was here.
Frankie, we need to work fast.

I don’t know how much time I have left to me.

* * *

Frankie was in a sitting position, but her head had fallen to one side. The pain was becoming more than she could bear.

She knew she was about to pass out. Her thoughts were clouded and she could feel her body demanding her mind give it rest. She had to fight to stay conscious.

She peered through the netting and saw him.

She was only able to see his dark, fire-lit beautiful eyes and whispered his name again as though saying it would make the nightmare vanish, as though saying it might get her into his arms and away, “Graely, m’own Graely.”

He was here with her. Somehow he had figured it out and found her. It gave her the encouragement she needed to keep fighting. She had to find a way out of this mess. He couldn’t shift in because as soon as he did, he would be a prisoner of the iron. But, it was good, so good to have him near.

Graely, she knew could die if over exposed to iron. It seemed to affect him and his brothers even more than it did the Seelie Fae. “Graely, stand away from the cell…can’t have you getting sick from the iron.”

“Hush, child,” he said soothingly.

“Not A Child!”

He laughed, “Are you not? Well then, when we get you out, you can tell me why you think you are not.”

“Telling ye now, in advance, that I will get out. So then, does that not make me fully grown?”

“It does, but not fully wise,” he answered, “But now let me think, I’ve got to find a way to get you out of the cell, out of the netting.” His voice was racked with concern.

An agonizing bullet of poison shot through her and Frankie couldn’t stop the yelp that escaped her lips.

“Frankie, my Frankie,” he cried and was sure he was experiencing her pain. He had to stop himself from doubling over as her pain raced through his mind.

Frankie knew she could not give in, she would not be defeated.

“My precious child,” he whispered, feeling as though he would die if he couldn’t free her.

She cut him off with a rough laugh, “There ye go again,
precious,
yes,
child
, no.”

She made him smile. In the face of horror, she made him smile and for a moment she stared at his curved lips. How she loved him.

“Graely,” she said, “Pestale said this net is his new weapon, but what is worse, so much worse, is that he is planning to use it on someone soon. He didn’t know I would end up here. He didn’t know that, so this was designed for another.”

“Never mind that now, we have to figure out how to get it off you so you can shift out.” Graely said attacking his head with his open palm as though he could force an idea out.

“Wait Graely, the wards are going to come for ye any minute. I can feel them pulsing. So, remember the first thing you have to do is warn them. I can only think that Pestale means to use this netting on someone important…like…”

“Like one of the Fae Queens—either Mab or Aaibhe,” Graely interrupted dully, and waved it away. “Now, forget that and think. What is the antidote for
Dragon’s Breath?”

At that moment, Graely almost screamed. “Frankie, you’re right. I can feel the wards coming for me. We only have a moment.” He said desperately, “Crystal warded Conglam against my intrusion. She didn’t want me to have anything to do with my brothers. I learned how to get through over the years, but not how to stay. We don’t have any time left…I can feel it grabbing for me, but I have an idea…”

“Graely…tell them where I am,” Frankie urged cutting him short.

“Yes, but listen to me love. You
can’t
use your Fae to break the net, but you are also a Fios. It is your secret weapon, and one Pestale is always forgetting about. You are Fios and that is the key out of here.  It is what makes you strong against the Fae magic. Use your Fios, Frankie, and I will get back to you as soon as I can.”

“Oh Graely…tell my da, Jazz and Trevor what has happened. And don’t ye worry, ye are a brilliant prince, and I’ll do as ye say. I’ll use m’Fios.” She could hear the determination in her voice even as her blood burned with the poison.

She saw his dark eyes and they were wet with unshed tears. She knew he was in his own hell. She knew he wanted to save her and she blew him a kiss. “Graely, ye know that we have unfinished business, so I’ll see ye soon.”

“Sure you will…for I will die without ye, Frankie,” he answered.

His words faded with the breeze the wards made as they yanked him away.

Frankie sighed and knew how awful he must feel. She didn’t have time to think about that now. She had to do something. The pain was sapping what was left of her Fae strength. Graely had told her to forget her Fae and be a Fios.

“Right then,” she said out loud. “
I am a Fios
. What would a Fios do if a Fae net was thrown over her?”

She knew, all at once she knew.

She was too much Daoine not to be affected by the net, but she had something she could do. She had needed Graely to remind her. Weak and in pain, she had not been thinking clearly. But now, she may still be weak and in pain, but there was something she could do, somewhere she could go for help.

All she had to do was get down deep into the dark well that held all her Fios magic.

Fios were created as a guard against Fae invasion of their homelands, Ireland and Scotland. Fios could see the Fae even through their invisibility and Fios were immune to most of the Fae’s most powerful magic.

She had to put her Fae to sleep as she worked her Fios spell and brought up her fireball.  
Her fireball
! It was more powerful than any Fae even knew. Even Jazz and her father did not realize that it had grown since that day in Dublin six years ago.

Now, she needed a tempered fireball, petite and pliable. In spite of her hurting, she felt a grin coming on.

Wrapped in the net, she maneuvered her hand toward her ankles, and her Fios went to work, creating the burning orb the size of a golf ball.

Carefully she sent it spinning at the net encircling her ankles until the magic netting around her ankles had been sizzled away.

She didn’t feel quite strong enough to jump up, but she gradually got to her feet and stretched. The poison was still in her, the pain was still agonizing and the netting was still all around her, keeping her in place. However, now with her legs free, she did what Princess Radzia had taught her.

She shifted underground, leaving the net on the iron floor above.

Once in the earth, she spit out dirt and shifted again, this time back to where the portal had originally thrust her out of its yawning mouth.

It was difficult to move, as the bubbles of poison were still shooting through her system. She had a moment of clarity and wondered why she wasn’t being thrown back home by the wards. Of course, she had come through a portal. Did that make the difference?

She stepped out onto the lush grass, and felt her eyes open wide.

Oh no, no, oh no, she thought what the frigging heck!

Frankie was surrounded.

Wolves
, with yellow glaring eyes, all in position and ready to strike. 

She sighed heavily and said, “Seriously?”

Chapter Eighteen

GRAELY FOUND HIMSELF standing on a ledge overlooking the lush green valley of the Grampian Mountains. The wards always seemed to shove him back here. He wondered at it. He loved Scotland. If he could, he would live a man’s life, take a wife—and there could only ever be one for him. The vision of Frankie sitting by their fireplace, turning to smile at him, presented itself, real and compelling, children running about the house, made him feel a happiness he did not think an Unseelie could feel.

He would give up immortality to have that. He would give up his magical powers, his many Otherworldly skills, just to have that.

It was a dream, and right now, he had no time for such dreams. He had to find a way to rescue Frankie from Pestale.

He knew that Conglam was surrounded by wards to prevent the Daoine and Seelie Fae from entering, but Jazz wasn’t just a Seelie Fae, was she?

She still had her human deeply etched in her make-up, she was still a Fios and could she perhaps put those attributes front and center to fool the wards for a little while?

He shifted to the last spot he had been with Jazz knowing that time in Conglam was very different and only moments had passed in the Human Realm.

Jazz was on him the moment he appeared by the Liffey River, “Graely, what did you find? Do you know where the portal took her? You haven’t been gone that long…only minutes. Did you find her?”

Trevor had just returned from depositing the Daoine Prince with Queen Mab. He had quickly told her the facts as they knew them to be and asked that she relay them to Queen Aaibhe as he wished to return and help find Frankie.

Thus Trevor, upon noting that Graely was too close to his mate, shifted between them, and cast him a darkling, unhappy look.

Frankie’s father appeared nearly insane, as he marched helplessly in circles. He stopped short all at once as Graely announced, “I found Frankie in Conglam.”

“How did you enter? It is warded against all of us,” Trevor demanded.

Deimne was in his face, “If you found her, why isn’t she here? How could you have left her with your brothers?”

Jazz put a restraining hand on both Trevor and Deimne, “Stop it! You are again wasting time.” She turned back to him and said urgently, “Graely?”

“She was trapped in a cell made of iron…
all iron
…” he started to say.

“That wouldn’t trap her,” Deimne shouted. “She isn’t affected by iron!”

“No, but the netting, the
Gold
Wiele
coated with
Dragon’s Breath
stopped her, and I couldn’t get to her before the wards pulled me back. I am able to shift into Conglam, only because I discovered that I can bring up my father’s genes as dominant--his genes allow me to enter Conglam for a short time, as though the wards are confused, but once they sense my presence, I am yanked back and always to the Highlands.”

Deimne began pacing again, his wings tightly drawn in at his broad back. “
Dragon’s Breath
is mind-bendingly painful to Fae,” Deimne ran a hand through his hair. “My daughter…?” he pulled at his free flowing platinum locks. “My daughter…” he was obviously too distraught to say much more.

“Yes, but she is determined to release herself,” Graely was himself in some distress, “And
she is
in excruciating pain—has been for too long. It will drain her if she doesn’t find a way out soon.”

Jazz closed her eyes, but even as she opened them again to see that Graely was reaching out to both comfort her and get her attention, Trevor smacked his hand away hard. Jazz turned on her mate and glared, before she turned back to Graely and said, “What can we do?”

“Frankie wanted me to tell you, Trevor and Deimne that we must inform your Queens that Pestale is using the Blue Demons in some sort of capacity to initiate his plan. I have no idea what that plan is, but he has had six years to plot it out. Secondly, Jazz…” he hesitated. “I think
you
can help. I think if you concentrate on your human—your Fios, you can get past the wards and we—you can get to Frankie. You are also immune to iron, and can break open the door that keeps her within.”

“NO,” Trevor said. “You can’t go there.”

“Trev, this is Frankie
. I
must…
we don’t
have a choice.”

She turned away from him.

Trevor couldn’t give up. He kept calling her name. “Jazz…let me try.”

She didn’t answer him and he turned to Graely, “What is happening?”

“Your mate knows you can’t get past the iron walls that keep Frankie a prisoner. She is, I imagine, calling on everything she was before she became Fae. She has to fool the wards,” Graely said quietly.

“Why don’t the wards pull Frankie back? Why did they let her in?” Deimne demanded.

“They let her in because she came through a portal, which is tantamount to an invitation. The wards can’t pull her out because she is hidden in an iron cell,” Graely answered and sighed heavily.

“Won’t the wards discover their mistake? She is a Daoine and forbidden to enter Conglam—portal or no. Won’t the wards return her to the Human Realm as they did you?” Deimne asked.

“We don’t know how long it will be before the wards ‘discover their mistake’ as you put it, and in the meantime Frankie is being poisoned by
Dragon’s Breath
,” Graely returned on a hard grim note.

Jazz turned and kissed Trevor lightly on the lips. Graely watched as the Seelie Prince stroked her golden lengths of hair and softly said her name. He felt an ache inside and an overwhelming need to get back to Frankie. “I can shift you there, but I am not certain, I will get through,” he said quietly.

“Just point me to her,” Jazz said and Graely lightly touched her shoulder.

As it happened, the wards opened their doors to Jazz, but Graely couldn’t get through and he found himself facing two angry Fae by the Liffey River.

He was heartsick. All he wanted was to do was get to Frankie, and help her home, and here were two Royal Seelie Fae who moved menacingly in his direction.

He could shift away. He
should
shift away and avoid a confrontation, but Frankie wouldn’t want him to do that. She would want him to stand his ground and help them through this.

* * *

Jazz found herself alone in Pestale’s dungeon and looked around with disgust. Pestale had a chance to start over here in Conglam, and what did he do, but construct a castle with a dungeon…full with instruments of torture.

She shrugged it off and sniffed the air, careful to keep her Fios centered. She found the iron cell Frankie was imprisoned within and went to the door, opened it with a flick of her wrist and found that
Frankie was gone.

Jazz grinned, “Okay, Frankie-girl, you figured it out and shifted. Where would you go?”

Jazz shifted outside the castle walls and surveyed the terrain. Green, everything was green lawns and colorful flowers. The air was warm and full with exotic scents, but she immediately discovered that she could sense Frankie.

She wasn’t wonderful at tracking, but she wasn’t awful at it either, and then she saw
him,
a lone wolf. He was huge and eyeing her thoughtfully. She knew exactly what he was—
a Shapeshifter.

She took a few steps toward him and as she tried to decide just what to say, he turned and loped off.

With Fios speed, Jazz followed.

* * *

Frankie stood amongst the wolves unmoving. She wasn’t about to engage them if she could help it. If she was stronger, if she could just figure out where to go from here, she could just shift. She had used the last ounce of strength to get her and she hadn’t a clue where to go. She could always just hover in the sky but she needed time to recoup her strength and her powers.

Something in the demeanor of the beautiful creatures glaring at her had caught her interest and she plodded on sure, that they no doubt were threatened by her sudden appearance in their territory.

“Nice wolves,” she said as soothingly as she could, still standing stock-still with her arms at her sides. “Daoine Fae here—Fae of nature,
looveee
nature.  Not staying, just trying to get home, ye must see that I mean ye no harm?”

One of the multi-colored wolves snarled and showed its teeth, another wolf, moved around her and snapped at the air. Probably the betas, she thought.

Frankie just kept talking in her easy fashion, sure that they were not quite ready to attack. Her inner sense told her she was missing something and when that happened, she always liked to get to the bottom of it.

Shifting here had been difficult. She was still weak and depleted. Shifting or flying now would take the last bit of strength she had. She needed to stall for as long as she could. She could feel her body healing. Now, all she needed was time.

She opened her arms and her palms non-threateningly and said, “So here is the thing, if ye will but listen. I have no wish to be here, and less to interfere with ye, or yers. No, not here by design. Here by mistake—
sort of
. I don’t really know where to go in this realm and I am on the run from a Dark Prince. Maybe ye know of him? His name is Pestale,” she stopped as she saw them step away from her and growl. She tried again, “There ye go. Ye know of him. Well he had me imprisoned, he did,  in his dungeon and I’m not feeling quite right yet, though I shouldn’t be telling ye that, should I…if ye mean to attack that is, which I’m dearly hoping ye don’t.”

Several wolves, seemed almost to gasp, as though they did in fact, understand her, and she frowned over the problem.

They made mewling noises between each other and the two she had pegged as the alphas stepped closer to her, and sniffed her, as though for confirmation of the truth to her words.

Apparently, they seemed to understand something of what she said.
Right,
she thought,
magical wolves.

She watched as one of the wolves, a silver streaked black beauty, suddenly lifted his head away from her and sniffed the air. With a sudden movement, he whispered a ‘wolfen’ string of sounds toward the rest of his hefty pack and off he went, loping at an amazing speed.  

Frankie licked her lips and continued in her quiet way, “So then, no doubt, ye be wondering who I am, eh, and why a Dark Prince would have wanted to take me prisoner and cause me so much trouble?” Frankie smiled hopefully and carefully spread her wings at her back, aware of the picture she presented.

The pack as a unit, stepped back, and many went onto their haunches, apparently not unpleasantly surprised by the fact that she had wings.

Hurriedly, she continued, hoping to get across to them, the fact, that she meant them no harm. She cleared her throat and told them, “Ah, so ye see that I’m not yer usual garden variety of Fae.” She sighed, “I hope ye believe that I am a Daoine, a Sluagh, in particular.  M’da says we are the last of our kind, but I’m hoping mayhap that might not be true forever.” She saw that they seemed very interested, so she continued to talk in her easy rambling style. “M’mother now, she
was
a human,
a Fios
human. It is m’da I get the wings from. Came on me just before I turned eighteen last month in fact.
That was a surprise
,” she snorted, and a few of the wolves snarled at the sound. With wide eyes she said, “Oh, sorry, bad habit, need to grow out of it.” A heavy sigh as she thought of how it had felt when she first realized she was going to have wings. “Well, m’wings and what I felt about them at first, quite another story for another time.  Now, all I be wanting is to go home. I would have shifted home, had I the strength, but need a bit more time to heal ye see, for Pestale poisoned me.” She sighed and eyed them, for they were studying her with keen interest and none were snarling any longer. “Not sure ye are getting what I am saying, but, maybe ye’ll get enough from m’tone, eh?” She looked at the pair who she was now sure were the alphas. Everything about them spoke of leadership and confidence. Odd, that she could think of an animal as being confident, but it radiated off of them. Something in the way they stood apart from the others, in control of themselves and the beta soldier wolves nearby, betas ready to serve and protect the pack.

Frankie studied their markings, striking and a physical indication of their status as alphas. One of them, the female came closer and engaged her eyes with her own bright yellow, speaking orbs. Frankie was impressed.

The low throttled growling had totally stopped, as did the baring of teeth from the individual beta wolves. The two alphas who had been regarding her with suspicious yellow eyes, looked at one another, and nuzzled.

Frankie smiled, and then nearly jumped out of her skin as one of those two alphas morphed right before her eyes. With sudden dawning, she realized…

These wolves were Shapeshifters
!

As this was her first experience with shapeshifters she wasn’t sure if she needed to be even more worried than she had been before. All she knew about Shapeshifters were the legends, only the legends. Could a Shapeshifter kill a Fae? If one caught a Fae, they could rip its head off. This was so not good. Maybe she should just shift away. Right, and go where? She needed help. Somehow her instincts, her gut, told her they meant her no harm.