Suddenly, the hill opened up and a disfigured man stepped out, and the look on his face was far from friendly. It was the face of someone who had been patient and calculating, one who knew exactly how to force people to do his bidding. The condescension dripped from his pores.
“I’ve waited a long time for this, MacRuari. It’s time for a reckoning.”
Chapter Twenty
Edan
Reginald was his sire’s name. Reginald MacRuari.
The bogle stood there with his arms raised. “The time is finally here. You have come to pay your sire’s debt finally.” The bogle looked like any ordinary man, brown hair, a head shorter than Edan was, but there was one thing that kept him from going after the creature.
Edan tensed, his mind so overcome with disbelief that he was frozen. Confronted with the proof that there were indeed faeries, Seelies, and another world on Islay, he was unable to move or speak. Something stood in front of him that was unlike anything he’d ever seen. The creature’s hands looked more like claws, with deadly talons. Half person, half creature, it strode in front of him like it was the most usual event in all the land.
Edan had to find out the truth before he went inside after Heilyn. Memories of his father’s rantings on his deathbed overtook any coherent thought he was having.
“They’ll steal you back.”
“They followed me. He tried to grab you out of my arms.”
But Edan locked his gaze on Ailith’s. “Tell me more about Reginald, Ailith. What exactly do you see?”
He could guess what she would see because his father’s mumblings near his death had sounded much like the vision she had already described. His father told Edan how he had promised his first-born son in return for keeping the MacRuari fortress and land. If he handed the laddie over to the faeries when he was born, his land would be fertile and lush, his clan would grow, and the faeries would protect his clan from attacks by other clans, keeping the Unseelie at bay. His father had agreed because his clan was dying slowly from starvation. He’dbargained with the devil, he’d declared. Had he bargained with a bogle instead?
But the man was feverish and beside himself. Roger had come in and told Edan their sire had turned daft. Catrina had told him not to listen to a word he said, that he made no sense at all.
Their sire had been telling the truth all along.
Ailith held her head and said, “The troll promised wealth and fertile lands and happiness for Clan MacRuari but said he needed payment. Blood was the only payment he would accept.”
“Whose blood?” Edan whispered.
Ailith gripped his hand and said, “Yours. He wanted your blood, Edan.”
It all came back to him, memories that had only come forth in nightmares, but now he saw them for what they were. Reginald MacRuari had cried on his deathbed. “I’m sorry. I could not let you go. I would not let that creature have you. I ran to Jura. I refused. He promised to come for me. He’s here for me now. Run, Edan. Run!”
The poor man had sobbed and screamed on his deathbed before taking his last breath. Edan hadn’t understood all his words, but they were beginning to have meaning now.
Edan, Roger, and Catrina had made the decision to move to Islay afterward because it was where they grew up, where memories of their mother were strong, and where the family had been prosperous and happy. His father’s last words had been to run. Run as far away from Islay as possible.
It all made sense now: why they’d moved to Jura, why his father had stayed in hiding, speaking to none of his old clan, the clan that had been forced off Islay and Jura.
Everything his father had ever told him was true. Every warning he had laughed at. Every tale he had buried with the man.
The world tilted under him.
He did not let it show.
Lia stalked toward the bogle. “Let the bairns go. They have no place in this argument. Tell the evil overlord behind the hill to leave us be. I hate bogles, you included.”
Dyna gripped Lia’s hand. “What the hell is a bogle?”
Lia pointed to the beast in front of them. “You’re looking at one, Gruin. They steal and lie across the land, leading the Unseelie into uncharted evil. They can hurt humans, but they cannot hurt the Seelie. They do the work for the Unseelie lords. His lord is a disgustingly evil overlord whom I’ve never met, but I don’t care to either.”
Edan assessed the bogle. He was a head shorter than Edan, stood with a wide smile, and Edan swore it had two score of tiny, pointed teeth. Other than that, he could have passed for a human except for his eyes. One was black and the other speckled, giving him the true otherworldly look.
Gruin’s voice echoed across the moorland. “You were promised to us, Edan MacRuari. Instead, your sire broke the bargain, and Clan MacRuari fell apart. He ran with you, but we managed to take a piece of you. We own your blood. You belong to us.”
“Is that what you want? Then take me. Free the bairns and I’ll go with you on my own accord. My sister will care for my daughter. Let her go.”
