‘Brochan won’t like it.’

I shrugged.

Lexie tilted her chin, her blue hair ruffled by the wind. ‘Speaking of the grumpy merman, where is Brochan? Did he find Candy?’

‘No trace of the Wild Man. They’re a law unto themselves at the best of times.’ I smirked. ‘Brochan is hiding back there, away from the sea. Bob is keeping him company.’

We exchanged glances. I pushed myself onto my tiptoes and looked over the bank of sand. Bob was wearing a rather startling mankini and tugging at the finger of a glowering and sneezing Brochan as he tried to get him to move closer to the sea.

‘I think Brochan will be happy we’re going to the Bull. At least we’ll be inland,’ Lexie mused.

Speck still appeared troubled. ‘This castle. We’re not going to have to scale any walls, are we? And it doesn’t have any mice or bats or anything, right? Or cramped spaces?’

My smile widened. ‘You’re the most powerful warlock in Scotland now, Specky. All you have to do is cast a spell.’

‘I’d rather stay here by the sea,’ he muttered.

‘What do you call a warlock who hangs out on the beach?’ I received nothing but sighs of irritation in response. ‘A surfer druid!’

‘I have to say it, Tegs,’ Lexie interjected. ‘That’s truly the worst one you’ve told us for a long time.’

‘Yeah. I’m under a lot of pressure these days, though,’ I admitted. ‘Stick with me and I’ll do better soon.’

She raised her eyes to the heavens. ‘That’s what I’m afraid of.’

***

We left Angus to return to the MacQuarries. It was no secret that he’d sworn fealty to me on their behalf and, even with my alleged death, it was important that he didn’t do anything out of the ordinary which might raise suspicion. Having him – and the rest of his Clan – on our side made me feel considerably better. Despite my jokey bravado, however, I had mixed feelings about coming back to the Bull’s corner of Scotland.

Taylor pulled up in the same layby where we’d first met all those years before and I couldn’t prevent a shiver rattling down my spine as I stared at the familiar spot. With the wedding less than two weeks away, time was of the essence. We couldn’t afford to run back to the Adair Lands so that I could nab some more of Tipsania’s Gift. Even so, I was starting to regret not taking a couple of hours to find a Sidhe in Aberdeen whose Gifts I could steal. I was being brave, not foolhardy, I told myself. This was necessary.

Lexie, Speck, Brochan and Bob were oblivious to the historical nature of our surroundings but Taylor and I got out of the car and stayed silent, looking around then looking at each other. ‘It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?’ I asked him eventually. ‘If you’d left five minutes earlier…’

‘Or if you’d come out at a different spot…’