Page 84 of The Falconer

‘Don’t,’ Kiaran says. ‘Now is not the time.’

‘Oh, I think now is the perfect time. Shall I tell you why your mother couldn’t see me, little Falconer? Why she couldn’t fight back? He suppressed the abilities of the Falconers who survived the war, so their children’s abilities never manifested and I couldn’t track them. For centuries I looked, but in vain.’ She smiles. ‘Until I happened to see your mother. Weak. Helpless and untrained, because ofhim. She never stood a chance against me.’

Oh, God. I want him to tell me that it isn’t true. That Sorcha is just lying because this is a game to her. But he doesn’t. He won’t even look at me.

‘That’s enough, Sorcha.’ Kiaran’s voice is a powerful thing. It resonates across the entire lake. ‘Just tell me why you’re here.’

‘If you insist,’ she says. ‘I have a message from my brother.’ At Kiaran’s startled expression, her smile turns a bit smug. ‘The underground isn’t entirely closed off, Kadamach. Some of the walls are thin enough to speak through. Lonnrach wants you to know that he asked me to call off my soldiers. Apparently, he thinks your champion worthy of battle with him.’ She pauses, and I can feel her gaze on me again, hot and probing. ‘We disagree.’

I rise to my feet and seek the vengeance inside me and feel . . . nothing. Not the destructive creature inside me that craves violence, or the need for release. Simply nothing. She’s stolen it from me.

‘She’s certainly different from your other pet Falconer,’ Sorcha says. ‘A shame how that turned out.’

Kiaran’s hand tightens around the hilt of his blade, but he doesn’t draw it from the sheath. ‘Is that all you came to say?’

‘No, but I’d rather discuss this.’ Sorcha smiles mockingly. ‘What was that girl’s name again? I never bothered to remember.’

‘Finish your message,’ he says with deadly calm, ‘or I’ll send my blade straight through your heart. Vow or no vow.’

‘I see your patience hasn’t improved.’ Sorcha tilts her head. ‘You hid this one well from me, Kadamach. I didn’t realise she existed until a fortnight ago.’

I remember Kiaran’s words to me then, that night on the bridge with the redcaps. The words that changed everything.Now you’ve hunted alone and she knows there’s a Falconer in Edinburgh.

If I’d been paying attention, I would have noticed he saidshe. Notthey. Which means any of the fae I’ve fought in the last fortnight could have been sent by her. No wonder these recent nights have been filled to the brim with faeries huntingme, and not the other way around.

Thoughtfully, she adds, ‘Until I saw your memories, I never even knew you watched me kill your mother. How very sad for you.’

Vengeance rises up inside me, powerful as ever. My skin burns, my rage purifies, becomes a surging storm within me until I’m cleansed of memories and guilt.Finally.

Our gazes collide. ‘Try me now,’ I tell her. ‘I’ll makeyoubleed.’

Sorcha smiles at my words. ‘She didn’t sense me, you know.’ She bares those elongated teeth I remember so well. ‘I tore out her throat before she had the chance.’

I explode. I jerk the lightning pistol from my belt and pull the trigger before I realise Sorcha is too far away for the capsule to hit.

The capsule strikes the water as if it were solid ice. Electricity crackles along the surface and the scent of ozone wafts into the air. I’m surprised when I inhale that I can detect a hint ofseilgflùr, too. As if the thistle were more potent here.

Sorcha doubles over and gasps for air so hard that her entire body shakes with the effort. She barely manages to speak. ‘What did you—’

She coughs then, deep and rough, splattering dark blood across her white shift. Smoke rises from her feet as if the entire surface of the water is saturated with the thistle, burning her.

Now might be my only chance to kill her before the battle. I want her dead for my mother. Forme.

‘Kam,stop.’

I launch myself towards the loch, pistol raised, but an invisible force knocks me back. I slam into one of the trees that line the water and hit the ground. Leaves fall around me. My pistol is still in my hand, but my grip on it is weak. Kiaran’s power leaves a sharp, saturated tang of earth in my mouth.

It hurts to swallow. I rise to my feet and slide the pistol back into its holster. Kiaran stands between me and Sorcha. She’s still gasping for air. It’s the perfect time to kill her. ‘Get out of my way.’

‘No.’

‘Move!’

I try to charge past him, but he smashes so hard against me that he knocks all the breath from my lungs.

‘No, Kam,’ he says, holding me close. ‘I can’t let you.’

I claw at his shoulders. Fabric rips under my fingernails. ‘Damn you, she’s weakened now! You told me that you would never get in my way,’ I remind him. ‘Youvowedit.’

---