Candy sighed loudly and lay down, putting his hands behind his head and gazing at the ceiling. The Sidhe guard continued to stare at me. It was so discomforting that in the end I did the same as Candy, lying back and looking up and wondering desperately if there was any chance I could find my way out of all this.

In the far corner of the room, barely visible through the shadows, a spider lurked. It was larger than your usual Scottish beastie and seemed to be having difficulty spinning its web. Silk spun out behind it, missing its invisible target. While I watched, the spider paused for one long moment as if it were giving up. Then it abruptly scuttled down the wall, travelling at what had to be an immense speed for its size. Maybe it had gone to get its buddies to help.

I closed my eyes, focusing on the throbbing pain in my skull and trying to will it away. When that didn’t work, I searched within myself to see what magic I still had that I could make use of. There was definitely still a trickle of Apportation. Unhelpful. I could transport objects away from me but I couldn’t transport anything to me. And I couldn’t do anything with that eagle-eyed guard staring at me.

I could still call animals towards me. I pushed out, sensing some nearby rats. Ignoring the shudder that ran down my spine, I considered bringing them over. Maybe I’d get lucky and the guard would have a phobia. She’d run away screaming and I’d … what? Shamble slowly out of this cage and swim for it?

My big toe itched and I shook it absently. It didn’t help. Muttering a curse, I glanced down. It was the damn spider, sitting right next to my big toe and staring at me with all of its glittering black eyes. Eurgh. I lifted my foot and shook it harder, sending the spider flying away from me. I supposed I should be grateful it wasn’t like Debbie, the giant arachnid who’d been used in the Games last year. I paused. This cage we were in did look remarkably familiar. I supposed that until the wedding was official and Aifric could claim the Scrymgeour wealth for his own purposes, he had to make savings where he could.

Candy shifted restlessly next to me, muttering something unintelligible under his breath. He should have escaped when he had the chance, I thought sourly. All of us should have. I sighed. Then I felt my damned toe itch again.

The guard laughed. ‘Looks like that creepy-crawly is the only friend you have left, Adair.’ She hawked up a ball of phlegm and spat it noisily onto the floor. ‘I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree after all.’

I glared at her. So we were back to that again, were we? That Gale Adair, my father, was a genocidal maniac? Why couldn’t people see what was right in front of their faces? ‘I’m not quite sure what you mean,’ I said icily. ‘My parents were heroes who died at the hands of your boss.’