A strange fear flickered through me. “And who is it they want to bring back from thedead?”
He let out a long, shuddering exhale. “Nemain, the fae who tried to destroy the Morrigan. The fae who murdered dozens of innocents. The fae who would enslave the humans of this realm if she had the power to rule. They want herback.”
13
Istaredat Lugh for a long, long time without saying a word. My heartbeat frantically ran laps through my chest, and my ears filled with a strange, electrifying static-y sound. Nemain had pretty much been the devil incarnate. She had killed my sister-in-soul, had murdered her in cold blood. Elise was dead because of her. And she wasn’t the only fae she’dkilled.
The Morrigan—Clark, the Queen—had stopped her from destroying anyone else. And I had helped her doit.
When Nemain had died, I’d let out an exhale of relief so long that it was as if my entire world had been alteredforever.
And now, members of this court wanted to bring herback.
“You know her name,” Lugh observed. “And you look like you’ve been punched in thegut.”
I lifted my eyes toward his, my stomach churning. “Let me get this straight. Some fae want to bring Nemain back from the dead, and you want to stop them. That’s why you’re searching for the cauldron. Not to destroy Clark yourself. You don’t want hercrown?”
He levelled his gaze, steepling his fingers beneath his chin. “I may not want Clark Cavanaugh to bemyQueen, but I wish her no harm. As long as she doesn’t bring an army to my gates, I will never make a move againsther.”
Oh. This conversation had certainly takena turn. And I didn’t know what to do with myself. I sprang out of the chair and started pacing through the room, but got frustrated when all the random books blocked myway.
I stopped suddenly, waving my arms around like windmills. “Why would someone want to bring backNemain?”
He leaned back in his chair, an eerily-calm expression on his face. “I imagine because they would like to destroy the Morrigan and all the peace she stands for. Nemain promised a rule over every creature, where the fae were the dominant species. Humans would be nothing but bugs beneath our feet. The vampires and the shifters would be snuffed out completely. This world would beours.”
An angry rush of adrenaline pounded through me. I’d thought when we got rid of Nemain, we made it clear to every other tosser who thought that way that they werewrong.
“Who the hell is doing this?” I punched the air with my words. “I’ll find them right now and put a stop to this. Is it Warin? I thought I saw him sneaking around the cliffs, hunting for the hidden tunnel entrance earlier. He’s doing it. Isn’the?”
Lugh suddenly stood from his chair and loomed over me. “It isn’t Warin. I asked him to check the cliffs and make sure he couldn’t findit.”
My mouth dropped open. “But...Saoirsesaid—”
Lugh shook his head. “It isn’t him. She thought she had a reading that pointed to someone with red hair, but she said it was vague. Her prophecies are not alwaysspecific.”
“Well, then we have to look at everyone else it could be. We haveto—”
He rounded on me, suddenly standing only inches away. “We?”
At the strange intensity of his voice, I stopped my babble of incoherent thoughts. Taking a step back, I stared up at him. There was a hooded look in his eyes. A fierce electricity rippled across his skin. Not for the first time, magic sparked off his body, ricocheting against mine. I didn’t know whether I wanted to run screaming from it, or if I wanted to step closer and let it consume mewhole.
“How do you know so much about Nemain, Moira? Why are you so upset by this news? A solitary fae would have never had a confrontation with her. She was far too consumed by theCourt.”
His voice was steady and even, but it was dangerouslysoft.
Swallowing hard, I took a step back, but he closed the distance within an instant. I was quickly realising that I had misjudged him. Everything I’d thought was wrong. He wasn’t working against Clark. He wasn’t trying to steal the throne. And his cruel apathy was just a show, probably for the very same people he was workingagainst.
We had somehow ended up on the same side...and I’d lied to him to getthere.
I had to tell him the truth, even as hard as it would be. The second I spilled my secret, he’d toss me out of this castle. And he would likely never let me help him find therealenemy. But I couldn’t keep going like this. He’d told me the truth. He’d opened up to me in a way I didn’t deserve. And now I had to do thesame.
I sucked in a deep breath and braced myself for his reaction. “I’m one of the fae who fought against her. I’m Moira Talmhach, a warrior fae in the Morrigan’s Court. I’m not a solitary fae at all. I came here to...well, I came here to stop you from getting your hands on that cauldron and killing myQueen.”
The two words that whispered from his throat were the last two I ever expected to hear next. “Iknow.”
“What?” I hissed the word and stumbled back. “What do you mean you know? You can’t know. You let me in your Court.You’ve...”
I trailed off, and his wicked smile was my only answer. He knew?! All this time I thought I’d been playing him, but really he’d been playingme.
