“The problem is I still don’t have the OOP, Ms. Lane.”

“I’m working on it. I’ll be able to work faster, the safer I am. If the walls come down, every Unseelie out there will be hunting it, getting in my way. You told me once that you didn’t want more of them in your city. Was that a lie?”

“Point made. What do you want from me?”

“I want you to join them on Halloween and help them perform the ritual. And I want you to promise not to harm them.” Because of the delicate way I’d shaped our conversation, it sounded as if I was asking him to help the sidhe-seers.

He measured me a long moment, then said, “I’ll swap you an action for an action. Get me within sight distance of the Sinsar Dubh, and I’ll help your little friends.”

“Help my little friends,” I countered, “and I’ll get you within sight distance of the Sinsar Dubh.”

“I have your word?”

“You trust my word?”

“You’re an idealistic fool. Of course.”

“You have my word.” I’d deal with the problem of the promise I’d just made in the future. Right now, I needed to keep the walls up, and make sure the human race had a future.

“Then we have a deal. But your action doesn’t hinge on the outcome of mine. I will do my best to help them with their ritual, but I can’t assure you success. I know nothing of their abilities, and it’s magic I’ve not done before.”

I nodded. “I accept your condition. You’ll help them, and not harm them?”

“You trust my word?” he mocked.

“Of course not. You’re a cynical bastard. But they seem willing to.”

The faint smile was back. “I’ll help them and not harm them. Take a note, Ms. Lane: You undermine yourself as a negotiator when you permit your opponent to see emotion. Never betray emotion to an enemy.”

“Is that what you are?”

“It’s how you treat me. Be consistent and follow through on the finer nuances.” He turned away and moved toward the fire. “Who am I to assist and protect? The old witch herself?”

“It’s not the sidhe-seers.”

He stopped and went very still. “Who is it?”

“The MacKeltars.”

He was silent a long moment. Then he began to laugh, softly. “Well played, Ms. Lane.”

“I had a good teacher.”

“The best. Hop on one foot, Ms. Lane.

” Voice lessons had begun.

I had a feeling they might be brutal tonight.

TWELVE

Even Rowena will have to believe in you, then.’ Isn’t that what you said, Kat? I did what you asked. I got the Orb. And now you’re telling me the old woman still won’t let me into her libraries?” I was so furious I nearly slammed down the phone.

“She said you’ll be welcome once the Orb has served its purpose, and the walls are standing strong.” Kat had been apologizing for several minutes, but it had done nothing to defuse my temper.

“That’s bogus and you know it! What if the walls come down anyway? I can’t help it if whatever she plans to do doesn’t work! I kept my part of the bargain.”

On the other end of the phone line, Kat sighed. “She said I had no right to speak for her in the first place. And I’m sorry I did, Mac. I didn’t intend to mislead you, please believe that.”

“What else did she say?” I asked tightly.

She hesitated. “That we were to cease all contact with you until after Samhain, and if we didn’t, then we no longer had a home at the abbey. That we could live in Dublin with you. She means it, too.”

I had a momentary flash of Barrons Books and Baubles overrun by young sidhe-seers, and the look on the intensely private owner’s face. A fleeting smile touched my lips before anger erased it. “And what did you say?”

“I said I didn’t think we should have to choose, or shut out a sister sidhe-seer when times were as dangerous as these, and I didn’t understand why she despised you so much. And she said she can see moral decay as clearly as she can see the Fae, and you’re . . .”

“I’m what?”

Kat cleared her throat. “Rotten to the core.”

Unbelievable! My rate of moral decay was about as high as my tooth decay—I didn’t have a single cavity. The woman hated me. She’d disliked me since the first, and my visit with V’lane had only made things worse.

I eyed the Orb, resting on the counter in a box padded with bubble-wrap. I was glad I’d refused to turn it over until I’d secured an invitation to return to the abbey from the Grand Mistress herself. “Then she can’t have the Orb,” I said flatly.

“She said that was what you’d say, and that it proved her point. She said you’d choose your pride over saving our world from the Fae,” said Kat.

What a clever, manipulative old bat! She’d had decades to perfect her politics. Until a few months ago the only politics I’d ever worried about were the two waitresses who always pretended they’d had terrible nights so they wouldn’t have to tip me out, as if my flair for swift, exceptional drink-making had played no part in their financial success.

“I told her she was wrong. That you care about us, and about the world. She’s being unfair, Mac. We know that. But we . . . well, we still need the Orb. We may not be able to get you inside the abbey, but we’ll . . . uh . . .” her voice dropped to a near-whisper, “we’ll help you as much as we can. Dani said she thinks she can get more pages from the book. And we might be able to slip a few others out, if you tell us what you’re looking for.”

My hand curled and uncurled. The spear felt heavy in my harness. “I need to know everything there is to know about the Sinsar Dubh. How you guys got it in the first place, how you were keeping it contained and where. I want to know every rumor, legend, and myth that has ever been told about it.”

“Those books are in the forbidden libraries. Only the Haven has access!”

“Then you’ll have to figure out how to break in.”

“Why don’t you ask, er . . . you know . . . him . . . to sift you in?” Kat said.

“I don’t want to involve V’lane in this.” I’d considered that already, and the mere thought of him in the same room with all those books about his race made me cringe. Arrogance alone might make him destroy them. Humans have no right to know our ways, he would sneer.