Page 17 of The Vanishing Throne

‘Oh. That sounds terribly dull. I was really hoping for dessert.’

I’m hoping to end this rescue with my sanity intact.

I stare at the beautiful scenery around us. The meadow is up high on a ridge, a muted landscape with even more extreme chiaroscuro than the area around the fissure. The clouds are black and heavy with rain.

Every part of the land is rugged. Near where we stand is a waterfall that drops from the crags to the canyon below. The river at the base of the canyon is dark; it resembles descriptions I’ve read of dried lava, right down to the rough texture created by the rapids.

It looks like a scene painstakingly etched by an expert hand. As if the artist had delicately stroked the charcoal pencil to get the texture just right. The shade just right. Each detail etched in fine brushes.TheSìth-bhrùthwas once full of a thousand different colours your human eyes have never beheld.

This place must have been even more magnificent before the colour faded. From the expression on Aithinne’s face – the longing, mixed with sadness – she thinks so, too. Her gaze is unfocused, as if she’s remembering the way it was.

‘What did it look like before?’I can’t help but ask. ‘Was it beautiful?’

‘It was always beautiful,’ she says, rather mechanically. ‘That was never the problem.’

‘What was?’

Aithinne seems to shake herself, closing herself off the same way Kiaran does. ‘Lots of things.’ She looks over at me then. ‘You’re bleeding again.’

Without warning, Aithinne seizes my arm. Before I can ask her what she’s about, she swipes a finger across my arm wound and licks the blood off with a quick dart of her tongue.

‘Ahh!’ I stare at her in shock. ‘You licked – you just – my god, I want the last five seconds of my life back.’

Her face scrunches into a grimace. ‘Baobhan sìthvenom. It’s all over you; I can smell it.’

I go rigid. Lonnrach marked my body. He stole my memories. Of course it would follow that he’s polluted my blood.

I want to know everything. I just need to use your blood to see.

I’m tainted. My skin isn’t mine and my blood isn’t mine and my mind isn’t mine. There isn’t any part of me that he hasn’t claimed or taken by force except for my will. And he almost took that, too.

Aithinne notices my expression. ‘Falconer, I didn’t mean it like that. I—’

‘Of course.’ I can’t help the urge to scrub myself clean. To get the scent ofhimoff me. ‘It’s all right.’

Her grip on my arm loosens. ‘‘No, it’s not,’ she tells me. ‘It’s not all right. What he did to you’– she presses her fingers to my wrist, where he bit me most – ‘it’s not all right.’

Since meeting Aithinne I’ve never heard her sound more serious. Like sheknows.Like she’s been through it. Maybe she has.

I almost saythank you. I’m tempted to break the rule even though the fae don’t like to be thanked. Because she might be ofthem, but I spentdaysweeksmonthsyearswith no kind words except those that existed in my memories.

Aithinne’s eyes don’t leave mine. ‘I can heal you. The venom has to be purged on its own, but I can take away its effects.’

Yes. Yes yes.To get rid of trembling limbs and short breath and something to take the pain away.Yes.

At my nod, Aithinne places her hands over my ears. She muffles the noise until all I hear is the rushing in my ears, the wavelike sea sounds.

Next comes the searing pain. I flinch, but I’ve become so used to it that it barely affects me any more. My knees don’t buckle like they used to. My eyes don’t sting with tears. I use it as a gauge ofI’m here and I’m alive and I still feel and you can’t take that away.

I open my eyes just as the cut on my arm knits closed beneath the blood. The injuries along my legs vanish, perfectly smoothed over. The aching in my muscles fades and the helpless trembling weakness dissipates, and with it – all at once – the agony goes, too.

Now only the scars remain.

Aithinne pulls her hands away and smiles. ‘Better?’

To the devil with faery conventions. I don’t care. ‘Thank—’

Then I hear it. The distant sound of hooves on dirt, crossing the countryside somewhere near us. Too far for me to taste their powers, but close enough to know that there are at least a dozen of them – and they’re heading right for us.

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