Page 95 of Shield of Fire

I shivered and rubbed my arms.

“How we going to play this?” I asked. “And don’t say carefully, or I will smack you.”

Lugh chuckled softly. “We approached armed and ready for a fight. Other than that, we’ll have to play it by ear.”

I nodded and raised my gaze, following the progress of the two men via the bobbing light of their headlamps. I had no idea how big this cavern really was, but if what I’d seen in the vision was anything to go by, they were probably halfway around.

I shifted from one foot to the other, trying to ignore the sudden urge to get this over with. Rushing in where fools feared to tread never went well for anyone; I knew that from the multiple stories Lugh had regaled me with over the years.

“What happens once we get the shield and get out of here?” I asked. “Are we going to head straight across to the forge?”

“Well, it’s either that or you spin it up into the sky and let it hang out in some storm system somewhere over the North Sea.”

I glanced at him. “You know what? That actually might be our best option, especially given our mad elves seem to have a knack for showing up wherever I am.”

“Well, they’re mages. They’re obviously using some kind of tracker spell.”

“Except tracker spells need something belonging to the target to work this reliably.”

“Maybe he has something from your time with him.”

“I’m not in the habit of gifting boyfriends with personal items,” I said wryly.

Lugh shrugged. “Maybe he took it without you knowing. Hair from a brush or something.”

“Would hair from a brush still hold any sort of resonance after such a long time?”

“I wouldn’t have thought the resonance was important, but rather the DNA.”

That did make more sense. I wrinkled my nose. “Why would he be holding on to something like that after all this time, though?”

He cast me an amused sideways glance. “Perhaps he was unable to get past his desire for you and was hoping to use it at some point to lure you back into his arms.”

I snorted. “Given you’re the one that apparently got rid of him, not me, I think it more likely he’d be keeping something of yours to exact revenge.”

Lugh raised an eyebrow. “You still can’t remember him?”

“No, and it’s damn frustrating.”

“Your memory isn’t usually that bad—and it’s not like you’ve had a ton of lovers you need to sift through.” He paused thoughtfully. “Wonder if he employed some sort of memory smudging spell?”

“I would have sensed magic being used.” I’d always been sensitive to its presence, even before I’d inherited the knives.

“If you were awake, yes. But magic is just as easily applied to those who sleep.”

“But why would he bother?”

Lugh shrugged. “As I said, he wasn’t a nice man, and he had some pretty nasty contacts. Perhaps he feared you’d seen or heard something that could give him away to Sgott or the IIT.”

“If Sgott thought he was a problem, he would have chased him off well before you did.” At the very least, he would have done a background search. He might be a stickler for rules but every now and then he did bend them just a little.

“Except,” Lugh was saying, “Sgott tended to step back and let you make your mistakes.”

That was true enough. I’d made a couple of less-than-bright choices when I was younger, but he’d never done anything or stepped in to help me unless I asked him to. As stepdads went, he was the absolute best.

The gently bobbing lights drew closer together, then briefly disappeared. Checking the viability of the exit tunnel, no doubt.

“If he did use a spell to fudge my memories, is there any way we can undo it and get those memories back?”

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