“Never would’ve guessed,” I mumbled, and Niamh elbowed me.
“I heard shouting near the castle entrance, so I decided to travel to the farm painting right near the front doors. You know, I never go into that painting. It smells like an actual farm.” She shuddered. “Paintings have scents, if you didn’t know. That’s why I prefer the fruity ones.”
“Margaret, for the love of the godwitches, please tell us what happened.”
“Oh, of course.” She giggled. “Well, I endured the horrible smell to see those brotherhood scoundrels burst into the castle. No one thought they’d be able to enter, so everyone was in shock. Servants were scuttling away like little mice.” She tiptoed her fingers to illustrate her point. “Then some of the royal guard burst in and started fighting the brotherhood. They had these arrows that could find their own targets. I watched one arrow fly through the air, then stop, turn downward and go straight toward one of the guards.”
“Who?” I barked. “Did they get hit? Where was Cillian?”
“And then,” Margaret prattled on, ignoring my question. “Who awoke, but Sir Arthur!”
“Sir Arthur?” I asked, shooting a sideways glance at Niamh.
“Yes, woke right up from his nap, very grumpy, and he started blocking all the arrows. I’ve never seen him move so fast. He was veryupset about the intruders coming into his castle. They didn’t know the password.”
I rolled my eyes at that part.
“But every arrow deflected off his armor. Some of the arrows started denting his chest and arm plates, which made him even angrier, and that made him move even faster. The brotherhood were so distracted by this talking, walking armor that they’d stopped moving to watch Sir Arthur singlehandedly deflect all their arrows. That’s when the chandelier dropped.”
I looked back to see the glittering pieces shattered all over the floor of the foyer.
“Right on top of the brotherhood! The royal guard had surrounded them while Sir Arthur distracted them. They had nowhere to go, and then boom.” She clapped her hands, and Niamh jumped. “Chandelier drops on them. None of them died,” Margaret assured us, as if that was what we might be worried about.
“So where are they? Where is the high prince? Have you seen Nevan?”
“The high prince is recovering from a fight,” a voice said at the end of the hallway. My head snapped in the direction of both Cillian and Nevan. Blood spattered Cillian’s cheek, and a small piece of tape wrapped around the center of Nevan’s glasses.
I ran toward them, roping them both into a tight hug. “You’re safe,” I said. “You’re okay.”
I pushed them both back at arm’s length, studying them for signs of injury. “Whose blood is that?” I asked Cillian.
“The brotherhood swine I punched in the jaw. Some of his blood got on me.”
“You were fighting?” I was going to have a word with Harriet.
Cillian shot me one of his dazzling smiles. “You know, Lor isn’t the only one you trained.”
“You taught us a lot too.” Nevan crossed his arms. “Even if we didn’t quite become the fighters you and Lor were.”
I swallowed at hearing our brother’s name, at the reminder that I was going to have to tell my family that Lor was still alive... and thathe had somehow become the Butcher of the Brotherhood. But now wasn’t the right time.
“And look at us.” Cillian spread his arms wide. “We did okay without you here. We survived while you were”—he stretched his neck out and looked at the opposite end of the hallway, where Niamh stood, her back turned to us as she spoke with Margaret—“occupied. Wanna tell us what happened with Niamh?” Cillian waggled his eyebrows, and Nevan smirked.
“No,” I snapped.
He shot Nevan a look and shrugged. “Well, I tried.”
“Where is everyone else? Where are the brotherhood?”
“We threw them in the dungeon,” Cillian said. “Sir Arthur is currently terrifying them with threats of guillotines and something called a stretching machine? Not sure what that is, but it doesn’t sound pleasant.”
My shoulders slumped and I sank against the wall. “So everyone is okay? Fairwitch is okay?”
“For now.” Cillian’s voice had turned grave. “We think they were able to breach because of those magic brooms they were riding. They got in with the magical item.”
I swore. That was a loophole we’d never considered.
Cillian raised a finger. “But now that we have our library back, we’re learning a lot about this castle, about the magic of Fairwitch.” He leaned forward. “We might be able to move our castle.”
