Maeve Crawford was dead and buried. Maeve Moore – she was ready to kick some serious fae ass.
I rubbed at the grease smudge on my cheek, but that only smeared it further across my skin. I scrubbed it with soap and water.
The mirror fogged up. I couldn’t see.Odd.I’d only been running the hot water for a few minutes. I rubbed at the fog, but it didn’t clear.
A pair of crystalline eyes emerged from the fog, followed by two long, full lips leering at me out of the mirror. I screamed and leapt back.
“Hello, daughter,” a dark, familiar voice echoed through the bathroom.
An invisible hand slammed my body against the shower wall. My heart leapt into my throat as the features coalesced into a face. Daigh stared back at me, his lips curling into his usual expression of carefree nonchalance.
“You can’t do this,” I said, fighting to get my pattering heart under control. “You can’t be inside the castle like this.”
“Can’t I?” he smirked. “I spent months within those walls when I was inside that insufferable painter. Do you not think I made sure there was a way I could get back in this castle if I needed to?”
“I don’t believe for a second you were that clever.”
Daigh laughed. “You got me, daughter. I am, of course, not really here. I used a variation on the spell your enchanting mother used to call me, only this time I sought you out. I thought we could have a little heart-to-heart without the others around.”
“A heart-to-heart is what you do with people you care about, and I don’t care about you. I sent away the DNA sample this morning. In only a few days you’ll see how superficial our connection really is.”
He let that one slide. “You made me an interesting offer yesterday.”
“Which you rejected.”
“I did. But maybe I’m reconsidering.”
I tilted my head to the side. “I believe your words were that you’d rather die than ally with us witches.”
“That was before Liah became a problem. While I was speaking with you, Liah spied on our conversation. She’s gone to one of our gracious hosts and told them I was thinking of selling them out to the humans. The underworld is in uproar. My fae are no longer listening to me. I’m in hiding lest a demon strike me down. Our hosts are considering giving Liah control of the Slaugh if I can’t rein in the fae. Liah’s building a resistance – soon she’ll be too strong for me to oppose. I’d rather give up the earth than live under her reign.”
Everything he said was good news for us. Hope surged inside me. “Then accept my proposal. Call off the Slaugh. Go back on the deal. Bring the fae to earth to live in the wild places.”
Daigh shook his head. “I wish I could, but if I bring this to the fae now, they will not accept it. They will see me as weak, trying to save my family at their expense. It will send them all to Liah. If she controls the Slaugh, they have no reason to follow me.”
“You have another idea, I’m guessing?”
Daigh nodded. “Liah needs to fail first. My fae need to know that the world she envisions can never be. I need the fae to see the vision you and Blake have seen – of the world broken and burning from this ‘nuclear’ weapon. Only when they realise there is no hope with her will they accept the offer you propose.”
“And how do you plan to show them our vision? You haven’t even seen it. You only know about it because Blake told you.”
“Youwill show them, dreamwalker. You and Blake.”
“If you think I’m setting foot down in wherever in the cosmos you’re mirroring in from, you can think again,” I warned. The words ‘hell no’ danced on my tongue, but they seemed a little on-the-nose, so I held back.
“We will come to you. I can make that happen. I will bring a few of my most trusted and loyal fae. I know you and Blake can communicate through your dreams. You will draw my fae into the dream, show them the truth of it, of what will happen. They need to feel their lungs closing over, and the ghosts of the trees clutching at a dying world.”
“When do you want to do this thing?”
“As soon as possible. I believe I can be ready at midnight tonight. We’ll meet you beside the sidhe.”
“Midnight, of course. How mystical.” I yawned in the mirror. “I’m never going to get a decent night’s sleep. Sure, let me talk to the guys and we’ll?—”
Daigh frowned. “It must only be you and Blake.”
“Why?”
“Because if my fae see the Briarwood coven closing in around them, they’ll suspect a trap.”
