by Claudy Conn
Frankie looked down at her boots and did not answer, so Jazz took her chin. “Don’t you think you can trust me with this?”
Frankie still did not answer, but Jazz tenaciously prodded. “Come on, Frankie. You told me you want to stay with me, so I guess that means you trust me, right?”
“I trust you with m’life, Miss Jazz,” Frankie said solemnly.
“I know your mom probably told you never to speak about what you are, but you and I … we are well past that, so, tell me, show me.” Jazz looked right into the girl’s sad hazel eyes.
“I be that afraid … not of ye, but of it …”
“Show me, and I’ll help you learn how to control whatever it is you are afraid of. Okay?”
She smiled at Jazz and used the word she had adopted days before. “Okay. This thing I can do … doesn’t work against people, only Fae, and m’mum said that I must never use it unless it was a last resort … something to help me escape, and she said if humans saw me do it, they would burn me as a witch.”
Jazz put an arm around her. “You know that is never going to happen. We are well past that, and no one can see you use this ‘thing’ of yours, as we are on warded and concealed ground. Humans and Dark Fae can’t see us here, so trust me.”
“Okay,” Frankie said and smiled.
“First, tell me, have you ever used this against a Fae?”
Frankie shook her head. “Never had to. Always pretended not to see them.”
“But if one was coming at you, and you needed to escape, this would be something that would buy you time?”
“Yes,” Frankie said gravely. “I call it my fireball.”
“Show me.” Excitement infiltrated Jazz’s system.
Frankie concentrated with her eyes closed and held her hands out, palms up. Sparks began to fly in a circular motion around both her palms. The sparks attached to one another in quick order and within moments formed a ball the size of a baseball.
Jazz clapped her hands and said, “Throw it at an imaginary Fae. Think … there it is, right in front of you … twenty feet.”
“I’ve never tried to throw it,” Frankie said tentatively. “I was always afraid someone would see.”
“No one will see. Throw it, sweetie, with all your might!”
Frankie threw the ball, and it went well past the distance of twenty feet and landed in the tall grass. It ignited a small fire, and Frankie again surprised Jazz by closing her eyes, blowing softly, and extinguishing the blaze. She said solemnly, “Don’t want to burn the field.”
Jazz hugged her. “That was superb! Frankie, I am going to work with you and teach you to control your fireballs so that you can perfect your skills.”
“M’mum said that the fireball once thrown will attach itself to a Fae and then remove their magic from them long enough for me to run and hide,” Frankie said in that lilting Irish as though she were reciting a poem. “But I don’t know if it would really work, as I never used it.”
“I wonder …” Jazz said, formulating an idea.
Frankie now began to chatter as she shook her head and shrugged. “M’mum didn’t have the fireball magic in her. She said she had speed and the sight … little more, but that she thought I might grow up to be the most powerful of all Fios. Said it was in our blood.”
“Speed? How fast can you run, Frankie?” Jazz asked excitedly.
“Well, now, Miss Jazz, I can run … very fast.” Frankie beamed, but then her smile vanished. “I used to run from Farmer Higgens when he first brought me to his farm. He would drink and call me lazy and raise a hand to me, and I used to run, but it only made it worse for me the next time.”
Jazz hugged her again and thought of going back to visit Higgens to teach him a lesson he would never forget. “Never mind that, because he will never hurt you again.”
“There is something else—I heal … very quickly. M’mum said it only proved I was meant to do great things.” Frankie shuffled her feet. “He noticed it … Farmer Higgens, he noticed that I healed quickly, and it would make him angry … and he would hit me again.” She sighed. “I heal, but I do feel the hurt, ye know.”
Jazz held Frankie’s shoulders. “When you are done, you will be a proficient little fighter, and you will have all your Fios skills lined up and ready to use. You will be the greatest Fios ever born. I can feel it, Frankie.”
“But …”
“You will be a force, Frankie. Right now, we have a Dark Fae Prince by the name of Hordly, and he means us harm. He is here in the past by mistake, and we are going to have to find a way to send him back to where he came from before he does something in the past to terribly alter the future.”
“I know. I’ve heard ye and Prince Trevor talk about him.” Frankie put her hand in Jazz’s hand and looked up at her. “I also heard ye say you need to get back to your time, and it worries me.”
“Why, sweetie?”
“When ye go … I want to go with ye. Please don’t leave without me.”
Jazz thought about this. Could she somehow adopt Frankie? Could papers be created saying she was her ‘sister’?
“There’s time enough to deal with that, but I will never leave you unless you wish me to. I promise that I will look out for you one way or another. Okay?”
Frankie smiled. “Okay, but I don’t want another family. I want you and Trevor.”
Jazz was already more attached to Frankie than she cared to admit. She flicked Frankie’s nose. “We’ll see, but one thing is for sure, I will look out for you.”
“Then you’ll never leave me,” Frankie said with such a serious face that all Jazz could do was hug her close.
And then it happened.
The sky turned black—as though someone had turned a switch.
Dark, billowing clouds filled the heavens but not overhead, only on the other side of the wards.
She knew at once this was dark magic. She knew it was meant to impress, but was it the Dark Prince’s magic? It didn’t have his feel.
Overhead everything was still clear and blue, a lovely day at Prince Breslyn’s estate. Bizarre, she thought as she watched and waited.
Bolts of fire struck, but instead of hitting the ground or a tree and then dissipating, they took shape. They slithered through the sky, slithered over the earth … snakes of fire testing the wards.
Glinting daggers of blood-splattered metal slashed through the atmosphere, and even though Jazz knew they were safe on their side of the invisible fence, she pushed Frankie back towards the house and commanded, “Go on, get Trevor—he has to see this.” She watched Frankie run towards the house and then turned back towards the slithering fire-snakes that filled the atmosphere. While the blood-tinted daggers slashed the air with no discernible pattern or target only feet away, Jazz bolstered herself and walked towards the anomaly.
Oh, yeah, she thought, this was most definitely dark magic, but it wasn’t Dark Fae magic. This was sorcery.
She had met a wizard once in her life, but he had been like a Dumbledore, with a beautiful smile and bright, warm eyes. He wouldn’t do this.
The Wizard Rysdale was all about light magic. She had been lucky enough to encounter him when she was younger and traveling through Ireland with her parents. He had saved her life when she had tripped and fallen backwards into traffic. He had simply looked her way, and she felt his magic wrap around her and lift her back onto the curbing.
The Wizard Rysdale knew at once what she and her mother were and had introduced himself before he vanished.
This was not anything like the Wizard Rysdale, and yet, she mused, it felt familiar.
Suddenly a dark, round hole similar to what she thought of as a wormhole appeared, and a being began to take shape right before her eyes.
Standing with his arms outstretched, he brought them together with a clap of thunder, rubbed them, and glanced her way to cluck at her.
Holy shit, Jazz thought, opening her eyes wide. Damn, but he looked like Rysdale’s twin—could be his tw
in, except this one had dark gray hair while Rysdale’s hair and beard had been white. This one had coal-dark eyes full with the flames of dark magic displaying explicitly what he had become.
His robe was styled like the Wizard Rysdale’s but was black with flame-lit stars throughout, as was the black cone hat on top of his head.
Who the hell was this, and what did he want?
Instinctively Jazz now took a step backward as she wondered if the wards would withstand a wizard’s power. “You are by now wondering who I am,” he said with a soft and coaxing tone.
“Yes, I am,” she answered, giving nothing away.
He laughed, but it was an unpleasant sound. “Ah, allow me to introduce myself. I am the Wizard Baudali.”
“You look like someone I know,” she said before she realized she shouldn’t tell him anything.
His expression became keen as he asked, “Someone you know in the future? You are from the future. Do not deny this, as it is something I know.” He waited, and when she said nothing he added, “So, my brother survives to your time? Ahh … but still, I might yet alter your time, as you are here now, and that changes everything.”
“Rysdale is your brother?” Again she spoke without thinking and cursed herself in her mind. She had already told him too much.
He didn’t respond at once but said instead, “Such a small human world … isn’t it. One never knows who one will run into.” He grimaced. “That decides my next course of action, you see.” He stepped towards her but took a half step back as he cringed from the obvious affects of the ward’s power. He put up a hand. “Ah, a very intricate ward, a Royal’s magic? So, then, you are protected by a Royal and know my twin, Rysdale. How very intriguing.” He paused and looked her over, and his lashes seemed to snap before he asked, “You are not quite human, are you?”
“Not quite,” she answered cautiously, wondering when Trevor would appear and hoping to get the wizard to reveal more in the meantime. “Why are you here? What do you want?”
“What I want is to make a deal. My brother has beaten me at every turn. I loathe him. I want his woman, I want Charm, and I want him dead, but—” He put up his palms. “—thus far, I have been unsuccessful. So I need more power. I have traced the disturbance in time to this region and discovered three beings from the future. A Dark Prince has established a habitat not far from here. And then here you are with a Royal Fae, in the home of yet another Royal, and one who has not been here in quite some time—all very interesting.” He eyed her speculatively.
“What do you think we can do for you?” she asked, stalling. She wasn’t going to be a part of anything that would hurt the Wizard Rysdale, and she was fairly certain her prince would not make such a deal either. Trevor was not about deal making, and this made her smile and feel a swelling of pride. Why should she feel pride in Trevor? How very odd.
“As I said, I want more power, and only your Royal Prince, or the Dark One, can give it to me. I have always believed that the Seelie Fae Royals have far more might than the Dark Ones, so I came to you first.”
Jazz felt the prince, with Frankie in tow, shift in beside her.
He immediately shoved her and Frankie to his back and stepped up closer to Baudali.
She heard the derision in his voice as he spoke. “What do you want, Baudali?”
“Ah, you have the advantage—you know who I am, but I haven’t the slightest idea who you might be. Have we ever met?”
“No, but I know that Rysdale has an evil twin. You seem to fit the part,” Trevor said with contempt.
“A sharp tongue. This does not bode well for our future,” Baudali said, pointing a finger. “Be warned. I have dark magic enough to do what you fear most.”
“What I fear most? Right, then, so have at me, wizard—here I am,” Trevor snapped as he took a step towards the warded and invisible line.
Baudali’s smile was twisted. “Oh no. I don’t mean to try and match my magic against yours. I am not a fool. That is not how I mean to win. You see, I play dirty.” So saying, his wormhole opened, and he was gone as quickly as he had appeared, taking his blue lightning, bloody snakes, and fire daggers with him.
“By wind, earth, and fire, this is a nuisance,” Trevor said with a low growl. He turned to Jazz. “Stay with the little one. I mean to track him.”
She pulled on his arm. “No … please don’t go.”
He snorted. “You can’t fear for me against such as that?”
“I am afraid of anything unexpected. This was unexpected, and he is on his way to make a pact with the devil. I don’t like it,” Jazz said.
He touched her face gently. “I shall be back soon. A wizard has never been a match for a Seelie Royal.” He started to leave and turned back to grin boyishly. “Nor has a Dark Fae, for that matter.”
And he was gone.
* * *
Jazz stood for a moment looking at the place he had just been. What did she feel? She was going to have to face what she felt because it was slowly eating her up. She couldn’t go on like this.
From the moment she had first come in contact with Trevor, she had seen him as larger than life. Well, yeah, she told herself, he’s a Royal Seelie Fae. He was larger than life. But even so, those were words, an old cliché—larger than life—ha, but now she actually knew what it meant. Who, in her human world, swooped in and took charge of evil without fear, without hesitation? Her Trevor did.
When he stood back to watch her with Frankie, he seemed to eat up more space than he actually occupied. He seemed to glow …
He exuded energy beyond his physical form. His every movement displayed strength of body, character, warrior determination, and courage. She had found even his Fae aloofness endearing and quite in contrast to the kindness of his actions.
She was so darned attracted to him, in every single way. No, that wasn’t the right way of putting it. She wanted to lie down on a sheet of clover and offer herself up to him. She wanted to see him naked and touch his body, from his beautiful locks of white-gold hair to his … oh yeah, she had looked at that bulge in his leather pants more than she should, and he seemed to have a perpetual hard-on forever ready. The memory it presented, even now, made her lick her lips and yearn for him.
She wanted to feel his hands on her body, to look into his golden eyes, and—stop!
This would get her nowhere but hurt. It wasn’t happening—it couldn’t, for she knew once she gave herself to him it would be forever. Even if he cared for her, and she did think he cared for her, he would eventually move on while she aged.
Yeah, but in the meantime, Jazzy girl, Tammy whispered, think of the fun you could have.
But, Tammy, you know me, she answered with a sigh. I am not about fun. Well, I am, but I need more than that.
She thought about his luscious lips, his shoulders so very broad, and his muscular arms around her and realized she was nearly panting. Right. Maybe a little fun couldn’t hurt, she argued with herself.
But it could hurt—it could hurt for a lifetime. She would want him forever. For her forever, and he would leave …
He was such a prominent being, in control of every situation. He was clear-sighted, dominant, and yet his smile held a touch of innocence at times that captivated her.
He was not the type to take what he wanted and leave a female hurting. He wouldn’t do that, but time … human time would take her away from him. There was just no getting away from the fact that she would age. He would not. In the end, he wouldn’t have a choice. His world was Faery, and there was also no getting away from the fact that, as a Royal, he would be needed in that world. And he was immortal, would always be strong and beautiful and virile; she would wither, no longer be desirable. She would die alone if she gave herself to him. This was all so impossible.
If she gave herself to him, she would never take another lover. How could she? No other would do; even now, now before she had given herself to him, she could not imagine ever giving herself to anyone else.
She was doomed. No matter how she looked at this, a bright future up ahead did not seem a possibility.
The truth hammered at her: she could never really have him, and that realization was nearly overwhelming.
Why not? If you are going to end up always wanting him anyway, why not have him now, while you are young?
She could not deny that his glittering gold eyes drove her into a passion she had never known she could feel. And there was more—all in his eyes. Who was it that ever said Fae did not have souls? They were so wrong. Trevor’s eyes allowed her to see the soul housed in his body.
If all that weren’t complicating her life enough, she was stuck in the past, with a Dark Fae Prince trying to take over the universe!
How were they ever going to defeat Hordly? And now, if horrible Hordly wasn’t enough, they had to contend with a Dark Wizard as well.
Holy cow, this was so not good.
Evidently Frankie, who had been gazing up at her, sensed Jazz was unhappy. She slipped her hand into Jazz’s and tugged at it.
Jazz gave the child a reassuring smile and said, “Not to worry. Trevor has this one under control.”
“Aye, I know that, Miss Jazz … but do ye?”
Jazz squeezed Frankie’s fingers gently. “Do you doubt it? Of course I do, my little Fios. You are in the company of a Fios extraordinaire.” She began tickling Frankie, who yelped with laughter.
Trevor reappeared at that moment some twenty feet away.
Jazz couldn’t stop herself. She ran to him, only controlling herself at the last moment, managing to stop and stand stiffly when all she wanted to do was throw her arms around him and hold on for dear life.
Instead, she asked, “Well, what did you find?”
“I followed Baudali to the Dark Prince’s habitat. Hordly has constructed a living area out of what appears to be an old barn.” He sneered and added, “He has it warded, but his wards cannot keep me out—the wards will merely warn him of my arrival.”
“Do you think they are making a deal?” Jazz frowned and absorbed what he had just told her.