‘That is true,’ he said as if he begrudged admitting it. ‘She did do that. And she has done even worse.’ He turned to me again. ‘Integrity Adair, how many times have you travelled across the Veil?’

The compulsion to remain silent was lifted from me once more. I was getting really tired of this. ‘Technically four, although…’ I ground my teeth as I lapsed into silence again. I searched the hundreds of Sidhe facing me, each face agog. Whoever was doing this would give themselves away. There had to be some kind of tell-tale movement.

Aifric raised his eyebrows at Molly Kincaid. She bobbed her head primly. ‘She is telling the truth.’

I gazed across the gathered Sidhe. To say that they looked shocked would be an understatement. I forced myself to stop concentrating on how they felt and continued methodically searching for who was using their Gift to control my mouth. There were hundreds of them; I was going to need some luck. Scratch that. I was going to need a lot of luck.

‘We all know,’ Aifric said, ‘that the Fomori have been causing us many problems lately.’ He made an excellent effort at looking sad. ‘The incursions they’ve made into the Highlands have had a devastating effect and I shall impart more tragic news concerning that in a moment.’ He sighed. ‘It was not clear before why they had decided to suddenly start broaching the Veil after years of peace.’ His voice dropped. ‘I think it is now. Tell me, Integrity, did they come here because of you?’

I snapped my eyes away from the crowd and stared at him. The fact was that he had told me they’d come to the Highlands looking for me, that they’d been afraid of the prophecy. On at least two occasions, I’d had proof of their motivation from my own eyes. ‘It’s complicated,’ I began, as the magic lifted from me once more.

Aifric shook his head. ‘Yes or no will suffice.’

Screw him. He was the one who had three dead Fomori demons bricked into a cavity in his study. I drew back my shoulders. ‘No.’ My voice rang out clear as a bell.

Molly Kincaid flinched. ‘She’s lying.’

I wanted to scream. The worst part was that this was Molly telling it as her Gift saw it. It wasn’t the absolute truth – but there was enough of a lie in my answer for her Gift to tell her I was lying.

Chieftain MacBain rose slowly to her feet. Her face was white and pinched. ‘Chieftain Adair,’ she almost choked on the words, ‘came to me to arrange for payment in return for passing through the Veil and retrieving Matthew’s bones. If I had known she had ulterior motives I would have prevented her. To be in league with those creatures…’ Her horror was palpable.

I looked at her, using everything I had to impart silently that I had made no pact with the Fomori demons. Our alliance might be shaky but if I could just get her to see… It was no use; she’d already made up her mind.