Last Wish (Highland Magic #4)

Shite. I turned to Taylor and the others. ‘How did you get here?’ I asked urgently.

Lexie glared, tossing her blue hair. ‘If you’re pissed off that we’re here, you should have told us what you were doing.’

‘Lex!’

‘By sea,’ Brochan replied. ‘We anchored in the middle of some dark, gloopy river and walked the rest of the way. That’s why it took us so long to get here.’

The Clyde. Crapadoodle. ‘The entire ship passed through the Veil?’

His mouth flattened and his gills twitched. ‘It was not my idea. Nor was it fun.’

I stared at them all. This was important. ‘Were you followed?’

For a moment no one answered. I repeated my question. ‘Were you followed?’

Eventually, Speck nodded. ‘Yes. But it’s okay. We have a plan. We wanted them to come here.’

‘You have a plan?’ I shrieked. ‘What kind of plan is going to resolve this?’ Shite, shite and damn Aifric to shite. This was my fault: the Sidhe were here because I was. Aifric was worried about what I was up to. I curled my fingers into fists. Well, he should be worried.

‘Where are they?’ the Fomori leader asked the messenger.

‘On the fringes of the city but they’re moving in.’

‘How many?’

Even in this dim light, I saw the messenger blanch. ‘Thousands. It’s as if every Sidhe in Scotland is here.’

He was probably right; apart from the MacQuarries, they’d all been gathered in one place. It would have been simple for Aifric to order all of them to arms. I shook my head. All my plots and plans were going to unravel and if it came to a direct confrontation between the Sidhe and all the Fomori ... a sickening chasm opened up in my chest. I wondered if the Fomori’s version of the prophecy – that I was going to destroy Alba – was about to come true.

Suddenly there was a mammoth roaring noise and the sky lit up with an orange hue. Byron lunged, throwing himself on top of me. I was knocked to the ground, disbelief and shock rippling through me. A heartbeat later, the castle was rocked. There were screams, followed by the sound of stones breaking off and falling far below.

‘Pyrokinesis,’ he said in my ear. ‘The Sidhe are attacking.’

I pulled away from him, searching desperately for the Fomori. They’d been knocked off their feet by the impact but they were still conscious. The three who’d been in front of us, holding us in our place, scrambled towards their leader without thinking.

Fergus, a trickle of blood leaking from his forehead, pulled himself to his feet and wiped it away. ‘It’s a warning shot,’ he said calmly. ‘Or there would have been more. The Steward is sending a message.’ He looked at May and said the same to her in Gaelic.

‘Tegs,’ Taylor whispered. ‘We were caught as we came looking for you but we’d already found something else.’

I frowned at him, not sure what he meant. He unzipped his jacket a little and a faint golden glow appeared before he hastily zipped it up again. I gasped then clamped my hand over my mouth to muffle the sound. ‘How did you know?’

‘Know what?’

‘That I needed the Draoidheachd?’

He turned his head to Speck. ‘Told you that’s what it was,’ he said smugly. ‘You owe me fifty quid.’

‘Keep it hidden,’ I told him. I looked at Byron, a question in my eyes.

He nodded, pointing to the bag by Fergus’s feet. ‘It’s there.’

I drew in a shaky breath. Good. That was very good.

‘May,’ Fergus said. ‘She knows we have it as well.’

I stiffened, glancing in her direction. After explaining the warning shot theory to the others, she was watching us, an intelligent gleam in her eyes. The tiniest smile crossed her lips and she turned away. ‘She’s not going to say anything. She knows what might be about to happen.’

Taylor frowned. ‘Why would she say something? And what’s about to happen?’

We had a lot of catching up to do but there wasn’t time – the three Fomori had returned.

‘Get up!’

We all got awkwardly to our feet.

‘We should execute them now!’ one of the others said.

My mouth was dry. The English-speaking Fomori murmured something into the boss-man’s ear. He nodded. ‘We can do that later. We can do that any time. But we might need them first.’ He turned to the messenger. ‘Get everyone in the city to safe ground. Not here – this will be the first point of attack. Get them to Arthur’s Seat and tell them to be ready.’

The messenger didn’t ask what they should be ready for. He bowed, whirled round and fled.

The air around us sizzled. At first, I thought it was simply from the tension but then, without further warning, an Ochterlony Sidhe flashed into existence right next to us. We barrelled towards him to stop him doing anything dangerous. He held up bare palms, however, and cleared his throat. ‘I’m here to parley.’

The English-speaking demon stepped forward. ‘You teleported here.’

The Sidhe inclined his head. He didn’t look in our direction; he was wholly focused on the demons. ‘Our leader, the esteemed Steward of the Highlands, Aifric Moncrieffe, is requesting safe passage to this castle to discuss current … developments.’ I almost snorted. Current developments? Is that what we were calling war these days?

There was a pause while this was translated. The Fomori leader scratched his chin. ‘He is permitted to come with four others. None of them can be Sidhe.’

Again we had to wait for the translation, which was troublesome and time-consuming. I wondered how much had been lost in nuance over the years as a result. I promised myself that once all this was over I’d learn Fomori properly. I reckoned I was going to need it.

‘Nine others,’ the Sidhe shot back. ‘And they must all be Sidhe. We need to know that he will be safe.’

‘Are you suggesting that we would hurt him during the truce?’

‘It’s not only Fomori demons who are here,’ the Ochterlony idiot responded. He still didn’t look at us but we knew who he was referring to.

They bargained back and forth, eventually settling on five – a mix of Sidhe and others. Still unsmiling, the Ochterlony Sidhe bowed and vanished. ‘You should have nicked Teleportation from him,’ Taylor grumbled. ‘We could do with being as far away from here as possible.’

At his words, I glanced at the English-speaking demon. His other Gift was Teleportation and he’d heard what Taylor had said but all he did was smile.

Byron squeezed my hand. ‘I trust you with my life, Integrity. You need to make a decision and act now. If my father gets here, he’ll do whatever’s necessary to manipulate the situation. We won’t last five seconds.’

I looked at the others. Every one of them met my eyes.

‘I don’t know what you’re planning, Tegs,’ Taylor said, ‘but if anyone can find a way out of this, you can.’

Fergus nodded. ‘We’re dead anyway.’