“This is the other reason you came to Coill Darragh. You heard about a panacea, something powerful enough to compete with your family’s recipes. You stole the formula from the alderman, Éibhear O’Shea. There was a single witness. A girl named Gretchen, who you threw from a rooftop in order to cover your crime.”
Linden scowled. “That is hardly proof.”
“The journal isn’t my proof.”
From the journal, from the spots of blood, her apparition rose.
Violet and smoky, seeping from the pages with spectral drama, Gretchen materialized. Non-magical people might not see her, but they would feel the room go frigid, and there were enough witches to behold Gretchen’s testimony.
“Linden Fairchild,” she said. “You killed me.”
Now, Linden truly looked ashen. He stepped back, a livid aura enveloping him. The crowds’ noise changed in quality again. More raucous, outraged. Here stood a ghost, a girl who looked no older than Briar or Linden themselves, to confirm Briar’s words.
“Linden killed me,” Gretchen said, “and tried to exorcise me so I wouldn’t tell anyone. I can attest that everything Briar told you is true. I lived with him in Coill Darragh for the better part of this year. I was notan easy companion, yet he befriended me and did his best to help me. He freed me from the prison of the house I haunted, helped me reclaim my lost memories, and now he’s given me the opportunity to tell my murderer who I am. Who he killed.”
She rounded on Linden. “I was twenty-five. I was young and idealistic. I wanted nothing more than to make potions and medicine and help people. I gave up every minute of my time in pursuit of that, and you ended my life and took everything Éibhear and I worked for! You robbed me of my future. You’ve robbed Briar of his mother, and now of his future, too. You robbed the planet of life-saving medicine and tithes. You’re a liar, a thief, a murderer, and I hope yourotfor what you’ve done.”
Linden’s eyes darted to the faces of their audience. Some wore frowns of disapproval, others slack-jawed shock. Briar knew, coming into this, that his chances were small, but he’d also known what Linden feared most. The ever-turning tide of public opinion. Humiliation.
And lucky for Briar, he himself was immune to embarrassment.
Linden, cornered like an animal and watching all that he’d fought for slipping away, turned to desperate action. Briar saw the motion too late. Linden reached into a pocket and pulled out something dark and shining.
A siphon.
Briar thought,No. Would Linden freeze this moment in time, reverse it, wipe the memories of the audience? Everything had been televised. Could he control Briar, force him to discount everything he’d said?
Linden clasped the siphon in his hand. At the same time, Gretchen launched herself at him. Never had she been capable of affecting another living being. Throwing knives had been an exhausting use of her energy. Yet her fist connected with his jaw and sent him sprawling. She landed on his chest, drawing back for a second attack.
She said to Briar, “Go! Get out of here!”
At the same time, the siphon in Linden’s grasp shattered into dust. The malodorous aura contained within spread, the magic seeping through the air like a toxic cloud.
Briar grasped the tiny vial of bone powder pilfered from Linden’s stores, uncapped it. In a second, he could be through the portal with the journal and drag Gretchen back home.
But the siphon acted faster. Gretchen had a second to realize what was happening as her apparition flickered. There came a noise like water sucked down a drain, only it was a roar.
She turned in time to look at Briar and smile. It looked as though she mouthed the words “thank you.” Then her specter melted, ink diluted in rain, and she was gone.
The magic of the siphon, like a thick blanket over the entire room, receded back to the spot where Gretchen had been.
Linden wrestled to his feet. He moved like a bull, like he never had in public before.
The bone powder felt thin and measly between Briar’s fingers as he flung it in the air and thought,Take me home.
CHAPTER 29
Briar knew something was wrong the moment he stepped through the portal.
He’d come believing the wards could protect him since he’d broken Linden’s bracelet. Those wards should have also prevented him from portaling directly into Coill Darragh. He should have emerged on the border.
Instead, he stepped into Rowan’s living room.
With creeping dread, Briar called out for Rowan, but no reply came. Slowly, the tithe on his chest began to burn.
“No, no, no.”
His vision swam at the edges. Vatii, recognizing the signs, fluttered her wings to fan his face while he drank his potion. Standing up to Linden, escaping here, that was as far as his plan extended. He’d hoped to have a few hours to prepare for whatever counterattack Linden launched. He’d hoped Gretchen would be by his side, but she was gone.
