‘Ha!’ she scoffed.

‘You are a Moncrieffe, right? Don’t you think it’s strange that the Steward is locking up another Clan Chieftain? What about the police? Since when was Aifric Moncrieffe allowed to act like judge, jury and executioner?’

Rather than think about what I was saying, she looked at me as if I were toe fungus. ‘You give the Sidhe a bad name.’

I laughed coldly. ‘The Sidhe do that perfectly well without my help.’

‘You’ve endangered everyone in the Highlands by your actions with the trolls. This whole country could be attacked by the Fomori demons and we’d all be vulnerable.’

‘But this country has always been vulnerable to that. It’s only the Sidhe who’ve had the liberty of hiding behind their magic borders. What about everyone else?’

Her lip curled. ‘Because of you, Fomori demons attacked the MacQuarries.’

She was as blind as she was annoying. ‘No, they didn’t. It was Illusion magic. It was a Sidhe who was behind that. And Aifric Moncrieffe was pulling their strings as much as he is yours.’

She didn’t seem to hear me. ‘You’re a thief and a murderer.’

‘I’ll allow the thief part but I’ve not hurt anyone.’ I cast around, trying to think of a way to penetrate her thick skull. If I could get this woman to doubt Aifric and come over to my side, perhaps I’d have a sliver of a chance. So would Taylor.

My toe itched again. Irritated, I reached down to brush the bloody spider away once more. It was staring up at me and this time, one of its long – and remarkably hairy – legs was tapping against my skin as if it were impatient.

‘I’m not listening to you,’ the guard declared. ‘The Steward said you’d try and turn me but I’m loyal.’

‘To a fault,’ I muttered in response. I was no longer interested in her, however.

The spider leapt off me and darted over Candy’s shins back to the corner. My eyes followed it. I lay down to avoid appearing too obvious but made sure I tracked its every move. I really hoped I wasn’t going crazy.

Once again, it tried to spin silk. Fine threads shot out and it leapt from one side of the cage to the other. This wasn’t the perfect web of a normal spider, though; it looked more like a clumpy mess.

‘Do you know the tale of Robert the Bruce?’ I asked Candy.

‘Sidhe bloke round the time of the Fissure, wasn’t he?’

I nodded. ‘Yep. There are quite a few famous stories about him.’

‘Cave,’ Candy grunted.

‘Yeah. He hid out in one after his army was routed by the Fomori. He was convinced that all of Scotland was lost. Then he saw a spider.’

‘If this is your way of telling me that you’re not going to give up, then I got it,’ drawled the guard. ‘But remember that your friend’s life is still hanging in the balance. Not that I suppose someone like you cares. You probably don’t care about anyone.’