Bryce shook him roughly. ‘Liar. You planned this with her, didn’t you? I should have known. Three hundred years in that loch. Were you conniving with her the whole time?’
‘Who—’
Bryce let go of Lachlan’s chin and smacked him hard round the face. ‘Don’t play dumb, lad. You like to fool people with your pretty boy looks, but not me. You did the first time, but not now. Three hundred years. I should have known! It was too much of a coincidence that you chose to seduce Cam. Were you trying to take his power from me?Is that what you’ve been doing all along?’
Bryce wasn’t making any sense. He seemed to have completely lost his wits, and all Lachlan saw in that moment was blood-red rage. Lachlan fell back, pushing frantically at the floor with his bound feet as Bryce raised the knife.
Fionn sprang from his prone position. He was still blindfolded, only directed by sound, but managed to launch his body into Bryce’s knees. Bryce collapsed outside the circle, cursing, while Fionn made to follow. But when the merman hit the circle’s inner boundary he was thrown backward, repelled by an invisible force.
Bryce sneered at them both. He seemed dizzy, waving his knife in a faltering figure of eight. ‘You’ll pay,’ he said, and this time his voice sounded weak, almost frail. Like an old man. ‘You’ll pay for what you’ve done to me.’
Bryce gathered up his satchel, hugging it to his chest, and scurried out of the cave into the descending twilight. In the sudden silence, Lachlan and Fionn’s breathing seemed to echo abnormally loud off the rock walls.
‘Are you okay?’ Lachlann whispered. Fionn nodded with a muffled groan.
Lachlan gulped, stringing his thoughts back in order. There was no time to waste. With Bryce gone, this might be their only chance to hatch an escape plan. He’d said something about needing a moon, and with night drawing in it might mean they didn’t have long left at all.
‘Get yourself over here,’ Lachlan said, shuffling next to Fionn. ‘I’m going to— Look, I’m going to use my teeth, all right? Stay still.’
Feeling both ridiculous and desperate, Lachlan tugged first at the knot of Fionn’s blindfold until it came free, and then at the gag. Fionn drew in a sharp breath when it fell away.
‘I take it this madman is the Bryce you mentioned?’ the merman said through gritted teeth.
‘Yes.’
‘Was being captured part of your plan to find him?’
The snark in Fionn’s voice caused Lachlan to snap. ‘Is making snide remarks really the best use of your attention right now? When we’re at the mercy of a murderer, the man who killed one of your own? Put your pride to one side and take this seriously. Your Highness.’
To his surprise, Fionn bowed his head. His silvery hair fell over his face in a listless curtain. ‘Of course I’m taking this seriously. I am angry with myself. I should have spotted that trap before either of us stepped into it.’
Lachlan tried wriggling his feet loose. Bryce had used duct tape for their ankles and wrists, and it wasn’t budging. ‘What did Bryce do to us? One minute we were walking over the dunes, next minute I woke up here.’
‘Shouldn’t you know the answer to that, as a witch’s assistant?’ Fionn caught theno-time-for-this-shittone in Lachlan’s unimpressed stare and thought better of it. ‘It was a simple circle snare. Rigged to knock us out and transport us here. I notice the woman is not with us.’
‘Her name is Meredith,’ Lachlan said evenly. ‘Hopefully she got away. Would she be able to call Iomhar back for help, do you think?’
‘I hope not,’ Fionn muttered. ‘He thinks I’m useless already, as it is.’
‘Right now, weareuseless.’ Lachlan gave up scraping his ankles against the cave floor. He’d hoped for a sharp bit of rock to cut the tape on, but Bryce had wisely placed the centre of the circle on the smoothest spread of stone. A dispiriting realisation hit him. ‘Meredith doesn’t have the knife. She’d need it to carve the runes to summon Iomhar… Oh my god.’
‘What?’ Fionn asked in alarm.
‘It’s in my pocket.It’s still in my pocket!’
Bryce really must be losing it, to have not bothered patting him down. Or maybe he was just so blisteringly arrogant that he hadn’t even considered Lachlan might have a means to escape.
Knowing he looked like an idiot but feeling too relieved to care, Lachlan shuffled around and stuck his arse towards Fionn. ‘Back pocket. Can you reach it?’
Fionn awkwardly manoeuvred so they were back-to-back, and blindly dipped his fingertips into Lachlan’s pockets. Lachlan felt the knife shift as Fionn grasped its handle; it slipped a few times, but eventually he wrestled it free. Lachlan gripped the sheath and carefully pulled it loose.
They continued in silence, now extremely focused on completing the task in hand. With painstaking strokes, Fionn slowly cut through the tape holding Lachlan’s wrists. They both let out an involuntary exhale as Lachlan’s arms dropped free.
Lachlan grabbed the knife and worked urgently to free Fionn. Soon they both had full use of all their limbs again. Lachlan sheathed the knife and slid it away. Now, how to escape the circle?
He eyed the symbols etched around the circle warily. ‘Do you know what these markings mean?’
‘No. But it’s some kind of binding spell. We’re unable to pass the boundary.’ Fionn pointed to the outer layer of runes. ‘Those look like they were added for a ritual of some kind.’
