“No. I’ve read the stories over and over.” She grabs a tissue and blows her nose.
“Read it again. If you find something, call me,” I say, standing. “I’ll be in touch."
I wave goodbye to Aidan as I head to the door, and he smiles at me. On the way back to my car, I send a group text to the coven.
Me: My witch’s intuition fucked up. Ashley isn’t the Tylwyth Teg fairy.
I take a cleansing breath. This will require several texts to explain.
Me: You’ll never believe this.
On the drive back to Archie’s house, I call Ronnie to update her. Her name lights up the dashboard screen.
“Gwyn. Do you have Luna? Please, tell me you got her back?”
“No. I’m sorry, Ronnie. I confronted Ashley Lewis, but she isn’t the Tylwyth Teg fairy who took her.”
“What? Then who is it?” Ronnie asks, crying into the phone.
“We don’t know. She doesn’t know, either. But we’re fairly certain the fairy is hiding in the bog.”
“Our intuition was correct about the area all along, then. Who could it be?”
“Ashley isn’t a Tylwyth Teg, but her son is half fairy. The residue I sensed in her apartment didn’t belong to Nuada. Aidan’s power was sparked by coming in contact with magic at the bog. His father was here to corral a few fairies and take them home.”
“Shit. There’s more than one of them here?”
“Yeah, but Ashley believes this one is just hiding in the bog. She tried to communicate with her but got no response.”
“How is Derek?”
“He’s in the bedroom, lying down with his hand on Luna’s bassinet. I cry every time I'm in there. He feels helpless being an Unremarkable.”
“He’s not alone. The rest of us aren’t sure how to fight a Tylwyth Teg fairy.”
Ronnie sniffs. “Bring Luna home, Gwyn. A piece of me will be lost without her.”
“I promise I will. But we can’t do anything else tonight. It’s too dark. We’d be fighting blindly. The coven is meeting at sunrise in the park to avoid hikers. Plus, the temperature will be in the teens.”
“I won’t sleep until she’s back in my arms.”
“We’ll get her back, Ronnie. Try to sleep. You’ll need your energy in the morning when we return her to you.”
“I trust you all, but I can’t stay back at the house twiddling my thumbs. I need to go.”
“Rest the best you can, then. You’ll need your energy. Bye, Ronnie.”
The phone goes silent as I’m pulling into Archie’s driveway. He’s waiting in the foyer when I enter.
“You spoke with Ronnie?”
“Yeah.” I fall into his arms.
“We’ll figure out a way to puncture the barrier at the bog. Spence says he’ll dive in and search for the fairy’s protective bubble and retrieve Luna.”
“What if he can’t? I shouldn’t have messed up my training with Seamus. If I’d convinced him to share his secret about the third step, I could have prevented Luna’s kidnapping. I might have figured out how the bog was connected and that a fairy was hiding the children there.”
“You’re being too hard on yourself, Gwyn,” he says, kissing the top of my head. “You did the right thing regarding Seamus. If you had let things continue, you would have crossed a line. Using people isn’t in your skill set.”
“I won’t sleep a wink tonight,” I say, peering up at him.
He offers me his hand. “We have to try. Let’s get as much shuteye as we can. The coven needs to be at full capacity.”
“Ronnie’s going, but she won’t be much help in her weakened state.”
“Then we’ll fight harder.”
While I’m lying in bed, I gaze at Archie’s family dirk in the glass case. Do I have it in me to kill one more time?
Chapter twenty-sixTo Catch a Fairy
The moon is still shining through the front bedroom window when I wake, but a hint of sunrise peeks through pink skies. I barely slept, but adrenaline rushes through me like the first sip of hot cocoa, prompting my heart to pump faster than usual. I check my phone for the weather and discover a text from my crimson-haired best friend.
Ronnie: We barely slept. Derek is coming, too.
Me: OK. Tell him he’ll need to be careful. He’s an Unremarkable.
