The faint buzzing in my ear still hadn’t gone away. It was incredibly annoying. I tried scratching and slapping at it but they had no effect. It was as if I had a bee trapped inside my ear canal. I wondered if one had flown in during my little skydiving adventure but I’d been too high up for bees – and the buzzing had started before then anyway. Odd.
Bob winked into existence. He’d managed to lose the parachute but he still had a smug smirk plastered over his face.
‘You waste of space, genie,’ I hissed. ‘You almost got me killed.’
He raised his eyes to the heavens. ‘Come on, Uh Integrity. You knew there would be consequences. You told me about them often enough. Besides, it all turned out well in the end, didn’t it? You discovered your Gift and you got the nasty old Bull to tell you his true name. Now you own two people.’
I gritted my teeth. ‘I don’t “own” anyone.’
‘Monsieur Scrymgeour and I would beg to differ.’
I scratched at my ear again. Damn, that sound was annoying.
‘That’s your friends,’ Bob told me cheerfully. ‘I told them it probably wouldn’t work.’
My brow furrowed. ‘What do you mean?’
‘They’re trying to summon you with your true name but they’re not Sidhe. They can probably bend you to their will if you’re in the same room as them and you can hear them. But from a distance?’ He shrugged. ‘It’s never going to be a strong enough call.’
‘Well, that’s stupid,’ I said irritably. ‘If they’d summoned me back straightaway then your little game would have been null and void.’
‘As I’ve already said, you have benefited immeasurably from my,’ he sketched air quotes, ‘ “little game”. Don’t be a sore winner.’
‘They’ll be worried. I should get back.’
Bob beamed. ‘You’re right. They are worried.’
I started running out of the library. I had to get back to Lexie, Speck and Brochan as quickly as possible before they did something rash.
‘What are you doing?’ Bob shouted after me.
What did he think I was doing? I cursed under my breath then smacked into a hard body. Slightly dazed, I pulled back. Byron. The shimmer around him was a deep purple. It should have clashed with his bronze hair but instead it made him appear more regal and charismatic. Great. That was all I needed.
He caught my arm and gave me a funny look. ‘I thought you were feeling sick and lying down in your room.’
Shite. ‘Er, I was. But now I feel better.’ I gave a disarming smile. ‘I can’t tell what gift I have yet, though.’ I might have more reason to trust him but that didn’t mean I was going to volunteer information.
His eyes suspiciously. ‘How did you get past the…’
I raised my eyebrows. ‘The guards that I asked you not to post but you did anyway?’
He sighed. ‘Someone’s trying to kill you, Integrity. You shouldn’t be flippant about these matters.’
‘Not until the Foinse is safe and sound anyway, right?’
A strange expression crossed his face. ‘Right,’ he muttered.
‘Actually, I was coming to find you,’ I said. ‘That’s why I was in the library. You asked me to meet you there before, so I thought it might be where you liked to hang out.’ I gave myself an imaginary pat on the back. Nice little side step I did there.
‘What do you need?’
I grinned. ‘As I’m clearly hale and hearty, we can get on with the crusade to the Foinse. The sooner we fix it the better, don’t you think?’
I still hadn’t allayed his suspicions. He folded his arms and gazed at me. ‘Are you sure you’re up to the journey?’
I beamed. ‘I can’t wait. Let me rush upstairs and grab my things and I’ll be ready to go.’
The furrow in Byron’s brow deepened. I caught sight of Jamie and Tipsania hovering in the back and gave them an enthusiastic wave. ‘We’re going to the Foinse,’ I bellowed out. ‘Do you want to come? We could take a picnic.’
Jamie threw a nervous glance at Byron then looked embarrassed again, while Tipsania wrinkled her nose irritably. I wondered whether her father would tell her what had transpired between us; somehow I doubted it. The Bull wouldn’t want to look weak in front of anyone, even if they were his closest family or loyal Clan members.
It was interesting that Tipsania’s aura was a pretty pink, with some flecks of scarlet. How come I was the evil black-aura woman and she got pink?
‘They can’t come,’ Byron muttered. ‘Only two representatives from each Clan are going to travel to the Foinse.’
‘Why two?’
He didn’t meet my eyes. ‘It’s an auspicious number.’
‘Really,’ I said flatly. ‘Or is it because you need an heir and a spare?’