The Bitter Seed of Magic

‘ Dr Frankenstein Does Designer Babies, in other words,’ I muttered in disgust as I tried to focuson the far end of the room … there was something hidden there, behind a massive, curtain-like Look-Away veil. It had to be the way out, or at the very least, worth investigating … once I got out of the Witch-bitch’s evil clutches. ‘What’s with the Doppelgänger spells?’ I asked, more to keep her talking than any real interest.

‘They indicate who the baby’s biological mother is,’ she said coldly.

I shot her an appalled look. ‘Surely the biological mothers haven’t agreed to that many babies?’

‘Apparently yes.’ She stared impassively at the Stepfords. ‘The witches are being very well paid for their eggs. He’s even paying the faelings for their surrogacy services; they’ve all signed contracts; they’re here by choice.’

I snorted. ‘So he’s killing them to save himself a bit of money? Nice to know he’s got absolutely no ethics at all.’

‘He’s not killing them per se,’ she said, turning back to me, her blue eyes as cold as her voice. ‘The majority of them just don’t have enough fae blood. They die not long after giving birth—incubating baby wizards and then breastfeeding them sucks all the magic and life out of them.’

I stared at her, shocked. ‘But he’s a doctor; didn’t he work that out before he did his test-tube thing?’

‘He did trials on Ana. The daughter is hers and her husband’s, but the sons are all Craig’s, both biologically, and by way of being his experiments. Ana is strong enough to survive the surrogacy because of her sidhe blood, but he wasn’t successful with any of the other faelings, until he put together this set-up’—she indicated the large stone-walled room—‘here in Between. It keeps them alive just long enough.’

‘Fuck,’ I said in revulsion, ‘I don’t know which of you is worse, him for killing them off, or you for covering up their deaths. And all because you didn’t want anyone to know that you had a child with a vamp.’

‘Despite what you think of me, Ms Taylor, I don’t condone the death of i

‘Well, Maxim isn’t, obviously,’ I said, ‘otherwise your boy wouldn’t be here.’ Not to mention me. ‘But what the hell’s that got to do with anything?’

She laughed. ‘You really don’t know, do you? I always wondered if you were actually that clueless, and now I see you are. But then, you wouldn’t have spent all this time looking for a way to crackthe fertility curse if you’d known the truth …’ She trailed off, giving me a sly look.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. ‘You’ve got my full attention. What truth?’

‘Jack is Clíona’s grandson,’ she said, giving me a self-satisfied look. ‘His father, Maxim, is Clíona’s son—the one the vampires took from her.’

I gaped at her in astonishment for a moment, then it clicked into place. ‘Maxim’s the reason why she laid the droch guidhecurse—but he’s supposed to be dead?’

‘Which is what she and the vamps wanted the rest of the other fae to think.’

‘She? Clíonaknew her son wasn’t dead?’

‘Not immediately, but by the time she found out the truth, it was too late. She’d already laidthe droch guide.’

I frowned down at the stone-flagged floor, trying to see the whole picture. ‘So he was a vamp, and not dead, but why keep it a secret?’

Helen’s lips thi

Ok- aay, so I could see how Clíona owning up to that sowouldn’t go down well.

‘Instead,’ Helen carried on with an air of imparting great news, ‘she tried to break the curse by having another child.’

‘Yeah, I heard,’ I said, remembering what Gria

‘Oh, so you do know some of the story then.’ Helen sniffed. ‘Of course, actually producing another child was where Clíona ran into difficulties. The vamps hadn’t just given the Gift to Maxim, but they’d given it to his father too, so of course he’d been made infertile.’

‘Look,’ I said, ‘you keep saying that, but you only have to look at your own son to know it’s not true.’

Helen’s superior expression reached new levels as she shook her head. ‘Unlike you, I do know what I’m talking about. Vampires areinfertile. The only way a vampire can make anyone pregnant, including a sidhe, is by using a lot of concentrated fertility magic. Clíona isn’t a fertility fae, so when it came to having a child to break the curse, she entered into a bargain with the Morrígan for a Fertility spell.’ She gave me a smug look. ‘Where do you think they got the fertility from?’

Horror seeped into me as I realised what she was saying. ‘Clíona and the Morrígan stole the fae’s fertility?’

‘They borrowed it,’ she confirmed briskly. ‘Clíona was supposed to give it back, but when she sent her daughter Rhia

Rhia

But as I thought about it, the tail-end of Helen’s memory replayed itself in my mind: Angel kissed baby Jack’s head … and a pendant was hanging round her neck …The huge sapphire pendant that Helen always wore. The one that was even now shining like a captive star beneath her blouse. Damn. No one who knew about the Fertility spell needed to find it, because they all knew where it was.

So the million-pound question was: why hadn’t anyone taken it back?

‘You’ve got the Fertility spell,’ I said slowly, itching to reach out and rip the pendant from her neck.

‘Yes.’ She cradled the sapphire in her hand.

Fi

‘You used it to trick Fi

‘No, of course not—’ She paused, then sighed. ‘I did consider telling him, but I had a baby daughter, a new husband, and status in the Witches’ Council at last … and then Craig demanded to know how I’d had another child. He blackmailed me into telling him. Since then he’s been using the Fertility spell in his experiments.’

‘You selfish bitch!’ Bile rose in my throat. ‘London’s fae are dying. Faelings havedied, not just the two most recent ones, but all those who ended up as vamp victims. Don’t you care?’

‘Faelings have always died at the hands of the vampires, Ms Taylor,’ she said bluntly. ‘It’s sad, but no one can save them all. But what’s more important now is saving my daughter.’

‘You do know that there’s no way out for you in all this, don’t you?’ I gave her a frank look. ‘It won’t be long before the police know all about Dr Craig and his experiments, and your involvement in them. The note you left me indicates you’ve got some co