Page 102 of The Song Rising

“Paige?”

Nick was crouched beside me, his brow furrowed. With a heavy-eyed nod, I pushed myself on to my elbows and into a sitting position. I drank from the mug of tea he handed me.

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart.”

“It was always going to happen. He was dead the moment I left the colony.” My throat was raw, softening my voice. “I should feel worse than this.”

“You’re in shock.”

That must be why my hands were steady. That must be why I felt burned through.

Maria and Eliza sidled into the parlor. Eliza sat beside me and squeezed my hand, while Maria dropped into the armchair. At first, I wanted to shrink away from their sympathetic expressions; I couldn’t stand them. I was the one who had killed my father, not Vance. I was his murderer, the reason he was dead, not worthy of compassion.

My eyes closed. I couldn’t allow myself to think like this. Scion had started to demolish my family long before they had known my name, starting with Finn in Dublin. There might have been things I could have done better—I could have tried harder to reach my father, to rescue him from their clutches—but it wasn’t my hand that had wielded the blade.

“I’m going to kill her,” I murmured. “Vance.”

“No. That’s exactly what youmustn’ttry and do.” Maria held down my arm. “This is another move in Vance’s psychological war against you, the war that started when she used you to change Senshield. You’ve come too close to her secret. Now she wants you gone.”

I tried to make myself listen. All I could see was the blood on the sword.

“You’ve impressed her. She wasn’t expecting a nineteen-year-old woman without any military training to evade capture for as long as you have. Now she’s going to try and draw you out for the last time.”

Nick placed a hand on my shoulder. “How?”

“That broadcast was clearly pre-recorded,” Maria said. “You can tell—the sky was lighter than it is now. She was standing right next to a landmark. That was intentional. She wants Paige to go straight there, hungry for vengeance. That’s where she’ll have set up the next trap.”

It took effort to hold my body still.

“Why kill him?” My eyes felt parched. “Why not keep him alive to blackmail me?”

“One: because she deemed that he was less useful to her alive than dead. Two: because there’s a next move to come. This is just what she did to Rozaliya,” she said. “First, she clouds your judgment. Then, knowing you’re vulnerable, she’ll strike. You need to stay calm, Paige. You need to defy what she expects of you.”

My fist closed, blanching my knuckles.

“We’re not going back to London with nothing to show for it,” I said. “I want to destroy those scanners.”

“That’s exactly what we were thinking. We can set fire to the warehouse,” Maria said hungrily.

I shot her a weary look. “Are you a pyromancer or a pyromaniac?”

“Come on, this isn’t central Manchester we’re talking about,” she wheedled. “Fire is efficient and leaves no evidence. Fire is our friend.”

It would certainly send Vance a message, even if it failed; even if it was an insane, desperate plan, one I would never have sanctioned under ordinary circumstances.

“Fine,” I said, after a moment. I wasn’t in the frame of mind to argue. “Burn it down.”

Maria gave a little crow of triumph.

“How will we get close enough to the warehouse to cause this great inferno?” asked Nick, who had been listening, amused. “It’s guarded, if you remember correctly.”

“We’ll manage,” Maria said, looking positively optimistic.

“We can call on Elspeth’s voyant community for backup,” I said. When I made to get up, Maria’s face changed; she reached out and grasped my shoulder firmly.

“You can’t come, Paige. Not this time.”

“I’m Underqueen,” I said, my voice cracking. “If this is our last stand—”

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