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“He started it!” Merlin said, raising his hands innocently. “And think! How else would a god trap a man? It’s a weakness that gods and humans share, after all. And sex is the only magick known to man that works on gods and monsters.”
Nelson stared at Merlin until his eyes burned. “Talk about picking the wrong man for the job and sending him in completely unprepared. You couldn’t have picked something I know less about.”
That made Clancy chuckle. “I’m afraid gods aren’t as enamored with car maintenance and investigative procedure as they are with sex.”
“No,” Nelson agreed, then frowned as he asked himself who had betrayed Nox the worst. He could understand some of Merlin’s reasoning and appreciated his intentions. But he couldn’t see how Nox wouldn’t be devastated by what Clancy had done. “You know, Nox has been afraid that he was the cause of this. I didn’t see how it was possible, but it was all for him—he was the new Dagda all along.” He remembered the young girl from Nox’s class the day they met. Nelson recalled Janessa Wilder’s lovestruck expression as she offered herself as tribute to the new sun king. “I was the final piece of the prophecy. I completed Nox’s counsel of warrior priests. Merlin had designed Nox to be the perfect heir for the Dagda and has been priming him for their joining. But, according to the prophecy, Nox also needed a cult. He’s been hunting for himself this whole time because you gave it to him,” he accused Clancy.
“He went too far!” Merlin said angrily as he turned to point a trembling finger at him. “He accuses me of killing my beloved Sorcha and Lucas after the things he did! Clancy started this nightmare in New Castle and then he turned a blind eye while those monsters kidnaped, raped, and murdered innocent girls,” he growled in disgust, forcing a stunned gasp from Nelson.
“You started this?”
“No!” Clancy rasped and his hands shook as he held them up defensively, the whiskey spilling onto the floor as he started to cry. “I don’t know where they went wrong! It was never supposed to be like that!”
“You don’t know—?” Nelson stared at Clancy in disbelief. “It’s your job to study cults and help the FBI prosecute them when they go wrong. You’re the fucking expert. What did you think would happen?”
“I thought Nox would be sent to investigate them for brainwashing, not kidnapping and murder!” Clancy said, pleading for Nelson to believe him. “I wanted them to be just viable enough to pull off a decent Samhain1 ritual and catch Nox’s and the Dagda’s attention.”
“To activate the prophecy,” Nelson said, then turned to Merlin. “You made sure Nox got to New Castle in time to light up like a druid Christmas tree because any decent Celtic cult would host a Samhain ritual.”
“That was all it was ever supposed to be,” Clancy insisted. “I don’t know whose idea it was to bring those girls into it.”
“You should have known!” Merlin yelled at him, his voice shaking as it rose. “You thought they were beneath you because they were crude and practiced mountain magick. You underestimated them and look at how dangerous they were.”
“Stop it!” Nelson ordered. “Nox is going to be awake soon and if you think he was mad after that curse…” His heart raced as he tried to predict how Nox would react when he found out what Clancy had allowed to happen and that it had all been for him. “How long has this been going on?” he asked, trying to estimate how many students like Janessa Wilder had learned about the Tuath Dé and how many had become obsessed with the search for a new sun king. Each one would have been like a beacon calling out to the Dagda, even if they never found their way to New Castle and the MacCrorys.
“Since right after Lucas died, I’d imagine,” Merlin said with disgust, confusing Nelson.
“I don’t get it. Why do you two keep pointing fingers at each other if you’ve been working together to tee Nox up for the Dagda? How can you two hold grudges about Sorcha and Lucas for so long if their passing was a natural part of the cycle?”
“Because there was nothing natural about it!” Clancy spat, glaring and advancing on Merlin. “We agreed—”
“Hold on!” Nelson said as he got between them. “What did you two agree to?” he asked, immediately chilled by the way both men’s eyes cast to the rug and they recoiled in shame. “What did you do?”
“We had no choice!” Clancy whispered as he looked towards Nox’s sacred bed chamber. “We pleaded with Lucas to face it himself while he was still strong enough, to spare Nox, but he refused. He wouldn’t even allow us to speak about it!”
“He refused,” Merlin agreed shakily, once again as pale as ash and crying. “He thought that it was a sign that Nox was gay and Clancy had twin girls. Those could not be accidents, he said and swore they were proof that we were no longer beholden to the prophecy and that the Dagda’s time was finally drawing to its end.”
“We knew he was wrong,” Clancy said, looking stricken as he glanced at Merlin and then at Nelson. “But Lucas didn’t want to see what we saw. Just like Nox doesn’t want to see it now. We knew Nox would be too powerful and too beautiful for the Dagda to resist so we begged Lucas to fight. We wanted to help him save Nox before it was too late.”
“Too late?” Nelson asked, earning a wavering sigh from Merlin.
“We caught Nox making fire—” he started but stopped at Clancy’s amused snort.
“Nox set his bed on fire, practicing under the covers. He called us because he was afraid Lucas would ground him,” he explained.
“My sweet boy,” Merlin said, smiling as he wiped the corner of his eye. “We had to go to Lucas and warn him, then. His strength would begin to wane and the Dagda would try to kill Lucas so Nox would inherit all his powers.”
“We wanted to help Lucas find a way to manage or appease the Dagda and shield Nox.”
“Or stamp out the Dagda’s essence while it was at its weakest,” Merlin interrupted.
“Can that happen?” Nelson asked excitedly, but Clancy and Merlin both shrugged.
“How would we know? None of this has ever happened. But it stands to reason that for a brief moment, Nox will have the advantage while the Dagda is between worlds and not yet acclimated to His human vessel,” he posited.
“It’s the only chance any of us have now,” Clancy said bitterly. “We wanted to stop the Dagda before he had control of the more powerful heir.”
“Then, the accidents started.” Merlin lowered into his seat, looking sick again.
