Page 99 of Crown of Tides and Fury

“I don’t understand,” I said quietly. I deserved a medal for not begging him to stay.

“When Wickham comes, you will.”

This time, when he turned away, he was avoiding eye contact. I’d seen that look on Wickham’s face a hundred times, when he’d said too much and wished he could take a little back.

What did he want to take back?

* * *

It wastime to suck it up.

I dug a hole in the kitty litter and buried my broken heart inside. In the morning, Archer would hopefully throw it out with my clumps of pee…

I found the coffee was still warm, as were the sausage roll and croissant Griffon had left in a little white sack. I ignored the thoughtfulness and downed it all before I remembered the plan of keeping my digestive tract as empty as possible. But I needed caffeine and food if I hoped to think clearly.

The bonus was this: I was getting tired of Archer spitting at me and figured he should face some mild sort of punishment for it. When he spit at me tomorrow, I wouldn’t even care.

Nicely recharged, I paced my little space from front to back, thinking aloud. “Why here? Why here? Why does Wickham have to comehere?”

It didn’t seem like a question I was equipped to answer since I had no idea whereherewas. The weather alone made me believe we were in Scotland, and if that were the case, it meant Griffon had carried me for hours…

“Doesn’t matter where.” I glanced around the cell. “Nothing special except that Daphne died here.” Her blood would have seeped into the dirt floor. Poetically speaking, it was the perfect place to bring the man who put her behind those very bars.

If the universe had opened up to receive her body, there was no such opening now.

I searched every corner. Nothing special, nothing special, nothing special.

I changed tacks and reviewed everything I knew about Daphne. “Griffon’s sister.Cloch RealtaHunter. Librarian.” Her Irish accent had been strong whereas Griffon’s was barely noticeable. She’d known about the little bookmarks bein00000g alive. She’d kidnapped me looking for Hank. But how had she known about him? “How had Daphne known about Hank?”

Yet again, I went over that first day at the Trinity library. She’d busted us trying to read the fairy books. She’d taken the gems in exchange for answers, then threw them on the ground when we’d mentioned Orion’s monsters beingolder than nameand asked her about The Covenant. But that wasn’t all. Wickham had asked about prophecies that included the Uncast.

I was an Uncast. But not all Uncast carried around acloch realta,the thing she wanted so badly she was willing to do despicable things to get one.And we’d never found a link between the two.

“No, no, no…” I kept pacing, sure I’d gone down the wrong path. Prophecies and pet rocks had nothing to do with Wickham coming to the dungeon. “Wickham and Daphne. Wickham and Daphne.” What did they have in common?

She knew he was a witch.Despair, witch,she’d said. But it had beenshewho had despaired,shewho had taken her own life.

“Because she knew the world was about to end?” I shook my head to clear it, then sat in the chair and toyed with the empty white sack while I started over again. “What do Wickham and Daphne have in common?”

A witch and a Fae?

“Or aFaeand a Fae?”

No. No matter how crazy his powers, Wickham wasn’t a…

Half a second later, I was already standing, though I didn’t remember getting to my feet. It was impossible to sit still with so many puzzle pieces clanging into place.

Wickham had the power ofPlace.And so did Daphne!She’d popped out of the library, after she’d thrown the gems on the floor.Despair, witch,and she was gone. Popping, just like Wickham!

Wickham had brought her here, to this dungeon, and she’d killed herself. But why? If she had the power ofPlace, she could have popped out of there at any time.

Unless she couldn’t.

There was something about this cell that nullified her power ofPlace. And if that something was still active?

Griffon can lure Wickham here, into this cell…and Wickham will be trapped.

It finally made sense why I had to be kept exactly where I was, bucket and all. Now all I had to do was figure out how to keep Wickham from coming…

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