The Magic Knot (23 page)

“’Tis Ana. She’s gone.”

Niall sat up and tucked the cover around Rose to keep her decent. “What do you mean, gone?”

“Someone’s removed the wards. This here was nailed to the door.” He held out a piece of paper.

“Great Danu.” Niall jumped out of bed and grabbed the note. While Niall read, silent menace radiating from him in waves, Michael backed out the door. Niall balled up the paper and hurled it at the wall. “Tristan has her. He’s wanting to trade Ana for your Magic Knot tarot paintings,” he said as he yanked on his clothes. When he’d strapped on his knives, he glanced up at her expectantly. “How fast can you get the portraits shipped down?”

Rose swallowed and sat up, pulling the sheet beneath her arms. She couldn’t sacrifice her whole troop to Tristan before she’d even tried to release them from the paintings. She reached out to Niall with love, hoping he’d understand her predicament. “Believe me, I really want to help Ana, but I can’t give up the piskies.

I’m their queen. I have a duty to protect…” Her voice trailed away at the sheen of shock in Niall’s eyes.

He dropped his head and stared at the floor.

She extended her senses toward him, and found a dark abyss of agony. Panic squeezed the breath from her lungs. “Niall?”

“I thought you’ trust me,” he said so softly she had to strain to hear.

“I didn’t mean—”

“Aye, you did.” He raised cold, lifeless eyes to her. “You expected me to sacrifice the piskies.”

Tears burned in her throat. What could she say? He must have sensed her feelings.

“I’ll get the paintings sent down,” she blurted, desperate to placate him. She wanted to trust him, more than anything in the world, but the warning on the Ten of Swords loomed in her mind. She clutched the sheet to her chest. Surely he wouldn’t betray her after all they’ been through?

Unless he didn’t have a choice.

Rose longed to heal the hurt between them. She tried to banish the doubt from her mind and reached for him mentally, but he blocked her out. Wrapped in the sheet, she stumbled out of bed and tottered toward him.

“If the druid’s hurt me sister, I’ll skin him alive.” He cast her a sharp sideways glance as she approached, then turned his back on her. “You should have learned by now: I always look after me own.”

Two hours later, Niall waited for Nightshade beside the entrance to Trevelion Manor. Staring into the inky shadows beneath the huge rhododendron bushes, he imagined the terror Ana must be feeling. He tried to send her reassurance that he was on his way to rescue her. But he couldn’t sense his sister, because the second he relaxed the guard on his mind, Rose toppled in like a child leaning against a door.

Niall closed his eyes as her love and reassurance pulsed through him. Now that he’d cooled down, he realized he’d overreacted to her doubts about his plan for the paintings. Rose had known him for only a week. It was natural that she’d be cautious. The bond gave them both access to each other’s thoughts and feelings, which could be a double-edged sword. Although now that he’d had a taste of her love, the idea of losing the connection was unbearable.

As soon as he returned to the Nest, he’d make up with her properly—all night. He smiled as his body tightened at the memory of Rose standing over him, eyes glittering with excitement as she ripped off her clothes. He couldn’t get enough of her.

Swiping a hand over his face, he suppressed a throb of regret as he eased her loving presence out of his mind. This evening his discussion with Nightshade must be kept private. Rose liked to take control of situations, yet her sheltered human life had not prepared her to deal with the likes of Ciar or Tristan Jago. And she still did not understand fairy ways. Her ignorance had nearly cost her life while in Ireland. His plan to rescue Ana and release the piskies was risky, and depended on deceiving Tristan. There was too much at stake to confide in Rose and then depend on her acting skills for success. Far better she be genuinely surprised by his actions. Once the operation was in progress, Nightshade could explain to her there’ been no other way to pretend to meet Tristan’s demands.

Branches rattled in a sudden gust of wind. The last dead leaves clinging to the surrounding trees fluttered loose and spiraled to the ground.

Niall glanced up as Nightshade descended out of the dark sky ten feet away. The stalker came a few strides closer and hesitated beneath a shaft of moonlight falling between the branches. “I had no control over your reaction to my bite, Irish.”

A flame of humiliation flickered inside Niall, and he stamped on it. “
That
subject is not open for discussion. Now where’s the bloody druid holding Ana?”

“Ana?” Surprise crossed Nightshade’s face.

Disquiet rippled through Niall. When he’d called Nightshade for a meeting, he’d assumed the stalker would know what Tristan was up to.

“Tristan took me sister and left a note on the cottage door. He’s wanting to trade her for the paintings.”

“Shit!” Nightshade looked away and snapped his wings against his back. “He’s said nothing. Maybe he
no longer trusts me. One of the humans who sells him exotic animals to stuff could have fetched her. They’ do anything for money.”

“Do you have any idea where he’d be holding her?”

“Beneath the manor. But it’s strange I didn’t sense her.”

Niall shook his head. “’Tis unlikely you would, unless you were looking for her. Me sister is bound closely to the earth.”

“What are you going to do? Surely Rosenwyn won’t give Tristan the paintings after all she’s been through?”

Niall turned away and snatched a breath. Where did Nightshade’s loyalties lie? Niall was going to have to play this carefully to save the piskies and get his sister back safely.

“Somehow I must work out how to free Ana without relinquishing control of the paintings to Tristan.” he’d given the problem a lot of thought in the two hours he’d waited for Nightshade. “Me father told me the only way to rebind the piskies Magic Knots is with visceral blood from Rose.” Niall palmed one of his blades and turned it in his hand, the thought of stabbing Rose sending a chill through him. “We must get all three parts of the piskies together with the Magic Knots if it’s going to work.”

“Tristan keeps the glass globes containing their minds and spirits in his workroom.”

“And their Magic Knots?”

“They’re in the workroom as well.”

“The room where I found Rose?”

Nightshade nodded.

“Should have guessed. ’Tis a place of death, all right.” Niall stroked the handle of his knife. “Everything we need is here except their bodies. It makes sense to
bring the portraits to Trevelion Manor. Do you know if the piskies will need help to re-form?”

The stalker’s eyes glowed in the moonlight. “When I leave my body and flit a long distance as a shade, I’m still aware of my heart beating and lungs breathing, and if I concentrate, I can see and hear what’s happening around my body. Would not be safe to leave it otherwise. I guess it’ll be the same for them. Although I doubt they’ve chosen to focus on their bodies while the portraits have been in storage. When the globes are broken, as long as their Magic Knots are then whole, I’m sure the piskies will find their bodies in the paintings.”

“After all this time?”

“Time has no meaning when I’m a shade. I expect it’s the same for them trapped between life and death. They won’t have forgotten anything.” Nightshade swallowed and rubbed his mouth.

A plan formed in Niall’s mind. “What’s Tristan planning to do with the paintings?”

“Arrange them around the walls of the great hall beneath the manor. The spirits in the globe can’t see him, but he hopes they’ll be able to watch from the paintings as he sacrifices Rosenwyn.”

“Great Danu!” Niall took a threatening step forward. “When were you planning to reveal this minor detail?”

Nightshade stood his ground. “I haven’t tried to hide anything. What do I have to do to make you trust me, Irish?”

Niall stared at the stalker. Although he’d carried Rose to safety, Niall still wasn’t sure of his loyalty.

“You’ll go and tell Tristan that I’m willing to trade. Tell him I’ve had enough of babysitting the pisky queen. I want to make another deal.”

Nightshade’s eyes widened, then narrowed dangerously.

“Wake up, laddie. ’Tis a ruse,” Niall said.

The grim expression on Nightshade’s face melted into a smile; then he laughed with relief and slapped Niall on the shoulder. Niall shook his head. How could anyone in his right mind believe he’d really betray Rose to Tristan?

Rose paced back and forth across the Elephant’s Nest kitchen.

Michael watched her from the table where he cradled his morning cup of coffee between his hands. “You’ll go wearing yourself out, darlin’.” He flashed her a mischievous grin. “After that busy night you had, I’m thinking to meself you should be resting.” When she cut him a sideways glance, he patted the wooden chair beside him. “Come sit yourself down and tell Uncle Michael what’s bothering you.”

She huffed in frustration. “I don’t know. That’s the problem.” Halting beside the window, she squinted into the morning sun. “What the hell’s Niall doing in the garden?” Kneeling in the backyard beneath the massive oak tree where they’ consulted the tree deva, Niall had buried both his crystal blades to the hilt in the earth and was waving his hands over them and chanting.

Michael shrugged and ambled across to stand beside her. “Who knows, darlin’? Niall was raised by leprechauns. The power of their earth magic is ancient as the dawn of time. Even the Tuatha Dé Danaan have never persuaded the wee folk to reveal their secrets.”

“I’ve got a really bad feeling about today.” Rose shivered, and Michael wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“’Tis probably just nerves.”

Rose shook her head. “This plan Niall and Jacca have cooked up to rescue Ana and free the piskies is so naive, I can’t believe Niall thinks it’ll work.”

Michael frowned. “Don’t sound like me brother. He usually doesn’t miss a trick.”

Fiddling with Niall’s leather thong around her neck, she glanced at Michael. “He reckons all we need to do to raise the piskies is free their minds and spirits from the globes and hey, presto”—she snapped her fingers—“they’ll meld with their bodies in the paintings and come to life.”

Rose shrugged off Michael’s arm and paced to the table. “If it’s that easy, why didn’t he tell me before I traipsed over to Ireland and got fried by Ciar? And what about Tristan? If Niall thinks my father won’t notice us waking a troop of piskies beneath his house, he’s got another think coming.”

Michael gripped her arms. “Listen, Rose, Niall can be a pain in the arse, right enough, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, he always knows what he’s about.”

Although Michael’s faith in his brother reassured her, she wished she could sense Niall’s intentions. His thoughts and emotions were shadowed, as if he were hiding something. After his reaction last time she questioned his motives, she was reluctant to accuse him of keeping secrets.

A knock sounded on the kitchen door and the fair-haired barmaid popped her head in. “Delivery for Ms. Tremain, Mick.”

Michael looked at Rose. “May the luck of the leprechauns be with you.”

Rose glanced out the window at Niall and fluffed
her hair. “Better tell Merlin the Magician out there the pictures have arrived. I’ll go and check them.”

She strode through the bar to the parking lot and found the driver unfastening the back of his delivery truck. The man lowered the tail lift. Rose stepped on the metal platform, drew a breath, and steeled herself as he raised the two of them into the truck.

Each portrait stood over six feet tall. Rose stepped into the truck and stared at the stacked wooden cases containing the pictures as the man scanned the bar codes labeling each box. Part of her simmered with morbid fascination, wanting to open the cases and view the portraits. Part of her shied away. Jacca had told her the piskies could see out of the pictures and were aware of their surroundings. She couldn’t get her mind around that concept—didn’t want to. The thought of being shut in a dark, narrow space sent her pulse racing.

Niall walked up to the back of the truck. With an effortless jump, which left the delivery driver gaping, he vaulted up and wrapped a reassuring arm around her waist. “Don’t go unpacking them here, lass. Wait till we get them to Trevelion Manor.”

There were seventy-eight wooden cases. Seventy-two of the paintings depicted members of her pisky troop, and the remaining six, animals. The secret fear she’d kept buried since she’d learned what the pictures really were bubbled to the surface. Would they be angry she hadn’t rescued them earlier?

She wriggled back into the comfort of Niall’s embrace and laced her fingers between his. Solid and steady as a rock, his strength anchored her. “I hope they’ll be a bit friendlier to me than Ciar’s lot were,” she whispered.

Niall cupped her chin and turned her face up. “They’ll be sure to like you, me love. You are of sound body and good heart, and madness has yet to invade your brain.” He smiled and touched his lips to hers. “I’m not at all sure what they’ll make of meself, though.”

The truck driver finished scanning the codes on the boxes. Rose signed to accept delivery of the paintings and the rental truck. As a taxicab drove into the parking lot, Niall pulled a roll of fifty-pound notes from his pocket and peeled off a wad. He counted the notes into the man’s hand, then pointed at the cab. “That’ll deliver you to the train station in Plymouth.”

Twenty minutes later, Rose sat in the front of the truck beside Niall as he started the engine. Michael gunned the Porsche behind them and followed as Niall swung the vehicle out of the empty parking lot. They headed along the dirt track beside the estuary and out of the village toward the manor. Rose linked her fingers in her lap and took deep breaths to stay calm. The thought of facing her father again sent a prickling chill over her skin. And she couldn’t shake the fear that Niall was keeping something from her.

“Niall.” She watched for his reaction. “Are you sure there isn’t anything else I need to know?”

His lips thinned; then he shook his head once. “No, lass. Not right now.”

“It’s just that the plan sounds too simple. I think you’re underestimating Tristan.”

Niall frowned and cut her a brief, troubled glance. “Don’t you go worrying about things. Leave it to me.”

She still wasn’t happy, but Michael had assured her Niall would be well prepared. The image of the Ten of Swords floated into her mind. The more she tried to
forget the prediction, the more the card plagued her. She reached beneath her shirt to clutch her stones for reassurance. When her fingers closed around the cool weight of the rings, she remembered they were Niall’s and not hers.

Her stones were tucked beneath Niall’s shirt against the solid warmth of his chest. The essence of her being rested in his control. When they’ exchanged Magic Knots, she’d found the idea romantic and arousing. Now she wasn’t so sure. Fear of betrayal whispered in her head, stroked cool fingers down her spine. She shivered, pushed the thoughts away, and hardened her resolve to face her father. There was no room for doubts. She and Niall were a team.

As the delivery truck arrived, the front door of Trevelion Manor opened and Tristan stepped out, followed by Jacca.

When Rose opened her door to climb down, Niall gripped her hand.

“Hang on.” His lips twitched in an attempt at a smile, but his eyes remained uneasy. “What ever happens in there, trust me.”

“You’re king of the cryptic comment, you know,” she said, but he’d already released her and was jumping out. Foreboding curled through her. She reached for him psychically and sensed dark tendrils of apprehension leaking around his mental shield. Why hadn’t she pumped him for more information during the journey? Now they were out of time.

After jumping down from the vehicle, Rose jogged to catch up with him as he walked toward the house. For Tristan’s benefit, she eyed Jacca warily, as if she didn’t know him.

Niall gave her shoulder a brief, reassuring squeeze
as they halted, and he said, “We’ve got the paintings. Where’s me sister?”

“Let’s do this in a civilized manner.” Tristan extended his arm, indicating that they should enter.

With a shudder of reluctance, Rose followed Tristan along the hall, Niall behind her, Jacca bringing up the rear. She hesitated before stepping into the drawing room, a premonition of disaster whispering in her mind.