Last Wish (Highland Magic #4)

Another lighter voice spoke up. ‘And if there’s even the faintest hint of a genie showing up, he will suffer more than you could ever imagine.’

I pushed myself up onto my elbows. A woman was watching me from behind another set of bars. I recognised her instantly: she was the guard I’d fooled with my Aifric Illusion. I guessed she was here to get payback. She smiled at me nastily. ‘We’re watching you twenty-four seven,’ she said. ‘Just to make sure you don’t try anything.’ She eyed me predatorily. ‘Personally, I’m hoping you do. I could do with a little fun.’ She cracked her knuckles. ‘You should be glad you’re in that cage.’

Candy scowled at her. ‘Here,’ he said, thrusting something under my chin. ‘Drink.’

Grateful for the distraction, not to mention the liquid, I gulped at the water. It was brackish and foul-tasting but it was wet. The thought that it might be poisoned crossed my mind but Aifric could have already injected me with anything he wanted. Not only was I as weak as a kitten but there was no telling how long I’d been out for. I swung my head back to Candy, a question in my eyes.

‘Two days,’ he said. ‘They gave you something to keep you under.’

I grimaced, drained the cup and forced myself up to a sitting position again. The world still wobbled around me but it was becoming more manageable.

‘Has anyone else been down here?’ I kept my eyes averted from the guard. She snorted as if amused but at least stayed quiet.

‘They swap the guards every four hours,’ Candy answered. He pursed his lips and shook his head to indicate that no one else had been to see us. Candy wasn’t stupid; he’d know I was referring to Byron.

I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or dismayed that Byron probably didn’t know what was going on. Somehow I doubted his Plan B had included this little scenario. I calculated: if I’d been comatose for two days, there was still plenty of time to find a way out. The wedding wasn’t scheduled for another week at least. There was a whole lot I could do with seven days.

‘The ceremony’s been moved forward,’ the guard said cheerfully, as if she could read my mind. I narrowed my eyes, wondering whether mind-reading was a Gift, then I relaxed. If she possessed that kind of magic, she’d have known instantly that I wasn’t Aifric when I spoke to her at the Cruaich dungeons. She was just bloody canny.

‘Tomorrow morning,’ Candy answered, before I could ask. He wouldn’t meet my eyes. This was as much of a disaster for him as it was for me. He had obviously worked out that everything was going tits up.

I grimaced. Well, shite. I wondered whether Aifric would create a sham trial first or simply dunk me in a well to check whether I floated. He had to know that I’d spill the beans if he gave me chance to speak. I tried to work through the possibilities but my mind felt too sluggish and slow.

Candy sighed loudly and lay down, putting his hands behind his head and gazing at the ceiling. The Sidhe guard continued to stare at me. It was so discomforting that in the end I did the same as Candy, lying back and looking up and wondering desperately if there was any chance I could find my way out of all this.

In the far corner of the room, barely visible through the shadows, a spider lurked. It was larger than your usual Scottish beastie and seemed to be having difficulty spinning its web. Silk spun out behind it, missing its invisible target. While I watched, the spider paused for one long moment as if it were giving up. Then it abruptly scuttled down the wall, travelling at what had to be an immense speed for its size. Maybe it had gone to get its buddies to help.

I closed my eyes, focusing on the throbbing pain in my skull and trying to will it away. When that didn’t work, I searched within myself to see what magic I still had that I could make use of. There was definitely still a trickle of Apportation. Unhelpful. I could transport objects away from me but I couldn’t transport anything to me. And I couldn’t do anything with that eagle-eyed guard staring at me.

I could still call animals towards me. I pushed out, sensing some nearby rats. Ignoring the shudder that ran down my spine, I considered bringing them over. Maybe I’d get lucky and the guard would have a phobia. She’d run away screaming and I’d … what? Shamble slowly out of this cage and swim for it?

My big toe itched and I shook it absently. It didn’t help. Muttering a curse, I glanced down. It was the damn spider, sitting right next to my big toe and staring at me with all of its glittering black eyes. Eurgh. I lifted my foot and shook it harder, sending the spider flying away from me. I supposed I should be grateful it wasn’t like Debbie, the giant arachnid who’d been used in the Games last year. I paused. This cage we were in did look remarkably familiar. I supposed that until the wedding was official and Aifric could claim the Scrymgeour wealth for his own purposes, he had to make savings where he could.

Candy shifted restlessly next to me, muttering something unintelligible under his breath. He should have escaped when he had the chance, I thought sourly. All of us should have. I sighed. Then I felt my damned toe itch again.

The guard laughed. ‘Looks like that creepy-crawly is the only friend you have left, Adair.’ She hawked up a ball of phlegm and spat it noisily onto the floor. ‘I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree after all.’

I glared at her. So we were back to that again, were we? That Gale Adair, my father, was a genocidal maniac? Why couldn’t people see what was right in front of their faces? ‘I’m not quite sure what you mean,’ I said icily. ‘My parents were heroes who died at the hands of your boss.’

‘Ha!’ she scoffed.

‘You are a Moncrieffe, right? Don’t you think it’s strange that the Steward is locking up another Clan Chieftain? What about the police? Since when was Aifric Moncrieffe allowed to act like judge, jury and executioner?’

Rather than think about what I was saying, she looked at me as if I were toe fungus. ‘You give the Sidhe a bad name.’

I laughed coldly. ‘The Sidhe do that perfectly well without my help.’

‘You’ve endangered everyone in the Highlands by your actions with the trolls. This whole country could be attacked by the Fomori demons and we’d all be vulnerable.’

‘But this country has always been vulnerable to that. It’s only the Sidhe who’ve had the liberty of hiding behind their magic borders. What about everyone else?’

Her lip curled. ‘Because of you, Fomori demons attacked the MacQuarries.’

She was as blind as she was annoying. ‘No, they didn’t. It was Illusion magic. It was a Sidhe who was behind that. And Aifric Moncrieffe was pulling their strings as much as he is yours.’

She didn’t seem to hear me. ‘You’re a thief and a murderer.’