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‘Oh, that’s…’ I had no words and fought to keep the bacon sandwich and all that chocolate fudge cake down.
Aidan and Killian were made of sterner stuff. They headed straight over to the table and began to examine the body with interest, as if it had never been a real person at all.
‘Are you okay?’ Emrick asked gently.
‘It’s all a bit much,’ I confessed. ‘First the vision, and now, that. What are we even doing here, Emrick?’
‘I want the O’Briens to give me an honest opinion,’ he explained. ‘I know what the High Council says, and what Iliana believes, but I’m not so sure. Only experts on the fae can give me the answer I require.’
Killian and Aidan muttered together for a moment, then they stepped back from the body and eyed us gravely.
‘This wasn’t a fae attack,’ Aidan said firmly.
I gasped. ‘Are you sure?’
‘I knew it!’ Emrick said. ‘Witchcraft?’
Killian nodded. ‘I’d say so. It’s been manipulated to try to copy the ageing effects of a fae strike, but it’s a poor attempt to be honest. Okay at first sight, but when you look deeper it’s obvious.’
‘You’re sure?’ I asked. ‘Can you prove it?’
‘Do you want to have a look?’ Aidan asked.
Emrick and I exchanged looks.
‘You don’t have to,’ he assured me.
‘But I need to understand,’ I said reluctantly.
I had to force myself to join the others at the table and covered my mouth with my jumper as if to protect myself as we all stared down at the body.
‘You see,’ Aidan said, gently prodding the skin of what had once been poor Bob with a penknife, ‘the ageing process from a fae strike goes through the epidermis, through the dermis, and into the subcutaneous layer. Not only that, but every cell in the body ages. The organs themselves wither and die. But look at this. Only the epidermis has been aged. Dig below the surface and the body composition is normal.’
‘Witchcraft made to look like a Pendragon attack,’ Killian said grimly. ‘The question is, why? I can understand witches wanting to frame the Pendragons, sure enough. But why kill Bob? What’s he ever done to anyone?’
‘It’s what I suspected,’ Emrick admitted.
‘The High Council will have to be told,’ I said, and he folded his arms.
‘I already told them,’ he said. ‘They tried to tell me I was mistaken. I insisted upon calling in Killian and Aidan to prove it. They clearly didn’t want me to. They agreed that, if my suspicions were correct, they would launch an investigation.’
‘Like they did into Zephyr’s death?’ Killian said bitterly. ‘Didn’t get very far, did it?’
‘No,’ he admitted. ‘It didn’t. I have a feeling the High Council knows more than it’s letting on about Bob’s death.’
‘Well they can’t let witches believe this was the Pendragons,’ Aidan said firmly. ‘We’re having enough trouble as it is, keeping the fae calm. You’ve no idea how jittery they are. They know the witch who travelled through time is still here, and the rumours are starting up again—stoked, no doubt by the Pendragons and their allies—that maybe he really is here looking for the keys to release the dragons. We’ve received intelligence that certain members of the fae community have launched their own search for the keys.’
‘You’re joking?’ I couldn’t believe he was only telling us this now. ‘How long has this been going on, and why didn’t you tell us?’
‘We’re dealing with it,’ Aidan said. ‘Leave the fae to us. You need to sort the witches out, because it seems to me you don’t know who you can trust any more, and whoever’s doing this is playing a very dangerous game.’
As Emrick had predicted, the High Council tried to sound shocked when the O’Briens delivered their verdict to them, but they weren’t very convincing. They blustered and stammered and assured us the matter would be dealt with before heading off the island as fast as they could manage.
‘This just goes from bad to worse,’ Castor said, shaking his head. ‘I’ve never heard owt like it. Witches doing this to one of our own! Why?’
‘That’s not all we’ve got to worry about,’ I said, and told them all what Aidan had revealed about fae searching for the keys because they believed Blaise was here for just that purpose.
Poor Blaise looked distraught.
