Gifted Thief (Highland Magic #1)(84)

Without thinking, I grabbed the letter opener and rubbed it furiously against my thigh. ‘Bob!’ I shrieked.

He appeared in an instant, his gaze sweeping from me to Lily’s prone form.

‘I wish for you to save her!’ I shouted. He didn’t move. ‘Bob!’ I said again. ‘Do something!’

His expression was sorrowful. ‘I can’t. I can’t change death, Uh Integrity. That’s beyond even my powers.’

‘She’s not dead! She was just here! She was fine. She…’

‘She’s gone.’ He flew up to my face and pressed his little hand against my cheek. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘But… but…’ I stammered. I stared down at her. Her eyes were wide and unseeing.

Swatting Bob away, I tilted back Lily’s head and began mouth to mouth resuscitation. I thumped her chest again. ‘Come on, Lily!’

‘She’s not coming back,’ Bob said.

I ignored him. ‘She has to!’ I breathed into her mouth again. I could taste something bitter on my lips, followed by a strange tingle. Rubbing my mouth with the cuff of my sleeve, I spat on the ground.

‘Integrity,’ he said, using my name correctly for the first time. ‘She’s dead.’

Tears blinded me. I rocked back on my heels. ‘I don’t understand,’ I sobbed. ‘I don’t get it.’

My hands fell to my sides, knocking over the bottle of water that had fallen when Lily had. I looked down at it blurrily and the bottom drained out of my world.





Chapter Twenty-Five


‘What did you do with the horses?’ Taylor asked, handing me a cup of tea. ‘I know a guy who deals in premium horsemeat, you know. I could have taken care of them for you.’

I threw him an irritated look. He grinned in return. Now that his debts were cleared, his normal insouciance was returning. I curled my fingers round the cup’s warmth and sighed. ‘I left them in the courtyard at the Cruaich just before I returned Lily’s body to her Clan and retrieved those two.’ I nodded towards Lexie and Brochan who were sitting opposite with Speck perched on the arm of the sofa next to them. All of them looked grim, their mouths tight and tell-tale shadows under their eyes.

‘You’d seemed to think you could trust Aifric.’

My head drooped. ‘I should have known. He’s the Steward. A lot of his power might be inconsequential but he still has more of it than anyone else.’

‘Maybe it wasn’t him. Someone else could have spiked the water.’

I dug into my pocket and threw him my phone. ‘Look at the photos,’ I said dully.

The last one was the group photo that Lily had taken. Taylor examined it. ‘They don’t look happy, I’ll admit, but…’

‘Look at Aifric.’

She’d snapped it at just the right moment. When you enlarged the photo, it was easy to see. Aifric was fingering a tiny silver ball with veins of red running through it. I’d seen one of those before – Charlie had tried to give me one. It was filled with poison.

‘I was a fool,’ I said. ‘I thought it was the Kincaids who hated me, the Darrochs too. But it turns out that Aifric Moncrieffe is an excellent actor. William Kincaid was collateral damage. And so was Lily.’

‘What about his son? Byron, is it?’

Something clutched at my heart. ‘I don’t know. I don’t think he’s involved but I can’t be sure. I can’t be sure of anything any more.’

‘I found out a lot when you were gone,’ Lexie admitted. ‘The Moncrieffes are destitute because Aifric’s been forced to pass a lot of money to some of the other Clans. He’s been doing it for years.’ She swallowed. ‘Ever since Clan Adair.’

‘Bribes. To cover up whatever it was he did.’

‘You think he’s responsible for what happened with your father?’

I shrugged helplessly. ‘It seems that way.’

Speck shifted. ‘The vast majority of the Clan-less don’t give a flying bejesus what happens with the Sidhe but…’

Taylor broke in. ‘But anyone who met Gale Adair has nothing but good things to say about him. No matter what he might have done.’

My eyes flew to his. ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘If you’d dwelled on your life with the Sidhe, I would have. But you wanted to forget that part of you had ever existed. You were just a kid, Tegs. You needed to heal. If you didn’t want to know, then I wasn’t going to stir up the past for you.’

I understood the sentiment. But while I might have needed Taylor’s protection when I was eleven years old, I certainly didn’t need it now. My world had been turned on its head and nothing would ever be the same again. ‘Did you find anything at the Adair lands, Brochan?’ I swallowed. ‘At my lands?’

He took a moment before answering. ‘There’s definitely still evidence of an immense battle. Old scorch marks, rubble that no-one’s cleared up. That kind of thing. It’s been too long though. I can’t say what happened with any certainty.’

Speck looked at me with dark, worried eyes. ‘He’s going to know you’re still alive. He’s not going to stop trying to get rid of you. I don’t know what his reasons are, but with the Foinse out in the open and no issue any more with the magic, he has no cause to keep you alive. Especially now that you know he tried to kill you.’