Frost & Bothered (32 page)

“Yeah, and they’re my friends. No biting, or I’ll have to show you how wrong you are about my being human,” I warned him.

He sniffed, tilted his head and sniffed again, more deeply. “
You’re not human. What are you?
”

“Hell if I know anymore. Chop, chop, Spot. The Queen needs us.”

The hound growled, but he glanced at Thorandryll, and the elf nodded. “
I will obey the Prince
.”

I suddenly wondered why Thorandryll was the prince, and Kethyrdryll a lord. After all, they were brothers. Even if only one parent was royalty, wouldn’t they both be princes? Unless they were half-brothers. Maybe that was the reason. A glance at them and I couldn’t see that being the case. They were practically identical twins. Oh well, bigger fish to fry. I could ask about it later.

Spot turned and trotted away, the other hounds following. I hoped they could lead us to the Queen, and that we didn’t run completely out of time before they did.

Quite a few minutes passed before Kethyrdryll asked, “Does anyone else hear that?”

“I do. Sounds like music.” Logan stared into the darkness, his eyes paling. “There’s light ahead.

“Yay. Go.” I gave him a push and grabbed Kethyrdryll’s arm. “Come on, people. Boots in motion. Hut, two, three.”

A few minutes later, I could see the light and hear the music too. The end appeared to be in sight. Well, at least the end of looking for the Unseelie.

Between one step and the next, we went from gloom to a brightly lit ballroom. Elegantly attired dancers whirled in perfect time. Everyone wore masks, but their pointed ears made it clear we’d found exactly the people we needed.

A gorgeous woman dressed in a lacy, lilac ball gown sat on a white marble throne above the crowd, watching them. Her long hair was pale blonde, and a delicate crown of gold and diamonds twinkled on top of her head.

She saw us, and rose from her throne. The dancers split like a school of fish dodging a shark, clearing a path to the steps that led up to her throne.

“Come forth,” she commanded. I decided to let the elf brothers lead. We walked between two lines of masked, staring dancers, which I didn’t much care for.

Once we reached the foot of the steps, she smiled. “Welcome, my sons.”

“S
he’s your mother?”

“Yes.”

Queen Maeve didn’t look old enough to have two full-grown sons. Then again, elves didn’t noticeably age. “Oh, cool.”

“Who are these people?”

Kethyrdryll stepped forward and bowed. “Your Majesty, this is the Lady Discord. Her companions are Logan Sayer, Prince Connor O’Meara, Dane Soames, Miss Kate Smith, and Detective Damian Herde.”

“Percival,” Kate’s parrot added, “And Illusion.”

“Shifters and witches.” The Queen frowned. “Except her.”

She was looking at me. I wondered if I should bow.

“There’s tiger in your aura, yet you’re not a shifter.”

I indicated Logan and Dane with a wave of my hand. “They adopted me into their clan.”

“Hm. You’re a natural mage.”

I wasn’t about to argue with her. “Looks that way.”

She lost interest in me, looking around. “Where is this place?”

I let Thorandryll explain, watching as Maeve’s expression turned hard and her blue eyes frosty. When he finished, she uttered one word. “Morpheus.”

“Oh, I know that one. The god of sleep, right?”

“One of the gods of sleep and dreams,” Thorandryll corrected me, gazing at his mother. “I wasn’t aware you had him in custody.”

“You’re Seelie, It’s not your place to know such things.”

“Why would you have Morpheus in custody?” My question drew Maeve’s attention back to me.

“It is the duty of my people to capture and hold those who do evil. Morpheus changed. He is no longer a gentle god.”

“Oh.” And we were still under his power. “Um, maybe we better wake up.”

“We’ve tried, Miss Jones.” Thorandryll folded his hands together. “And were unsuccessful.”

It occurred to me that I may have dreamed everything. Morpheus could be any of the people around me. Maybe even all of them. “Let’s try again.”

The Queen’s laugh was a silvery, musical sound. “I’m now aware of the matter. Awake.”

I opened my eyes to a smooth surface and no feeling in the arm I lay on.

We had been moved. I groaned while rolling over onto my back, and heard enough to realize I wasn’t alone.

Okay, I was alone in the little cell with its door of bars and smooth walls of dull black volcanic rock. Yet, I could hear Kate muttering, the rustle-flap of Percy’s wings, and other sounds of people waking. My arm began to tingle and I grimaced.

“Cordi?” Logan and Dane called out at the same time, changing my grimace to a smile.

“I’m okay, is everyone here?” I rubbed my arm, wishing it would hurry up and return to normal circulation.

“Roll call,” Kate said, and one by one, the members of our party gave their names. I sat up when no one mentioned the hounds or mare.

“Leglin.” My hound buddy didn’t appear. “Okay. I don’t like this.”

“We’re in a dungeon. There’s a lot not to like.” Damian replied.

“None of the Unseelie are present,” Thorandryll said. “The cell doors are spelled to prevent escape.”

Ily yelped, and the prince sighed. “Don’t touch the bars.”

“It’s all right. You don’t have a mark,” Damian told his familiar. The husky grumbled. “I’ve said time and time again, not to put your nose on things. “ A slap of hand on rock followed.

“So we’re trapped.” Connor’s statement. “Fantastic.”

“The Queen is awake. She’ll send people to search for us since she knows we’re here.” Kethyrdryll paused. “Whether that’s before or after the Unseelie retake their realm...”

I huffed and climbed to my feet. My ass-kicking outfit was, of course, gone. The air felt chilly. “I’m not hanging out for rescue in my freaking night gown, people. Not really in the mood to freeze to death.”

“What do you suggest, Miss Jones? We can’t touch the bars and they are the only way out. There are spells to prevent magical egress.” Thorandryll sounded as huffy as I felt. “As the young lion said, we are trapped.”

“Un huh.” I walked two steps, stopped shy of the bars. From my new vantage point, I could see two other cell doors across a narrow hall. “Hi.”

Kate wiggled her fingers at me. Percy stood at her feet, his head turned. In the other cell, Logan smiled and lifted his hand. The bars looked like metal and radiated cold.

“Hm. Are there alarm spells? Like if someone escaped, would the Unseelie know?”

“Of course.” Thorandryll’s voice came from the left. I couldn’t see him, but Kate must’ve been able to, because she pointed.

“Okay.” Could I melt the bars? In theory, kinetic abilities were all about manipulating energy and matter. If I wanted ice, I made whatever moisture was present cold. Fire, I leaned on friction to cause air to super heat.

Metal was a little different. It didn’t burn like air or wood or vampires. I’d have to try and make it melt. That would require a lot of concentration and focus to get right. “As long as I don’t touch the bars, I’m good, right?”

“Or attempt spells,” Kethyrdryll said.

“Bully for me. I don’t know any.” Deep breath, Cordi. It can’t be that hard. “Okay.”

“What are you planning to do?” Logan had moved closer to his cell door.

“I’m gonna give it a hot foot. Or try to.”

Thorandryll snorted. “It won’t work. Your abilities are a form of magic, Miss Jones.”

“I don’t cast spells,” I pointed out. I didn’t. I just...kind of directed my kinetic abilities’ particular powers and manipulated them to do what I wanted.

With varying degrees of success, but oh well.

“I pray for you at times,” the prince said. “I pray you’ll survive your youthful arrogance.”

“Gee, thanks ever so much. Don’t think I don’t know that’s a fancy way of calling me an idiot, you jerk.”

“He may be right.” Kate rubbed her arms. She was wearing a lilac nightgown.

“I am right.”

“And I am going to try this anyway, because I’m freaking cold,” I said. “So shut up, Prince Snooty Pants.”

“I’m merely attempting to save you pain,” Thorandryll snapped. “Proceed if you wish. I await the opportunity to say ‘I told you so’ with an unseemly gleefulness.”

“Stuff it.” Okay, I was going to do this just to make him eat crow. “And be quiet, I have to concentrate.”

Which part? I decided on the metal plate. The other side had a keyhole. I could see the keyholes on Kate and Logan’s cell doors. “One metal hot foot coming up.”

Air was easy to combust. You simply increased the friction of its molecules until they burst into flame. The one and only time I’d set anything with metal parts on fire had been when I’d first woken from my coma.

I needed to practice to fine tune my abilities but finding time on a regular basis wasn’t exactly easy. Plus, I needed a safe place to practice with fire.

Didn’t want to burn anything down. I usually didn’t want to.

There had to be some air inside the lock. I concentrated on that, and a flicker of light rewarded my effort. Next step: heat the metal enough to melt. How many degrees was that? I had no clue, other than more than five hundred, since that was the high temperature for most ovens.

The best I could do was keep sending oxygen in and continue making the air molecules do a mad rhumba inside the lock. It was working, because I could smell the heated tang of metal.

I heard something give in the lock, and switched gears, hitting the door with a blast of telekinesis. It burst open and hit the edge of its stone frame on the hinge side. The dull clang-thump echoed as the cell door rebounded. I stopped it from closing with a TK block. “Hah.”

Walking out, I turned left and put my hands on my hips while meeting Thorandryll’s sour gaze. “Sorry dude, no ‘I told you so’ opportunity here.”

“You may be out, but we’re still trapped.”

“Give me a minute, and your cloak. I’m freezing.”

He actually rolled his ice blue eyes, but unpinned his cloak and dropped it. There was a slot at the bottom of his cell door, probably for food tray passage. Thorandryll used the toe of his boot to stuff his cloak through it.

I bent to pull the cloak through and gave it a shake before wrapping it around me. “Thank you.”

My bare feet were turning into ice cubes, but the cloak was an improvement over running around in a nightgown and panties.

I studied his cell door before looking left and right. More bars blocked each end of the cell block. No handy keys, buttons, or switches to see. “Figures.”

“Beg your pardon?”

“Nothing. Okay, stand back.” When the elf complied, I concentrated on the lock of his cell. Maybe he’d figure out a way to help once he was free.

Hearing the crack of superheated metal, I moved aside and pulled his cell door open with TK. “See, I’m your get out of jail free card.”

“My thanks.” Thorandryll joined me in the corridor. I turned to cross to Kate’s cell.

“Can you help me open these? I’m going to run out of juice if I have to do them all like this.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” He moved to do Alleryn’s cell door. I began to concentrate, but heard “tink tink” and turned to see what Thorandryll was doing.

“You carry lock picks?”

“Shh.” He had his eyes half-closed. Shaking my head, I turned back and got busy. Once Kate was out, Percy took flight.

“Free, free.
La petite deesse
.”

I moved on while Kate scurried over to relieve Alleryn of his cloak as he left his cell. Her boyfriend produced another set of lock picks.

Logan stepped back, and I discovered it was hard to concentrate with him dressed just in pants. He was loads more distracting now, after the kissing and cuddling we’d done. My cheek had rested on his bare chest, and it had liked doing so.

Sproing-crack. I TKed his cell door open. “I bet you’re cold.”

“I’m okay,” he assured me, his lips curving a touch. “How are you doing?”

“I’m considering setting my feet on fire.”

“Give me a minute.”

I nodded and went to the next cell. Damian waved, his other hand resting on Illusion’s head. “Hello. Come to save the day?”

“Giving it my best shot.” By the time I’d freed them, Logan appeared with a pair of thick socks. “Ooh.”

“On loan from Kethyrdryll.”

“Nice.” I made short work of putting the socks on, hoping my feet would thaw out. The socks did provide insulation from the stone floor.

Before long, everyone was free. I’d ended up at one of the end doors, and sighed. “I’m tired.”

My head was hurting too, and my stomach chose that moment to let me know it wanted food with a growl. “And I’m hungry.”

A figure stepped into view on the other side of the bars. I shrieked and backed into Logan, lifting my hand to my chest. My heart was trying to leap out of it. “Holy crap! Don’t do that.”

The two elves on the other side of the bars paid zero attention to me. Logan and I stepped back as one of them began to unlock the door. They were both armed with swords and wearing dark gray armor.

"I want armor. Can I have cool armor?"

"If we make it home, I'll commission some for you. I know a guy," Logan said.