Page 60 of The Vanishing Throne

I made you the same as me.I hunted because it was how I existed, one kill to the next. As monsters do.

‘Do you ever regret it?’ I whisper. ‘Everything you’ve done?’

His gaze is empty. No guilt or even a hint of remorse there. ‘I have little purpose in my life for regrets.’

‘That doesn’t answer my question.’

Kiaran smiles, that beautiful false smile that makes my heart ache. His face is a mask, flawless and immaculate, no hint of passion or emotion. Even statues have more life.

‘Do you still seek the good in me, Kam?’ Hegrasps the flower of a thistle between his fingers, as if to remind me what it does. I wince at how his skin blisters and burns almost immediately. He doesn’t release it, doesn’t show any sign of pain at all. ‘Do you still wish I were honorable?’

I reach out and grasp his wrist firmly. ‘MacKay,stop it.’

Kiaran releases the thistle, the false smile now gone. ‘How much do you need to learn about my past before you understand that there isn’t a single part of me that’s human?’

‘You’re not Kadamach,’ I snap. ‘Not any more. You haven’t been for thousands of years.’

There’s a flicker of an emotion in his gaze, gone so quickly. ‘You speak that name as if you know what it means.’ He gestures behind me. ‘Thesìthicheanbehind that door have long memories. So does your pixie. To them, I will always be Kadamach.’

‘And yet when you fought by my side to protect them all, your past didn’t matter.’ My eyes hold his, and my voice lowers to a whisper. ‘When you kissed me, it didn’t matter.’

There it is, an emotion behind that normally cool, detached gaze. Not wanting to lose it, I inch closer, just as he did. I listen to his breath hitch – only slightly, but still noticeable. How his hand tightens in mine and something akin to desire and longing crosses his features.

I press my fingers to the pulse at his wrist and relish how it quickens. ‘You’ll always be Kiaran to me.’

He makes a sound deep in his throat and grasps my shirt. His lips are on mine, soft, insistent. Aching.More, I want more. I deepen our kiss—

Then a high mechanical wail resounds all around us, startling me out of his arms.

‘What the hellisthat?’

‘The early warning system.’ Kiaran is breathing hard. ‘It meanssìthicheanare in the territory.’

Chapter 21

Kiaran leads me through the city streets. I watch as people hurry for the tenements around us, for their balcony rooms in the beehive structure.

Shutters and doors slam around me. I’m amazed by the silence, the lack of panic. If anyone speaks, it’s in hushed whispers, encouragements tobe quick. The people of the city move at an efficient, hurried pace, as if they’ve done this many times before. They must have, when they lived in the ruins Gavin described.

I wonder if they even realise that these walls won’t protect them if the fae breach the city. Whatever wards Derrick put up would only hold for so long. They would be dead in an instant.

‘Is this place under siege often?’ I ask as a couple rushes past us to their dwelling.

‘No.’ Kiaran leads me down a close that’s so narrow that the light from thestreet lamps doesn’t reach it. ‘They haven’t found the city. It’s usually a few stray soldiers sweeping the forests nearby.’These alarms are for something as little as that?He catches my surprised expression. ‘We’re overly cautious for a reason.’

I’m reminded of Gavin’s words.Another raid would leave our population decimated.

Just before we step out from the buildings, the light cuts from the city and the alarm suddenly goes quiet. One by one the street lamps extinguish and we’re left in darkness. I look up. Even the will-o’-the-wisps have ceased to dance above. In a stream of light, they head for a passage at the back of the cave, their lights twinkling out as they flee. The clouds are gone. There is nothing but the effervescent glitter of rocks, the steady sounds of our breathing.

‘Keep up, Kam,’ Kiaran says over his shoulder.

‘I see your patience hasn’t improved,’I mutter, catching up with him. This reminds me of our hunts, how I always had to match his hurried pace through the streets of Edinburgh. ‘So where are we going?’

Kiaran grasps my hand, pressing his palm to mine as we head through another dark close. ‘When the warning system is triggered, the Seers meet to assess the threat.’ He leads me down a set of old stone steps. ‘You ought to be there.’

The air around us grows colder, as if even the heating system within the city has shut down. ‘Seers? You mean there are others aside from Gavin and Catherine’s husband?’

‘Two other feather-brained fools. Together, they have all the sense of a chair leg.’

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