Page 33 of Crown of Tides and Fury

The monster finally turned her way. “Mere? Nothing mere about us.”

“He saidus. Maybe they have a hive-mind. If you tell one, you’ve told them all?”

“If I had a hive mind, human, a thousand of us would descend upon you now.”

She smirked. “A thousand? Now he’s exaggerating. After today, their numbers have to be dwindling.”

“Thousands await…”

“Await what? What’s the matter? Your door too small to let the rest of you out?”

There was silence for a bit, like it had realized Everly was goading it. But in the end, it turned out it couldn’t keep its mouth shut. “We will not be wasted.”

“So, Orion’s amassing an army, is he? An army of dogs and little bloodsuckers?”

The thing only hissed. I didn’t think it liked to be called a dog.

Everly tapped her lips. “Why did you take all those twins?”

We already knewwhythey’d been taken, on the off chance they might have the powers Orion was after. But it didn’t know that.

Urban’s boot stretched toward its wrist again.

“Ransom,” it blurted, in a bid to avert the next torture.

“Ransom? Who will you ransom them to?”

“TheSeanathairof man.”

There was a long silence. I glanced back to see Flann moving closer to the monster.

“For what will he ransom them?” he asked.

The thing growled, then shrieked and threw itself forward. Kitch pulled the silver blade away, so it couldn’t slit its own throat. Thankfully, Urban’s sword held and everyone was able to jump back, out of reach. The monster yelped when it pulled its own hand against the biting edge, then it scooted up against it, to protect its damaged extremity. Though it tried to free the blade from the ground, it couldn’t manage it with just one hand.

If it was done talking, I didn’t know why the Highlander didn’t finish it off already, but maybe there was something else we could learn. Maybe we could get it mad enough to say what we really wanted to know.

I motioned for Alwyn to watch the west, went to stand beside Everly, and asked if I could take a shot. “If we wanted to go save these twins, how do we get to them? How would we get to hell and back again?”

“Hell,” it scoffed, then bit its ugly lips together.

“Why?” Everly asked. “What do you call it?”

It blinked, slowly. “Home.”

I had a thought. “And what does Orion call it?”

“Muirneach.”It smirked. “Moira’sMuirneach.”

I pushed again. “And how do we get to Moira’sMuirneach?”

The hate was back, smoldering, aimed at me. “Only if I escort you. Come, take my hand.” It drummed its claws still pinned by Urban’s sword in the drying blood.

“There’s no other way?”

It snorted. “Not without a DeNoy.”

14

---