Griffin shrugged. “What can I do? I can’t be sure I ever had the real Heart of Brigid.”
“You’ll need to hire a private investigator to retrace your steps,”Pierce said. “I can go ahead and order it, but in the meantime, you could be in danger. If you truly had the real Heart of Brigid in your hand, others could be after it, including the criminal mob dealing in our precious ancient artifacts.”
“If I truly had it, don’t you think Brigid would be here right now? Standing in front of me, alive?”
“Only if you went back to the twelfth centuryand found her,” Pierce said. “As far as I know, you didn’t have time to reanimate her and time-travel.”
“Time in the Otherworld moves differently than it does here. Looks like I still remember those rules,” Griffin said. “I could have been there and back in the time it took me to have a seizure.”
“All you had was this lump of coal,” Pierce said. “If you went, you might have exchangedthe diamond for coal.”
“Oh, no,” Griffin groaned. “That’s what happened. Both diamond and coal are made of carbon. When you found me, where was I and what was I holding?”
“You were inside your walk-in closet. You were holding this piece of coal and calling for a woman named Clare, saying she took the Heart of Brigid.”
“The daughter of Richard ‘Strongbow’ de Clare?”
“I assume so.” Pierce’s Adam’s apple bobbled, and he made the sign of the cross. “Do you know what this means?”
Griffin’s entire body shuddered as if breaking out of a shell of ice. “If the Morrigan has Brigid’s heart, she will never live again. Ireland will turn into a dark, desolate, denuded rock. I’ve failed.”
“Unless…”
Griffin held up his hand to ward off the horrid thought.“I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is no. I’m not going to get the Morrigan to fall in love with me.”
“It’s the only way,” Pierce said, picking up the lump of coal. “I’m sorry, but it will be up to your son to reunite with Brigid. You, like your father, will have to mate with the Morrigan and produce another Griffin.”
“I’ve failed.”
“Not yet. Your mother returnedthe Heart to your father on her deathbed.”
“And my father lost his mind,” Griffin said, not knowing where that thought originated. “Is that my fate, too?”
