Page 104 of The Fallen Kingdom

“You.” The Morrigan’s voice is sharp as she focuses on Sorcha. “I’ll need your blood.” Then she looks at me. “And you will give me my yes or I have three pathetic, frightened humans to sacrifice.”

Do something!

I call the power inside me, pushing it through my veins desperately. I can’t focus. My mind is screaming at me to act but it hurts so much. My power is going to tear me open, rip me from the inside out if I let it.

You can’t afford to lose control. Breathe it out like air.

I shove all that power out and hurl it at the Morrigan, but she slaps it away, striking me with a bolt of power so strong that I’m thrown back again. I roll hard into the street, my bones aching as I get up. My lip is bleeding. My head is pounding. I fight not to black out.

You can’t win. Not when you have everything to lose.

Kiaran is there, yanking me back to my feet. “Come on, Kam. Get up!”

“Go with the humans.” My voice is rough, strained. “Get them out of here.”

His grip on my arm is sure. “There’s nowhere for anyone to go, and I’m not leaving you.”

The Morrigan’s power smacks him aside and I spin out of his grip. Kiaran hits the ground hard.

I hear her voice beneath Aithinne’s beautiful laugh and hate her for it. “No hiding. I want you here to watch.”

The Morrigan turns to Sorcha and uses her power to propel her forward. Then she seizes Sorcha’s arm and twists it at a painful angle, dragging her over to Lena. Sorcha cries out when the Morrigan slashes the blade across her cheek. “Shhh. You remember, don’t you? Don’t scream unless I tell you to, little bird. That was my rule.” She presses the dagger to the other woman’s palm. “Now bleed.”

Behind the Morrigan, Catherine breaks away from Gavin and Daniel. She picks up Kiaran’s discarded sword and lunges for the Morrigan.

“Catherine,no!” Daniel shouts.

Catherine slashes the Morrigan across the chest, but it doesn’t even faze her. The Morrigan reaches out toward Catherine with her fingertips.

All I hear is the awful crack of Catherine’s neck breaking. I see her hit the ground hard. She doesn’t move again.

A scream erupts from me. Daniel and Gavin stare at her crumpled body, stricken with disbelief and shock.

Catherine Catherine Catherine—

Bring her back. Finish this and you can bring her back.

I don’t have time to mourn. Tears blur my vision as I strike the Morrigan with a hard slap of power. Her head twists to the side and she smiles. “Another pawn down.” When she turns back, I see the quiver of blood on her lip. “Last chance, Aileana Kameron. Say yes before the other two go with her.”

Daniel loses it. He attacks, but the Morrigan sends him and Gavin flying back with a flick of her fingers. They smack into the pavement in the center of the square.

I can’t take it anymore. I can’t watch them die, too. “Stop it!”

Her power brushes across my skin in a mocking caress as she tightens her hold on Sorcha. “Just give in. All you have to do is say yes. Who shall I sacrifice next? Will it be the King? You might be able to bring back your humans with my Book, but not him.”

I swallow hard, staring at Catherine’s body in the street.Remember. Finish this and you can bring her back. “No,” I whisper, shutting my eyes.

She continues as if I had never spoken. “He looks at you like you’re going to save him. His beautiful, dying human girl.” Her sapphire-blue eyes bore into mine. “Say yes and my offer still stands. He’s yours.” She gives Sorcha a shake. “I’ll undo the mark my little bird put on him. I’ll give you immortality. All you have to do is say the word and resurrect my body.Yes.”

“Kam, don’t!” Kiaran’s cry cuts out as the Morrigan slaps her power through the air. When I look at him, Kiaran has a cut across his cheekbone, deep and long.

The Morrigan puts pressure on Sorcha’s arm again. “Bleed.” When Sorcha doesn’t, the Morrigan snaps her wrist. Sorcha lets out a low choking sound. “I said,bleed.”

Sorcha wraps one hand around the edges of the blade, and, with an apologetic look to Lena, presses her bloody palm to Lena’s ink-covered arm. Lena throws back her head in a silent scream. The writing all over her body glows and she pulses with pale silver light.

The Book has been opened.

The Morrigan is pleased. Her bright eyes lock with mine. “Aileana Kameron,” she sings. “What’s it going to be? A yes or a sacrifice?”

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