Angelz:...I know, I know I'm crap at updating this thing but the heat wave persists and I've had college intro days and summer work has been assigned, none of which I've done but I'm throwing it in here to use at a later date as an excuse for not updating! So if I start going on about Summer work then leave a snotty review telling me that in order to use that excuse I have to actually do the work..

There is good news however! I have changed the plot of this story! Not completely changed but added and tweaked and let me put it this way: I was planning to have it 10,000 words long. To me that was large enough for my first WL fanfiction. Now? I've thinking 15-20,000. All I can say is this: Ohhhh boy, even I'm squirming in my seat for what's going to happen! :D

Oh and a few anonymous reviews were left, here's my replies:

Ani's Lost Twin: You do know that Iri and Niall used to be a couple right? And that they're Bi? :D

Nellie: Thanks for the awesome review! Now, if I told you that it would be cheating ^^ You'll just have to wait and see what Bananach and Leslie have done!

To everyone else, ta for all the awesome reviews!

Enjoy.

"Irial, Leslie outside. Now." Niall watched as Irial allowed a slow smile to creep onto his face; the former king shook his head and turned to Leslie.

"What do you think?" He asked.

"I think that we have a perfectly good form of entertainment going to waste." She drawled, "Make it quick." She moved her way through the crowd and towards the door. Niall let out a sigh of relief as Irial followed. Niall grabbed his wrist and stopped him.

"What was that about?" Irial raised on eyebrow.

"What was what about?" He pulled away and continued to the door. Niall followed.

Outside in the corridor the air was cooler, the noise from Leslie's domain blocked. He took a deep breath.

"Leslie, I think we need to talk." She rolled her eyes.

"You've already said that."

"What happened between you and Bananach? We need to know, Leslie." She turned away from Niall and stared at the wall, her whole body tense.

"Nothing." She let out a long breath and turned to face Niall. Her eyes had softened and a small smile pulled at her lips. A glazed look passed over her face and for a brief moment a flicker of temptation ran through her.

"I'm fine, Niall. I'm just," she hesitated for a moment, "tired. I just want to try and forget Bananach for tonight; can you let me do that?"

Niall watched her intently, something was off; why was she suddenly sounding like her normal self? Her skin had turned pale, no longer a flushed red from the rush of emotions and her eyes pleaded with him to let the subject drop. Niall hesitated.

"Go have fun, Love." Irial nudged her back to the door, avoiding Niall's gaze until Leslie had slipped inside and shut the door behind her. A hand slammed into his throat the force of the blow sending his back into the wall. Shadows pressed against him in an angry blast, the Abyss Guardians shrieked their rage at the former king.

"What do you think you're doing?" Niall hissed. Irial sighed as much as he could with his King's hand firmly wrapped around his windpipe. Tentatively he brought his hand up to peel Niall's fingers away one by one. The Dark King flexed his grip, drawing on his own anger, before he let go. The heavy atmosphere dropped suddenly, all traces of Niall's loss of control gone.

"I'm impressed, a few more seconds of that and I might have thought you would hurt me." Niall spared Irial a withered glance.

"Who says I won't hurt you? You're not invincible, not anymore." Shadows flared to life in Niall's eyes, a flicker of his potential to be the true King of Nightmares showed before it was wiped away. A shudder ran through Irial.

"You should stop holding yourself back, Niall. It's so much more," He paused and caught Niall's eye, "tantalizing when you let it show." Niall didn't pretend to not know what Irial meant.

"Why would I want to tempt you even more?" He rolled his eyes and cast a half-hearted accusing glance at his beloved, "You're distracting me Iri; answer my question." Irial shrugged in a 'You-can't-blame-me-for-trying' gesture.

"Do you honestly think that Leslie will tell us what's wrong? Face it Love, she's never been one to back down. However, if she sees one of us on her side we stand a better chance of finding out what Bananach has done to her. In order to do that she needs to truly believe that I'm on her side; how can we convince her of that unless she sees us fight?" Niall remained silent for a few moments.

"Is there a reason you didn't tell me this plan?"

"Yes." A slight smile.

"Care to share that reason?"

"Not particularly, no." A bigger smile.

"Iri." Niall's voice was a growl. Irial laughed and swiftly leaned in, placing a lingering kiss on the corner of his King's mouth.

"Both you and Leslie need a gentle push in the right direction. Get angry more often; it'll do you some good to let your emotions out." Only after those words did he move so his lips no longer brushed against Niall's.

"And what if I don't want to?" Irial took a small pleasure in the hoarseness of Niall's voice.

"I live to serve you, my King. I'd only be too happy to persuade you otherwise."

"It's unacceptable, Aislinn! They can't expect us to sit back and let them get away with this, we can't." Keenan paced across the loft restlessly, throwing his hands up occasionally in an attempt to expel some of his anger. Birds fluttered around the room before settling near Aislinn, who was clearly the safer option of the two Regents.

"Calm down, Keenan. Leslie didn't mean to start anything, it was my fault for-" Keenan snapped around to face her, blistering heat blasted across the room with the force of a physical blow.

"You did nothing, she was a friend; someone who you should've been able to trust. It is her fault. She should be punished." Aislinn stood up from the sofa, sending the birds who had settled on her shoulder into the air with a few disgruntled squawks, she crossed the space between her and her King. She lay a hand on his shoulder, allowing it to warm the skin beneath it. He looked at her with a level gaze and slowly she saw most of the anger fade from his eyes. He leaned into her touch as she moved her hand to his cheek.

"It could've been you, Ash. She could have hurt you." His eyes shut, his face expressing his obvious pain of the thought. Aislinn had no answer to that. She couldn't lie; it could have been her, Leslie had shown that their past friendship was no longer in play.

"But she didn't, I'm fine." The two stood there, in the middle of their loft with the birds flying around them; softly cooing every few seconds.

"Aislinn?" She took her hand away from Keenan and turned to face Seth. She let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding. That same breath caught, however, when she saw that one of Seth's hands was clutching his side. Blood dripped from inbetween his fingers.

"Seth." Her voice was choked. He gave her a weak smile.

"Should've listened to Irial." He murmured before falling to the floor. Keenan moved towards him and caught him before he hit the floor.

...

A little while later Aislinn was sat by the side of her bed at the loft. Seth lay under the sheets, completely comatose. His chest rose and fell with each breath he took, and with each breath the knot in Aislinn's stomach eased a tiny bit.

A glass appeared before her. She blinked, startled, and tipped her head back to see Keenan stood behind her holding two glasses of Summer Wine; one for him and the other for her.

"You look like you need to relax." She nodded gratefully and took the glass. After she'd taken a few sips Keenan pulled another chair beside her. He straddled it backwards and kept his gaze on Seth as he spoke.

" He's strong enough to survive, thankfully." She turned to face him. "We've never had two injured fey to look after before." He motioned briefly towards the door, indicating to Eliza who was recovering in another part of the loft. Her injuries were bad but it was nothing she wouldn't recover from. She should be glad that Leslie wasn't interested in killing her, or she would be dead. Without a doubt.

I wonder if Sorcha will hear of Seth's injuries. Keenan wondered, from what I've heard she's near obsessive about him as it is.

He leaned over and took one of Aislinn's hands. He stroked his thumb across her palm soothingly for a few moments, he may not like Seth but it distressed him to see his Queen in so much pain. He'd do what he could to help ease it, well, anything short of telling Aislinn the truth.

Seth wasn't going to wake up. Not unless the one who hurt him came to wake him. Seth would remain in this coma until Bananach herself came to wake him up. How did he know this? He'd caught Seth before he'd fallen to the floor and insisted that he bring Seth into his bedroom to clean his wounds, he'd also insisted that Aislinn go and check on Eliza. During her absence he'd seen the shifting shadows that snaked across Seth's skin, across his injury. The ever shifting shadows had formed one picture and in that single picture Keenan knew that what had happened to Seth would more-to-likely affect the battle of one Faerie who wanted to become Queen, who wanted to drench the world in blood and chaos.

It was a single picture of a bird's feather, midnight black with a single drop of blood rolling off of the end.

She'd found her calling card.

"He'll be fine, right?" Her voice was surprisingly small.

"He'll survive." She didn't seem to notice that he hadn't answered her question; she was too wrapped up in worry to notice him cheat the inability to lie.

One question plagued his mind. What had Bananach done to Seth?