Gifted Thief (Highland Magic #1)(69)

I shrugged. ‘Sorry, Barbs,’ I told her. ‘I don’t think messing with the monster is a good idea.’

Byron, turned his head and frowned.

‘I didn’t mean you,’ I explained. ‘You’re not a monster.’ I thought about it. ‘Well, you’re a blackmailing monster. And a manipulative monster. But…’

‘Integrity,’ he sighed. ‘I thought we were past all this. What kept you, anyway? Were you admiring the scenery?’

‘I have a dozy mare,’ I pointed out. ‘You have a stallion.’

Byron slowed down until we were neck and neck and looked at me critically. ‘You need to relax,’ he instructed. ‘Sit back in the saddle. You’re not a jockey and this isn’t the Grand National. You’ve been hanging around with your old mentor for too long.’

‘You mean instead of spending more time with stand-up guys, like the Darroch women who can’t even pretend to care about the lives of the Clan-less?’ Byron opened his mouth to answer but I didn’t give him a chance. ‘Or with the Kincaids who think it’s okay to sneer openly at another Clan? You lot spend all this time telling the world that you’re better than everyone else when you all hate each other, snipe at each other and apparently go around trying to kill each other.’

His jaw tightened. ‘I’ll admit,’ he said stiffly, ‘that there are some Sidhe who need to learn both manners and humility. And Sidhe politics can be … bloody. But we are not bad people, Integrity.’

‘Neither are the Clan-less.’

‘Point taken.’

I sniffed. Well, good. Rather than continue spelling out the flaws of the Sidhe, I focused on something less controversial. ‘The Foinse?’ I said, a question in my tone.

‘What about it?’

‘How do you know it’s failing? The magic is still working, right? I’ve almost died twice as proof of that.’

Byron considered my question. ‘You’d know if you spent more time on Clan lands,’ he said. ‘The magic is easier to sense here so it’s easier to notice changes. You’re aware of the change in atmosphere before a storm?’

I nodded. ‘Sure.’

‘Well, it’s a similar kind of thing with the magic. We can feel a difference. Few people have been affected so far but it’s definitely there.’ His face took on a tight, brooding expression. ‘There are always lulls with the Foinse, moments when it’s harder to get a handle on our Gifts, or when things don’t work as they should.’

I absorbed this. ‘And when we reach it and open it, then what?’

‘The representatives here aren’t just along because of their Clan blood.’ Byron nodded towards Aifric. ‘My father is better at telekinesis than I am. He will able to fine tune anything that isn’t working. The Darroch woman – not Mali the Chieftain but the younger one – she’s an expert in dowsing. If there’s a blockage somewhere, she’ll be able to locate it.’

‘Ah,’ I said knowledgeably, ‘so it’s like plumbing then.’

Byron looked amused. ‘Sort of.’

‘And the Kincaids?’

‘Both of them are Gifted in precognition.’

I started. ‘Telling the future?’

‘Not quite as obviously as that. They get glimpses of a future that might be. Which is another one of the reasons that we knew the Foinse was failing.’

‘So if we can fix it, they’ll get glimpses that tell them everything will be okay?’

‘In theory. Precognition isn’t an easy Gift to manage.’

I could well imagine. I resolved to keep well away from the pair of them. Not just because they were snooty Sidhe but because seeing the future was about the creepiest thing I could imagine. If Brochan’s theory about me learning others Gifts was correct, then I had to avoid them like the plague. Half the fun of life was not knowing what came next.

‘What do you know about my father’s Gifts?’ I asked, dropping my voice slightly so that the others wouldn’t hear. ‘You said there were three.’

He looked away.

‘Byron?’ I prodded.

He sighed. ‘I don’t know much. You have to remember I was only seven when all that happened.’

Not to mention that there was a conspiracy to get the world to forget the Adairs ever existed. ‘I know,’ I said aloud, crossing my fingers and making a quick decision to twist the truth wherever possible. ‘But as we suspected I didn’t receive a Gift from the grove and I’m curious about what his were.’

‘I heard it said that one of them was soul punching.’ He still wouldn’t meet my eyes.

Whatever that was, it didn’t sound good. ‘What is that?’ I asked quietly.

A muscle twitched in his jaw. ‘It’s the ability to reach inside a person and kill them. Their soul is attacked and, well, they die.’

I absorbed this information. ‘Is that what happened to everyone in the Adair Clan? He … punched their souls?’

Byron nodded. ‘For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re like that.’

‘You don’t think I’m like a mass murderer? Well, that’s comforting.’

‘I didn’t mean it like that.’