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“I’ll hold you to that promise, dear sister.”
“Now that Lugh’s awake, I best get back to my other patients.” Darby squeezed my arm lightly. “I’ll check on you again later, okay?”
She blew Lugh a kiss and then headed out the door. He watched until she’d disappeared and then returned his attention to me.
“As to how we found you…” He smiled. “Rogan got rid of his phone so we couldn’t trace him but he forgot the GPS in his car. Sgott tracked it to Pynwffynnon, and we all converged on the place.”
“All?” I said, raising an eyebrow.
“Sgott and about a dozen of his people, Cynwrig and as many of his people he could gather from the immediate area, and of course me and Mathi. We came prepared for a fight and instead we found a goddamn disaster zone.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“The gate is gone, all that remains of the mountain is a crater, and Pynwffynnon is a smoking ruin. It’s almost as if the place was hit by some sort of heat bomb.”
I remembered the heat wave that had tossed me from the cavern. “Rogan got through the gate and used the Claws. It sent a blast of heat through both worlds.”
“Ah,” he said softly. “When we found you, you were wrapped in the limbs of multiple trees, and they were singing to you. I suspect it was their energy that kept you alive.”
“I remember their song,” I said. “They were determined death would not touch them again.”
“And it didn’t,” he said. “I don’t know how or why, but the forest wasn’t affected by the heat that destroyed everything else. Mathi reckons the trees that survived or grew out of the destruction caused by Aubrey’s Key have developed a resistance to heat and magic.”
More than a resistance, I suspected, given the way they’d enclosed me. “Speaking of Cynwrig and Mathi, where are they?”
“They were both called to a council meeting. Apparently, there’s been a development with the missing hoard.”
“They’ve found it?”
“I have no idea.” He grimaced and levered his feet off the bed. “There has, however, been a secondary development, one that affects us directly.”
I studied his expression and didn’t for one second like the seriousness there. “They’ve found Aunt Riayn’s body?”
“No.” He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small red envelope. “It’s this.”
“Oh, fuck.”
“Yeah,” he said grimly. “The pixie council has reached a decision regarding your punishment.”
“And they asked you to deliver it? Bastards.”
“We haven’t many living relatives left, so I guess they had no other choice. At least it’s not a knife.”
“I don’t find that at all comforting.”
“You should, because that option was probably on the table, even if not for as many years as Aunt Riayn.”
He held the envelope out. I didn’t take it.
“You haven’t read it?”
“It’s sealed with pixie magic. Only you can open it.”
Which meant he had tried. I took a deep breath and then gingerly took the damn thing. Gold dust was pooled around the pointed section of the seal. I hesitated, then pressed my finger against it. The dust disappeared, and the rectangular flap opened. Inside was a folded piece of red paper.
I returned my gaze to Lugh’s. “I killed two people in that mine—do you think they know about that?”
“No. As I said, there is nothing left. Besides, it was in self-defense, was it not?”
