‘Yeah?’ She did a good impression of one of those disbelieving women you get on daytime chat shows when they’re told their husbands have been cheating on them.

‘Yes,’ I replied firmly. ‘It was me they were after and they’ve got me.’

Lexie blinked. ‘Eh?’

‘Like I said, Taylor will fill you in. What you two need to do is to get hold of the buyer and get rid of that.’ I nodded towards the Lia Saifire. Recovering it had opened up a whole host of options. ‘With the money, hire the meanest, nastiest lawyer in town. Get Speck and Brochan released, even if it’s only on bail. Once that’s done, you need to talk to Charlie.’

‘Who?’

‘My neighbour. He deals in a lot of black-market stuff. One of things which he professes to have is a device that will temporarily negate the barrier spells the Sidhe have put around the Clan areas. All four of you have to get to the Cruaich.’

Lexie’s face paled. ‘That’s where the Sidhe court is.’

‘Yup. Get there. Find somewhere to hide. Every night at midnight, set off our signal. I’ll come and find you. If five nights pass and I don’t come for you then get the hell out of there and don’t look back.’

She stared at me. The bartender appeared out of nowhere and slammed the coffee jug down on the table between us. We both jumped.

‘Got it?’ I asked her softly.

She nodded. ‘I’m not dreaming, am I? I don’t think there’s absinthe my drink but I could be mistaken. It’s happened before…’

I pointed at the coffee and stood up. ‘Drink that before you leave,’ I instructed. ‘All of it.’

*

Less than two hours later, I was standing in front of the gates leading to the Cruaich with a small pink suitcase in tow. As with many places in Scotland, it hadn’t been easy to get here. So much for the joys of living in a rural location; not for the first time, I wished someone had invented the Star Trek transporters for real. Public transport was a pain in the arse.

I tugged at my case. I was hoping it wouldn’t take long to do this Foinse business but it never hurt to come prepared. There weren’t any guards on duty although, with the magical barrier in place, there really didn’t need to be. I guessed that although the Sidhe knew the magic was failing, they weren’t expecting it to happen today.