Page 82 of The Vanishing Throne

Promise me.I can’t believe he’s asking that. ‘Unlike you,’ I say tightly, ‘I’ve always kept my word.’

Gavin flinches.

‘Ouch,’ Derrick breathes. ‘You deserved that, Seer.’

A flash of hurt crosses Gavin’s face. ‘If anything happens, we run,’ he says. ‘The people in the city who went in never came back out.’

I push down the alarm that rises at his words and nod. Then I square my shoulders and twist the knob.

It’s quiet and dark as I enter. Too dark. Too quiet.

‘Do you see anything?’ I whisper to Derrick. The fae have better sight than I do.

Before he can answer, the lights suddenly turn on. Like a single switch was flipped and everything– every building – is suddenly illuminated from the inside. I take it all in – the glowing metal architecture, the carved marble streets, the gnarled, twisting trees – and I can’t help but be in awe of its beauty. It’s even more grand than the human city. Every structure has been carefully constructed with symbols and swirls carved into the metal, designs and pictorial representations of trees and flowers.

The buildings are pointed, towering. Each one has arches above the entrances, so much like those I saw on the outside of the prison at theSìth-bhrùth.

Beneath the glass dome that spans across the entire city, lights twinkle and swirl. No – not lights. What illuminates the city isn’t electricity, but fire. Flickering flames that float beneath hovering glass bulbs all over the city. They rise to the sky, casting shadows on the roads.

The streets themselves are made of what looks like white marble, but I know better. Marble doesn’t shine like that. Marble doesn’t look like it has trapped gemstones gleaming within.

Gavin swears softly. ‘I can’t say I expected this.’

‘Shh.’

There are still no faeries visible. I take a careful step forward and a noise to my left startles me. When I look, there’s nothing there. Gavin’s hand suddenly clasps mine. His palm is hot, clammy.

‘I don’t like this,’ Derrick whispers. ‘I don’t like—’

Before I even blink, the fae are everywhere.Everywhere. Crawling down buildings, flying through the streets, slithering across the marble, coming right for me. Hundreds of them. Some with flashing razor teeth and others with wings that look sharp enough to cut steel. Their eyes glow with an uncanny light as they snarl at me, coming closer as a group.

There are fae I’ve never seen before – of all different kinds. Running through my mind are Kiaran’s lessons for identifying them all. My eyes rove overblack-eyed, mud-coloured faeries with grey clothes. Massive felines the size of wolves with two rows of teeth they flash in a snarl. Faeries that slither like shadows across the ground.

‘I’m just going to say it,’ Gavin murmurs. ‘I really regret this decision.’He jumps as a cat-like fae leaps from a building window near us and lands smoothly on its paws. ‘Really … really regretting it.’

I can’t help my instinctive response; I unsheath my sword and grip it by my side. ‘Don’t,’ Derrick whispers. ‘Remember what Gavin said.’

Damn.I shut my eyes briefly but I don’t put the sword away. I might need the threat of a weapon to keep the fae at bay.

‘Two lost humans,’ one of the shadow creatures says. Abrollachan, from the looks of it. It’s a creature without form, a shapeless thing.

I watch it slither over to Gavin. He tenses, his fingers curling into fists. ‘I likehim,’ it whispers. It crawls up Gavin’s leg. ‘Come with me. I can take you.’

Another faery appears and smiles at me with sharp teeth. Water spills from her hair and clothes as her pitch-dark eyes take me in.

Suddenly, she leans forward, her tongue darting out to leave a wet trail across my cheek. I flinch and she grasps my wrist in a hard grip before I can move away. ‘This one smells sweet,’ she whispers in a voice that makes me shiver.

Derrick bursts up from my shoulder and snarls. ‘Back off, you muddy hag.’

The hag in question hisses back. ‘Traitor pixie.’ The other faeries snarl at the name. They all know who he is. ‘I could take your human,’ she whispers. ‘I’d eat her and leave you her bones.’

I gasp when nails slash through the leg of my trousers, my skin. A faery looks up at me with eyes deep as emeralds and wings like black, curling branches. I don’t remember this one from my lessons with Kiaran.

It licks the blood from my leg. ‘Falconer,’ it hisses.

The fae bare fangs, flashing teeth as they close in. With a quick swing of my sword, I press the blade to the neck of the faery whocut me. ‘Do that again, and I’ll slice open your throat.’

Gavin tenses beside me. He doesn’t realise it’s a threat I don’t intend to carry out, but the faery doesn’t know that either.

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