Page 16 of Crown of Tides and Fury

“I’ll not do it at all,” Wickham snapped, “if I can find any way to avoid it.”

The Irishman clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Urban and Everly might have been killed in Corsica. Twins are still falling by the hand of those monsters. For what, lad? The sake of yer pride?”

“My pride be damned,” Wickham whispered.

“Then why?”

Wickham didn’t move for so long I wondered if he’d been caught in some spell. But eventually, he took a breath. “I’m terrified.”

“Of him?”

“Of his machinations. Do ye kenwhenhe asked me to replace him asSeanathair?”

“When?”

“The instant we met. Without knowing anything about me, he asked. And I suspect…it is because he saw me before, in the past. That I went to him, to ask about the Naming Powers, to ask about The Contract, the Fae King. What if this trip into the past is what will set in motion the doom we now attempt to avoid? And what other chaos might it unleash?”

Flann laughed…and kept laughing. We all waited for him to get a hold of himself. And when he did, he sighed, still smiling. “Doesn’t matter, laddie. Doesn’t matter what ye fear. Doesn’t matter how hard ye try to avoid it. Ye’ll be going back in any case.”

“Why is that?”

“Because ye alreadyhave.”

Watching Wickham’s reaction, I got the feeling he’d already come to the same conclusion as Flann. I could understand the responsibility weighing on him and wondered if he’d been hoping someone would push him into making that trip, so it wouldn’t all be his fault if things went badly.

We weren’t so different. I’d done the same thing with Neal. I’d manipulated him, sold him on the idea of moving to Oregon, then sat back until he’d insisted we go. If something went wrong, which it had, it wasn’tallmy fault. I suppose that’s why I was willing to stay in Hazelton to work off the bills, most of which he’d racked up without me knowing. Because ultimately, the move had been my idea…

* * *

Just after seveno’clock that morning, Wickham allowed for a fifteen-minute break and the room emptied. The two of us were alone. My need to pee was pre-empted by my need to sit still and hold my aching head. I could do that and give Wickham a little push at the same time.

“Wickham?”

“Mmm?”

“You’re worried the old man will outwit you? That he’ll trick you into bringing the universe down on our heads?”

He dropped into the chair across from me. “I am, aye.”

“Then you shouldn’t go,” I said, which won me the witch’s complete attention. “We should stop beating our heads against a wall that’s going to fall on us no matter what we do. We should enjoy the life we have left. Maybe it will take twenty years for Orion to succeed. Maybe a hundred. We’ll be dead and gone.” I grimaced. “At least the rest of us will be.”

Wickham grinned. “Are ye sure ye haven’t met the old bastard before? Reverse psychology was a favorite of his, though he was a wee more subtle.”

The question scared me, made me think while I hurried down the hall to the bathroom. When I came back, I resumed the conversation, my heart beating wildly. “Am I sure I haven’t met the Grandfather?” I shrugged. “No. I’m not sure. Because it depends on whether…on whether I go with you…”

“Absolutely not,” Wickham barked, just as the “class” began trickling back in. Flann wanted to know what was going on, but I waited until everyone had joined us. Then I told them Wickham didn’t want to take me with him to confront the Grandfather.

“I like the idea of ye not going alone,” Flann said. “What if he throws ye off kilter and ye forget what to ask?”

Wickham huffed. “I’ll make a list.”

“What if he derails ye? What if he tries to keep ye from coming back? If he worries ye’ll succeed, that ye’ll spoil his plans, he might do that, ye know. He might try to hurt ye.” The Irishman folded his arms and nodded, as if he’d made up his mind. “Sure but we cannae allow ye to go alone.”

Brian paced in front of the tables. Wickham scooted his chair back, leaned his elbows on his knees, and put his face in his hands. “Someone please explain to Lennon that she is the least qualified to protect my arse?”

“I don’t know,” Persi said. “Her training is coming along nicely. It’s not like we were sitting on our asses for the past month. She gave me a bloody nose last night.”

Wickham’s hands fell away from his face, and he looked for Urban. “Dinnae just sit there. Help me.”

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