My hand shook as I reached out and took the bull’s horn from her. It felt heavier, or maybe that was just my imagination.

‘Dinna drink it, doll,’ Tavish said, his voice low.

I shot him an incredulous look. ‘First, I’m not supposed to trust you, and now I am?’

‘Remember the vision, the one she’—he jutted his head at the Morrígan—‘showed you—’

‘How could I forget?’ I snorted. The memory of the horn and hooves that had poked out of my pregnant belly when she’d treated me to her alien baby show was burned into my mind. ‘But it can’t happen, can it, not since you sicced me with a Chastity spell. So why should it matter whether I drink it or not?’

‘The Chastity spell was her idea,’ he murmured. ‘I hadnae choice, doll.’

Okay, so definitely going with ‘ not drinking’ here, since his words confirmed one of my suspicions: she’d been the one who’d decided to keep me chaste, probably for just this reason. But I still wanted her boon, and the answer to the curse. Somehow I needed to come up with a way to get both—without drinking—and try and free Tavish at the same time.

I glared at him. ‘What about adding cinnamon to the spell; was that her idea too?’ I shouted angrily.

His eyes flashed black in shock.

‘You have made her barren!’ The Morrígan’s shout eclipsed mine for anger. She pulled on the gold chain until Tavish was pressed up against the eel part of her body, then coiled herself round him like a boa constrictor and started squeezing. ‘You have attempted to block me at every turn, kelpie, interfering and meddling in matters which are beyond your ken, and I will tolerate it no more!’

‘Which is sort of what I was thinking,’ I said loudly to attract her attention over Tavish’s muffled yells of pain. Tavish might be wylde fae, and like all fae he might be hard to kill, but ‘hard to kill’ doesn’t count for much when a goddess decides to end your existence.

I repeated my shout. And this time her head swung up and she fixed me with a venomous stare.

‘Squeezing the life out of him is really too quick an end for him, Morrígan,’ I said, putting disdain into my voice. ‘He did de-horn your son, after all. How do you feel about a counteroffer?’

Chapter Forty-Seven

She regarded me with curiosity. ‘What would this counteroffer be?’

‘An extension of his pain, both mental and physical,’ I stated, ‘as due recompense for his interference in your business and mine.’

She swayed down towards me, relaxing her grip on Tavish. ‘Tell me.’

‘Agree to grant me my boon first, and I’ll do better than tell you, I’ll show you. If my actions give you pleasure, you’ll tell me how to break the fertility curse; if not I’ll drink whatever is contained in this’—I held up the bull’s horn—‘either now, or at sunset tomorrow.’ It was win/win for her, and might just buy me—and Tavish—some time.

Tavish’s shout of denial cut off sharply as a loop of the eel’s body tightened around his neck.

‘Done, little sidhe.’ She opened her mouth and gave a loud croaking caw. The dome filled with the sound of wings flapping and a huge raven appeared. He landed on her shoulder, his long talons digging into her flesh for purchase.

Was it Jack? It was difficult to tell— No, this bird’s eyes were black; Jack’s were blue. So if Jack wasn’t working for the Morrígan, why had he been stalking me?

The Morrígan turned and made a low crooning noise to the raven. He rubbed his head affectionately against her cheek, and two of his glossy black feathers floated to the ground, then he flapped his wings, took off and vanished.

She indicated the feathers. ‘Your boon, little sidhe.’

I picked them up. They felt like ordinary feathers; there was nothing magical about them that I could discern. ‘How do they work?’

‘You will know when the time comes,’ she said dismissively. ‘But remember, the boon will only work for this one night. Now’—she squeezed Tavish more in excitement than anything else, eliciting another muffled groan from him—‘show me.’

I tucked the feathers safely in my back jeans pocket. ‘You need to let him go,’ I said, pointing at Tavish.

She obligingly lifted him up above her head height, then threw him down as if she wanted to drive him into the ground. There was a loud cracking noise and he let out an agonised yell. She released him and he collapsed, panting, onto his side, his legs bent at odd angles. Damn. She’d shattered his shins.

I gritted my teeth and told myself he’d heal, and that broken bones were still better than dead. Then, my stomach roiling with nausea, I gave him a hard kick that shoved him onto his back. From the corner of my eye, I saw the Morrígan lick her lips in delight.

I crouched next to him, mentally crossing my fingers that I was right, that the reason Tavish didn’t want me pregnant, whatever it was, was powerful enough to make him go along with me. ‘Okay,’ I said, gripping his face so he could see mine. His eyes were muddy-grey with pain. ‘This is how it’s going to go. If you stop me, or alter in any way what I do, or allow it to be altered by anyone other than myself or the Morrígan before sunset tomorrow, I give my word it will be as if I have already drunk this.’

‘Doll! You mustnae drink—’

‘Up to you, Tavish,’ I interrupted him. Then keeping my eyes fixed on his, I lifted the bull’s horn two-handed and slammed it down into his gut. He roared, the sound filling the blood-dome, his face contorting in agony. I clamped my lips together, desperately swallowing back the bile that rose in my throat. Then using my will and brute force, and ignoring the sickening squelching sounds, I twisted the horn until it was firmly embedded into the ground beneath him, pinning him in place. It wouldn’t hold for ever, but maybe just long enough to stop her dragging him off. Another wave of dizziness blurred my vision, and I forced myself to look up at the Morrígan.

She wasn’t looking quite as happy as I’d hoped. ‘You present me with a conundrum, little sidhe. If I say I am not pleased, you or I will have to remove my son’s horn for you to drink. But I cannot deny the truth of the matter; I do feel some satisfaction at the kelpie’s discomfort, even more so by how you have caused it.’

Behind my back, I crossed my fingers, for real this time.

‘Because of that, we will conclude our bargain tomorrow at sunset. I will leave you to your business now.’ She bent over Tavish. Shoving her arms under his shoulders and thighs, she tried to pick him up.

Shit. I’d expected her to drag him by the chain, which would’ve given me some time.

She smiled at me, a smile that said I should know better than to try and fool a goddess, and she kept on pulling at him, the muscles straining in her slender arms. He struggled against her, screaming, and kept on screaming and struggling as the horn embedded itself further in his body to keep from being torn from the ground. I clenched my fists, trying not to heave. She lowered her mouth to his in a kiss and thankfully, he fell limp and silent. This time when she lifted him, the horn slid easily from the ground.

Fuck. That wasn’t what I wanted to happen.

‘Until sunset tomorrow, little sidhe,’ she said, and slithered quickly towards the bronze pool.

The gold chain trailed after her, then tautened.

I staggered to my feet and shambled frantically as fast as I could after them.

She coiled herself round into the pool.

I shambled faster. I had to reach him before she took him into the water.

Her head and torso began shrinking, the pale green colour darkening to match the eel part of her body.

My vision blurred; there were two Tavishes in her arms now.

The pool erupted into a geyser of water and they disappeared.

The water smoothed out into stillness.

Desperate, I fell to my hands and knees next to the silver knife pinning the gold chain to the ground. Please let me be right.Gripping the chain with my left hand on one side of the knife, I cupped my right as I delved inside myself. The small gold key that I’d found after the Morrígan’s visit popped into my right palm. I had to be right.I carefully scooped up the chain from underneath and closed my fingers round it. I pushed my magic out through my skin … please let it work… and the link around the knife shivered, then as I held my breath, it split and broke.