Legend 4 - Free Falling

by Claudy Conn

  If I shifted away I could find her before he got to her—and then as though reading my mind, he said with an air of superiority, “I have her attached to a bomb.”

  ~ Eighteen ~

  BRESLYN, ETE, AND I had already searched Dunbar’s home; there had been no sense of her Radzia inside this house—no scent of hers. So I didn’t waste time searching it again.

  We had also made a thorough search of the MacClennys’ toolshed, and all had seemed quiet there as well—again it lacked her scent.

  Odd though—the pit that I had not dismantled on my queen’s direct orders had seemed strangely dark and inactive. I should have dismantled it—I knew it at the time.

  We were dealing with unpredictable humans. You could not leave such a thing amongst them.

  At any rate, I realized I should have paid closer attention to the pit earlier. Portals are alive. If one listened, one—a Fae that is—could hear it breathe. Definitely should have closed that portal. No sense keeping it alive. I would do that as soon as I located my Z.

  Perhaps she had returned home? Not likely, but there was the outside chance—no, there is not, said a knowing voice in my head.

  She would not have disobeyed the queen for nothing. What could have prompted her to take off? The warlock—she would have seen him as unfinished business, and being Z, she would have believed herself capable of handling him herself.

  She hadn’t thought it out. She didn’t realize that Gais was pulling the warlock’s spidery strings, making Aaron Dunbar more powerful than he really would otherwise have been. Right, best go to visit Sally on the outside chance Z has stopped by there, if only to pay her a short visit …

  Would Sally know where Z had gone off to? No. It was a hopeless errand, as I had come to know my enfant, and she was forever running about without informing Sally, anyone actually, where she was going.

  Still, and because I wasn’t sure at that moment what else I could do, I shifted to MacDaun and went to the kitchen in search of the housekeeper. What I found was Sally’s apron thrown carelessly onto the table …

  That was not like the MacDaun’s loveable housekeeper. I scanned the house for her and realized she was not inside. And then it came to me in a wave—his scent, the warlock’s scent. Why had I not picked it up as soon as I entered? Because I hadn’t been looking for it—that was why. I hadn’t been tracking as I should have been. Damn the man’s lost soul. He had been here, and Sally’s scent was mingled with his. My eyes closed involuntarily. Dunbar had Sally.

  Z would do anything to save the dear woman. However, it was an odd ploy for Dunbar to use. Warlock he might be, but he was nothing compared with a Fae Daoine princess. She could shift in, touch Sally, and shift out with her. Later she could do a memory spell to ease Sally’s mind regarding the shifting …

  So then, taking Sally would be a fruitless effort. Why had he done so? Something was there that I wasn’t seeing. He must have the housekeeper somehow out of Z’s reach or power. He would use that fact against my Z—he would threaten to harm Sally.

  The question now was, where had he taken the housekeeper, and had he already gotten his hands on my enfant again?

  I went outside and began tracking. This time, Treaty or no, this warlock was about to make his way to hell!

  * * *

  Aaron Dunbar looked at me like I was a meal and he was famished. “You have got to be kidding!” I sneered at him.

  “Radzia, don’t you realize that you and I … could make a deal … outside Gais’s instructions?” he offered.

  I collected my temper, and this time I smirked at him. “You are an idiot.”

  “Am I? Look who has who!” he snapped.

  “Precisely,” I said. “You must know by now what I am capable of? You must know I am a Daoine princess with unimaginable powers, and with the flick of a finger, you could be dead?”

  He stepped away from me and towards the black pit before he said on a hushed note, “You don’t want to do anything rash, Radzia. You have fifteen minutes to do as I ask, or Sally goes boom.”

  “I don’t think that is a card you can play.” I had to bluster and bluff.

  “And why not?”

  “Because you harm Sally, and you are not only dead, you are dead slowly …painfully … begging for release,” I told him with the intensely I felt.

  “It doesn’t have to be this way,” he offered.

  “It doesn’t? How does it have to be?”

  “I want you to meet our king … yours and mine. He will rule this world, and you with your many abilities might be able to ingratiate yourself with him.” Aaron shrugged. “I don’t promise that—only he can promise that—but he knows you want to meet with him, so here is your chance.”

  “Here is my chance? Why, Aaron—is he going to make an appearance?”

  “No, but—”

  “Then I will meet with him, but on my terms.” I cut in on him sharply.

  “Then Sally dies,” he spat out.

  I had to do something. Stalling was a double-edged sword. She had only a few minutes, but getting him irritated might make him slip with information that might be useful. He wasn’t expecting me to be unconcerned, was he? I decided to put on a very good act and this time, I was the one to shrug. “So … then she dies.” It hurt my heart to say those words. It made something catch in my throat. It burned a hole in my mind.

  “You know, I don’t believe you mean that.”

  “We are talking about the fate of the world here, Aaron. If I have to sacrifice a beloved, so be it. I have already lost my father. Do you think I will allow anything or anyone to stand in my way when it comes to butchering Gaiscioch? I don’t want to lose my Sally, but if I must, I must—so long as I take you down first, and believe me, Aaron Dunbar, I will take you down. As long as she is alive—so then are you.”

  “Then … let’s get it over with.” He called my bluff and reached for what looked like a remote control. “Let’s blow up Sally together, shall we …” His finger went to the button.

  Bluff was over and done. I couldn’t let him hurt Sally. I reached for the remote, but he moved out of range, taking a stand closer to the dark pit with its pulsating walls.

  I moved in on him, but I was worried about that trigger finger of his and thinking about where Sally could be hidden. It had to be close enough as the remote he held was the average-variety kind—no high-tech there; then it dawned on me. She had to be in the MacClenny house. It was an empty house with the MacClennys away, and any warlock worth his evil salt could have gotten into it. I wondered if Sally were unconscious, if she was suffering, and I steeled myself. And then, I knew what to do—I called for Danté!

  * * *

  Danté—think! I told myself. What was wrong with me? Why did I doubt myself? I had tracked Sally and the warlock to the den he was using.

  I shifted inside the MacClenny house, and there I found poor Sally. She was unconscious and strapped to a chair in the middle of the room with rope, but what was unthinkable even beyond that was the fact that a bomb was strapped to her middle. It was crude, but a bomb nonetheless.

  That was what he had over my Z.

  And that confirmed it in my mind. The warlock had my enfant!

  I sent the bomb with an impatient flick of my wrist to the desert dimension and touched Sally’s wound. I would heal her later when she awoke. She was in no real danger, but with another flick of my wrist, she was untied. I carried her to the sofa and laid her there to recover on her own.

  I would attend to her later. Now … I had to find where he had taken Z. Then all at once I knew, and Z was calling my name …

  I shifted to the MacClenny toolshed and immediately took in the situation. The warlock was holding a remote, and Z was too close to the pit. “Enfant … come to me, now!”

  She was near tears as she wailed, “I can’t—he has Sally!”

  “You want her—go get her …” Dunbar shouted as he threw the remote into the pit.

  In horror, befor
e I could tell her Sally was safe, I saw my enfant dive after it.

  * * *

  Danté came … he’d heard me. I wanted to run into his arms, but Aaron had stalled me with a wave of the remote. I had to get it from him. I had to …

  Danté called me to his side, and I wanted to run to him, but how could I with Sally attached to a bomb that would ignite if Aaron pressed the button? And then I was terrified. The wicked creature that called himself a man threw the remote into the pit …

  It could hit the walls and trigger the bomb! I didn’t think; I reacted and dove after it. If I thought at all, I thought that I could just shift back once I had it in my hands.

  I caught it and immediately shifted, but instead of going forward—instead of finding myself out of the pit and standing in the toolshed—I found myself falling through a black abyss.

  I don’t know why I closed my eyes, but it was what I did. When I opened them again, it was in a bleak world and one I never thought I would enter: I was in the Dark Realm, and Gaiscioch was grinning as he walked towards me!

  Find out what happens next

  in the thrilling conclusion of the Legend series,

  Catch & Hold—Legend

  ~ One ~

  HE WASN’T ALONE. Gaiscioch had four Royal princes at his back, and they were, unlike their Dark Fae brethren, absolutely devastatingly beautiful. They had the Lianhan going on (which means they emit some kind of aphrodisiac power over humans). Fae are basically immune to the power, but a human can literally die from the sexual addiction that occurs. A human would be compelled beyond reason to have any and all sexual exercise with a Lianhan. More simply put, you could say that a human would, if possessed by a Fae with the Lianhan aura, actually screw herself to death.

  At any rate, I took their measure, happily immune to their sexual aura. They moved into position and stood two on each side of Gais. They were naked to the waist, and their slacks were tight-fitting, dark brown leathers. Their muscular chests were covered in impressive tattoos, as were their biceps, leaving me to believe they were steeped in black magic.

  Each of the four Dark Royals was classically sculptured and exquisitely handsome. I saw at once that although their eyes glittered a coal shade of black, they were exceptionally beautiful and somehow in spite of the coldness in the recesses managed to send waves of lust towards me.

  I am not only a Seelie Fae but a Daoine princess and as I said immune to the quality of their sexual vibes. Even so, I found myself licking my lips …

  I felt one of them regarding me with keen interest—an interest that felt more than sexual. Unsure how to react, I frowned at him and then returned my attention to Gaiscioch. I assumed they were allowing Gais to take command in order to reap the benefits of the war he was executing against both the human and Seelie Fae world.

  Gaiscioch stepped towards me, a dangerous glint in his brilliant eyes and a sneer on his handsome face as he said, “Well, well, Daoine Princess … miss your mark?”

  I sneered back at him and drew my sword. It is a death weapon, forged from metal found in the Fae’s destroyed world of Danu. There are only a few remaining death swords, and they are held by the Seelie Royals and the Queen’s Royal Trackers. A death sword is one of the few things that can kill a Fae—any Fae.

  Gais held one as well, and at the moment it was pointed at me. I hesitated because I knew I was in serious danger. I was outnumbered and out-powered. He could shift and stab me through while the others held me in place. Didn’t like that scenario.

  Rolo shouted in my head, Shift, Z! Shift now! Rolo is an ancient Seelie Hallow, and our Fae Hallows are capable of awesome and sometimes unspeakable magic. Rolo is small and disc shaped, and he hangs at my back from a chain I wear around my hip. We have bonded in just the short time we have been together, which began when I found him in a warlock’s house not so very long ago.

  “Where should I shift, Rolo? Dark Realm here … not sure where to go,” I spluttered at him. I had decided a while ago, based on his voice, that my Rolo was male, and it occurred to me now that all males seemed to have similar attitudes even when they were Seelie Hallows!

  He made a grumbling sound of exasperation, and I heard him clearly say, “Anywhere away from here!”

  I shifted and had the pleasure of seeing the look of frustrated surprise on Gaiscioch’s face as I caught a glimpse of him through the haze before we were traveling through space.

  It was way different than shifting in Scotland, or even in the Fae Realm. This was like traveling through a gray, misty tunnel full of spidery webs, and I didn’t like it. A discomfort accompanied the experience that made me feel off balance.

  Something was off, and I had to adjust my mind, call on my Daoine ability to regain my equilibrium. The atmosphere felt heavy and cumbersome, as though the air in the Dark Realm were trying to hold me in place. And through it all I prayed that my Sally was safe, that Danté would rescue her, and that Aaron Dunbar was by now dead by Danté’s hands.

  I pushed out against the dark, sticky tunnel with all my might, and I closed my eyes as I struggled. For a moment when I opened them again, everything around me looked ugly and gooey, so I hugged myself and closed my eyes again until I felt the welcome sensation of once more standing on terra firma. I undid one eyelid that was plastered shut and then the other.

  Gray, clay-like, cracked, and barren land was all around me. I could see some trees, but they were all dead; some dry, gray bushes, same condition; and a hodgepodge of withered, dried-up growth loose and blowing about like sagebrush. I stood on the cracked, gray earth and wondered what I should do next.

  Sighing, I noted that the color scheme in the Dark Realm was based in shades of black and gray, no variations.

  Biting my lower lip as I considered my options, I noticed something in the distance. I felt my face scrunch up as I tried to focus on it in the dim light cast by the two moons that hovered in a black, starry sky. Was it slithering? I think the damn thing was slithering, and it was doing it as it pointed itself in my direction.

  That couldn’t be good. Maybe it was just a trick of the eye?

  “Where in the Dark Realm are we, Rolo?”

  “Not sure.”

  “Oh just great—thought you knew your way around here?” Rolo had once belonged to the Dark King and had lived in the Dark Realm hundreds of years ago.

  “How should I? I was never taken outside the Dark King’s retreat—so very different from all of this. It was a place he created for his human woman. I brought you to that spot—to where it was, but something has happened … It doesn’t seem to be here any longer.” Rolo sounded baffled.

  What was I going to do with a baffled Seelie Hallow? No help there. I raised my arms in exasperation, and my hands brushed up against something. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it wasn’t repulsive—good thing so far. And it wasn’t gooey, but then, oh jeez, it vibrated. I jerked my hand away from it as I hurriedly jumped back and stared hard, but at that moment another thing caught the corner of my eye, both grabbing and diverting my attention. That slithering thing was in fact moving in my direction, and it was closer—much closer …

  “Rolo …”

  “Touch the fabric once more, Daoine Princess,” Rolo said softly. “I think you have discovered something new—something that occurred after I was separated from my Dark King.”

  So I did touch. I pushed in fact, and it felt like an electric current went through me and then back against the invisible wall—and that was what it was, some kind of invisible wall.

  “Enter, Daoine Princess—we have been waiting,” said a voice without gender, without feeling, something like what you might imagine a computer-generated voice would sound like if it wasn’t given the ‘human’ touch.

  “Rolo?”

  “If I had shoulders, Princess, I would be shrugging them.”

  “Oh great, just great,” I said but heard a hissing sound at my back. I turned my head and saw that the thing that had been slithering towards me was
the most enormous anaconda I had ever seen, with empty, coal eyes and teeth as large as a shark’s. Moreover, this one was a Dark Fae caste with Dark Fae powers …

  I turned back to the invisible wall that was presently parting like a curtain and showering me in a blinding ray of light.

  I took a chance and stepped through!

  * * *

  Being a Fae Prince and realizing that I was helpless made me want to put my fist through something. I smacked myself across my head. How could this have happened? Why hadn’t I seen it coming? Why wasn’t I there when she needed me? How did I not save her when she jumped into the pit?

  Aaron Dunbar was backing away from me. I saw him, but I didn’t have time to bother with him. I had taken care of Sally already, and she was safe. Now I had one thing I had to do, but first I hurriedly sent a mental message to Breslyn. If he could he would go after the black sorcerer and deal with him while I attended to my Z.

  How had this come about, you ask, and rightly so.

  Earlier, I had made a complete and thorough search of the MacClennys’ toolshed, and all had seemed quiet there. At that point in time, my enfant had not been there, and thus there had been no scent of my Z.

  It seemed odd at the time, but I was too intent on finding her and didn’t give it enough consideration.

  I was, however, struck with the notion that I should have disobeyed my queen (as Bres and I have done so often) and dismantled the black portal. However, on my queen’s direct orders I had left it in place.

  I didn’t take time to listen to the portal and believed it wasn’t active, so I left it and went in search of my Z. All roads led me back to the toolshed … and damn if the bloody pit wasn’t alive and active. Something in my gut earlier (humans are right to listen) told me I should have dismantled it. I have a better understanding of humans than my queen has. I knew that leaving such power within their unpredictable reach was not wise. Yet, in this instance … I followed her direct command. At any rate, I realized too late that the damn thing was secretly alive. If one listened, one—a Fae that is—could hear it breathe. Definitely should have closed that portal. No sense keeping it alive.