‘Yes.’ My voice was barely audible but it didn’t matter. The room erupted and at least five Sidhe leapt out of their chairs and lunged towards me. Aifric blocked their path but they seemed determined to rip me to shreds. They were like a group of baying hounds – and they were baying for my blood. The noise was deafening. Aifric turned to face me, making sure no one else could see his expression. There was a glimmer of triumph in his eyes and a sly smile on his mouth. Then his face smoothed over into the calm façade of the benevolent Steward once again.
‘People! Calm down! She will answer for her crimes in prison!’
There were shouts in response. ‘No! She deserves to die!’
‘Execute her!’
The call rippled round the room as if we were in a football stadium. At this stage, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they started a Mexican wave. The chant rose and rose, ‘Kill her. Kill her. Kill her.’
I straightened my shoulders. There was no sensible way out of this. I would have to rip the Gifts from as many of these Sidhe as possible and damn the consequences. I didn’t know what I’d be getting but I’d have to pray to get at least some magic I could use ? and that taking it and using it to serve me wouldn’t send Taylor to his grave. I drew in a deep breath and prepared ? then the doors of the church were flung open and a fireball was launched across everyone’s heads, slamming into the wall just beyond Aifric’s head. The chanting stopped immediately as Byron strode down the aisle, followed by Jamie and Angus.
‘What the fuck is going on here?’
Aifric recovered from his shock in record time. ‘Byron! You’re supposed to be getting ready for your wedding.’
With his kilt swinging angrily from side to side and a crisp white shirt open at the neck, Byron marched up to his father until they were barely inches apart. ‘What are you doing?’
If Aifric was concerned about his son’s anger, he didn’t show it. ‘I didn’t want to interrupt your preparations,’ he said calmly. ‘You shouldn’t be worrying about all this.’ I could see the cogs turning in his mind; he realised the situation was slipping away from him and he needed to bring it back under control. I held my breath. What was he going to do?
I jerked forward to try and warn Byron but Aifric’s arm shot out and held me in place. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, my son has always had a soft spot for Integrity. It would hurt him immeasurably to know of her crimes—’
‘She hasn’t committed any crimes,’ Byron snarled. ‘The only criminal here is you.’
A loud gasp reverberated around the room. Aifric’s hand went to his mouth. ‘Has she bewitched you? Son…’
Byron stepped away and glanced at me. The harsh light in his eyes softened for a heartbeat and then he re-focused and pointed at his father before addressing the congregation. ‘Aifric Moncrieffe, the Steward of the Highlands and my father, killed Gale and Coira Adair and destroyed the Adair Clan.’ Two old biddies in the second row clutched each other but everyone else seemed frozen. ‘On several occasions he tried to murder Integrity Adair. Jamie’s psychometry Gift will prove it. My father has plotted against all of us.’ Byron held up the letter we’d discovered in the Fomori demon’s pocket. ‘This is a petition for peace from the Fomori demons. The three who brought it died at his hands.’ He met his father’s eyes. ‘The only danger to the Highlands is you.’ He gestured at Molly. ‘Am I telling the truth?’
She squeaked and nodded. Aifric, however, merely tutted. ‘You think you’re telling the truth because this woman has manipulated you into believing her. We have proved that she is the evil one, not me. All of these people will back me up. In fact, even Integrity will back me up.’
From the corner of my eye, I saw Bob high above the heads of the stunned Sidhe. He was flapping his arms wildly in a panic. My stomach dropped. What now?
Byron exploded. ‘Bullshit!’
Aifric drew back and gestured upwards. I saw Taylor on the balcony above us, propped up between two burly goons. His shirt was soaked in blood and I wasn’t sure he was conscious. Byron, realising something was amiss, followed my gaze but Taylor and the two guards had already vanished. At the same time as Byron looked up, Aifric opened his palm, flashing a concealed blade. It wasn’t me he was threatening, however, it was his own son.
The magic that prevented me from speaking was lifted abruptly. ‘Speak, Integrity.’ I didn’t need to hear the warning tone in Aifric’s voice to know what would happen if I didn’t say what he wanted.
Rage spread through me, burning my body with more force than Byron’s Pyrokinesis ever could and I trembled with the potential for violence. There wasn’t anything Aifric wouldn’t do to get his own way; he’d slaughter his own son right here in front of just about every Sidhe in Scotland if that was what it took.
‘I’m the only thing keeping the Fomori demons at arm’s length,’ Aifric muttered. ‘Without me they would swarm across this country and destroy us all. This isn’t just about you and me. This is much, much bigger. Do the right thing.’
I sucked in a deep breath. Everything fell away and the large Sidhe congregation no longer existed. The walls of the church were nothing and even Byron ceased to exist. All I could hear was the thumping of my heart and all I could see was the intelligent evil glittering from Aifric’s soul. That and the three strands of magic swirling inside him: Pyrokinesis, like Byron, Dowsing and Healing. I blinked and looked away.
Byron said something to me but it seemed as if it were from a long way off. I shook myself and focused on the rest of the Sidhe. Perhaps it was a result of the brute force of my anger; whatever the reason, I could now see all their Gifts too. Levitation here. Precognition there. With a clarity that I wouldn’t have previously thought was possible, I could tell from looking at them what magic each person possessed. I stared at the man whose Gift was the ability to control another’s body against their will. My eyes narrowed and I reached inside him and yanked it away, dragging it into myself and taking it all. I staggered back. The man let out a terrified scream and collapsed.
The sound was all it took to galvanise the Sidhe into action. Several yelled and surged forward once more. Aifric couldn’t stop them this time and he probably didn’t want to. All the same, he grabbed Byron and pulled him backwards. ‘That was you,’ he hissed in a low voice so others wouldn’t hear. ‘You burned down our own house. It wasn’t an accident after all. You have betrayed me.’
‘No, Father,’ Byron replied. ‘You have betrayed Scotland.’
Aifric threw out his arms, sending out plumes of fire across the church. ‘Byron, no!’ he yelled, immediately blaming his son for his own actions. ‘Don’t hurt these people!’
As I dodged a spark of lightning from a seething Fairlie Sidhe, the walls caught fire. All around us people shouted, pushing past one another in a bid to get to the door. A few with water-based Gifts tried to douse the fire but it had caught too quickly. The whole structure was doomed. The people around us screamed, scattered, stampeding towards the door to escape the flames.
‘I killed my best friend and his entire Clan,’ Aifric said, speaking the truth for the first time. ‘Don’t think I’ll hesitate to kill my own son too if you continue to get in my way.’ Molly Kincaid’s mouth dropped open. She’d heard his words and, unaware he’d been overheard, this time he wasn’t masking his meaning.
I lunged forward, shoving her away to get her as far from Aifric as possible before he realised his error. ‘Get out of here!’ She turned and ran, only to be replaced by three Sidhe who were less afraid of the fire than the others. They came at me, their enraged and contorted faces obscured by the now billowing black smoke. ‘You’re not going to murder anyone else, bitch!’
Byron spun towards them and used Telekinesis to push them away before they could do any harm. As he turned his back, Aifric lunged for him. Most of the Sidhe wouldn’t believe a word that came out of my mouth but Byron was a different matter and that made him a more dangerous opponent for Aifric.
