Page 33 of The Seer

“Aye, I’d forgotten. And the ancestors decided they were done torturin’ me for a wee bit.”He paused before adding,“Tell me what’s happenin’ with you. Has she hurt ya?”

“Nothing too serious. Electric shock treatment by way of the ley lines.”

His outrage curled her lips. Fintan would never admit it, but he had a hero complex. His biggest upset was if women and children were hurt.

“And why haven’t the ancestors allowed you to access that same power grid?”he asked.

“Don’t rightly know, but I suspect she’s concocted some sort of spell to harness their magic.”

“Uncle Peter just said it’s why they released me. They didn’t have enough to hold me and you at the same time.”

Narissa snorted, then glanced at the doorway, hoping like hell her aunt hadn’t heard.“Then maybe you should come in here, sugar, and bust me out. The two of us in this little ol’ cage would short-circuit their grid for sure.”

“It’s not the worst idea, to be sure. Hang on.”

Their connection fizzled and snapped before going silent.

“Fintan?”Why the hell was she worried about him when she was the one imprisoned? Still, he was her best chance to get the hell out of this creepy-ass place.

“He’s fine, Nari,” her mother said from beside her, giving her another fright.

For pity’s sake, when had she become so jumpy?

“But I’ll be urging you both to be careful,” Doreen told her. “My sister is not in her right mind.”

“I miss you so much, Mama,” she whispered.

“I’m always around, my love. You’ve only to summon me.”

But summoning required using her Sullivan gifts, and Narissa hated that side of herself. The constant battle to be perfect so she didn’t take an irrevocable step and hurt another. Yes, she used her Siren for Damian, and for the Authority before him in her capacity as a spy. Yet never to steal. Never anything that would turn her into the horrendous monster her aunt now was.

Tears burned her eyes as she stared up at her mother. They’d missed so many years when she’d run away.

“Thirty. It’s been thirty years since you’ve returned home,” Doreen said, as if she’d plucked the thought from Narissa’s mind. “I wish you’d stayed.”

“But you’re glad I didn’t?” she hazarded a guess. She didn’t want to tell her mother this haunted heap had never truly been her home. In all the time she’d lived there, she’d felt Odessa’s ghostly victims lingering.

Her mother nodded. “She’d have found a way to drain you, too.”

“So all this”—Narissa waved to encompass the cage—“is about gaining more?”

“Yes and no. She’ll explain as soon as Fintan arrives.”

Narissa’s brows shot up. “I said he should join me. Should I not have?”

“I’ve already sent him an invitation, girl,” Odessa said from the doorway. Fintan lurked beside her, none too pleased to be there. “He understands the terms.”

“What terms?”

“For your release.” Her aunt narrowed her eyes at Fintan. “He’s agreed. No tricks.”

“Aye, now release her,” he growled.

“Not until I get Bloodstone’s necklace. Until then, crawl back into the hole you came out of.”

“No!” Narissa knew fuck all about the pendant, but if Odessa wanted the blasted thing, it couldn’t be good.

“Too late, girl. Siren’s creed, and a deal’s a deal!”

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