Gifted Thief (Highland Magic #1)(67)

‘I’ve seen it happen before,’ Bob said knowledgeably. ‘The Timentuns, for example.’

‘Who?’ Lexie asked.

He snapped his fingers. ‘Exactly!’

They all looked at me. ‘It does make it more likely that there’ll be another attempt on my life once the Foinse is sorted,’ I said thoughtfully. ‘Rubbing out the past is a big deal. I wonder what they’re all so scared of.’

‘More bad jokes,’ Bob said cheerfully.

I stuck out my tongue at him, then softened my expression. ‘Thank you,’ I told him. ‘You didn’t have to do that. Look around the library, I mean.’

He blushed. ‘Against my better judgment, I like you, Uh Integrity. This is the most fun I’ve had in a thousand years.’

‘So what’s the plan?’ Speck asked.

I ran my hands through my hair. ‘I travel to the Foinse with the others. I might be able to glean some information during the journey. Aifric Moncrieffe is going and there’s no way that he doesn’t know that the Adair Clan is being deliberately forgotten. Perhaps I can find out why.’

‘You’re going to have to make a run for it once the Foinse is opened,’ Brochan said grimly. ‘It might have only been the Bull who was trying to kill you before but that could change when you’ve done your duty.’

I nodded. ‘Yep. Teleportation makes escape pretty simple though.’ I pointed to Speck. ‘Can you go back to Aberdeen and talk to Taylor? He knows a lot of people who’ve been around for a long time. See what the Clan-less know about the Adairs.’

‘He probably already knows, Tegs,’ Speck answered. ‘You might have wanted to abandon everything to do with your family and the Sidhe, but I bet that he looked into what happened.’

He was probably right. And if Taylor had never discussed it with me, it was probably because what he’d unearthed wasn’t good. I had to stop pretending it wasn’t part of me. I’d take the news, whether it was good or bad.

‘Brochan, it’s a lot to ask, but do you think you can find a way to get to the old Adair lands? It’s almost three decades since they were used but…’

‘I’ll do it. There might be traces there of things that can help.’

‘I can use the teleportation thing to get you there,’ I began.

He shook his head. ‘No. I can use the journey to help me. There’ll be some tired travellers along the way who might be more loose-lipped than the people around here.’ He looked at me warningly. ‘Rely on those Gifts too much and who knows what you’ll miss.’

He had a point. It wasn’t just teleportation. I could spend hours trying to work out what one person’s aura meant instead of paying attention to more reliable indicators like body language and tone of voice.

Lexie bounced up and down. ‘What can I do?’

‘Eavesdrop. Everywhere. Sneak around here and find out what’s really going on with all these highborn Sidhe wankers. Not just in terms of the Foinse and the Adairs, but everything.’

She beamed. ‘Gotcha.’

‘And me?’ Bob piped up. ‘You’ve still got two wishes, you know. You ask for the Adair Clan to be restored to their rightful position and…’

‘No. No more wishes,’ I said.

He pouted. ‘I’d be better at eavesdropping than her.’

Lexie looked like she was about to slam her palm down and squash Bob like a bug. ‘I think she’ll do fine,’ I replied drily. ‘You’re coming with me. You can be another pair of eyes. An honorary Clan member.’ My eyes gleamed. ‘For the first time in twenty-six years, the Adair Clan entourage will outnumber the others. There’ll be three of us for two of them.’

‘Three?’ Brochan asked. ‘Who’s the third person going to be?’ He looked at my face and groaned. ‘No. Not her. She’s nuts.’

I grinned at him and winked. Right now, she was the only Sidhe apart from possibly Jamie whom I trusted.





Chapter Nineteen




The Sidhe were sticklers for punctuality. I’d slept surprisingly well on the hard bed and the pain in my ribs was far more manageable now I’d had some rest. It was a struggle to get up and drag myself down to meet the rest of my merry band at dawn, even though I was usually a morning person.

They were waiting, several with scowls on their faces. It clearly galled a lot of them that they’d had to come to an Adair for help– and that they’d been forced to delay the trip because of me. For my part, I waved happily at them. Lily and Aifric smiled back. Byron glared at me suspiciously for a moment before relaxing into a small smile. The others simply glowered.

‘Chieftain! You honour me with your request,’ Lily sang.

‘I can’t believe the Macquarries let her come,’ the younger of the two Kincaids muttered.

‘That’s because they’re all crazy,’ I heard the Darroch Chieftain reply. Even though she was agreeing with Kincaid, she still received a nasty look for butting in on the conversation. Interesting. Maybe they all hated each other as much as they hated me.

One by one, they mounted their horses. Even Lily sprang up onto a pretty white mare. ‘No bells,’ she said sadly. ‘I like bells. Ding a ling a ling a ling!’