He hadn’t lied to me; I couldn’t lie to him. ‘Mine too.’
His head dipped. Bob, still caught in between my hands, zapped me with an electric shock. ‘I’m still here!’ he yelled. ‘And you won’t be saying that soppy stuff tomorrow when you realise you have itchy pants!’
I kissed Byron and pulled back, releasing Bob. He spun up into the air, still indignant. Then he stared behind me. ‘Fire! There’s a fire up there!’
‘We should go,’ I told Byron.
‘Yeah,’ he nodded. ‘We should.’
Neither of us moved.
‘Make a wish, Uh Integrity!’ Bob yelled. ‘I can put the fire out if you just wish for it!’
I watched Byron. ‘I’m not sure this fire will ever go out,’ I said quietly. Then I kissed him once more and turned away to my car.
Chapter Eleven
‘He wasn’t angry?’ Speck asked. ‘When he realised you were alive?’
‘Oh, he was raging,’ I said happily. ‘He got past it though.’
‘He was so furious that he set his own castle on fire,’ Bob added with a knowing waggle of his eyebrows. ‘But that’s confidential. Don’t tell anyone.’
Lexie threw herself at me. ‘I’m so thrilled for you!’ she squealed, wrapping her arms round my chest. ‘He’s been working against his own father all this time! That’s brilliant!’
‘I’m not sure that encouraging patricide is a cause for celebration,’ Brochan said.
I glared at him. ‘Byron’s not going to kill Aifric.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Of course I am.’ I folded my arms. Then I remembered the coldness in Byron’s expression whenever he mentioned his father and the way he’d said the words ‘collateral damage’. I dropped my arms. ‘I think I am.’
Brochan wasn’t the only one who was concerned. Taylor rubbed his chin and sat down with a heavy sigh. ‘It’s a convoluted plan. A fake wedding?’
‘Yeah.’
‘The best plans are the simplest ones.’
‘Yeah.’
‘This is not a simple plan.’
‘To be fair,’ I argued, ‘we’ve not managed to come up with anything to beat Aifric. At least Byron is trying.’
Brochan’s gills bristled. ‘We’ve been busy.’
I threw up my hands. ‘I know! I wasn’t blaming anyone. If anyone should have been working out some way of dealing with the Steward, it should have been me. All I’m saying is that Byron’s way might work and we should support it.’
‘Mightwork,’ Speck said. ‘Key wordmight.’
‘Yeah,’ Taylor drawled in agreement. ‘I’m not sure about those odds.’
Lexie wrinkled her nose. ‘Tegs is right. Byron Moncrieffe has had nothing but this to think about. He’s probably already considered every other avenue. He succeeded in breaking into the Moncrieffe castle, didn’t he?’
‘Lex, it hardly takes a criminal mastermind to sneak into your own damned home.’
She whirled round, squaring up to Speck. ‘Oh yeah? Because last night, I seem to recall that you couldn’t even sneak into your own bedroom after doing some midnight magic gallivanting!’
