Unfortunately my preoccupation with the door gave the Bull time to attack. He came at me from behind, swinging a heavy sword. I heard the whisper as it flew through the air and just managed to duck in time, leaping away a heartbeat afterwards. He didn’t manage to hit me but there was an odd buzzing in my ear that didn’t sound right. I shook my head in a bid to clear it and focused on the Bull.
‘Now that’s a weapon,’ I said. I showed him my bare palms. ‘I’m not here to fight though. In fact, I’m a pacifist. I don’t do violence.’
‘Oh yeah?’ he sneered. ‘Then what’s that in your pocket?’
Rather than take my eyes off him, I raised one hand to check. It was Bob’s sodding letter opener. No doubt he’d come along for the ride in the hope that the mess created by my first wish would make me ask for a second.
‘This is a letter opener,’ I told the Bull. Screw Bob’s delicate ego. ‘It’s not much good for anything. I keep it handy for urgent letters. I’d forgotten I had it.’
There were several shouts from the other side of the door, followed by a series of loud thumps. The Bull bared his teeth. ‘You’ve got about five minutes before you’re surrounded. Whatever you’re going to do, you’d better do it fast,’ he said.
He swung the sword again, his muscles straining. Sadly for him, he’d clearly fallen out of shape over the last twenty years and those muscles were encased in far too much fat. He’d made the classic error of using a weapon that was too unwieldy for him to manage. It was easy to avoid his blow and scoot to the other side of the room.
I pursed my lips. He’d kept me at such an arm’s length when I was a kid that I’d never known what his Gift was. Judging by the fact that he was obviously biding his time until his Clan came to rescue him, I bet it was something fairly useless. Of course, that knowledge would only help me until his goons arrived.
‘You didn’t do the actual conjuring, did you?’ If he possessed that kind of Gift, he’d already have used it here.
‘Unlike you, I have a loyal Clan bursting at the seams with talented people. They did what I asked.’
I felt a slight twinge. It’d be handy to have people around who jumped to your every demand, even if it was attempted murder. ‘Why are you trying to kill me?’
‘You know why.’
Er, no. ‘If I die,’ I said, circling away in case he decided to take another heavy-handed swipe, ‘then you’ll never be able to open the Foinse.’
His lip curled. ‘The Foinse is already doomed.’
I blinked. He didn’t even think it was worth trying to kickstart it? ‘You’ll lose all your magic. The Sidhe will lose their standing. Not to mention it might mean hundreds of thousands of deaths.’
‘The Scrymgeours are prepared. Any Clan worth its salt is prepared. This has been on the cards for a long time.’
‘You’re rich,’ I said quietly. ‘As rich as Croesus. You’re going to make sure that your Clan survives because you can pay for the protection you’ll need.’ There was a flicker of acknowledgment in his dark eyes. ‘You might even be happy,’ I continued. ‘If other Clans are decimated then you’ll rise up even further in the ranks.’
‘You have no idea what it’s like,’ he hissed. ‘I’ve got bodyguards outside my door because you can never be sure what the others are going to do. You think I was a bastard to you? Well, think again. I’m nothing compared to some of these bloodthirsty pricks.’
I had the odd sensation that he was telling the truth. Or at least that he believed what he was saying. ‘I don’t see your bodyguards right now,’ I pointed out.
‘They’ll be here. Do your worst, Adair.’
I just kept circling. Even if had the skills or the desire, getting into a fight wouldn’t help me. I had to be smarter. If I could keep him talking, perhaps I’d find a weak spot. ‘That’s why you could fling those fireballs at the grove,’ I realised. ‘If the Clans are doomed then it doesn’t matter if the sacred ground is destroyed too.’
His face twisted. ‘I don’t need the other Clans on my back right now. You were going to be alone. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.’
I lifted an eyebrow. ‘Other than me. Why do you hate me? Even as a child, you hated me.’
‘Black,’ he spat.
‘Come again?’
‘Your aura is black. It always has been. Even when you were a babe in arms, it was black.’
‘That’s your gift,’ I breathed. Wow. That was pretty impressive. You’d know as much about your enemy as they did about themselves. Another wave of nausea hit me but I swallowed it down. ‘You read auras. What does black mean?’