“Why?”
“Because Liah is coming for you. We know she has the power of compulsion. She can leap from mind to mind like a frog. We can’t have this inside their heads if she tries to get in. Only spirit witches like you and your mum can withstand compulsion.”
“And Blake,” I said.
“Probably best you don’t run to him with this, either. He doesn’t exactly trust me, and he’s likely to go to the other guys with this information, is he not?”
He was right. Damn, I hated that. I didn’t want Daigh to be right. I wanted him out of my life.
But that wasn’t my role here. I had to work for the good of humankind. I thought of Corbin – of how he felt trapped at Briarwood, and of all the amazing things these guys could do if they had freedom, real freedom. How even if we managed to defeat Daigh, we’d still go through this again and again and again until the fae got what they wanted.
And as much as I hated to admit it, Daigh and Liah had a point. Climate change, deforestation, genetic vulnerability of crops, fossil fuels...all the science points to humankind wipingitself out and taking the earth and her ecosystems with us. I could see how they concluded the earth would be better off without us.
I had to show the fae another way, a new future. I had to try. And that meant surviving tonight, no matter the cost. It meant losing Briarwood – a symbol of freedom, hope, and power. But it was worth it for true freedom.
I have to do this. It’s the only way.
“Fine,” I sighed. Daigh beamed at me through the mirror. “Tell me what we have to do.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
TWENTY-EIGHT: MAEVE
“Idon’t like this.”
“What did you say?” Aline yelled over the wind. Her long wavy hair whipped around her face.
I shook my head. It didn’t matter what I thought now. We were committed to this course of action. I didn’t see any other choice.
We stood on the parapet overlooking the gardens at the side of the castle, and the meadow beyond. My foot slipped into the internal gutter running along the narrow ledge. I pressed my back against the slate roof, my eyes focused on the flickering torches along the boundary and the village of Crookshollow in the distance.
After Daigh disappeared back into the mirror and we’d gone back to my room, Aline and I fell into bed. I pretended to sleep, my ears prickling for any change in the noise outside. After half an hour, Arthur woke Flynn up and crawled back into bed. In a few minutes he was snoring, and Aline and I could get up and go to the bathroom again.
My stomach churned with guilt and disgust that I was deceiving the guys to break the wall. But Daigh was right aboutthe fact that Liah couldn’t be allowed to get her hands on our escape plan.
Shouts and cheers blew into my face. I gripped the edge of the crenulation and peered over the wall. Arthur was right – the tractors had made it half a length closer. The wall bent back under their onslaught. Soon it would break anyway.
“I hope this works,” I yelled at Aline. “I hope Daigh’s right.”
She squeezed my hand. I couldn’t hear her words, but I read her lips. “Me too, sweetheart.”
Sparks of her spirit magic flickered against my hand. I closed my eyes and focused my attention on drawing up my power. My magic flared inside me, and I pushed it through my fingers, sending it to Aline so she could deactivate the charms.
After a few moments, she dropped my hand. “It’s done,” she mouthed, and picked her way back along the ramparts to the low-arched door leading back inside.
I dared a final look over the parapet. At the front gate, the tractor’s wheels spun against the gravel as it crashed through the invisible barrier and skidded up the drive. A roar of triumph rose from the villagers, spreading along the wall as the lights moved through the trees and up the curling paths toward Briarwood.
It was downright Shakespearean.
I’ve brought this ruin upon my house.
Shouts echoed up the stairs. I raced down, slamming the door to the roof behind me. As I made my way across the first-floor landing, Flynn slammed the bathroom door open and screamed my name. Even the the gloom, I could see his face had gone pale.
“I’m here!” I cried, rushing around the covered porch.
“There you are!” Flynn crashed into me, his arms engulfing me in a tight hug. “I thought your tiny arse got sucked down the loo.”
Flynn’s silly words belied the raw panic in his voice. I clung to him, not wanting to let him go. I hated that I’d worried him and that I was still lying to him.
