Page 37 of Evil Eyed
Aidan snagged the phone away from me. “If you be wanting a trade, then I’m your man this time. Set the woman free and you can do whatever you want to me.”
Boss Man laughed, a genuine, light sound of amusement. “Ah, the sound of the Slaughterer in love is such a delight. I think not, mighty spear.”
“Take me, then,” Keane retorted. “Take us all. We’re dead anyway. Give Riann back her friend. Let them live a life of peace, and you can have this crumbling world for all eternity. We’re done fighting this useless war. It’s all shite anyway.”
“No,” I whispered, choked with tears. “No! I won’t let you die! I can’t bear it!”
“Exactly,” Boss Man replied, ignoring me entirely. “This war is over. It’s been over for centuries. You treasures were only too honorable to finally lay down your magical weapons and walk away.”
“Is that what you want?” Doran retorted. “If so, we surrender now. This is over. We’re done.”
“Excellent. Return to the Land Beneath the Waves or whatever dimension you wish. It doesn’t matter in the end. All the worlds and realms be mine.”
I took the phone back from Aidan and took it off speaker. “Why? Why now? If you’ve been so close this whole time? The whole cop thing and charging me with murder was a complete waste of time. If you wanted me to meet you, all you had to do was tell Vivi to set it up. I would have agreed in a heartbeat, and she’d be safe.”
My voice broke and I sucked in a shaking breath.
“If you must know, I’ve quite enjoyed watching you from afar. It’s amusing to see how each treasurekeeper’s fate will play out. How she will pull the treasures to her side. How long it will take her to bend them to her will. After Stoneheart’s capture, I doubted even you could pull the Slaughterer out of his abysmal funk. But the greatest challenge of all is to see if the treasurekeeper will succumb to me or not.”
“Never,” I whispered, shaking my head vehemently.
“Many have,” he replied nonchalantly. “Some came to me almost at the very beginning of their war. I must admit that I find those treasurekeepers the least interesting. It’s so much more entertaining if I must lure them to their downfall. That slow, agonizing journey to their breaking point is the sweetest reward. Though it’s almost as amusing to watch the treasures crumple when they realize the truth. They are such honorable fools after all.”
“So that’s it? You just want to break me?”
He laughed, a high, sweet trill that should have been magical and beautiful. “Oh, sweet one, no, not at all. You’re more than the treasurekeeper, Riann. You’re the key.”
Throbbing pain shot through my skull as if someone was hammering a spike into my temple. I flinched, absently rubbing at the spot with my free hand. Doran squeezed my shoulder, his big hand turning me toward him, trying to comfort me. But there was no comfort. Not while Vivi was in danger. Not when my men were talking about surrendering to their enemy to save me.There must be a way out of this.
Key. Again with the key. Jonathan had said the key to defeating Balor was written on my very soul.
“Come to Dún Bhalair and I will explain everything to you. I will not kill you. I will not kill your treasures. Not if you come to me willingly.”
“And Vivi?” I rasped out.
“My lovely assistant remains unharmed and eager to see her best friend once more. You know the value of a fae’s word. Unlike your leprechaun, I need no gold to hold me to my oaths.”
Fae didn’t lie. But that didn’t mean he spoke the truth either.
He wouldn’t kill us. Not directly. But maybe his minions would, or some other dark fae creature at his bidding. Vivi was unharmed—for now. But she might be scared out of her mind, mentally tortured or worse.
I couldn’t take any fae at his word except one.
Silently, I held out my hand behind me without turning to look. Warwick’s fingers clasped mine. “I’d take a leprechaun’s oath over yours any day.”
21
We started the drive back home, all of us crammed into the SUV. The silence weighed heavily in the vehicle, thick with fury and worry. They worried for me.
I worried for them and Vivi.
I still couldn’t believe that I’d blindly gone off and left her in the jaws of danger without a clue. I’d been so focused on getting out of the legal tangle that I hadn’t even considered how being accused of murder gave Boss Man the perfect opportunity to bring us together. He even positioned me so that I needed to call him for help.
Stupid.
“You couldn’t have known,” Doran said. “None of us did, and we’ve been fighting Evil Eye for centuries.”
“Standing in the same room as him, I couldn’t identify him as fae,” Warwick added. “You certainly couldn’t have known.”
