Read Online Catch & Hold-Legend (Legend series) by Claudy Conn - Free Book Online Page A

listened to Rolo screaming in my head to shift out of the war room. It was time to escape, and I shifted—heading for the relative safety of the Dark King’s retreat, hoping it would allow me entrée once more. Once again I had come face to face with my father’s murderer and I had allowed him to live. I felt heartsick … and then I realized I also felt really sick …
    The Dark King’s retreat did more than allow me to enter. It seemed to enfold me within; as I collapsed onto the glass flooring just within its doors, I felt as though its magic arms were somehow wrapped around me, taking me into its protective shield as it whispered, “Daoine—you are allowing your human to kill you. You will die if you don’t find yourself. You need to forget the human in you. Let go—you must let go …”
    That was just what Rolo had told me. Was that Rolo still speaking? I felt myself slip into a haze.
    Was I dying? No. I couldn’t die yet, I had to kill Gais— I had to . I couldn’t die without doing that first, and something else, something so important, someone so important .
    Danté—I had to see Danté, if only for the last time. My mind exploded with his name, and I heard the anguish in my voice reverberate all through the Dark King’s retreat as I shouted with the last bit of strength I had.
    “D-a-n-t-é!”
    * * *
    My enfant’s voice pulsated in my head and gripped my essence. My name reverberated through my mind. I felt it pierce me with fear, and without thinking I shifted towards the sound. I found myself outside the blasted Dark King’s palace. I could see it all now as though it mocked me. I could see it in all its full glory, and a fury inside me, heedless of the Dark King’s power, demanded, “I am a Royal Prince of the Tuatha Dé—allow me entrée now!”
    “You have never been denied, Danté, Prince of Lugh. Your right of passage has always been there for you to see when you decided to open your eyes. If you could not see past the slight shade of black magic holding you apart, how then will you face your enemy?”
    I wasn’t in the mood to play at puzzles and riddles with a robotic voice, and I think I made an animal sound because I felt it deep in my throat, but I didn’t care. I felt the thousands of years of civilized behavior wash away in the storm and the primal take over. I waved my fist for emphasis, but physical movement wasn’t needed to gain my entrance; my determination was what was needed, and sure enough, the twelve-foot-high entrance with its magnificent doors opened wide.
    I stepped through.
    Z’s essence, our bond, beat and surged through my blood and pulled at all that I was. I was hit with something that felt like a small bolt of lightning—but lightning all the same. Something was wrong with her, and I felt terror clutch at my insides and knew a fear I had not felt in thousands of years.
    I shifted then to Z, to her body lying there in a fetal position on the glass floor. She was so damn still … so bloody damn still  …
    I saw the pool of blood under her arm … her torn clothing, nylon ski clothes—even in the midst of my fears, the question flickered: why was she wearing …?
    No time. I had to do something. I was on my knees and about to lay my hands on her wound and her heart when an invisible force stopped me in mid-motion.
    I roared with the fury I felt, “ She will die! ”
    “Yes, and if she does, then it was meant …”
    I looked up at a projected image of a woman—no, a Fae … yet, something of a human—and I knew this was the Dark King’s consort. She had evolved, and I could see, even though it was just a projected image, that she was definitely no longer the human she had once been.
    We Seelie Fae have always referred to her as the Dark King’s human, but now she was so much more—she was Seelie Fae.
    She had put up a barrier I could not break. With all my magic I could not touch my Z and heal her.
    “Please … I can heal her,” I begged,