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Brigid simply smiled a secret smile, declining to answer with words.
“Understood,” Annie said with her own smile.
“And may I say—you have exquisite taste in men.”
Brigid regally inclined her head in acknowledgement, just the way she imagined Titania would.
“What else exists in this fantastical world of yours?” Annie asked. “Do all of the creatures you described during story time dwell there?”
“All that and more,” Brigid said. “It is the second reason I want to return to Scotland. To Castle Mar on Loch Ness. My powers are much stronger there. I can sense and anticipate any danger. The dark woods might be filled with monsters, but my helpers are there too. We will not have to fight the evil alone.”
“You know what we’re up against, then?”
Brigid drew her brows together at that.
“Not really, no,” she murmured.
“But I have always known that something malevolent lurked in those woods, gathering their own brand of power. They are confined to the other world, a world that is parallel to this one, just like the one I created. But sometimes, their creatures break free. Flesh-eating Kelpies, giant, wolf-man demons, undead soldiers. Brambles, quicklings, spriggans and hoary hunters. The Bean Nighe, Nuckelavee, Baobhan Sith, Each Uisge, Red Cap, Beithir-nimh and the Sluagh. And many, many more.”
“Okay,” Annie whispered, eyes going round. “I have no idea what you just said. But they sounded truly frightening.”
They were, Brigid didn’t confirm out loud. It was bad enough that she knew it herself. Even though she sensed Annie’s competence and bravery, she didn’t want to burden the young woman more than necessary. They might never encounter all or even some of the creatures, after all.
All Annie needed to know was—when in doubt and a thing with sharp teeth and claws was coming at you fast, run swiftly the other way. Or stab it with a sharp object and ideally hack off its head until it stopped moving.
Or, in Sai’s case, rip the demon’s jaws apart with his bare hands, punch a fist into its chest and yank out its beating black heart.
What a man!Brigid almost simpered and sighed.
“Well, it should be a bloody good time in Scotland then,” Annie declared cheerfully.
At the very least, bloody, Brigid thought.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
“Sooo…” Ben started, apropos of nothing.
It seemed a good way to begin as any. Given that they’d already killed two werewolf-like demons, concocted a crock of lies to deceive the populace at large, and witnessed creepy crawly flowers, flesh-eating zombie horses-turned unicorns together…well…there was nothing for it but to get right down to business.
And Ben intended to dig as deeply as he possibly could with the mysterious, dragon-pale-prince. Mine him for information and excavate the gems of knowledge, so to speak.
By Brigid’s account, at the pace they set and the route they planned to take, it would take at best seven days and nights to arrive at Castle Mar, the Rathbournes’ ancestral seat in the Highlands. This was twice as fast traveling with unicorns as with regular horses, for the magical beasts didn’t need to rest or eat, according to Sai.
But the bipedal travelers did. As did the two completely ordinary thoroughbreds the men rode upon. They planned to switch the horses out every time they stopped for the night, however, to maintain pace.
Apparently, Sai had plenty of hidden gems and gold he could materialize at will. The benefits of being a sea dragon who got to hoard sunken treasure over a very long time, Ben supposed. At the first stop, they would hire riders to take the borrowed horses back to Lord Rathbourne’s stable in Town.
They planned the route to minimize encounters with other travelers, as well as to make a small detour to Southend-on-Sea, a developing beach community that was still relatively little known compared to the popularity of Brighton. Perfect for what they intended to do—
Rejuvenate Sai like raising Lazarus from the dead.
(Though Sai was quite a bit more alive in this case).
This was something that Brigid had insisted upon. Apparently, the dunk in the Thames helped stem the worsening of Sai’s wounds, but didn’t fully restore him. He was extremely weak from starvation and countless festering wounds.
How Brigid knew was beyond Ben. Even he couldn’t perceive much about the pale prince’s condition, given that the man’s clothes covered everything save his face and hands.
Yes, he was unnaturally pale with laser-cut features. But then, how was Ben to know whether this was his normal physicality or not? Sai was a sea dragon, after all. The only sea dragon Ben had ever met. Maybe they were all a little gaunt, and so pale their skin was the definition of translucent.
