“Yes, yes, it’s all very interesting.” Clara leaned forward. “Shouldn’t we hear from Isadora now?”
It came back to me then, the strange thing Isadora had said when Corbin and I visited her in London. She knew a secret that would help us, but she refused to tell me.
Ryan forgotten, I studied the witch as she glared at Clara from her chair, her blood-red nails tapping against the rim of her teacup. In London with her perfect outfit and brusque manner, she’d been terrifying. Now, even though she wore sharp tailored trousers and a silk shirt and her hair and makeup were perfect,the way she sat under Ryan’s fox painting all alone, she appeared different somehow. Almost…vulnerable. I wondered what my mother had done to convince her to come to Briarwood.
Isadora looked to Aline, her face pleading, but Aline merely nodded.
“Very well.” Isadora sighed. She set down her teacup and uncrossed and crossed her legs. “I’ve known about Daigh’s plans for some time, but I’ve been unable to work directly against him because of a pact we made many years ago.”
What? Anger gnawed at my gut. The way she treated us when we’d gone to speak to her…she met Corbin and she knew information that could save him and she kept it to herself and now he’s dead, dead, dead.
“A pact which the forfeiture of his powers has now freed you from,” Clara said, a little too gleefully. “Go on, Isadora. We’re all curious to hear about this pact you made with Daigh.”
Isadora sighed again. “Some years ago, he loaned his magic to assist me with a little problem. In return, I vowed that I would find out what really happened to his daughter.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
SEVEN: MAEVE
What?
My breath caught in my throat. Isadora had a pact with Daigh aboutme?She acted so cold in London and all this time she...
“Oh, isadora,” Aline sighed, her eyes filled with pity.
Well, she could pity that nasty woman if she wanted. I needed answers. “What in Athena’s name would have possessed you to strike a deal like that with the king of the Unseelie Court?”
Isadora held her chin high, her gaze unrepentant. “Because he gave me something I couldn’t get from anyone else, and that’s all I’ll say on the matter. All you need to know is that Daigh did me a service many years ago, and he called in his favour.”
“And what was his favour?”
“Some months after the ritual where both Moore girls weresupposedto have died.” Isadora glared at Aline. “Daigh’s face appeared in my bathroom mirror. He said he could not talk long, for he had only the power for a few minutes. He said that he wasn’t certain that Aline hadn’t tricked him, that his daughter might still yet live. He wanted me to find out what I could. I did a little investigating, but I’m not a police detective.” She wrinkledher nose as she said this, as though we’d all suggested she was a toad.
“Aline is tricksy,” Smithers sang out. “She tricked tricked tricked that nasty Robert, but then he stopped talking to me and I had no friends.”
Isadora frowned at Robert, then continued. “I found nothing, and told him so. Daigh wasn’t satisfied but he had no power, so what could he do? He didn’t bother me again until a few months ago. He appeared in my bathroom mirror. He said his daughter’s twenty-first birthday was approaching, if she was still alive then she would come into her spirit magic and inherit Briarwood Castle. He wanted me to investigate again, and he threatened to come after my coven if I didn’t give him a real answer. He had power again, and I was afraid for my girls. So I used the resources I had – an MI6 intelligence officer is my exclusive client. It took him less than fifteen minutes to hack into your solicitor's office and discover the presence of Maeve Crawford in Arizona. I gave this information to Daigh, and he declared my debt paid.”
Horror dawned on me as I realised what she was saying. I’d been safe in America as long as Daigh believed I’d died in the ritual. Everything that had happened in these last few months only came about because Daigh found out I was alive and wanted to bring me back to Briarwood.
My hands balled into fists. Isadora was the reason my parents were dead.
White welts danced in front of my eyes as rage burned through me. My palms prickled with flaring magic. I imagined shoving my hands against Isadora’s temples and dragging out her nightmares, giving her a taste of the grief and guilt I’d felt at her hands. What was that cold bitch even afraid of? I’d find out and I’d give it all to her.
Beside me, Flynn’s hand clamped around my knee, grounding me and – judging by the pressure he applied – deliberately holding me down. I tried to slide out from under him, but he threw his other hand across my chest, yelping as he caught a flare of my spirit magic.
“Blake, a little help? She’s going to fry Isadora’s mind.”
Blake’s face remained impassive, but his eyes blazed with violence. “If Maeve wants to fry a few brains, she’s justified.”
I wrenched Flynn’s arm off me and stood up. Aline gasped when she saw my face, but no one stepped in to stop me. I stepped toward Isadora, and Corbin’s face flashed in my mind.
You can’t blame Isadora.
Damn him. That one imagined glimpse at Corbin’s smiling face was all it took for the fight to leave me. Corbin wouldn’t want me to use my magic to hurt Isadora, even though she deserved it for that defiant glare in her eyes as she stared me down.
It was Daigh’s orders that sent the prince Kalen to America to light that fire. Daigh killed my parents and revoked my scholarship. Daigh’s ridiculous plan forced me to move to England and start the chain of events that ended up with all of us in this room. Isadora was weak and selfish, but she’s not evil.
I slumped to my knees on the thick carpet, and pressed my head to the ground. Tears prickled at the corners of my eyes, the first signs that the flood of grief would soon break. A heavy hand fell on my back, and then another, and another as my boys surrounded me.
