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The man in charge beckoned me with his hand. “Come, Ellie. I’m sure you’re eager to be reunited with your ring.”
The ring.Surely Ahone hadn’t planned for this to happen. Could I use that to my advantage? Plus, I could still use the words of protection. Hell, I’d even ride away with Okeus on his giant snake if it meant getting out of this, because I doubted these people planned to let me live. “Tsagasi,” I whispered, reasoning that he was probably hundreds of miles away. If he could hear my regular voice, he could hear a whisper. He and his friends had taken a blood oath to protect me to their death. I had to trust them and their promise. They were one of my last, best hopes.
I took a deep breath and tried to slow my racing heart. “And the Sword of Galahad?”
He laughed. “You’ll see it soon enough.”
Oh, shit.
David renewed his efforts to break free of his restraints.
“I don’t like surprises,” I said. “So let’s make a deal. I’ll be a hell of a lot more cooperative if I know what’s going on and what to expect. Why don’t you go ahead and fill me in.”
His hood had fallen over his forehead again, revealing only his lower face. The image shook a memory free and I was transported to a stormy night fifteen years ago. When Collin’s father had worn a hood over his head.
“Collin’s father was one of you.”
The leader laughed and clapped. “Very good, Ellie.”
Collin’s mouth dropped open. “What?”
Suddenly it was all so clear. “Miriam was lying. You didn’t need information from my mother. You neededme. Inviting my mother to Charlotte was a ruse.”
“At the time, we didn’t realize you were too young and wouldn’t be ready for another decade. Mr. Dailey came back empty handed, not to mention quite belligerent.”
I remembered Collin saying Steven was a low-level member and would probably run to the group looking for help after we showed up with our questions. Collin’s father must have done the same. “You recruited him because you needed him. But he didn’t really know why.”
“He was needed as a backup plan, just like Collin. We would have considered using your father, Ellie, but we were told to wait for the female Dare Keeper. So we kept waiting, as we had for three hundred years. And once we realized you wouldn’t be ready for another ten years, and that Mr. Dailey had a son who was only two years older than you, it was much cleaner to dispose of him and wait for the two of you.”
“You killed my father?” Collin asked, his voice gravelly.
Jeremiah released a derisive laugh. “He was hardly an innocent. He murdered Ellie’s mother.”
“So why wait?” I asked. “Why didn’t you instigate this five years ago when I turned eighteen?”
“The timing wasn’t right.”
Then the answer hit me. “You didn’t have the ring. You needed the ring.”
The man’s mouth twitched. “Admittedly, it was lost. But then Steven told us a couple of weeks ago that you had recovered it.”
“He found out from Myra.”
He smirked. “Once we knew you had possession of the ring, we could finally achieve our goal.”
“To harness the demons to do your will.”
Jeremiah nodded. “We will be performing a great public service.”
I shook my head. “I don’t get it. Why do you need both Collin and me for that?”
“We need you to show us the gate.”
I glanced at Collin and gave a slight shake of my head. There was no way I was going to help them. Especially since they planned to kill me anyway.
“But Miriam said you didn’t know about the curse.”
“Curse?” He paused. “We’ve never known anything about a curse. But we’ve known for centuries about the spear and the ring that have power over the demons and gods. And the prophecy has been passed on that the girl who could use the ring would be a descendant of Jonathon Dare, the man who commissioned the Croatan conjurer to bless the objects at the gate to hell.”
