“You need the vampire?”
“I have a name,” he reminded the princess with a snap.
Siljar clicked her tongue, her gaze shifting from Fallon to Cyn.
“I need both of you.”
Cyn stiffened. It was never, ever a good thing when an Oracle had need of him.
“Why?”
There was the unmistakable scent of sulfur as Siljar’s expression tightened with anger.
“I fear the Commission is being tampered with.”
Cyn arched a brow. Hadn’t Styx sent word that they’d uncovered the plot by the strange demons who’d been holding Fallon’s father captive?
“Aye, we know the Nebule planted a spy to pose as an Oracle,” he said.
Siljar shrugged. “He has been destroyed.”
Oh. Cyn grimaced. “You suspect there’s another traitor?”
“That was my first thought,” Siljar admitted. “But I believe that on this occasion the Oracles are being manipulated without their knowledge.”
That seemed . . . unlikely.
“Why are you suspicious?” he demanded.
Siljar hesitated a second before revealing what was troubling her.
“Over the past few weeks I’ve found myself awakening as if from a trance to discover I’m seated in the Council Room,” she at last said.
Cyn blinked in confusion. That was it? He’d been kidnapped and dropped naked in these caves because the old gal was becoming forgetful?
He forced himself to consider his words. Only an idiot implied that an Oracle might be going a bit batty.
“The past year has been stressful, especially for the Commission,” he murmured.
“It has. And if I was the only Oracle to experience the strange phenomenon, then I would assume that your implication that I’m suffering from some sort of mental decay was right.” Her lips twitched as he flinched at her blunt words. “I am, after all, quite old and it wouldn’t be entirely unlikely that I would accidentally transport myself to a familiar location without realizing what I’m doing.”
Cyn ignored Fallon’s barely hidden amusement at his discomfort.
“But?”
“More than once I discovered I wasn’t alone.”
Cyn grimaced even as he heard Fallon suck in a startled breath.
Having Siljar suffering from an occasional blackout was one thing. To think of the entire Commission being controlled by some unseen force . . . bloody hell.
“The other Oracles didn’t know how they got there either?” he rasped.
Siljar gave a somber shake of her head. “No.”
When Fallon had opened her eyes to discover herself far removed from her fairy homeland, she’d been more annoyed than frightened.
Strange, considering that it was the first time in her life she’d ever awakened in a dark cave, stark naked, and in the company of an equally naked vampire.