Page 74 of The Vanishing Throne

‘Just what, exactly, do you intend to do that you don’t want Catherine to hear?’ I ask him.

Daniel’s expression hardens, as if he’s offended by the question. ‘Just talk.’

‘About what?’

‘You’ll see.’He motions me to go inside.

Steeling myself, I cross the threshold. The moment I’m inside, it changes. A blacksmith’s workshop? Aye, it is. The kiln that heats metal is in one corner. All over the wooden tables and the floor are pieces of metal, wee pinions and spindles, and some larger, half-put-together mechanisms.

An anvil lies in the corner, a hammer and chisel beside it. It smells like coal fire in here, like the small garden cottage I used for my own metalwork back at Father’s estate. When we were in the city, I had to pay someone else to do the work for me.

Just looking at these things makes me want to build again, to take mechanisms apart and put them back together to make something new. I miss the feel of oil on my fingertips and working with metal on sleepless nights. I miss the sense of pride that comes with completing something and discovering it works precisely as I intended it to.

I tentatively touch the anvil, feeling the marks in the metal where the hammer has hit. I look up at Daniel. ‘Is this yours? This place?’

‘Aye.’ Daniel sits in the work chair, crossing his long legs at his ankles. ‘Made to look like my father’s.’

So he’s the son of a blacksmith. Before the Wild Hunt, Catherine would never have been able to marry a man of his station. Marriage wasn’t for love, but for property. It was something a ladysettled into, something we simply accepted.

‘It must be comforting for you,’ I say, trying to be polite, ‘to have something that reminds you of him.’

I’m not certain what place I’d create that would give me fond memories of my father. Aye, his death still aches when I think about it; I’m still guilt-ridden over whatshouldhave been between us. Not even when I was a child did Father embrace me or offer me kind words. His words were always clipped, abrasive, spoken simply to get me to leave. Even into adulthood I still possessed the childish hope that he would come to love me. He never did. That’s something I’ll always carry with me.

Daniel laughs bitterly. ‘That’s not it at all. My father was a mean son of a bitch.’ He opens his collar to tap the scar below his collarbone, a star-shaped mark from a bullet. ‘I rememberhimhere. That’s how I died and came back with the Sight.’

Christ, what can I even say to that? I almost tell him I’m sorry. Somehow, it doesn’t seem good enough. ‘Why do you create this place, then?’ I ask him.

‘It reminds me of what I had to do after I came back from the other side so my father wouldn’t killmy mother, too.’ His one eye settles hard on me. ‘What I’m still willing to do to keep the people I love safe.’

‘I take it you’re referring to me?’ I say lightly.

‘You’re not human,’ Daniel says suddenly. Not an accusation, but a statement of fact. ‘And don’t pretend you don’t know what I mean. Tavish watched the battle, and I know what I saw from the hills.’

You’re not human.Not quite human, not quite fae. I don’t fit into either world, not in Catherine’s or even Kiaran’s. At least before all this, I had the comfort of falsity around me. I couldpretendI was normal, just another debutante. I could wrap myself in lies and no one knew I was living a falsehood. I don’t have that cocoon of dishonesty to protect my secret any more.

‘Mr. Reid—’

Daniel puts his hand up to stop me. ‘No. I don’t need an explanation. Just answer one question: are they looking for you?’

I raise my chin and meet his gaze directly. ‘They are.’

Daniel swears softly. ‘I was afraid of that.’ He closes his eye. I’m surprised when he doesn’t immediately open it. Instead he taps his fingers against the table. Not a thinking rhythm, but a deliberateone two one tworap.

‘I’ve been waiting formore than three years,’ he murmurs.

‘For what?’What’s he doing?

‘For the girl whose gift is chaos.’Tap tap. Tap tap.‘Death is her burden. Wherever she goes, it follows. They say she can either save the world or end it.’

My chest tightens. Each word he says is like a blow, each one more painful than the last.

They say she can either save the world or end it.

Me.He’s talking about me. ‘They?’ I finally manage a word, spoken in a strangled breath.

Daniel eases his eye open. It looks glassy, unfocused. ‘I don’t know where the voices come from, and I don’t particularly give a damn. That’s just what they say.’

‘Do you see the future? Like Gavin?’

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