she won’t want to make me mad. Boy, this must be a thorn in Saílle’s side,” I said, laughing. “That’s the only joy this whole mess gives me.”
With a snort, Sharne said, “Yes, I imagine so. Well, let me congratulate you and Herne. And that you’ll be safe from both the Light and the Dark Courts pleases me. If I have to sacrifice my single status to help ensure that, so be it. I sure as hell didn’t do anything to help you when my brother…” The laughter vanished and I could almost see his face. “I’m so sorry, Ember. I really wish… I just wasn’t strong enough to go against Farthing.”
I knew that he meant it. “Sharne, it’s all right. For what it’s worth, I don’t think there was anything you could have done to stop Farthing. Even if you had found a way, he would have just waited until later, when you weren’t there. He was determined to destroy my mother and father. And he tried to destroy me. My grandmother and Farthing were too smart and too cruel, and too determined. You can’t fight a force like that. You would have had to kill them both.”
Right then, I knew that I was right. No matter what Sharne might have tried, he wouldn’t have been able to stop Farthing’s plan.
“Thank you. I’ll always blame myself. But I appreciate your support. Apparently, you’re supposed to escort my blushing bride over to TirNaNog?” He sounded about as enthusiastic as a wet blanket.
“I guess. Saílle hasn’t contacted me yet, but I remember her saying something about it.”
“Let’s talk about brighter things. Say, I wanted to come visit you, if I could. And the sooner, the better. Do you mind if I drop by tomorrow evening? We can discuss this more then.”
I glanced at my calendar. “I’m free tomorrow night, as long as I don’t get called out. I want to tell you about a few things, too. There’s something going on and I want you to protect yourself—”
“Does it have to do with the vrykos that are running rampant?”
“Yeah. You might not want to stay in TirNaNog…at least on this side of the portal…if we…well, I’ll go into it more tomorrow. Come over for dinner? Eight p.m.? Angel will cook.” I knew that would win him over. He’d been over to our house a couple of times in the past couple of months, and each time, he’d been won over by Angel’s cooking. I thought he might have a little crush on her, but he was polite and kept it to himself.
“Eight it is. I’ll see you then.”
As I replaced my phone in my purse, Yutani popped his head through the door and startled me out of my thoughts.
“Hey, Ember? Can you come look at something? I need a second opinion.”
“Hmm? Oh, sure.” I stood, following him into the office he and Talia shared. Talia was nose-deep in research. She had her headphones on, and it appeared that she had been printing out documents she found online. I tried to peek over her shoulder to see what she was researching, but it was all text and no pictures to give me a clue, and by the focused look on her face, I didn’t want to interrupt.
“What’s going on?”
Yutani pulled a chair over beside his desk and motioned for me to look at the site he had pulled up on his laptop. It was a story about a murder over on Whidbey Island. The victim had been found with marks all over his body in what sounded like an eerily familiar pattern.
I scanned the info. “That reminds me of…”
“Straff?”
“Right.” Frowning, I read through the article again. “But he’s in Cernunnos’s dungeon, I thought. Surely he couldn’t have escaped. And Blackthorn is batshit crazy, but not in the same way his son is.”
Blackthorn was one of the Ante-Fae, the King of Thorns whose son had committed a series of murders over on the island. We had managed to catch Straff. Cernunnos had dropped him deep in his dungeon for…well…as long as Cernunnos thought he should be there. But the case Yutani was looking at sounded exactly like the one we had faced.
I shook my head. “We might want to bring this to Herne’s attention. He can ask his father to check, to make sure Straff’s still where he’s supposed to be.” I paused, then asked, “Do you know if Blackthorn had any other children?”
“I don’t remember, but I can check. Maybe Raven knows?”