Saoirse’s purple eyes brightened when she saw the two of us striding toward them. “Moira! Lugh! Come joinus.”
She would only ever allow herself to be that casual with the King in this kind of company. Most of the fae were much more deferential to their King. Still, Lugh didn’t correct her. We joined the table, grabbing plates from thestack.
As we filled our plates, a comfortable silence rose up around us. Everyone munched on their breakfast, eyes distant as if pondering the day ahead. Indeed, I couldn’t help but ponder myself. We had a spear-stealing plot to stop, and then I had a druid tofind.
There wasn’t much downtime in the supernaturalworld.
Just before I opened my mouth to speak, the shrill tone of my cell cut through the silence. Everyone went still, and all eyes were on where my phone sat on the table next to my half-emptyplate.
Swallowing hard, I took a swig of juice and then swiped the phone from the table. I pressed it to my ear, heart hammering hard. “Hello?”
“Am I speaking to the fae who paid a visit to A Knight’s End yesterday evening?” a smooth, silky voice purred over the line. Instantly, my body went as taut as a telephone pole. Not because of his words—I’d been expecting this—but because I swore I’d heard that voice once before. In the pub. The night I’d run into the gang of supes who had been trying to take Lughdown.
I’d never seen his face, but I’d just suspected he’d gone down during the fight in Mary King’s Close. He could have been many of the enemy fae we’d blasted with Lugh’s spear, or one of the many who had been trapped in the avalanche of falling buildings. But, apparently, he’d gottenout.
Heart thumping, I cleared my throat. “Yeah, that’s me. I want to take down the king on thehill.”
“Brilliant. I want to meet you before I can confirm you’re on the team. I’ll be at Arthur’s Seat at ten this evening. Comealone.”
6
“Idon’t like this,”Lugh said, pacing back and forth across the training room floor. “We know next to nothing about this fae, and if he was involved in the plot to bring Nemain back to life, there is no limit to what he is capableof.”
The whole day had passed like this. Lugh and I would talk about the plan, and he’d end up telling me that he didn’t want me to go, even though my spy craft was the whole point of my visit. There had been no more half-kisses or hopeful murmurs about druids who knew the answers to all the questions about the universe. He couldn’t shake his unease about themission.
I shrugged my leather jacket over my shoulders. It was half past nine. We had no more time to waste. “It’s about damn time you stopped underestimating me, Lugh. I can take care of myself. You’ve seen how well I canfight.”
“You could be walking straight into a trap. Whoever this fae is…he could know who you are tome.”
I met his gaze head on. “Yep, you’re right. Itcouldbe a trap. Maybe he did some research, and he’s on to me. But if we don’t evenattemptto make this connection, we might lose our only chance at getting a heads up about the attack they haveplanned.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and growled. “I don’t likethis.”
“Tough luck, mate,” I shot back at him. “I’m not going to let some arsehole get his hands on yourspear.”
I grabbed a twin pair of blades from the training room rack and strapped them around my waist, careful to keep them hidden beneath my leather jacket. I probably wouldn’t need to use them, but I wasn’t dumb enough to go into this meeting completely unarmed. Arthur’s Seat wasn’t exactly a remote location. It was very popular with tourists, though perhaps not this late at night. Still, there would be plenty of humans around. Enough to keep the fae from going onattack.
That said, I still wasn’t going to riskit.
* * *
Arthur’s Seatwas located about a mile east of the castle, an extinct volcano that rose high above the city. At the top, hikers were rewarded with amazing views of Edinburgh, although the climb wasn’t particularly difficult. Legend had it that it was once the location for Camelot, the infamous castle of King Arthur. In truth, the very first fae who entered this realm founded the place as their own. Humans, not understanding the ways of the fae, thought it came fromwizards.
After climbing the rolling hills, I glanced around. It was windy up here, and I shivered in my leather jacket. A few humans were standing along the hilltop, gazing at the sparkling city lights below. Only one stood alone, in the distance, with a long dark cloak flapping around a pair of shiny shoes. He was tall and slim with a moustache that squatted like a bushy caterpillar above hislips.
He wasfae.
Squaring my shoulders, I crossed the hill to stand beside him. I kept my hands in my jacket pockets, turning to face the direction he was looking. He was staring right at CastleWraith.
“Good evening,” he said in a silky voice that caused goosebumps to break out along my arms. “My name is Quentin. I am assuming you areMoira.”
“Yep,” I replied. “I answered an ad that took me to A Knight’s End. You’re looking forsupes.”
“Quiteright.”
I shifted on my feet. “You want to destroy the king on thehill.”
“Indeed.”
