She nodded. “Nightmare wraiths feed on fear, partially because they love the chaos it causes. But also because they need to feed to survive. Not feeding dulls his powers. He’s going to want to refill himself before he does…whatever he plans on doing. Likely returning to Faerie to get theothers.”
“His powers didn’t look so muted to me,” Imuttered.
“The shadow shifting?” Boudica asked. “Yeah, that was wild. Didn’t you say that’s what the Quentin wanker did when he got thespear?”
“Yeah.” I frowned. That had been troubling me, too. Quentin hadn’t just teleported. He’d shifted into shadows and disappeared. What were the odds that his power was the exact thing a nightmare wraith did? I’d learned a very long time ago that coincidences werenevertrue coincidences, not in the supernaturalworld.
We all turned to Uisnech who had been quietly twisting his hands together. “I did not realise that this was a nightmare wraith power. I thought only King Lugh could do such a thing, though I haven’t seen him do it in decades. He said himself that it was a rare gift infae.”
“He meantteleportingwas a rare gift in fae,” Saoirse cut in. “He didn’t see the shifting shadows himself or he would have made the connection. That’s a nightmare wraith thing. Not a fae thing. When you teleport, you just pop in and out of places. Nightmare wraiths use shadows to move through theworld.”
My heart thumped. “But then that would mean that Quentinis…”
“A nightmare wraith,” Boudica finished, slamming her fist against the wall. “Dammit!”
I held up my hands. “Wait a minute. I met with Quentin. He seemednothinglike a nightmarewraith.”
I’d always been able to identify supernaturals, by sight and by scent. Fae did not feel the same that vampires felt. They certainly smelled nothing alike. Quentin had felt just like every other fae I’d come across. Besides, nightmare wraiths didn’t just go around plotting coups. They charged through life causing chaos, feasting on terrifiedsouls.
It didn’t addup.
Saoirse’s voice was hushed when she finally broke the silence. “I don’t know what Quentin is, but he’s more than what he seems. It makes me question his motives…his plans. We assumed he had the cauldron, and he was plotting to bring back Nemain. Perhaps we werewrong.”
I frowned. “What do you mean? He was working with everyone else who was trying to bring back Nemain. What else would he want the spearfor?”
“He wanted the samethingthey did. Lugh’s spear.” She let a beat pass without speaking. “But I believe they may have wanted it for differentreasons.”
Suddenly, the realisation crashed over me. Quentin, for whatever reason, did not care one lick about Nemain. He’d wanted Lugh’s spear because it held his soul, not because of the powerful magic contained within. The spear had not been a sacrifice to bring another being back from thedead.
“He wanted the nightmare wraith king,” I murmured, heart tripping in my chest. “He wanted to get rid of Lugh’ssoul.”
Uisnech’s mouth was wide as he stared up at me. “Oh my. I understand the plot now, far better than I ever have. Our nemesis means for Lugh to bring the wraiths out of Faerie. That is why he wanted the spear. He wants to bring on theapocalypse.”
* * *
It tooka few minutes for that bombshell to sink in. On the one hand, whew! With everything going on, I hadn’t allowed myself to ponder what it might mean with Nemain back in the land of the living. She had some serious firepower—she could predict what people were going to do next. It made it next to impossible to take herdown.
She’d start her crusades against the crown once again, desperate to rule over not only the entire supernatural world but the mortal one as well, transforming humans into indenturedservants.
Luckily, it was becoming clear that we didn’t need to worry aboutNemain.
Notso luckily, the threat was far worse than she could everbe.
“Right.” I ducked and grabbed my sword from the ground, shoving it back into the sheath strapped to my waist. “We obviously can’t let this happen. Like Saoirse said, Lugh won’t have gone far. He’s still feeding. And we need to findhim.”
If we could manage to stop him from gathering his energy, we could stop him from heading straight to Faerie. The longer we distracted him from his goals, the more time we’d have to formulate a better plan than the one we’d originallyhad.
This time, we didn’t split up. It would be the six of us against one nightmare wraith. Together, we broke out into a run and raced through the Edinburgh streets. Humans stopped and stared as we rushed past, but no one tried to slow us down. They knew about the fae who lived in the castle on the hill. They might not like us, but they also didn’t want to get in our way. If we were rushing around like this, weapons clearly visible, shit must be goingdown.
My ears picked up another scream in the distance. Waving my arms in the direction of the sound, I led the crew down another close, this one more tightly-packed than the one before. Our footsteps slowed as we approached the darkening shadows ahead. Heart thumping once again, I drew mysword.
A tall, dark figure curled over a ginger boy who looked about eighteen. He had his arms flung over his eyes, his entire body squirming as the nightmare wraith drew the shadows from his skin. Strands of smoke drifted around the boy, twisting and turning like black ribbons ofdeath.
“Lugh!” I shouted at the form. Suddenly, the smoky tendrils vanished into the night. The hunched figure stood, twisting toward our group. Wraith Lugh’s dark eyes flashed withrage.
His lip curled as he sneered. “Your weapons are useless againstme.”
I twisted my palms around the hilt. “I thought you could remember all Lugh’s memories. If that were the case, you’d know that underestimating me is one of the worst mistakes men cando.”
