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"I had a close call with a Dark Hallow, and they et too close"

He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and stared at me with fascination "Now that was a celestial choir of truth, lass! You saw a Dark Hallow? Which one?"

"How do you know about the Dark Hallows? Who are you and what’s your involve ive me?"

I hesitated only briefly Of all the men I’d met in Dublin, he seemed the most like me; essentially nor talent "As much as I can, if you do the same"

He nodded, satisfied, then settled back in his chair "I come from a clan that, in ancient times, served the Fae"

The Keltar, Christian told h Druids to the Tuatha Dé Danaan,that brief time in which the Fae had atte had happened that shattered the fragile peace--he skimmed over this part--but whatever it was had caused Fae and Man to go their separate ways, and not aotiated to permit both races to exist on the saiven the duty of perfor certain rituals to maintain the walls between them Over the millennia, they performed them faithfully with few exceptions, and if they failed in soed to make up for it in the nick of ti as expected On those preappointed nights of the year when the Keltar were to perforic had risen up and prevented the pledge fro fully paid Although this other ic hadn’t been able to collapse the walls between our worlds, it had seriously weakened theh another incomplete ritual The queen of the Seelie, Aoibheal, who in the past had always appeared in tih they’d invoked her by every spell they had at their disposal

I was riveted by the story The thought that, for thousands of years, a clan in the Highlands of Scotland had been protecting Mankind from the Fae fascinated eous, sexy, self-possessed It was co to know there were other bloodlines out there in the world with special, unusual powers I wasn’t alone into our world I’d found someone besides Barrons who hadto share it!

"My uncles believe so has happened to the queen," he said, "and as her power dirows The walls continue to weaken, and if we don’t figure out so by the time the next ritual must be performed, they’ll come down"

"What’ll happen then?" I asked in a hushed voice "Will the Compact be broken?"

"My uncles believe the Co only because of the increasing tithes they keep paying Fae htly, "At the last rites, we had to use blood, Keltar blood, in a pagan ritual It’s unheard of We’ve never used blood before Uncle Cian kne to do it It was dirtybut it was the only thing we could do"

I understood that feeling What I’d done to Jayne would never sit entirely ith me, but I’d been unable to think of an alternative It hadn’t been dirty un to understand that you can only afford to play nice when there’s not much at stake "And if the walls come down completely?" I reiterated ht get

"When the Fae walked a us before, only the Seelie did The Unseelie have been i that mere whispers of myths remain If the walls come down completely, all the Unseelie will be freed, not just the lower castes that are currently h somehow The most powerful of the Unseelie Royal Houses will escape" He paused and when he spoke again, his voice was low, urgent "Myth equates the heads of those four houses, the dark princes, with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"

I kneho they were: Death, Pestilence, War, and Fah I had no desire to ever encounter a royal dark Fae

"It’ll get bad, Mac They’ll turn our world into a living nightmare My uncles believe the Seelie may not be able to reimprison the Unseelie if they escape"