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cousins. It was true – their faces were pale and tired and marked by worry. She probably didn’t look much better herself. Danny’s clothes hung from his frame and it wasn’t just because he was growing so fast. Roisin, who had always been teased for being fat, was also looking a lot more slender. Her broad cheekbones were standing out in sharp relief below her shadow-smudged eyes. Her eyes were huge in her face, twin pools of melting chocolate, while her redcurls fizzed against her pallid skin. Maddy had thought her cousin’s face had simply been changing as she grew up, – now she realized Roisin was stressed almost beyond endurance. She had been so wrapped up in her own misery she hadn’t noticed that her cousins, just like her, were still carrying around the events of last year in their minds, playing them out in their dreams, their tongues locked inside their mouths.
    â€˜You know we could die?’ she asked.
    â€˜Meh.’ Danny shrugged. ‘What’s new?’
    â€˜At least I’d sleep,’ said Roisin. She smiled, as if it was supposed to be funny. But they all knew it wasn’t.
    â€˜So where do we start?’ asked Danny.
    â€˜We have to get to Blarney and find Nero,’ said Maddy. ‘He loses all power of speech this side of the barrier, but we have to get him back to Tír na nÓg. He must be looking for us.’
    Roisin nodded in agreement. ‘We have to get all four of us back through the mound, and then we can find out what is going on, what drove him here.’
    â€˜And then we’ll have a good reason to pick a fight,’ said Danny.
    Then the other bit of bad news dawned on Maddy. ‘Granda is on his way here, straight after dinner.’
    â€˜Why?’ said Danny.
    â€˜Una told him about the dullahan, so now he’s talkingabout moving me somewhere safer,’ said Maddy, while Roisin groaned and Danny swore.
    â€˜That’s it then, isn’t it? We’re finished!’ said Roisin, punching her legs with frustration. ‘We can’t just head out for Blarney now. Mam will never let us out of the house and Granda will be here before we can sneak away and then you’ll be gone. Myself and Danny can’t do this without you!’
    â€˜I know,’ said Maddy. ‘I don’t know what to do.’
    â€˜We need to stop him getting here, buy enough time so that we can sneak out tonight when everyone is asleep. Mam and Dad know nothing about Tír na nÓg or what’s been going on; they won’t be watching us in case we sneak out in the middle of the night. But Granda will – we’ve tried that trick too often. Once he’s here, there’ll be no getting away from him.’
    â€˜How are we supposed to do that?’ asked Maddy.
    â€˜Meabh,’ said Danny.
    Roisin’s head snapped back up and hope bloomed again in her eyes. ‘Yes, of course, why didn’t I think of that?!’ she said. ‘She’s bound to help – she wants you back in Tír na nÓg, especially if there is going to be a fight.’
    â€˜How am I supposed to ask her?’
    â€˜Talk to the air,’ said Roisin. ‘She’s always listening, isn’t she?’
    â€˜But what can she do?’ asked Maddy. ‘It’s summer. I don’t know how powerful she can be out of her season.’
    â€˜She’s a monarch and a witch,’ said Danny. ‘She’s pretty strong.’
    â€˜This alliance of yours has got us into enough trouble,’ said Roisin. ‘We might as well get something out of it for once.’
    Maddy took a deep breath. ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘I’ll do it straight after …’
    â€˜Dinner!’ shrieked Aunt Fionnula from the bottom of the stairs.

CHAPTER FOUR
    The call for food was enough to send the monsters into a frenzy. They yanked their bedroom door back so hard the g-force nearly sucked Maddy into the