"Not a sense, but a certainty. What's the saying? To see guilt written on a face? Sometimes we can access their memories, which is a power you seem to have inherited. Even when those memories are closed to us, guilt is as obvious as the color of their skin. In the case of the Tysons, we saw memories of their crime. With Hilton and Pasolini, we only knew they were guilty."
"Whatever they did, it's linked to the Tysons." I told him about the vision in the fun house. "Gabriel and I haven't had time to even begin investigating that. But it seems as if the Tysons, Hilton, and Pasolini were part of some group, some..."
"Cult?" Ricky said.
I made a face. "All the research I did into my parents' crimes taught me that ritual murderers and cultists are just idiots who've seen too many movies."
"Liv's right," Ioan said. "If these four thought they could summon dark forces with their sacrifices, it's just an excuse to exercise very dark and very twisted desires. They wanted to kill. Doing it in a ritual seemed more acceptable to them. A form of mob mentality, if you like."
"So Pamela was asked to execute four killers pursuing a single goal," I said. "The issue here, though, is who brought you that deal. The ancient fae. You presumed she was the messenger you'd summoned."
"Yes. I should have made certain."
His mistake was understandable. He put out a summons. Someone answered and gave him what he expected. Having never done such a deal, he'd have no way to test the messenger, no cause for doubt.
"So we're now thinking it was a sluagh in manifested form," I said. "Probably the same one who contacted my father, telling him how to summon you."
Ricky nodded. "A setup from the start. The sluagh prod Todd to ask for the deal. Then they intercept the message and negotiate the terms."
"Which gives them power over me," I said. "That's what the sluagh meant, isn't it? That it was the one who cured my spina bifida. That puts me in its debt. In its power."
"It shouldn't," Ioan said. "The price was paid. Four souls. The sluagh accepted its reward and should have no further claim on you."
" 'Should' being the operative word."
BONDING
"Dryads," Patrick said when Gabriel met him in the parking lot. "Why does it have to be dryads?" When Gabriel didn't respond, Patrick said, "Raiders of the Lost Ark?"
"Is that a book?"
Patrick shook his head. "We have serious father-son bonding time to catch up on. We'll start with movie nights."
"This sort of bonding is perfectly adequate."
"This isn't bonding. It's me doing you a favor because I feel guilty."
"That is my idea of bonding. And it's not a favor--you're as curious as I am."
Patrick caught the exterior door before Gabriel could open it. "Dryads, though? They make me look like a stodgy old man. Flibbertigibbets. That's Mary Poppins. We'll get to it after the action flicks. But dryads? Really?"
"Yes, they're capricious."
"That's like saying the ocean is damp."
"They found Seanna."
"They claim to have found her."
"Which means either they are far less inept than they appear or far less innocent. Either makes them interesting."
Patrick sighed. "Of all the things you could inherit from me, curiosity is the one most likely to get you into trouble."
They walked into the office, where the dryads were trying to figure out the coffeemaker.
"I really don't think you guys need any of that," Patrick said.
The dryads turned, and Helia let out a teen-girl yelp. "Oh my gods, it's Patricia Rees!"