Page 103 of The Vanishing Throne

‘Really?’

‘We’re friends,’I say firmly. ‘You stood up to your maniacal mother—’

‘Homicidal,’ Aithinne interrupts. ‘Why mince words?’

‘ – to aid me. I’m returning thefavour. You’ll just have to let me help you. Such a hardship, I realise.’

Aithinne smiles. ‘I want you to know, I never regretted creating the Falconers. Whatever power I lost … it made me feel a little more human.’

‘It’s too bad we all die young,’ I say lightly. ‘You’ll have it all back when I’m gone.’

Aithinne doesn’t avert her gaze. Her irises whirl like melted steel. ‘Aye. And that is my only regret.’ She sighs. ‘I still need to rest after today. I’m not feeling at all like my usual self. Will you be all right?’

I nod. ‘I just need a few minutes.’

Aithinne leaves me there, her footsteps quiet in the sand as she retreats back into the cave.

I stay on the beach and watch the way the waves breathe, how the rocks press and roll against each other with a groan like a ship rocking at sea. Eventually, my power ebbs and fades on its own, leaving my skin cold again. The frigid wind picks up and I’m forced to leave for the warmth of the city.

I make my way to the cave and notice a silhouette at the lip of the cavern. Kiaran. ‘Let me guess,’ I say, drawing nearer, ‘your sister told you where to find me.’

His smile isn’t visible in the darkness, but I can hear it when he speaks. ‘On the contrary,’ he says. ‘She told me I looked like I needed fresh air. It wasn’t until I saw you that I realised she decided to engage in her second-favourite hobby.’

‘Subterfuge?’

‘I was going to say meddling, but you’re not wrong.’

Kiaran steps forward and I back away from him before I even realise. Just like that, the smile I didn’t need to see is gone entirely – I can sense it by the way his body goes still. I wish I could see his expression. It’s too damn dark, even with my new vision.

‘Kam.’

‘Don’t.’ I put a hand up and walk past him into the cave. The flickering lanterns illuminate the passage back into the city. ‘There’s really nothing to explain.’

Before I blink, Kiaran is standing right in front of me, blocking me from going further. God, were his eyes always that bright? That beautiful?

‘You didn’t give me a chance to answer before,’ he says. ‘If you had, I would have told you there was no comparison.’

Hesitantly, he reaches for me. His fingers trail to my neck, tracing a path to my shoulder. I shut my eyes at the sensation, the way he touches me as if he can’t get enough of it.

‘Is that all?’ I try to keep my voice steady.

Kiaran moves in closer, sliding his hand gently up the back of my neck. ‘I never fought by her side. I never faced an army with her and marveled at how exquisite she was in battle. I never tended to her injuries or watched the stars with her or went out of my mind trying to find her.’ His forehead presses against mine and I can’t think, I can’t move, I can’t breathe. ‘I want you, Kam. And I should have told you that so many times. I should have told you that in theSìth-bhrùth.’

I break into a smile. ‘I thought Lonnrach had created you, remember? I wouldn’t have believed a word of it.’

Kiaran smiles back. ‘I would have found a way to convince you. First by using my language:Tha gaol agam ort le m’ uile chridhe, Kam.’ He breathes the words against my skin. ‘Then I would have translated it and said that I lo—’

I press my lips hard against his. ‘No declarations. No theatrics.’ I rise on my tiptoes and whisper in his ear. ‘You made me a promise, MacKay. Show me what I mean to you.’

‘Your room. Now.’ He sounds almost breathless.

Then he takes my hand, and he’s pulling me through the cavern back into the city, past the flickering street lamps and into the dark closes. This late at night the streets are almost empty, just as they were in Edinburgh. My heart slams as I lead him onto my balcony and then into my room. The door closes with a click. No sign of Derrick, thank god.

Kiaran grasps my shirt and kisses me, a hard press of his lips against mine. As if forgetting himself, he murmurs in his language, over and over again. The words cascade off his tongue in a rolling accent that makes me long for more, that makes meyearn.

‘Tell me what you’re saying. Translate.’ I press my lips to the underside of his chin, the space above his shoulder. I’ll kiss him everywhere.

‘You want to know what you mean to me, Kam?’ His lips trail down the curve of my neck. ‘Every day I wonder when your human life will end, and it scares the hell out of me.’ His words are hot on my skin. ‘You make me wish I didn’t have for ever.’

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