Page 38 of The Falconer

‘Are you listening to me? Now they know you’re the last of your line, the only one left who can reactivate the seal. If you go out again, you have to take the pixie with you, so they can’t find—’

‘Stop,’ I breathe.

Kiaran frowns. ‘What?’

My fingernails dig so hard into my leather gloves I feel them against my palm. ‘I told you my Mother was murdered by abaobhan sìth,’ I say tightly. ‘This is why. Isn’t it?’

Kiaran stiffens. ‘Aye.’

I straighten, pull my shoulders back and yield to the anger again. It steals my grief. It absolves my guilt. I put the memories where they belong, in the empty place inside my heart. Just like that.

‘I need to leave.’Time to go and plan a slaughter of my own.

I think I’ll take thebaobhan sìth’s head when I find her. Make a trophy out of it, just like Derrick always encourages me to. After all, she must have taken my mother’s heart for the same reason. That’s why she never killed her other victims that way. None of them were Falconers.

I step away from him then, in the direction of my ornithopter. The sun is almost gone now and the storm clouds fill the sky, thick and dark. The soft mist has turned into a light rain. My clothes are damp already. By the time I return home, I’m certain they’ll be drenched.

‘Kam—’

‘Whatever you have to say can wait.’ I’m surprised by how calmly I speak. My voice doesn’t break, or betray my anger. ‘I have an appointment at fourhours with one of my suitors.’

‘Don’t,’ he says. ‘Don’t do this.’

‘Life of a lady, MacKay. Full of tea parties and dancing and husband hunting.’

He looks me up and down. ‘Do you think me so foolish that I can’t see what you intend to do?’

My cheeks burn. ‘You don’t want to get in my way, MacKay. If what you’ve said is true, that bloody nose is the least I’m capable of.’

I stride away from him then. I pause only when he calls my name, but I don’t turn around.

‘At least take the pixie with you if you go out again. Asìthichepowerful enough can track you if you don’t.’ And I think I hear him whisper, ‘Be careful.’

Chapter 14

‘Aileana, I was going to tell you,’ Derrick says. ‘Really I was.’ I pull my legs under me as I sit at my work table. Metal components of one sort or another are strewn all around me. I place the final screws into the valve for the fire-starter I began making yesterday. My mind is almost entirely focused on my tasks, on preparing to kill thebaobhan sìth. As for when the seal breaks . . . one thing at a time. I have a lot to do before then.

Fourhours with Lord Linlithgow had been incredibly strained. I sipped tea and sat with the perfect poise I had been taught since childhood. Father nodded at me with approval, because I spoke only when necessary, like a good gentlewoman.

We discussed things that took little effort for me to lie about: watercolours and dancing and stitching. That I enjoyed reading – but of course not too much, because I mustn’t imply I’m a bluestocking. We discussed our plans for Hogmanay, which Lord Linlithgow said would be spent with his sister in the country so they could celebrate the New Year together.

Lord Linlithgow said all the appropriate things and listened politely. A perfect gentleman, the product of what must have been impeccable etiquette lessons. The Aileana of last year would have considered how he’d age, and if we married how we would get on, what our children would look like. She would have found him an attractive match, certainly worthy of a second visit.

The Aileana of last year was a complete and utter ninny.

When afternoon tea was over, Lord Linlithgow left with a smile. I left and screamed into my pillow.

‘Aileana?’ Derrick’s wings flutter once.

‘If you’d wanted to tell me that I’m a Falconer,’ I say, ‘you’ve had every opportunity to do so. Indeed, I asked you directly just the other night and you expertly evaded the question.’

Derrick flutters to my work table and sits on my bundled jacket. Behind him, the light from the fireplace casts him in a glow of orange flame. I can see his face, the guilt there.

‘I was keeping you safe.’

‘In what way could keeping me in ignorance be construed asprotection?’ I straighten a piece of wire to add to the fire-starter. ‘God spare me from such protection, especially when it involves safeguarding my poor feminine sensibilities from life-saving information.’

I connect the wire to the valve and twist to lock it into place.

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