“How do you know about this?”
“I lived in this castle for many months,” he said. “I was here specifically to hunt for weaknesses the fae could exploit. Many times I used the tunnel to return to the sidhe without the witches knowing. It’s your only chance to escape the castle without the humans capturing you. If Liah compels a human to capture you, she can get close enough to your boys and compel them to break the wards that protect the castle.”
Shit, shit, shit.
“You’re telling me we have to abandon Briarwood Castle.”
“To save your skin and give you a chance against Liah, yes.”
“But it’s not a solution. It’s only a delaying tactic. They’ll eventually figure out we’re not in the castle and they’ll find us and we’ll be in exactly the same situation.”
“Think of it more as a tactical retreat. You buy yourselves time and room to move. You can sneak up behind them and take Liah by surprise. I recall you saying you have a weapon that will stop the Slaugh,” Daigh rubbed his chin, his eyes sparkling. “One wonders why you haven’t used it yet on the humans.”
Dammit, he’s right.I hated that Daigh had seen through us like that. Even though he didn’t know about the belief magic, he knew there was a reason we hadn’t used our weapon on the fae. We couldn’t harness the magic because the statue was outside the castle grounds, but even if we could, there’s no way we’d use it. If we hurt the villagers or drove them away or did anything to disrupt the flow of belief magic that was going to Flynn’s statue, we could lose our shot at defence against the Slaugh. The angry mob outside our gates were probably driving up the belief magic to stratospheric levels. In case we couldn’t make an agreement with Daigh or, more likely, he double-crosses us, we needed tokeep that magic flowing until the Slaugh came if we wanted any hope of defeating them.
If we could hold out it until Ryan’s painting came out and the press descended on Crookshollow, then the villagers wouldn’t be able to pull stunts like this – not without the whole of England looking on. Without our magic throttled, we could hit Liah with some of the belief power, try and get her out of their heads, maybe take her out completely. If we hid out a Raynard Hall, we’d at least have a chance.
But when they got in here…we would lose the castle, we’d lose the wards. We’d most likely be dead.
But we can’t leave Briarwood.Memories flashed through my mind – of the first day I’d arrived and the boys literally fell over themselves showing me around and trying to impress me. Of the first time Corbin and I shagged on his desk in the dark panelled library, of the delicious smells wafting from the kitchen whenever Rowan was at the stove, of climbing over Flynn’s piles of crap in the garage, and swinging swords with Arthur in the orchard.
Briarwood wasmycastle. It was the only place in the world I’d ever considered home. No way did I want to give it over to a horde of villagers to pillage and ruin.
“Forget it,” I said. “We’re not letting them in here. For all I know, you could be lying about Liah even being here. I’m not giving up Briarwood based only on your word.”
“If you don’t stop Liah, then what you showed us tonight will come to pass,” Daigh insisted.
I sighed. “You’re basing this hair-brained scheme on that stupid dream? You’re more deluded than I thought.”
“If we’ve seen it, then we must try to change it,” Daigh insisted. “Isn’t that our responsibility to the earth and her inhabitants?”
“Either predestination exists, or it doesn’t. You can’t have it both ways.”
Aline smiled at the mirror. “Our daughter questions everything, even the evidence of her own eyes.”
Daigh grinned back. “What monster have we raised?”
“Neither of you raised shit,” I snapped. “I was raised by two amazing people in Arizona who youkilled with a Ferris wheel.”
“Temper, temper.” Daigh grinned at Aline. “She is most definitely mine.”
“The DNA test will confirm that,” I growled, wrapping my fingers around Aline’s arm and dragging her toward the door. “I’m just going to consult with my mother here. Don’t go away.”
Out in the hall, I yanked Aline through the doorway of Rowan’s room and flattened us both against the wall. “Okay, I give in. What’s his game?” I hissed. “Is he telling us the truth or what?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” she whispered back. “You’ve been around him a lot more recently than I have.”
“I’ve only had a handful of conversations with the guy, and from what I can gather, precisely 82% of what he says is lies.”
Aline smiled, her white teeth catching a glint of the “For Daigh, that’s a pretty good percentage.”
“Is this funny to you?” I snapped. “Lives are in danger here, and you’re flirting with the enemy.”
She rubbed my shoulder. “Woah, hey, calm down, honey-bee. We’re going to figure this out.”
I cringed at her saccharine pet name. “You lived in this castle a lot longer than I did. Do you know about this door in the cellar?”
Aline shook her head. “But that doesn’t mean he invented it. I never did go down in the cellar much. It’s dusty and grotty and full of spiders! We have to remember that Daigh’s got nothing togain or lose personally by coming to warn us. He’s safe in the fae realm. His safety is not in danger.”
