Page 46 of The Vanishing Throne

‘I can’t take that risk.’ Daniel moves back to lean against the rock again, away from the light. All I can see is his silhouette, the massive breadth of his shoulders and how they lift in a shrug. ‘But if you haven’t been faestruck,’ he says simply, ‘then I’m sorry. This is going to hurt.’

I’ve heard that before.

The will-o’-the-wisp smiles wide and whoops with glee, baring long pointed teeth that shouldn’t fit into a mouth that wee. Before I can blink, it sinks those razor-sharp teeth into my palm.

No no no. Not again.

The bite burns. I’m suddenly hyper-aware of the pain, how the wisp tears through my skin until the blood spreads a path across the lines of my palm.

I don’t scream. I don’t. Thedaysweeksmonthsyearsare stretched vast and long behind me. I didn’t scream then. I didn’t give Lonnrach the satisfaction. It was the one thing I had.Don’t scream don’t scream don’t scream.

‘Stop,’ I say. I beg Daniel with my gaze. The faery suddenly bites harder, its teeth digging in, tearing. ‘Stop!’

‘Make sure she isn’t pretending,’ Daniel tells the wisp calmly.

Just then, the faery pulls back and lifts up my sleeve. ‘She’s been bitten before,’ it says to Daniel in that sweet voice. It gives me a small, secret smile, its next words just for me: ‘Many, many times. The first bite tasted like him.’ Then it sinks its teeth into me again, latching onto a vein.

I watch in horror as the creature draws back, its mouth dripping with my blood, and looks up at me with dark and cavernous eyes. It breathes a single chillingword. ‘Seabhagair.’

Seabhagair, Kiaran whispered to me that day in the park that feels like ages ago.Falconer. Now it knows what I am.

The will-o’-the-wisp lets out a high-pitched, startling cry. Its mouth opens wide, jaw dropping almost to its feet, to project a screaming call that echoes through the cave. I hear wings flap in response. Hundreds of them. Their cries echo in unison and soon the entire cave is filled with their piercing shrieks. The taste of honeysuckle forces itself down my throat, thick on my tongue.

Daniel stumbles forward. ‘What the bloody hell?’ he murmurs, staring behind me toward the back of the cave.

My heart slams against my chest. I jerk my chains, straining with the effort to pull them out of the rock. ‘They know I’m a Falconer,’ I tell Daniel. ‘Unshackle me.Now!’

He lunges forme, reaching for the shackles, but it’s too late. The will-o’-the-wisps are upon us. They circle in a massive group, hundreds upon hundreds of bright moving stars. As one, they dive for me, knocking Daniel out of the way with their supernatural strength.

I don’t even have time to brace myself. To go back into that numb place I went during Lonnrach’s visits, just so I could endure the pain. This is worse than his bite. This is worse than the mirrored room. It’s not one mouth, one bite, one faery, eighty-two teeth – it’s hundreds.

I can’t stop myself. Iscream.

The wisps tear at my clothes, biting, slicing into my skin. Their teeth burn, their nails scrape and draw blood. They latch onto my veins and suckle there. Blood drips from my skin, my fingernails, down to the rock in a steadydrip drip drip drip. The wisps keep biting over and over again, and just when I think I’ll faint from the blood loss – that the pain will numb – agony blossoms anew.

Through the flutter of wings, I hear Daniel shouting for someone. He mutters a stream of curses as he tries to rip the fae from my arms, my clothes, but their teeth only clamp down harder. My voice is hoarse, my throat aching from my screams.

Just when I think I can’t stand the pain any more, I taste power, strong and familiar.Kiaran.

All the wisps are suddenly torn from me, their shining bodies slamming into the cave walls all around. Now they scream, wings flapping, and flee to the back of the cave with their calls echoing like ghosts.

Chapter 17

I can’t raise my head. I’ve slumped forward in my chains, doubled over from the wisp venom burning through my veins. Suddenly Kiaran is there next to me, his warm fingers lifting my chin.

God, those eyes.Kiaran’s beautiful eyes flicker over my face and down my neck where the wisps latched onto the artery – and with each passing moment his expression grows colder. Not with rage, not with any emotion. Just calculating determination.

As if he’s preparing for a slaughter.

I try to lean into him, but the shackles stop me, clanging against the rock.

Kiaran sees them, and I didn’t think it was possible for his gaze to grow more brutal. He wraps his hands around the metal at my wrists. I feelhis powers surge, and the metal disintegrates to ash.

With nothing to hold me, I pitch forward. Kiaran catches me and I hiss in pain, my vision blurring.

‘Can you move?’ he murmurs. He sounds gentle, but there’s a violent undercurrent that makes me hesitate.

I flex my fingers and test my limbs, flinching at how much they ache. ‘I think so.’ It hurts to speak.

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