Last Wish (Highland Magic #4)(62)

She blanched. ‘Someone else.’

He seemed puzzled. So she’d kept the information that she no longer had her Gift from her own Chieftain. That was curious because Tipsania knew that she’d lost it. Before I could dwell on this little titbit, however, Kincaid pointed at an older woman. ‘Molly then.’

Molly Kincaid inclined her head and stood up. Aifric beckoned her over. With obvious reluctance, she sidled past her compatriots and walked up the aisle, brushing past various flowers and ribbons.

‘Let’s try again, shall we?’ Aifric said. He turned to me and asked in a sad voice, ‘Did you fake your own death?’

I hissed and this time the sound tripped out of my mouth. ‘Yes. But…’ The rest of my sentence was ripped away from me. Apparently I wasn’t going to be allowed to say much at all. That could prove troublesome.

There was a murmur from the watching Sidhe. This was beginning to feel like an episode of Jerry Springer. Aifric sighed loudly. ‘This is very hard for me,’ he declared. ‘I took it upon myself to help Integrity. There were many among you who did not want her to visit the Cruaich grove and receive her true name but I trusted her enough to permit it. I was willing to take her in and treat her like one of my own family, despite her well-advertised past as a thief. You all know how close I was to her father and how difficult it was for me to accept what happened all those years ago.’

My mouth dropped open, so wide with disbelief that Brochan could probably have steered a container ship through it. Many heads nodded in agreement. Aifric was being incredibly canny here; his words were vague enough to avoid being outright lies but there was no doubt what he was implying. ‘I have to face facts: Gale Adair was a dangerous man and his daughter is no different.’

I didn’t hit people. I didn’t hit people. I didn’t hit people. But I trembled with bitter rage.

One of the Moncrieffes from Byron’s stag party stood up. ‘She let the Foinse escape! We’ve got less magic now because of her!’ There was a chorus of angry mutters. It got louder and I felt as if I were being assailed with a wave of hatred from the crowd. Right now that was nothing compared to how I was feeling about Aifric, who held his hand up for quiet.

‘That is true,’ he said as if he begrudged admitting it. ‘She did do that. And she has done even worse.’ He turned to me again. ‘Integrity Adair, how many times have you travelled across the Veil?’

The compulsion to remain silent was lifted from me once more. I was getting really tired of this. ‘Technically four, although…’ I ground my teeth as I lapsed into silence again. I searched the hundreds of Sidhe facing me, each face agog. Whoever was doing this would give themselves away. There had to be some kind of tell-tale movement.

Aifric raised his eyebrows at Molly Kincaid. She bobbed her head primly. ‘She is telling the truth.’

I gazed across the gathered Sidhe. To say that they looked shocked would be an understatement. I forced myself to stop concentrating on how they felt and continued methodically searching for who was using their Gift to control my mouth. There were hundreds of them; I was going to need some luck. Scratch that. I was going to need a lot of luck.

‘We all know,’ Aifric said, ‘that the Fomori have been causing us many problems lately.’ He made an excellent effort at looking sad. ‘The incursions they’ve made into the Highlands have had a devastating effect and I shall impart more tragic news concerning that in a moment.’ He sighed. ‘It was not clear before why they had decided to suddenly start broaching the Veil after years of peace.’ His voice dropped. ‘I think it is now. Tell me, Integrity, did they come here because of you?’

I snapped my eyes away from the crowd and stared at him. The fact was that he had told me they’d come to the Highlands looking for me, that they’d been afraid of the prophecy. On at least two occasions, I’d had proof of their motivation from my own eyes. ‘It’s complicated,’ I began, as the magic lifted from me once more.

Aifric shook his head. ‘Yes or no will suffice.’

Screw him. He was the one who had three dead Fomori demons bricked into a cavity in his study. I drew back my shoulders. ‘No.’ My voice rang out clear as a bell.

Molly Kincaid flinched. ‘She’s lying.’

I wanted to scream. The worst part was that this was Molly telling it as her Gift saw it. It wasn’t the absolute truth – but there was enough of a lie in my answer for her Gift to tell her I was lying.

Chieftain MacBain rose slowly to her feet. Her face was white and pinched. ‘Chieftain Adair,’ she almost choked on the words, ‘came to me to arrange for payment in return for passing through the Veil and retrieving Matthew’s bones. If I had known she had ulterior motives I would have prevented her. To be in league with those creatures…’ Her horror was palpable.

I looked at her, using everything I had to impart silently that I had made no pact with the Fomori demons. Our alliance might be shaky but if I could just get her to see… It was no use; she’d already made up her mind.

‘She really is just like her father,’ someone murmured.

Catching the whisper, I glared at the offender. Yeah? I was just like him, I was just like him because I was a decent person who was being destroyed by Aifric Moncrieffe. Unfortunately for me, my simmering and obvious anger only created fear. Fear of me.