I folded my arms. ‘Never heard of her.’

‘Him.’ Bob rolled his eyes. ‘Women aren’t heroes.’

‘That’s it! I’m going to melt down your damn letter opener at the nearest smithy.’

‘Women are heroines, Uh Integrity.’ He wagged his finger at me like a disapproving teacher. ‘Get your grammar right.’

If the genie lived to the end of the day, it would be a miracle. ‘Who was Dagda?’

‘Ugly guy. Great long beard which used to get in his way all the time. There was food stuck in there for…’

‘Bob,’ I warned.

He threw up his arms. ‘Fine, fine. Anyway, it’s not really Dagda you want ‒ he’s been dead for five hundred years. What you seek is his harp, Uaithne.’

‘If I can’t play the triangle, I’m hardly going to be able to play a harp.’

Bob shook his head. ‘This is a special harp. Play Dagda’s harp – even just one note – and you’re almost guaranteed to win the challenge. I can’t account for the Sidhe, mind, but I know the harp.’

‘One note?’

‘Yep.’

‘And this harp is in Ireland?’ I tried to calculate. We could take the nearest ferry and be there the next day. It was definitely doable. And surely even I would be able to play a single note.

‘Ah, well, to be sure, to be sure, it’s an Irish harp which belongs in Ireland,’ Bob said with an affected Irish lilt.

‘But?’

He shrugged nonchalantly and flicked Brochan’s ear. The merman growled and tried to throw him off. ‘But the Fomori stole it a while back. They’re not interested in it these days though, so it’s shoved in a cellar in a back street in Glasgow.’

My jaw dropped open. ‘In Glasgow. In the Lowlands? Beyond the Veil?’

Bob nodded. ‘Yes!’

‘Where the Fomori demons are and no other living person has set foot for three hundred years because if they do they’ll be slaughtered into a bloody mess of bones and sinew and torn flesh?’

‘That’s not strictly true…’ Bob’s voice trailed away when he saw my expression. ‘Yeah, okay. Pretty much.’

Well crapadoodle.

Chapter Four

‘Isn’t this taking things a little too far?’ Taylor asked as we stood in front of the Veil, staring at its dark cloudy expanse. It stretched the entire length of the country, from the North Sea on one side to the Atlantic Ocean on the other, blocking off the Lowlands from anyone who wasn’t a demon. It had been this way since the Fissure in 1745 so goodness only knew what was on the other side. Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t another soul in sight. Few people ventured this close to the Veil on purpose.

My stomach was churning and I worried that I was going to heave up my guts right onto Taylor’s feet. Bolts of lightning lit up the darkness from time to time, just in case anyone wasn’t already fully aware of the dangers of the Veil.

‘Look on the bright side,’ I said. ‘The Fomori won’t be expecting me.’