Charles put his foot down harder on the accelerator.
Hester squinted at me. ‘What’s happened to your usualsunny optimism? We encountered Athair and lived to tell the tale!’
I looked at her flatly. ‘That’s not the only tale you’ve been telling.’
‘Huh?’
‘It was never clear how Athair knew to leave that letter for me in the Assigney mansion.’ I paused. ‘But now we know.’ I raised my eyebrows at Otis.
‘What?’ he asked, puzzlement clouding his face. Then his expression altered as he realised what he’d yelled at Athair and his shoulders dropped. ‘Oh.’ Guilt filled his eyes. ‘Oops.’
‘Otis!’ Hester shrieked. ‘You absolute idiot! You told Athair about the letter! You told him what to do! Why did you do that? You nincompoop!’
I glanced at her. ‘He’s not the only one with a big mouth.’
‘I didn’t say anything! Apart from the bit about turning up at Gordon’s house and…’ She stopped mid-sentence; now she looked as guilty as her brother.
‘There we go. Now you’re both starting to understand.’ I turned away from them and checked on Rose. Her pulse was strong but her eyes remained closed. Perhaps that was a good thing, although I was still awash with guilt for hitting her.
I returned my attention to the brownies; their hangdog faces tugged at my heartstrings. ‘It’s not all bad,’ I told them.
They still looked mournful.
‘Daisy is right,’ Hugo said. ‘We know more than we did before. In fact, it’s a relief to know that in the future Athair won’t be magically listening into conversations or tracking Daisy’s movements minute by minute. He’s a powerful fiend but he’s not omnipotent. He’s not a god.’
I thought of Vargas, who had wanted to be worshipped like a deity. Fiends could be defeated, they could be banished by a decent witch and they could be killed by me. Our situation wasdire – but it wasn’t rock bottom, and we weren’t the losing team. This fight was far from over. I straightened my shoulders and grinned.
Hugo, who was watching me in the rear-view mirror, clocked my expression. ‘You’ve got a plan?’
‘Not yet,’ I said. Baby Daisy gave another loud cry. When I winced, she stopped and blinked at me. I smiled at her. ‘But I’m working on it.’
Our rushed escapemeant we didn’t have a destination in mind so, as we left Edinburgh, we discussed our options. Hugo’s parents were keen on a city. ‘We know a lot of high elves who can find us accommodation. We won’t be alone next time Athair comes after us,’ Tash said earnestly.
Charles nodded. ‘There are more places to hide in a city, and a busy place will give us time to re-group and prepare before that fiend finds us again.’
‘But the vampires are in the cities,’ Hugo pointed out. ‘It’s safe to assume that Athair can call upon a whole network of the undead. It only takes one to spot us and he’ll know exactly where we are. We arrived in Edinburgh last night under cover of darkness, and that darkness is exactly why Athair found us.’
‘Also,’ I added, ‘if we hole up in a city there’s more chance that innocent bystanders will be caught in the crossfire. Athair is determined to grab Baby Daisy and he won’t care who gets hurt. Quite the opposite – he’ll kill anyone who gets in his way.’
Rose twitched.
‘But you survive,’ Hester said to me. ‘He doesn’t get you. Not baby you, anyway.’
Otis nodded. ‘We know that because you’re here now. You’re fine.’
I looked at Rose, whose eyes remained closed. Tash glanced at her too, and Hugo. She might be my mother but she looked like a kid – shewaspractically a kid – and her fate was far from sealed. ‘Uh-huh.’
In the end we compromised and decided to head for the mid-sized town of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Its location, just across the border with England, meant we had considerable options if we suddenly needed to flee. It wasn’t a huge place, and recent reports of vampire culls in the area suggested that we might go unnoticed by the denizens of the undead.
Tash had a cousin who owned a large property there, so we’d have somewhere to stay; even better, a large contingent of talented witches lived nearby. Charles was certain that they had experience with banishing fiends; in fact, he was sure they’d banished one recently, albeit a far younger and weaker fiend than Athair.
‘It won’t take long to get there,’ he said. He seemed happier now we had the beginnings of a plan. His eyes met Tash’s in the rear-view mirror and they looked at each other for a long moment before he continued. ‘An hour and a half, depending on traffic. I’ll have to fill up with petrol soon, though.’
Tash pointed to a sign on the side of the road. ‘There’s a service station a few miles ahead.’
Rose twitched again.
‘Perfect.’
