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“Not a problem. They tricked you, huh?”
“What?”
“The fairies. They tricked you.” He yawned, dropped his head back on the seat. “You didn’t know they were in the car.”
“Yeah, I guess they did.” And that had me thinking....
“Typical Big Fairy,” Theo said, closing his eyes. “Could you maybe keep it down a little? I’d like to rest a little bit.”
I hadn’t made a sound, but I didn’t argue. I let him sleep, and I thought about fairy tricks... and whether they’d work in reverse.
• • •
We were greeted at Cadogan House like heroes, or Theo was, anyway, as my mother proceeded to ply him with food and drink. Lulu had dropped off my katana, and it felt good to belt it on again. Gabriel and Miranda waited with my parents in my father’s office, and I felt a momentary pang that Connor wasn’t with them.
He’ll come back,I told myself.He said he would, and he will.But he wasn’t here yet, and I had to put that out of my mind.
“You don’t need to thank me,” Theo said. “Your daughter did the heavy lifting.”
“Literally,” I said. “And I owe you for showing up in the first place.”
“The OMB owes you one,” Yuen argued.
I looked at him, nodded. I was enough of a Sullivan to accept a good offer. “Okay. I’ll take that on credit.”
“Let’s start with the fact that Riley will be released within the hour,” Yuen said with a smile. And a little of the weight that had pressed down on my shoulders fell away.
I closed my eyes in relief.
“The pin you found tested positive for Tomas’s blood,” Yuen said. “Adding that to the surveillance video from Cadogan House, the fairies’ subsequent activities, and the remains of a bloody tunic found by the CPD in the castle’s keep’s main fireplace, the prosecutor became convinced she had the wrong man.”
I opened my eyes again. “He burned the tunic in the castle?”
“He did,” Yuen said with a smile that said he was less than impressed by the fairy’s effort to conceal evidence. “Most of the tunic was destroyed, but scraps of the fabric near the collarremained. They tested positive for blood—and there are visible holes from the pin.”
My only regret was that I hadn’t found it myself, since I’d walked right by that damn fireplace.
“The fairies were gone when the CPD got to the castle,” Yuen said. “Presumably hiding in the green land again.”
“Ruadan wants to complete his plan,” I said, “and he hasn’t been able to do that yet because the ley lines weren’t strong enough. He kidnapped me because he thought I could provide the missing power.”
“Why?” my father asked.
“Because we were born around the same time, right after Sorcha, during the fairy Renaissance. He thinks that makes me magically similar to the fairies, and that he could use that power to complete the switch. He started the magic, but didn’t finish it before Theo showed up. And he’ll try again, because he’s convinced that’s the only way fairies will survive.”
I hadn’t told my parents the entire truth about me, but I’d been honest about what Ruadan had said. I decided that didn’t make me entirely a liar.
“In order to do that,” Theo continued, “they’re going to have to show themselves again. Pop back into this world.”
“Yeah,” I said. “And when they do, I think we should take advantage of it.”
“How so?” my father asked.
“Fairies like to play tricks. They like cons and games, because they think they’re innately smarter, braver, and more talented than any other supernatural. I say we turn the tables against them. We trick them into believing we have something they need.”
“Which is?” Yuen asked.
I smiled. “A solution to their magical problem. We give them one. We give them Claudia.”
