“You are not to touch that pack,” Isaac said as firmly as he could, remembering Amelie’s instructions. Then he added, “But thank you. For making the fire.”

Willow said snidely, “Yes, young master.” They smirked (Isaac thought) and added, “Know something about you, we do.” Then a pop and they were gone.

Just in case, Isaac shoved the pack under his bed, then undressed and crawled under the covers.

Maybe Willow knew why Isaac was here. Knew about his gift.

He’d made it to Rookskill. The castle was weird but protected. Everyone here seemed nice. There were kids his age. And they were helping in the war effort by learning how to use magic, which was both decent and pretty amazing. Maybe even fun. They were being trained. Was this what his father had been talking about?

At least some answers to Isaac’s questions were tucked inside the casket, but he wasn’t about to open it again in the darkness. He didn’t want to remember that cold object inside. Didn’t want to revisit the dread vision. He’d open the casket again when he was ready, and in the daylight at the very least.

But before he drifted off to sleep, Isaac shuddered with the thought that those awful monsters were out there. They were out there in the deepest dark.

CHAPTER 17

Moloch and the Seelie King

*   *   *

Sitting in his stygian corner of the faerie realm, Moloch licks his lips and schemes.

Moloch’s hunter has returned empty-handed once again. Empty-handed, but with information.

In Orkney, in one of the thinnest of thin places—a ring of ancient standing stones—Moloch’s hunter smelled the scent of powerful magic.

Guardian magic.

Exactly the magic Moloch has been searching for. The hunter followed the scent to an inn where the magic appeared to have been used by a human boy, too late to find him but not too late to discover from the unfortunate landlady of that inn that the boy (she called him Isaac) was heading for a certain castle.

Rookskill.

Moloch knows this castle. Moloch has known Rookskill for a long time, but nothing truly important has stirred there lately.

Isaac, according to the miserable landlady, was looking to find a certain symbol, too.

The eternity knot.

Moloch also knows the significance of the eternity knot.

If the sluagh hunter is right, if indeed the magic is now in the hands of this Isaac, if indeed this Isaac is making his way to Rookskill, why, the hunter’s information could be beyond Moloch’s wildest dreams. A boy might be yet too untrained to understand the magic. Might be weak. Might even carry the key. How glorious!