I couldn’t move, spellbound, his words confusing me. What promise was he talking about? “Please give her back. I’d do anything to have her back.”

“No. You will leave her and become a pawn of the Councils,” he said, his purple eyes delving into my own. “I will not have that for her. She has too much beauty, she is too much like her mother. I will keep her for my own.”

The room darkened and I could feel him—there is no other way to describe it—begin to draw on his power and it was a dark and fearsome thing. I did the only thing I could think of.

“LUKE!” I screamed.

The stranger’s eyes snapped away from mine as the door was kicked in. Bres, sword bared, stood in the doorway.

The stranger looked from me to Bres and back. A slow smile spread across his face. He locked eyes with me once again.

“You are trespassing on my lands. I will give you until midnight tomorrow to leave. If you are still here I will consider it an attack on me, and your life will be forfeit.” A crack like the sound of thunder filled the room and in a swirl of darkness, he was gone. The lights dimmed and went back out.

Bres was suddenly in front of me, his eyes hard and his jaw twitching. “Did he hurt you badly?”

I shook my head. “No, he didn’t hurt me. He was starting to draw on his power—what was he going to do?”

Bres gave me a sharp nod. “You did ta right thing Quinn. He was preparing to wipe your memory. It would be a sure way to end any role you would play in ta prophecy without killing you.”

A lump formed in my throat. I didn’t doubt him, not for an instant. If Bres had been a second later . . . I shivered at the thought of all my memories being wiped like a dry erase board.

Luke appeared in the doorway, a sword in his hand. “You can leave now Bres, I will take it from here.”

Bres frowned. “I’m to be protecting her as much as you are Luke.” The two men stared at each other, neither one backing down.

I waved my hand between them, catching both of their attentions. “Hello. Listen to me. The guy, whoever he is, has my sister and my mom. We have to find out who he is, where he’s got them!”

They stared at me as if I was speaking Chinese. Did they not understand how important this was?

“We know who he is Quinn, and we know where your sister and mother were taken,” Bres said. His accent seemed stronger than it had been before.

It was my turn to stare. “What?”

“That was Balor. He is the ruler of the Fomorii,” Luke said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.