His brow furrowed. ‘What do you mean?’

‘It’s not funny, Bob. Jokes have to make people laugh.’

He stared at me, still not understanding. ‘Nobody laughs at your jokes.’

‘Sorley does.’

Bob snorted. ‘Sorley is an idiot.’

I opened my mouth to reply but I was interrupted by Morna stamping over. She gazed at my growth efforts with what could only be described as disgust. ‘Integrity Adair!’ she scolded. ‘I did not permit you to take more of my Gift so you could fritter away your time. Is that all you’ve managed to accomplish?’

Suddenly I felt like a small child caught with her hand in the cookie jar instead of Chieftain of my very own Clan. Albeit a remarkably odd Clan. ‘I’ve been distracted,’ I protested. ‘It’s Bob’s fault.’

‘A good Chieftain takes responsibility for herself and for her Clan. You’re the one in charge.’

‘Ha ha!’ Bob jabbed his finger at me. ‘Stop blaming me! A bad workman always blames his tools.’

I raised my eyebrows. ‘And we all know that you’re a tool.’ Bob’s mouth dropped open in mock outrage.

‘Robert,’ Morna said, fixing her steely gaze on him, ‘aren’t you supposed to helping inside?’

‘I’m on a break.’ Morna simply looked at him. His head dropped. ‘Going back to work now,’ he muttered. He floated off. One day I’d like to exercise that kind of control but it didn’t matter what I did; I’d never achieve Morna Carnegie’s iron power.

‘Felled by a mere glance,’ I said to myself. I looked at Morna. ‘When will you let me take that Gift?’

‘Being Chieftain is more than the title, Integrity. It’s a state of mind.’

‘The job’s yours if you want it. The pay is shite and there aren’t any holidays. But you get to pretend to be dead and that really cuts down on your junk mail. Plus, I’ve not had a bill to pay for months.’

Her expression didn’t change. ‘You can’t play dead forever.’

My attempt at humour faded away. ‘I know.’

‘I have to get back to my own Clan soon. My Chieftain is starting to think I’ve been abducted. I’m running out of excuses to explain my absence.’

I swallowed. ‘I do appreciate what you’ve done for us.’

‘It’s not for you. The prophecy has yet to be fulfilled.’

‘It has been fulfilled. I saved the Foinse. In return, I saved the country.’

Morna raised her hand dismissively. ‘You and several others. Besides, that wasn’t the prophecy.’

‘You don’t know that.’

She smiled serenely. ‘Yes, I do. It’s all in the wording.’

‘One Adair will save Alba. Yeah, yeah. That’s what I was told. I saved the Foinse, therefore I saved Alba.’

Morna patted my shoulder. ‘Alba doesn’t just mean the Highlands. It means all of Scotland.’

I wrinkled my nose, my scepticism palpable. Scotland hadn’t been a whole country since the Fissure – and that was almost three centuries ago. Scotland, in the sense that Morna meant, no longer existed. ‘There are a hundred thousand Fomori demons in the Lowlands. At least. Even if I weren’t a pacifist, there’s not a single thing I could do that would change that.’