“Because my mate was once trapped on Faerie before Aine turned him into a fae right before he escaped.”
“Your mate …” Thea huffed. “You’re not talking about Fionn Mór?”
“You know him?” Fionn hadn’t mentioned that.
“No, I have a journal. By Jerrik Mortensen, a vamp who spent time on Faerie. He mentions Fionn. I just assumed he was dead because no one’s heard of him since.”
The thought of him made her whimper. “No,” she choked out. “He’s very much alive.”
“Shit,” Thea whispered. “I can’t believe this. The whole time I thought … I thought I could help her.”
“Niamh?”
“Yeah.”
“No, you can’t. The best thing you could do to help her is get out of here, take your mate, and go back to Scotland.” Rose gritted her teeth as renewed flames ate at her arms. “Just … keep your pack safe, yeah. That’s your job now.”
“I hate to break it to you, Rose, but I’m not going anywhere until I know you’re safe from these wackos.”
“I am. I’ll never give them what they want.”
“And what is that exactly?”
“An iron dagger. They th—” Rose cut off as it occurred to her the Blackwoods might be listening in. She didn’t want them to know they might not need An Breitheamh to open the gate. “They need it to open the gate.”
Silence fell between them. Rose did her best to ignore the excruciating agony of the iron.
“I went out to the store to get tea for our room,” Thea said. “I left Conall sleeping in the little B&B we were staying in. We thought the Blackwoods were in the village two miles north. I had no idea they’d clocked us. Or that they’d take me.” Her voice lowered, pain evident in her tone. “Conall will be going crazy right now.”
Yeah, Rose groaned. She was sure her mate would be more than a little unhappy when he woke to discover Rose missing.
“Hey … hey, Rose.”
Rose’s eyes flew open. Unconsciousness was blissfully coming for her. “What?” she snapped.
“I know that iron doesn’t feel good. Believe me, do I know that, but I need you to stay with me. You’re going to get us out of here.”
Rose snorted. “By hanging tight?”
Thea ignored the bad joke. “Rose, have you ever been so scared or so angry, you emitted pure sunlight?”
“What?” Jesus Christ, she just wanted to pass out, not talk nonsense with a wounded werewolf. But somewhere in the recesses of her memories, the words started to connect with information buried in there.
Fourteen piles of ash.
“You killed Eirik.” Rose forced herself to focus. “And his vampires.”
“I did. I turned them all but one to ash. Conall had already killed one before I took out the rest. When the Blackwoods come back in here, you’re going to kill one of them by doing the same thing I did, to force the other two to let us go.”
“But how?”
“You’ll picture everyone you love being put to the death by one of the Blackwoods. You have to make it feel real. Find that anger and grief and use it to obliterate them.”
“What if it needs to be real?”
“I don’t know … but you have to at least try.”
“Okay,” Rose murmured, eyes falling closed. “Wake me up when they get here.”
“Rose. Rose, I know it hurts, but you have to stay awake.”
“Sleep is good.” Darkness crept along the edges of Rose’s mind, numbing the pain. “I choose Layton.”
“Good choice.” Thea sighed heavily. “It’ll save Conall from ripping out his heart for putting a silver bullet in me.”
“Aw, that’s nice,” Rose mumbled before she passed out.
32
Fionn had known from the moment he’d awakened to find Rose missing from his bed that she was gone.
It took him seconds to feel out the castle, discern its emptiness, and remember the Blackwoods were on the land beyond his borders.
Using magic to dress, Fionn bolted out of An Caomhnóir, shrugging on his overcoat as he hurried out the door. In his pocket was a hair tie belonging to Rose. He’d be able to use it to trace her once he was past the boundary spell.
Fionn was a blur, speeding through the forest as fast as his fae strength would allow. The almost-bare trees unwillingly saluted him with their branches as he sped out of the woods toward the stone wall that acted as the boundary marker for the spell.
Fionn halted at the sight of the extremely tall, extremely built werewolf sniffing the air around the wall. He