Page 61 of The Fallen Kingdom

And something else. Someone in the cave that I can’t see, watching us from the shadows. Someone that most certainly can seeus. My senses might be enhanced now, but I’m still human. My body has its limitations. And Kiaran’s powers are bound.

We’re both vulnerable. Both mortal. Both almost human.

There’s a small splash behind us. Someone is moving through the water. A whisper to my left, then a sudden searing pain across my cheek. I cry out, more out of shock than pain, and press my palm to my skin.

It comes away wet with blood.

CHAPTER 28

DON’T MOVE.”Kiaran’s voice is low, ragged. He makes a sound in his throat, something like a growl. I tense. He smells my blood.

“Breathe,” I say sharply. “Goddamn it, just breathe.” I grasp his arm and pull us through the water until there’s a boulder at our backs and we’re tucked away in the alcove.

Only a minute. If the Morrigan is going to attack, we only have a minute.

“Any ideas?” When he doesn’t respond, I bunch his shirt in a fist and force him to look at me. “Don’t make me smack some sense into you, Kiaran MacKay.Ideas. Now.”

Kiaran’s eyes focus on mine and he breathes through his mouth, his features strained. “The Morrigan was known for her ability to mentally influence other fae. She could break into their minds, make them do whatever she wanted.” I nod.Keep going. Keep talking. “If the Cailleach destroyed her body, maybe she can only manipulate our surroundings or take the form of other fae.”

The Morrigan will do whatever it takes to break out of there. She’s going to decide which of us are the pawns, and which one of us is the key.

Which are we?

“If she’s taking another form, then what faeries live in the water? Who also like the dark? Faeries who—”

“Are you going to keep listing?”

“I’ll keep listing if you don’t give me a bloody answer. Think!”

A whisper to my left, mocking laughter. A laugh right behind me. I whirl. She’s circling, a predator ready to leap. “MacKay—”

I cry out as the Morrigan slashes at my arm. This time it hurts worse, as if the faery used a red-hot knife. I shove away from Kiaran before he can smell the blood. I scan the water, but I see nothing. I hear nothing. My powers are beckoning, tempting, but if I use them, I risk blacking out again.

No way out. Nowhere to go.

“MacKay,” I say, somewhat desperately. “Her form?”

Something is moving through the water; I can’t even see impressions anymore. It’s as if the darkness is thickening, the cave misting over. The air turns hot and humid.

Kiaran inhales sharply and I know the Morrigan must have struck him. “Water-horse.” The suggestion of a fae form falls from his lips with contempt, like he’s saying something foul. He continues listing: “Fuath. Fideal. Afanc—”

I yelp in pain as claws drag across my back, deep and sharp. The Morrigan’s whisper at my ear again: “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a human.”

I swing my arm out in an attack, catching strands of long hair that dissipate like smoke. There’s a flash of her bright sapphire eyes before the Morrigan tears away into the shadows. Her laughter spreads around me in a rush of sudden cold that breaks through the humidity of the cave.

“She’s a faery form with claws and long hair,” I tell Kiaran. “She just evaporated into the damn shadows and—”

Kiaran’s head snaps toward me in the dark. “What did you just say?”

“—I’m going tokillher—”

“She evaporated into the shadows?” Before I can even blink, Kiaran seizes my wrist. “We’re getting out of here. Now.”

“MacKay, I already told you. There’s no way out.”

His answer is spoken through gritted teeth. “Then I’ll shove you through that small tunnel if I have to.”

Kiaran is pulling me so forcefully to the other side of the loch that I have to swim or end up with a mouthful of cave water. “Wait—”

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