With his back to us, Malcolm leaned in. I could tell from his shoulders that his breath had quickened and he was feeling more nervous than he wanted us to know.
There was a sudden, blinding flash of light and a faint chiming ring. Something wriggled in my inside pocket. I gritted my teeth.
‘I hadn’t realised there would be light like that as well,’ Diana said to Aifric.
I cursed inwardly. Thanks a lot, Bob. The genie continued to wiggle around as Malcolm turned round and looked at me suspiciously. I folded my arms to try and prevent Bob making a bid for freedom and smiled.
Malcolm sniffed. ‘The Kincaid key has done its job,’ he intoned, spreading his arms wide.
I rolled my eyes at the melodrama and, taking my place at the rear, followed the others in. I looked back at Lily. She beamed and waved at me. ‘See you soon,’ I called. Or so I hoped.
Bob took advantage of my momentary distraction and shoved his way upwards, appearing at my collar before hopping down my arm.
‘I’m bored,’ he mouthed.
I glared at him and tried to grab his tiny body. He danced away. ‘Get lost!’ I hissed.
William Kincaid, directly in front of me, turned and frowned. I tried to smile at him but it came out as a grimace. He turned back, fortunately without noticing Bob, who was stretching languidly.
I lunged for the genie and he leapt backwards.
Trying to convey the importance of the situation to him, I glowered and put my finger to my lips. He smirked and nodded, then lifted his hands to mimic a rolling camera. Eh?
He held up two fingers. Exasperated, I realised he was playing charades. I tilted my chin, pointedly ignoring his antics. When he finally worked out I wasn’t going to play, he tutted loudly, making Kincaid turn round again. I took advantage of the moment, seized Bob’s squirming body, then thrust him behind my back.
‘Sorry,’ I apologised. ‘I almost slipped.’
‘Don’t you dare fall into me,’ he hissed.
I started to nod, just as there was a painful nip on my index finger. I let out a cry. This time everyone turned round.
‘Is everything alright?’ Aifric called out from the front.
‘Fine! Fine! I was just making sure you were all paying attention!’
I received a few scowls. Oops.
Once they were facing ahead again, I pulled Bob out. The little bastard had bitten me. I mimed pulling his head off and he pouted. He pointed to my ear and gave me a pleading puppy-dog expression. Sighing, I lifted him up. He perched between my ear and my skull and I pushed my hair forward to cover him. That was when his incessant chatter began.
‘I’ve been paying close attention, Uh Integrity. These guys are very dull and most of them really don’t like you.’
Tell me something I don’t know, I thought, concentrating on not tripping on the sharp scree as the path grew steeper and more precarious.
‘The only one who thinks you’re alright is that Byron fellow. The one you want to cover in whipped cream and eat for dessert. The Diana woman is starting to soften too. Everyone else hates you. Even the fat pony.’
Unable to answer him without drawing attention to myself, I grimaced.
‘It’s kind of cool that I can come here though. I thought I’d be blocked, but because I’m a supremely magical being I’m clearly allowed to enter.’
Either that or, by using his key, Malcolm had opened up the path for anyone who followed. It was a shame that Lily had stayed behind, if only because she would have proved to Bob that he wasn’t as unique as he liked to think.
‘You should make a wish now,’ Bob whispered. ‘To test the magic. If my magic works here, I’m obviously far more powerful than any Sidhe. And you need to know if my wishes still work for when they all try to kill you and you can’t teleport yourself away.’
Crapadoodle. He had a point – although they’d find it a damn sight harder to do me in without their Gifts. As long as I kept my wits about me, I’d be fine. Anyway, I had a back-up plan; I always had a back up plan.
Several stones skittered down, knocked loose by our feet. I could hear William Kincaid breathing heavily as he braced himself against the sharp mountain walls. I reached out to steady him but he flinched away. His choice.
Although technically we were still outdoors and the sky remained visible, the angle of the slopes on either side of us meant that we were almost completely shrouded in darkness. Only a chink of light allowed us to see where we were treading. The passageway grew narrower until we were forced to sidestep down it.
‘Your ancestors really made it hard to get to this Foinse thing, didn’t they?’ Bob commented. ‘They didn’t trust anyone.’
I considered this. Bob was right; trust appeared to be the one thing that was seriously in short supply where the Sidhe were concerned. The Clans, who’d put the Foinse here and made it so that no one person could reach it without the support of others, hadn’t trusted anyone. And the Moncrieffes didn’t trust anyone enough to tell them they were essentially penniless. And they all seemed to distrust me.