“Bres, what the hell are you doing here?” I said, my fear quickly turning to anger as I lowered my knife. How had he gotten in anyway?

The dim light illuminated his face, and I realized my mistake. It wasn’t Bres.

The stranger lifted his hand and pointed a finger at me. I froze, suddenly unable to move. He took two strides and, before I could even attempt get out of his way, he had me pinned up against the wall. A sharp pinch of my wrist between his fingers and my knife dropped to the floor.

“Ah Quinn, so like your mother, if one can look past those eyes of yours.” He breathed out the words and they caressed my skin, leaving behind a trail of frost on my cheeks. I stared into his face; he had the same violet eyes as Bres, the same dark hair. He looked as if he could be an older version of Bres, which was disturbing. The only true difference was the pointed teeth that glinted out from between his lips as he spoke.

“Don’t you hurt her!” I yelled at him, struggling in his grip. My instincts were screaming at me to run, fight, so something. Though he didn’t look it, I had no doubt the stranger was one of the Fomorii.

He let out a grunt. “I would never hurt your mother.” He tipped his head and stared at me, one eyebrow raised. “You have the look of your father too. That is a pity. I wonder, do you carry other traits of his? Are you a fool?”

I’d never met our father, never knew him at all. Our mother wouldn’t even tell us his name. But that didn’t mean I would allow some stranger to bad mouth him. “You have no right to speak of him, you don’t know him.”

He laughed and my legs went weak. “I know him better than you do, his daughter.” He let out a sigh. “I won’t enjoy this. But it’s necessary, for Ashling’s sake.”

“You have her, don’t you? And Mom. Please let them go.”

“You don’t deserve them. They’re mine. I am keeping them—Ashling especially—where they’re safe from you and your Tuatha treachery.”

“NO. I would never hurt her! I love Ashling, she’s my baby sister.”

The stranger snorted. “You know the prophecy, all of it?”

“Enough, I know enough, not that it matters. I don’t believe in this stupid prophecy,” I said.

“Then how do you explain me? Hmm. How do you explain the Fomorii you saw with your own eyes, the Barrier that now stands between you and the ocean. How do you explain the power that even now I can sense rippling through your body?”

“I don’t know,” I whispered.

The stranger loomed over me. “I should kill you now, but I can’t. Even I am not that cold, even I believe that there is power in each of us to change our destiny. Not to mention, a promise, is a promise.” He lifted his hand to my face and caught a tear on the tip of his finger.