‘There’s your answer,’ Bob said simply. ‘Your wish was selfless. It won’t solve your problems and they might still turn around and kill you. So might Aifric. But you used your wish to benefit them anyway. Most people suffer the consequences of their wishes because most people wish selfishly.’
Byron put his arm round my waist. ‘You’re saying the key is altruism? Why the hell didn’t you tell us this before? It would have saved a lot of heartache.’
Bob rolled his eyes but Fergus understood. ‘Because if you knew that to succeed you had to be selfless, it would be almost impossible to be selfless. It wouldn’t work. Your mind would trick you.’
Bob nodded. ‘He’s right.’ He raised his voice. ‘But I’m still the magnificent being around here. Not him.’ Fergus just looked confused.
The English-speaking demon, who was listening in, murmured to Asbar. The Fomori leader stared at me. ‘This is true?’
I pointed at the sun. ‘You’re not burning up yet.’
‘No.’ He gazed round in wonder then he walked over to me and held out his hand. ‘You have saved Alba. And destroyed her too. We have a future now. All of us.’
‘You fucking bitch! What have you done? You’ve doomed us all!’
I glanced over at Aifric’s furious figure as he stood in the doorway and glared at me. Shite. It wasn’t time to celebrate yet.
Chapter Twenty-One
‘You cannot trust this woman!’ Aifric bellowed at Asbar. ‘The prophecy tells the truth! Look at what has happened! The sun will scorch your skin. Your children will burn and die. This is the end andshehas caused it!’
‘Father,’ Byron said, ‘shut up.’
Aifric stared at his son. Calculation flitted across his expression and then he spread out his palms pleadingly. ‘Byron,’ he said heavily, projecting himself as the voice of reason. ‘I understand you have feelings for her. She is attractive in her way and power is always alluring. But she is a thief. I know the truth now. She stole my Gift from me. She ripped it from my very soul. That’s the kind of person she is.’
Byron folded his arms. ‘I know exactly what kind of person she is.’
‘She’s believes she’s doing the right thing but by bringing down the Veil, she’s brought about the destruction of the Fomori. And before the UV rays kill them, they will make a damned good attempt at killing us. Their armies were on our borders less than three days ago.’
‘But,’ Byron replied implacably, ‘they’re not there now.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘You have so much to answer for. What really happened to Clan Adair?’
‘Gale Adair killed them.’
‘No, he didn’t.’
A muscle jerked in Aifric’s cheek. The Sidhe, pixie and Bauchan, who’d been selected to come along, stared at each other. ‘Fine,’ Aifric spat. ‘But you need to understand the harsh reality of life. The only person who was strong enough to keep the Highlands safe was me. I was bargaining with the Fomori. If it weren’t for me, they would have invaded us long ago.’ He glanced at Asbar. ‘You know you were thinking about it.’
Listening to the translation, the Fomori leader shrugged. He didn’t seem to care; he already had everything his heart desired and it had nothing to do with Aifric. ‘It is true that we considered it. But we discarded the idea as too risky.’
I told Aifric what he’d said. The Steward of the Highlands could barely look at me. ‘You see?’ he said softly to his son. ‘It was too risky because I made it too risky. Gale wanted us to adhere to the old traditions of term limits. He didn’t think any one Chieftain should be Steward for too long. He clung to the old, outmoded ways without realising that experience is more important than length of service. I had that experience. He just wanted to take my place.’
Nothing I’d learned about my father suggested that was true. Other than offering my interpretative skills, however, I wasn’t getting involved in this. Byron needed to do this for himself, otherwise he’d never find peace.
‘So you killed an entire Clan?’ he demanded. ‘Because their Chieftain had a different political opinion to you?’
‘Until Integrity Adair got involved, there wasn’t a single Fomori demon incursion for twenty-six years,’ Aifric said. ‘What I did might have been brutal but we’ve had peace for that reason. Now we are on the brink of war.’
‘On your orders,’ Byron sneered. ‘You are the one who is causing the problems. You could tell them to stand down but I already know that you won’t.’
‘They,’ Aifric jabbed his finger at the Fomori, ‘will come to us. If the sun doesn’t kill them, they will invade our land – our land which is vulnerable because of Integrity Adair. They will attack us and kill us. There will never be peace while they roam free. They do not belong here!’
‘They’ve been here for three hundred years. I’m not suggesting it’s going to be easy; we have different standards and different morals. But I’m confident we can find a way. We will work together, Father, and we will live together.Thatis the future. Even if it weren’t for them, the Sidhe are no longer the most powerful beings in Scotland.’
‘Because,’ Aifric spat, ‘she let the Foinse go.’
‘And we imprisoned it. Andshehas a name. Integrity. She’s the woman I love and you need to start getting used to it.’ For the briefest second I forgot to breathe.
Aifric was far from done. ‘Just wait. Just wait and see how enjoyable life is when you’re being told what to do by a warlock or one of those ... things.’
