Ailish grumbled gruffly next to me. “Cailleach’s power don’t cause madness, you nitwit.”
Abrupt laughter broke from Julian. Marin started at the noise, but refrained from any other motion. “Have you met my sister, Miss O’Bearra? Deri had twisted the gifts she received from Cailleach and Carmen before she was out of nappies. She only needed a good solid touch to have the duke or his lordship jumping from London Bridge.”
Nora’s face flashed through my mind from our last moments together, the fear and confusion in her eyes as she struggled against Deri’s sadistic touch. “But she didn’t take either of them.” The memory pressed on my heart. “She took Nora instead.”
Julian nodded, his expression growing solemn. “Much to my sorrow, for once she arrived home, I had a difficult choice to make.”
Arrived home... So the wretch had made it to the oak grove, yet Nora could be anywhere between here and London. “Where is Deri keeping her?” I demanded.
Julian gave me a curious look, then answered my question with one of his own. “How long have you known Nora Goodwin?”
My hands curled and uncurled at my side. “All my life.”
“Yet you never once suspected her ancestry.” He tsked his tongue at me. “Deri discovered it the first time she dabbled in your friend’s brain. At the time my sister thought to compel Nora to gut you while you slept, but then she found Nuada’s blood and that changed everything. Even for your death, she wouldn’t risk someone so important to the hangman’s noose.”
Cold sweat formed on my nape while he spoke. “Where is Nora then? You’ve told so many lies how do I know you’re speaking the truth now?”
He chuckled, and a drop of sweat rolled between my shoulder blades. “It’s true, and in less than a fortnight my sister scooped two fish in the same net. She only had to bait his lordship by stealing Nora away. Then the chase was on to the dolmen.”
Henry growled a curse.
Julian turned to him, pleasure brimming in his dark eyes. “You played your role just like Deri planned. Except things have changed, and you won’t be bedding my mother after all.”
Derision dripped from Henry’s deep voice. “You assume I would have been tempted by the witch.”
“Most assuredly, my lord.” Julian moved his head forward, pressing his chin into Marin’s temple. The torches flickered as the lines of his face wavered once more. A heartbeat passed when a woman appeared, her otherworldly beauty reminding me of Brigid, except for the cruelty that lined her mouth. Waves of black hair fell over Marin’s shoulder. “The curse may have dampened her powers,” he said in a feminine voice that ran like silk over my skin, “but she still had enough to get your seed between her legs.”
I cringed from the vivid description, and instinctively cut a look to Henry. His expression remained impassive at the demonstration.
Green light sputtered a warning a split second before Carmen’s face twisted back to the son. “Can you understand my dilemma?” he asked. “Once me sister returned with not one, but two descendants, I had to kill my mother to save Ireland.”
Two descendants... I swung from left to right. “Where is she? Where are you hiding her?” I turned a full circle, but could see nothing beyond the reach of the torchlight. “Nora!” I called out, my voice near frantic with worry.
Her name echoed unanswered across the stones.
“All in good time, Selah.”
Henry rolled his shoulders. “If Ireland is safe from the witch, why lure us here and attack Sean and Marin?”
“Because he’s claimed the spoils of death from her as well.” Cate now stood two feet ahead of me. “He stole her power with her last breath.”
“Aye,” Julian agreed. “Though Carmen called it soul gathering. From her stories, she excelled at it while living in the mortal world.”
“Little wonder it took four Tuatha Dé to defeat her,” Tom said with new understanding. “They were fighting a whole army in her belly. And now you wish to break the curse to use what she gathered.”
Julian sneered at the corpse. “Her death should have done it, but most of her power falls from me whenever I leave the passageway.” He looked at Cate. “Now you know what you felt, my lady, the wee scraps that slip past the weakening curse. It clings to my skin till I leave the woods, though it’s strongest in the oak grove.”
“Which you used to get rid of those men,” Cate said.
Julian nodded and tapped his forehead. “Lovely how you put that together. I entered the grove ahead of them to get the power I needed for a simple illusion. The men continued on the trail, believing they were following behind us.”
Tom raised his sword tip a little higher. “Except that King Bres set the curse to guard against her power instead of her life, so you’ve not got the full of it, have you lad.”