Boy, was Noxlyingbut the púca couldn’t tell. “Don’t send me back! I was just doin’ my job. A job thatIdidn’t even want but Dùbhghlas won’t send any of his precious fuckin’‘children,’” he said with a sneer. “Who the fuck did this to me, then? Tossed me out because I can’t do nothin’ special and I’m not big enough to do any damage. I’m just an errand boy he sends to spy on you and that arsehole who works at the Hoover Building.”
“On second thought…” Nox narrowed his eyes at the púca threateningly.How dare he call Nelson an arsehole?
“No harm intended, mate!” the púca waved his hands. “I’m sure he’s a prince too. Looks like he irons his boxers but maybe that’s your thing.”
Nox nodded. “It isand I’m running out of patience with you. What will it be? You can go into the fire with the rest of the cursed trash or you can deliver your report to Dùbhghlas as planned.”
“I’ll take my chances with Dùbhghlas,” was the púca’s final decision.
He was fuming when Nox stood and slapped the top of the cage. “Close her up and put a big bow on it once this little shit gives you an address,” he said, then went to see what he could find to eat. Nox was hungry for the first time in over a week.
Chapter Seventeen
There was no telling how long Nelson had been out this time. Not a word was spoken and the lights were off when the hood was pulled back so he could be fed or when he was allowed to stand and was guided to a contractor’s bucket to do his business. Whoever was guarding him didn’t need light to see what they were doing and the hands that touched him were frigid and gritty.
“I don’t want it!” Nelson yanked his face away when a spoon was held to his lips but he ate the bit of bread that was jammed between them.
Finally, Nelson heard someone and he growled and lunged against his bindings at the sound of Hugh Dùbhghlas’s hissy, gravelly laugh.
“Save your strength, Uaithne,” he said and Nelson went still, suppressing a shudder at the use of his other name. He didn’t want the warlock to see how affected he was and provide him with another tool to torture Nelson with.
Nelson rolled his eyes under the hood. “Congratulations. Did Smoak tell you?” he guessed, then held his breath and ducked when he felt the hood sliding up and off. It was still pitch black and all Nelson could sense was a body in front of him. He sniffeddiscreetly but he couldn’t smell anything other than the usual corpses and sulfur.
“I figured that part out on my own but it became obvious once Smoak told me that MacIlwraith had also claimed the Badb.”
“Fucking Smoak,” Nelson muttered under his breath.
“Tell me about it,” Dùbhghlas said with a wheezing chuckle. “How elsecould MacIlwraith defeat the Dagda if he was merely a vessel as I had previously believed?” he asked, then Nelson heard a faint click and a beam of light glowed between them, aimed at the ceiling.
Everything around them turned into a deep, black blur and Nelson’s eyes rolled and watered as they struggled to adjust to the bright light. The halos and spots of color subsided and Nelson grimaced as a gaunt, gray, bearded face with giant black eyes stared back at him. The eyelids were raw, blistered and caked with dried blood around the edges.
“Didn’t think it was possible but you look even worse, Hugh,” he said and Dùbhghlas’s left shoulder rose in a jerky, dead-limbed shrug. The right arm was gone and the sleeve of Dùbhghlas’s soiled flannel shirt had been knotted.
“The transition has been far more…unpleasant than I expected and this place has been warded heavily against me. It’s another layer of torment but I haven’t let it slow me down.”
Warded?“Good for you,” Nelson said flatly.
Dùbhghlas’s maniacal grin faded. “You’ve all become a nuisance that I can no longer tolerate. I had thought that Oglethorpe had lucked out with this heir and they had merely outwitted the old Dagda. But it seems he had ancient help. He is the one from the prophecy and you, Oglethorpe, and Clancy areHisthree.”
“You might be on to something,” Nelson conceded. “But can you see him following someone else’s plan or giving a fuck about a prophecy?”
“No…I didn’t think he would,” Dùbhghlas agreed with a dramatic sigh. “That got me to thinking: what would happen if I took his Uaithne?” He tipped Nelson’s chin back with the flashlight, smirking as he leaned in closer. “What would happen if I killed it?” he laughed but stopped when Nelson grinned and chuckled with him.
“Do it. I dare you.”
Dùbhghlas blinked rapidly, considering, before he sneered. “You’re bluffing. You’ve impressed me, though. I thought you’d be a lot easier to break and I thought this would breakhimby now. But I’m tired of playing games with you, Agent Nelson.”
“Do I strike you as the kind of man who plays games?” Nelson countered. “Why would I? I already know where my soul is going and that Nox will be waiting for me when I get there. You’re the one with everything to lose.”
“Am I? You’re his gateway to the god and Mag Mel,” Dùbhghlas said with a pleased humph.
“Figured that out, did you?” Nelson rolled his eyes. “But that’s old news. It’s in the prophecy. He’sthegod now and doesn’t need me for that anymore. I have a new purpose.”
“And that is?” Dùbhghlas asked sweetly, earning a hard snort from Nelson.
“You’ll have to kill me to find out.”
Nelson was totally bluffing.
