The Vanishing Throne (19 page)

“Aithinne rescued me—”

“They could have let you escape. The fae take humans and break into their minds. Then they send them to find us, hoping that we'll betray our location by offering shelter. But there's one way to test fae influence,” he murmurs, watching me. “They leave an imprint in your blood. It makes a human feel only pleasure from a faery, never pain.”

I go cold inside. I recall Lonnrach's hand on my wrist, his finger trailing down my cheek.
I want to know everything. I just need to use your blood to see
.

No, I can't be under his control. I can't be, I—

The fae take humans and break into their minds
.

My body goes still. I accepted his food. I accepted his drink. He's been in my head, he's had my blood, he's taken my memories, he's left his mark on me.

You lose. Now you're mine
.

“That didn't happen,” I whisper.

Or did it? I swear Lonnrach almost had me under his control on the path out of the
Sìth-bhrùth
. I took that step
forward against my will. For a single second, my body wasn't mine to control anymore. It was his.

“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 hyperaware 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. The
daysweeksmonthsyears
are 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 chilling word. “
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 for me, 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. I
scream
.

The wisps tear at my clothes, biting, slicing into my skin. Their teeth burn, their nails scrape and draw blood. They latch on to my veins and suckle there. Blood drips from my skin, my fingernails, down to the rock in a steady
drip 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 another minute, 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.

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 on to 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 feel his 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.

My arms are entirely covered in small, bleeding bites, some deeper than others. My shirt, trousers, and coat are all torn. The fabric hangs off me in flaps.

“So she's
yours
,” says a voice behind us. Daniel. “I thought there had to be a reason you would go through that much effort to rescue a human.” He doesn't bother to hide his disgust. “She's your pet.”

Kiaran's eyes are on me, but I don't miss the way his body goes still at Daniel's words. Cinders burn in his irises and I taste his power on my tongue.

I lean closer. “Don't. Whatever you're thinking, don't.”

“You're testing the limits of my patience.” Kiaran's voice cuts across the air, as cold as winter wind. “I'm not making you a promise, Kam. Not this time.”

I can read him clearly for once. I know his thoughts. He'll slaughter the wisps, and though his vow prevents him from killing Daniel, he'll hurt him. Badly.

The temperature suddenly drops to below freezing. My breath is visible in the air and gooseflesh rises painfully along my skin. It's so cold that it burns.

Kiaran studies my bites again, each one, as if he's counting how many he'll have to kill.

“MacKay,” I say. My lungs ache from the cold; I can barely gasp in air enough to form words. “Stop.”

Kiaran is on his feet, reaching for the blade at his waist.

I do the first thing I can think of. I grasp his wrist and have just enough strength to yank him down to me. I kiss him.

At first it was just to distract him, but then . . . god. The temperature goes back to normal, and I can't think anymore. It's just Kiaran's lips on mine, the shape I had perfectly memorized. It's the pressure of his kiss, exactly right. It's the way he makes a sound in his throat, a low growl that makes me shiver.

Then I'm in his arms and he's tugging at my coat like he wants it
off
. He's pulling at the buttons and his hands are underneath and—

I gasp in pain against his mouth. He touched one of my wounds.

Kiaran pulls back, as if he suddenly realized why I kissed him. “Nice diversion,” he says, voice brittle. “I don't recall teaching you that one.”

“I improvised. I had to get your attention.” I can barely speak above a strained whisper. “No violence. I did this willingly.”

His gaze narrows. “You allowed yourself to be feasted upon by wisps?”

I don't answer him; he wouldn't take it well. “Don't hurt Daniel.”

Kiaran pulls me to my feet. He slides an arm around my waist, sensing I'm too hurt to hold myself up. “You mistake me
for a human again, Kam.” This time when he speaks, his lips are at my neck, his words whispered kisses there. “Where I come from, we don't practice compassion. If it weren't for my vow, I'd kill him without a second thought for what he did to you.”

Before I can respond, he looks over at Daniel. “Kam passed your test,” he says with deadly calm. “Now you'll find a place for her to sleep and heal.”

Daniel meets Kiaran's gaze, not masking his hostility. “I don't let humans into my city who are intimate with fae.”

“
Your
city?” Kiaran's smile is mocking. “I'll be certain to tell that to the pixie.” He gestures to me. “Right after I inform him that his human companion isn't welcome.”

Daniel's hands form fists at his sides, as if he's ready for a fight. “I don't care who she is; she looks to me like another faery's whor—”

Before I can blink, Kiaran pulls out his blade and slices it through the air. It rips through Daniel's shirt and into the rock behind him with a thud—just missing a killing blow in his torso. “Finish that sentence,” Kiaran says, “and the next one goes right through your throat.”

“I heard a rumor that you can't kill humans,” Daniel says, pulling the knife from the rock with a swift jerk. “Is that true?”

“I don't have to kill you,” Kiaran says, in that terrifying fae voice. “It's incredible what the human body can endure without dying.”

Daniel snarls and throws the dagger. Kiaran releases me to catch it easily without even blinking. “The first throw was a courtesy, Seer. Next time, I won't miss.”

“Gentlemen, please,” I say faintly. “That's quite enough.” Stars dot my vision and I sag against Kiaran with a groan. My head is swimming, light, filled with air. It's as if I'm floating.

“Damnation, Kam.” Kiaran jerks me back up when I start to fall forward. I'm not sure I can walk. “You're bleeding all over the place.”

My voice comes out in a croak. “I'm not happy about it either.”

Kiaran guides me at a slow, steady pace toward a passage that leads to the back of the cavern. Daniel's voice cuts through the dark. “I told you I wouldn't allow her into the city, faery. Take her right back out the way you came.”

Kiaran stops and turns slowly. “I assume you value that remaining eye, Seer. One more word, and I'll blind you.”

“Daniel, are you in here?” A familiar voice calls from the passage at the back of the cave. “Gavin said—”

Catherine freezes when she sees me and Kiaran. At twenty, my best friend's features are mature, even more beautiful. Her hair is pulled back into a single plait that falls to her waist. Instead of the dresses she usually wears—always in the latest style—she's dressed practically in dark trousers and a raploch shirt.

She mouths my name, as if she can't believe it's me. “You're
alive
.”

Then she's striding forward and her arms are around me and she's crushing me against her. I make a sound of pain and she releases me, as if she hadn't even realized that I was bleeding.

“Oh god.” Her eyes meet mine. “They tested you?”

“Your husband did,” Kiaran says sharply, “and your idiot sibling helped. I'm surprised you didn't know.”

Husband
? She married
Daniel
? Good god, this is like a never-ending nightmare.

I try to step away, but I sway from the blood loss. Not wasting any more time, Kiaran swings me up into his arms. He's much better at it now than the last time he held me, when I was ill. He shifts me in his grip with care as my blood continues to drip from my hundreds of bites.

I open my eyes. Catherine sharply assesses my wounds, the blood around Kiaran's feet. “No one told me you were alive.
No one
.” She looks away then, at her husband. “Daniel, I believe I need a word.”

“Cat—”

“To the study. Tell Gavin to meet me there, too.
Now
.” She waits until his footsteps disappear down the passage before addressing me more gently. “Some of your wounds look deep.” She presses a hand to one of the scars on my arm and I bite my tongue. “I would have been here with Daniel to help you if I had known. I would have greeted you.”

He is her husband? Really?

Catherine looks so upset that I can't help but say, “It's all right.”

“No, it's not,” she and Kiaran say at the exact same time.

She glances up at Kiaran and I don't miss how she goes rigid, or how her voice shakes slightly when she speaks. “Where do you intend to take her?”

My vision clouds and my head starts to pound. I don't hear Kiaran's response. He says something about a door.
What door?
I open my mouth to ask, but just before I can, the lightheadedness becomes too overwhelming. The last thing I remember is Kiaran cradling me gently against him.