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‘No, Ms Taylor,’ she said firmly, not even considering my idea. ‘The Time-sync spell means it will be another twenty-four hours before any help can get here. By then it will be too late for Nicky. This way you’ll end up as Craig’s next experiment, and not her. I’d say I’m sorry, but I’d be lying. But I will sweeten the deal for you,’ she added. ‘If you’ll give your word to do what Craig wants, I’ll tell Nicky about the pendant, so she can tell her father.’
I did consider her proposition. It would save Nicky, and Fi
Damn. It was a no-win either way.
I needed an Option Three.
Helen leaned towards me. ‘Oh, and if you’re worried about having to have sex with him,’ she said, ‘don’t be. One: you’re much too old and flat-chested for his tastes, and two: he’s a scientist, and his experiments have to be done just so. So do you agree, Ms Taylor?’
I took a deep breath, looked at Jack, still curled up asleep on the floor—
And I punched Helen, a hard uppercut to the jaw. Her head snapped back and, satisfyingly, she crumpled like yesterday’s news.
Spell shackles might stop you using magic (not that I had any), but they don’t stop you using your fists.
Yep, Option Three worked for me.
Chapter Fifty-One
‘So, has she told you, my lady?’ Jack’s question startled me and I almost swallowed the key I had between my teeth, the one with which I was trying to unlock the shackle on my uninjured arm. I looked up to find him regarding me gravely out of his indigo-coloured sidhe eyes. Damn.
I spat the key out into my palm. ‘I knew I should’ve clocked you one on the head while you were still asleep.’ Trouble was, I’d been worried I’d wake him up, rather than knock him out.
‘Glad you didn’t, my lady,’ he said, casting a concerned look down at Helen, whose head I’d pillowed on her large leather bag (which contained nothing more useful than water, veggie sticks and cereal bars; I’d drunk the water). ‘Don’t worry, I’m here to help,’ he added.
I narrowed my eyes, wondering exactly how helpful he was going to be, and who he was really working for. Only one way to find out. I held out my shackled arm in invitation.
He reached out cautiously and took the key from my palm. I stifled a relieved sigh as he unlocked the shackle. It fell on the stone floor with a clang.
‘Proof enough?’ he asked. ‘Now, has my mother told you?’
‘If we’re talking about the Fertility spell, then yes.’
He took a deep breath, then asked earnestly, ‘Do you have it?’
I went to open my mouth … and then gave him a horrified look.
‘By the goddess.’ He raked his hands through his blond hair in frustration. ‘She promised she would tell you if you agreed.’
I grabbed his jumper. ‘Tell me what?’
‘There’s a Protection spell on it,’ he said, clenching his fists, ‘one that ensures anyone who knows about the Fertility spell can never find it, even if they’re staring right at it. And they can’t use force to get her to give the spell up, otherwise it will destroy the fertility in the spell.’
‘Fine, I get the picture,’ I interrupted. So that was how the Witch-bitch had managed to keep hold of it all this time: she’d booby-trapped it. And why no one, like the goddesses, or Tavish and Malik, would talk to me (I mentally forgave them both), and why the only clues anyone would give me were as cryptic as Hell’s worst crossword.
It also explained the pendant’s highly confusing flickering in and out of sight during the dozen tries it’d taken for me to remove it from Helen’s own neck—and why I couldn’t see—or see—the pendant even though it was nestling between my breasts, unless I concentrated on the sad memory of Helen losing the baby Jack. But Jack was Helen’s son and the Morrígan’s bird, so I kept all that to myself.
‘Crap,’ I muttered. ‘How the hell did she manage to castsuch a complicated spell? It must have taken her years. But there has to be a way to get it.’ I glowered at Helen, lying on the stone floor. ‘She has to have at least a hundred spells on her.’ Blinging herself up like a goblin queen had no doubt been extra camouflage. ‘It’ll take days to go through them all. But if you can fly her out’—I looked hopefully at Jack—‘and take her to the police, then—’
‘I’m sorry, my lady, I can’t. I have to procure my sister’s safety first, then I have to answer the Morrígan’s call to bring your friend here, as soon as the Time-sync spell runs its course.’ He reached out and touched Helen’s hand, suddenly looking very young again. ‘Why didn’t she tell you, when she promised she would?’
‘Ah,’ I said, grimacing, ‘maybe because I didn’t agree to do what she wanted.’
‘You didn’t agree?’ His mouth gaped in shock.
‘I couldn’t give my word,’ I said, and told him about the Chastity/Contraceptive spell.
He hunched over and hugged himself as he thought it through. I contemplated callinga Stun spell from one of the shackles, but decided he might be more useful awake. So instead I kept a cautious eye on him, in case he decided to regain the upper wing—sorry, hand—and knock me out so he could still swap me for Nicky. Although, to be honest, I had him pegged as more the follow-the-plan sort than a decide-what-to-do-next-when-things-go-wrong type of guy.
‘But what about my sister?’ he said finally with a plaintive look. ‘I gave my word to mother to help her. How am I supposed to get her to safety now if you can’t be traded in her place?’
Mentally I heaved a relieved sigh: I’d guessed right about him. ‘Okay,’ I said to Jack, trying to be reassuring for both of us, ‘it’s not all bad’— yet—‘and I’ve got a plan worked out’— hopefully—‘so here’s what we’ll do.’
After I’d finished telling him, I made a carry-pack out of Helen’s cardigan for the shackles with their Stun spells and tied it round my waist, Jack taggedmy injured shoulder and arm with another of his mother’s Pain-Numbing spells, then I left him with her in the circle. There was nothing he could do until Nicky put in an appearance.
I headed for the far end of the room, hugging close to the stone wall, and skirting round the various suits of armour that had appeared from nowhere (or maybe the magic had picked them out of my head?), until I reached the Look-Away veil. Behind it was a pair of metal double doors that looked like they’d be more at home on a modern lock-up instead of in the Tower of London. They had a thick wooden beam across them holding them shut, and a large shiny-steel padlock. I looked, and sawthe black bars of a Knock-Back Ward buzzing across their metal surface. Lined up by the side of them were half a dozen empty hospital beds like those the smiling Stepford mums-to-be were happily and quietly lying on.
Relief and hope filled me. I’d found the way out.
Now to sort out the time problem.
I made my way quietly to the grandfather clock. Behind the door next to it came the sound of soft snoring. I cracked the door open to find a rosy-cheeked nurse asleep with her feet up in an easy chair: the duty nurse Jack had told me about. Tiptoeing in, I calledone of the shackles’ Stun spells and tapped it on her head. It flashed green mint-scented lightning, and she jerked, then subsided into unconsciousness, putting her out of it for a good couple of hours.