Page 79 of Crown of the Fae King

“Brian. Flann. I’m giving you a choice. You might not want to—”

“We’re all in, laddie. Just try to send us home.”

“But—”

“Just try.”

32

Just A Wee Man

The ride back to the house was the longest I could remember. Every block, every building, every tree seemed to slow us. The traffic lights were turtle-slow.

Wickham might have tried to hide his excitement, but when he pulled up close to the back entrance instead of the garage, he gave himself away. The three of us held back and let him go ahead. I went to the kitchen and asked Alwyn and the Youngs to set up lunch in the study, buffet style, for a meeting that might last all afternoon.

By the time I had changed into sweats and hurried to the new and larger war room, all Fairy Hunters were present and accounted for except Wickham. His sisters waved from the large monitor on the wall. I waved back and got in the buffet line along one side of the room.

As in Edinburgh, three conference tables were set in a u-shape, though they were longer and accommodated the Muir brothers as well as the original six. Dezi and Sophie fixed plates and hurried out. I got the impression from the first that they didn’t want to know what was going on, probably because they didn’t want their husbands to join our merry-but-bruised band.

There was no sign of the Youngs or Meral and Reem. Alwyn sat in a tufted chair in the corner enjoying the meal he’d prepared.

Once we’d finished eating and were roughly seated in our usual order, Wickham came in, took a quick inventory of faces, then closed the doors behind him. It wasn’t the first time the chef had been included in our discussions. Persi explained that the man had been present at Soni’s wedding and knew as much as anyone did about our fairy hunting project.

Wickham greeted his sisters, fixed a plate, then perched on a stool at the small bar. “We’ll start with Flann and Brian’s interpretation of The Covenant and go from there. They did a grand job of it earlier.” He nodded to the brothers. “Whenever ye’re ready. The photographs are on that computer now. Ye can zoom in close.”

Flann took a few minutes to get ready, then projected one of the photographs onto the wall as he had before. He followed along with his cursor.

“The Covenant.”

Wickham’s sisters clapped, then tucked their hands between their knees. The rest of us chuckled because we felt the same way. Other than a few words changed here and there, Flann’s second read was verbatim to the first.

The sisters gasped at the mention of power being passed to a newborn. Wickham shook his head. “We’ll discuss it all in a moment. But we’ll get through it first.”

They bit their lips and clasped hands. I couldn’t wait to find out why. They gasped again at the mention of everlasting life. They came out of their chairs, on screen, when Flann showed the picture of the signatures at the bottom of the document.

“That bastard!” Lorraine was the one who cursed.

Her sister tried to get her to sit down again. “All they can see are your bosoms, dear.”

Lorraine sat on the edge of her seat, fuming. “He knew everything! And he took the answers with him!”

I leaned over to Kitch. “Who is she talking about?”

Wickham heard me. “The Grandfather. The duty hasn’t been passed down through the ages, as we were led to believe. It was only one man who ever held it. The Grandfather was there when Fae and Man were learning how to rub along together.” He cursed. “All our questions could have been answered.”

Wickham poured himself a drink and threw it back. I couldn’t ever remember him acting so…amused about bad news.

“But ye ken what this means, sisters. Where Soni is concerned?”

Lorraine was still spitting mad, but Loretta was calm. “It means he knew what would happen if Soni gave her powers to Walter,” she said. “He knew it would break the covenant. And he helped make it happen.”

Wickham nodded. “Which means O’Ryan, or Ambition, as he’s called in the contract, has been free for six years, since the night of The Reckoning.”

“And,” I said, drawing his attention, “we know what he’s looking for.”

Wickham poured another drink. “That’s right. He wants the Naming Powers. If he gets them all, it’s game over.”

“Yeah, but hehasto get all of them. Which means he needs the one the Fae King kept for himself.”

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