"But he's marked," Gabriel said, and I could hear Gwynn's voice weaving through his again. "If he is marked and the sluagh discover he has been found guilty of crimes, that's the only excuse they need."
"Even if they knew he wasn't guilty?"
"That's the difference between the Cwn Annwn and the sluagh. The Huntsmen may not take all factors into consideration, but they know guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt. The sluagh don't care about truth. This isn't a mission to them."
"It's a hunger."
"And a joy, particularly for the melltithiwyd. They were taken themselves by the sluagh, and the only satisfaction they have in their afterlife..."
"Is condemning others to the same fate." I shuddered and turned away. "I don't need to see this."
"Agreed." Gabriel put a hand against my shoulder, turning me away as he called, "Patrick? We're done here."
"No," a voice whispered behind us. "I don't think you are, Gwynn."
I spun, and that twisting darkness was right there, wrapping around the balcony.
Gabriel's arms went
around me. "They can't--"
"Oh, yes, we can," the sluagh hissed. "You wanted to know more. You reached out. We accept the invitation, Matilda."
"Find nawr," Gabriel snarled.
A wheezing laugh from the sluagh. "Oh, that won't work anymore, Gwynn. We're coming for what is ours. Not now, but we will come. For our Matilda."
"I'm not yours," I said.
A tendril of the smoke caressed my face. I batted it away as Gabriel yanked me back.
"But you are," the sluagh said. "Bought and paid for."
The sluagh swooped, enveloping us, and I lashed out, but it truly was fighting smoke, and then...
And then the sluagh was gone, and we were sitting on Patrick's sofa.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
"It spoke to us," Gabriel said, getting to his feet and stepping toward Patrick. "The sluagh addressed us directly. Inside your book."
"That's not possible," Patrick said. "I would never have sent you in there otherwise."
"It called us Matilda and Gwynn," I said.
I told him what we'd seen.
When I finished, Patrick said, "I think it was a dream. A self-produced vision. Liv, you were thinking how unfair it was that the sluagh target innocents. You then projected your outrage and made it personal--what if they came for you? Or it could have been Gabriel projecting fear from the part of him that is Gwynn. He lost Matilda. What remains of him has been searching for her ever since, and now he has her--through you."
"And Gwynn fears history is doomed to repeat itself," I said. "Fine, either is a possibility, but--for the sake of not dismissing a potential threat--let's say we really did see the sluagh. That it does believe it has some claim to me."
"How? You're not a killer, Liv."
"It never said that. It said I'd been bought and paid for. As if someone made a deal. Bargained away my soul."
"Pamela," Gabriel said.
Patrick shook his head. "Pamela dealt with the Cwn Annwn. Ioan has confirmed that."