Rituals (Cainsville 5)

Veronica looked about Gabriel's age, with curling black hair, tan skin, and green eyes, brighter than usual. She bore little resemblance to the coblynau statue in my garden--a squat, ugly gnome. Yet I could see where the caricature might have come from. As in her human form, she was small, particularly for a fae, maybe barely topping five feet. Sturdier than others I'd seen, with a fifties pinup-model figure. Beautiful for a human, perhaps not by fae standards.

She settled in and said, "Back to my story...You were not a surprise to us, Olivia, as you may have realized. We knew a Matilda was coming. The signs were there long before you were born. There would be a Matilda for Cainsville. The question that concerned us most was..." She looked at Gabriel. "Would there be a Gwynn? While we could still win over a Matilda without one, it introduces an obstacle. Particularly if there is an Arawn for the Cwn Annwn."

"It would slant the odds."

"Yes. So we called in favors. We made bargains. We gave up some of our already dwindling power to get an answer from those who could give it. Would there be a Gwynn? Would there be an Arawn? The response was exactly what we most dreaded hearing."

"An Arawn but no Gwynn."

She nodded.

"That was the deal you made with the sluagh," I said. "Somehow they were able to guarantee Cainsville a Gwynn."

"They have powers beyond our own. Dark magics. They heard of our dilemma and offered us a deal. They could promise us a Gwynn. In return for a favor."

"That you give them Olivia," Gabriel said, barely able to force the words out. "She is marked for the sluagh."

Veronica's green eyes rounded. "Absolutely not. We promised them no one. Nor any power over either of you. That would be unthinkable."

"So what did you give them?" Ricky said.

"Access to Grace's building," I murmured. "It's a refuge for fae. You give them asylum there."

"Yes."

"And you allowed Olivia to move in?" Gabriel said. "You let her--"

"We granted access to the building for one manifested sluagh who had been injured and could not cross back to its own dimension."

"Manifested?" I said. "A high-ranking one, then. A powerful sluagh."

"Yes, but we only granted it five years of access, on the understanding that it would not provide us with a Gwynn until the end of those five years. We didn't want the sluagh in Cainsville after he was here. Of course, that didn't work out as we'd hoped, and you did not grow up here, Gabriel, but the sluagh was still gone before you were born."

"Except it left a door open," I said. "So it could come back."

Veronica let out a bitter laugh. "A mere child sees what we did not." She shook her head. "Sorry. I know you aren't a child, but compared to us, you are, and the fact you can see what they did is only all the more damning."

"But I have the hindsight of knowing it came back. I'm just making the logical connection."

"Still, we should have foreseen the possibility that we'd been tricked. They are sluagh, after all."

Ricky pushed his plate aside. "So you guys let it board at Grace's, and it kept the key when it left."

"You granted access once," Gabriel said, "which inadvertently granted it permanently."

"Yes and yes," Veronica said. "In order to allow a sluagh to stay at Grace's, I had to undo some of my wards. Of course, I reactivated them afterwards, but it seems that once it had been allowed in, the wards were no longer effective against that particular sluagh. It had the key, so to speak."

"Like vampire lore," Gabriel said. "Once they are invited in, you can't rescind the invitation and your wards are no longer effective."

"Looks like you finally get vampires," I said to him. "I know you've been waiting."

He sighed.

I turned to Veronica. "Okay, so you guys made a deal with the sluagh to get Gabriel. That deal granted the sluagh access to Cainsville. I know you're kicking yourselves for not foreseeing the tricker

y, but what's done is done, and neither of us was harmed by the sudden appearance of the scary sluagh, so presuming you can keep them out now, we're okay, right?"

"Can you keep them out?" Ricky said. "Is Liv safe here?"