Sixty-One Nails: Courts of the Feyre by Mike Shevdon Read Free Book Online

reminded me of a host of commitments I had made and asked me what she was supposed to do with them.
        "I'll have to deal with them next week, if I'm back. "
    "If you're back? You have the fourth floor conference room booked for the heating and lighting review on Monday morning. What am I supposed to tell them? "
    "Ask Jim if he'll talk to them." I named my deputy and second-in-command. "We only need an estimate at this stage. We can confirm prices later."
        "So when will you be back? Jim is going to ask." She was right, he would.
        "I don't know how long. A few days, I guess. I'll probably be back sometime next week. Could you tell Human Resources I'm taking unexpected leave? Anyone else, just call them and put them off for me. If there's anything that looks really urgent, ask Jim if he'll step in and cover."
        "I'll ask him, Niall, but he is already complaining that he's over-committed."
        "Thanks, Jackie." I was about to say I had another call waiting, but the lie stuck in my throat. It was a ruse I had used many times to cut short awkward calls, but I just couldn't say the words. I settled on an alternative. "You're a treasure. I don't know what I'd do without you." There was a stream of further questions that I couldn't hope to answer without a lot more time. "You're just going to have to cope, I'm really sorry. Ask Jim if you're not sure. OK. OK, bye. Bye." I closed the connection and sighed.
        "That is something else I wanted to tell you," said Blackbird. "Lying isn't the same any more. The Feyre can tell when someone else is lying and they don't lie themselves. It's too…"
        "Uncomfortable?"
        "That's a good description. It's not that you couldn't lie, but it provokes a sense of discord that rankles in your heart. The more you use your magic, the stronger it will get. You're much better off telling the truth. Magic and truth are siblings, which is why true names have power."
        "You might have mentioned it before I called the office," I suggested.
        "There's so much I haven't told you, Rabbit, so much you need to know. I don't entirely know where to begin."
        I was beginning to realise that, as much as I found that untruth rankled in my own heart, the words of others also held the same note. Blackbird wasn't lying. In fact it threw everything she'd told me into a new light. It briefly occurred to me that this might be yet another layer to this elaborate deception but I had felt it for myself. I knew it was so.
        "You should make one more call before we go," she advised.
    "Go? Go where?"
    "We can't stay in one place for too long, Rabbit – or rather you can't."
    "OK. Who should I call?"
        "Your ex-wife. Tell her you can't come and collect your daughter this evening."
        "Blackbird, I can't tell her that. We've already had one argument about it this morning."
        "Do you value your daughter's life? You'd be putting them both in danger. Is that what you wish? "
    "You know it's not, but what can I say to her? She already thinks I'm unreliable, unpredictable and a host of other words beginning with 'un'."
        "Find a version of the truth she can accept," suggested Blackbird.
        I opened my phone again then placed it on the table, looking at it. I really didn't want to make this call, though in my heart I knew I had no choice. I couldn't look after my daughter in these circumstances. I picked up the phone and stood up, excusing myself from Blackbird for a moment and walked a little way away across the open pavement to gain some privacy.
        I took a deep breath and rang her. The phone buzzed for a while without answer. Finally she picked up.
    "Yes?" Her voice was cold and curt.
    "Kath, it's Niall."
        "I know who it is. Your number comes up on the phone."
        "I need to talk to you about tonight, about the weekend."
        "We've had