Page 58 of Crown of the Fae King

Persi raised her hand. “And the other two?”

Wickham strode for the door and didn’t look back. “To Oxford.”

25

The Stink Of Youth

Persi and Kitch headed for the liquor cabinet. The overly-pleased sisters said their goodnights and retired to their room, as did the MacKenzies. I decided to raid the kitchen to see if the dessert I’d passed up might still be around. And it was. I snuck up the back stairwell with a bottle of water, a nice piece of cheesecake and dollop of lemon curd. When I stepped into my room, the sisters were waiting for me. I had no trouble telling them apart now.

Loretta sat in the chair by the bed. Lorraine stood at the window, looking out into the dark, but she spun on her heel when I closed my door. “So,” she said. “You’ll be going to Oxford.”

“Will I?”

Loretta scoffed. “It’s only logical, dear. He’ll send the MacKenzies to the most likely place, which is--”

“Corsica.” Her sister completed the sentence for her. “He’ll send Kitchens and Persi to Tunisia. Both with fighting experience. That leaves—”

“You and Wickham to find The Covenant. He can read Irish, you see. None of the rest—”

“Excepting the brothers—”

“Could find their way to the right library—”

“Oxford’s full of them.”

“Libraries, that is, not brothers—”

“But of course, it must be in the—”

“Bodleian Library. They call it the Bod.”

Lorraine nodded enthusiastically. “As you must know, we’ve promised never to step foot—”

“Yes, sister. She knows why. And that’s why she’ll be happy to be our eyes and ears…”

I finally caught on. It was killing them not to go.

I perched on the bottom corner of the bed and dug into my cheesecake before they might try talking me out of it. They’d been eyeing it since I opened the door, and I knew it was the last piece.

After my fourth bite, I came up for air. “Wickham told me I should never trust a fairy, no matter what they say.”

They both nodded.

“And he advised I treat you two the same.”

I thought they might be offended, but they just rolled their eyes as if they’d heard that comparison before.

“Obviously, we can’t go with you. But if you report back everything you learn, we’ll be less tempted to go ourselves.”

“Yes, dear. She’s right. Thelesswe learn, the more tempted we shall be, so really, you’ll be—”

“Doing Wickham a favor by keeping us away.”

I started to see why their brother had bothered to warn me. To torture them a little, I took my time with my next bite of yellow bliss, chewed slowly, then took a long drink of water. “Why not ask Wickham to report back?”

“We have.” “We will.”

“But he’ll hold back, worried anything more will tempt us—”

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