Page 40 of The Robin on the Oak Throne

“Or if there are, you can’t pay for them,” Niamh insisted.

Kierse hadn’t even considered that, but now that she was…

“Don’t even think about it,” Graves growled as if reading her mind.

“She’s not going for that,” Gen said. “It’s for her nightmares.”

“They’re not nightmares. They’re memories.” She swallowed, deciding that she might as well lay it all out now. “Memories of my past, my father. And they’re all jumbled up from the broken spell. So I need something to fix them.”

Niamh looked to Graves. “That sounds like your area.”

“I’ve been working on it,” he said roughly.

“Can’t you just read her mind and…”

“He can’t get through my absorption,” Kierse clarified.

“And she already turned down my offer. Anything you can do, oh High Priestess?”

Niamh shook her head. “I’ve been sending Gen all the books I have on nightmares. Memory is even harder to deal with. There might be a spell, but it wouldn’t be ready for another full moon, and it requires more energy than I can channel alone. Maybe if we brought in other Druids…”

“No,” Graves said at once.

“Well, tell us your great idea then, warlock,” Niamh said.

“If she won’t work with me,” he said carefully, “and it isn’t safe for her to work with Druids…then we should take her to the Covenant.”

“The witch doctors?” Niamh said, her eyes wide.

Kierse’s jaw fell open. “You’d work with Dr. Mafi again?”

Dr. Mafi had turned on them and given Kierse’s blood to the vampire King Louis. She’d only done it because she was indebted to him, but Kierse didn’t think Graves would ever forgive something like that.

“I would do whatever it takes to help you,” he told her, his eyes earnest. “Including aiding this asinine quest into the market.”

“Science isn’t going to fix a magical problem,” Niamh said. “Even witch doctor science.”

“You can’t know that,” Gen argued. “We don’t even know if what happened to Kierse’s memories is entirely because of the spell. That’s just one hypothesis. And to be fair, none of your potions were working, either. So why not try the medical side?”

“Because the Covenant is back home,” Kierse said. “And I’m going into the markettonight.”

“Is there any way to talk her out of this?” Oisín inquired.

“Probably not,” Gen said. “Not when she’s set her mind on it.”

“I can’t stop. Not when I’m this close to finding out what happened to my parents.”

“My dear, my deepest condolences on the loss of your parents and people. I feel the pain acutely,” Oisín said. “It does not, however, change the fact that that place is a monstrosity.”

“Surely, it can’t be that bad. Your shop is the entrance, isn’t it?” Gen said softly.

“Indeed, the market has resided in this location far longer than I have had this shop. It is the home to goblins, true. They run their goblin fruit operations out of the market entrance, which is its primary purpose, but it is an illicit den of iniquity, the likes of which I have never seen elsewhere on this earth.”

She needed to recover her memories. For her magic, her parents, and for herself, it was worth it, even if she had to walk into a monstrosity to get them back.

“I’m going,” she said decisively.

“Kierse…” Gen whispered. “It sounds like this place is really dangerous.”

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