The Falconer (Elizabeth May) (35 page)

Lonnrach remains focused on me. ‘You’ve always been selfish, Kadamach.’

‘And you’re an arrogant upstart,’ Kiaran replies calmly. ‘This isn’t selfishness. I just don’t like you.’

Lonnrach smirks at him. ‘You mean you don’t trust your Falconer. If she’s as powerful as you hope she is, she should be able to resist my compulsion. Let her come to me.’

I don’t remember Kiaran releasing my wrist, or walking over to Lonnrach. Everything in my peripheral vision is hazy, tunnelled. I try to shake my head to clear it, but can’t. I have to free myself. How did I break from Sorcha’s influence?
Think
.

It’s too late. I’ve already approached and the horse’s heart beats at my eye level. Compelled, I smooth my palm over the creature’s shoulder. How can metal be so soft? Like fur, but sleeker.

Lonnrach curls a finger under my chin. When my gaze meets his again, it’s as though I’m being dragged underwater by an inexorable current. My body isn’t my own, and neither is my mind. I am in dark, cold water and my other senses are muted, dulled. There is only taste. Flower petals drag along my tongue and it’s not unpleasant.

Lonnrach studies me. ‘So you’re all that’s left,’ he murmurs. ‘How very brave of you to come.’

His voice makes my body feel light as air, millions upon millions of molecules floating weightless. I have to break his hold or he’ll kill me, easily. I try to push against his presence again, but he only invades me further. His power is calming, not violent or brutal like his sister’s. That only makes it worse.

‘How old are you?’ he asks.

‘Eighteen.’ I sound so far away, as if I’m hearing myself from the other side of the meadow. I have to kill him now. My hand shifts toward my blade, but his power stops me.

‘So young.’ He strokes my cheek. ‘It’s such a shame.’

He makes me lean into his touch. ‘Are you going to kill me?’

‘Eventually.’ He bends down and whispers, ‘You see, you have something I want.’

‘What is that?’

Lonnrach’s lips curl with the hint of a smile. ‘Plenty of time for that.’ He glances at my armour. ‘Well done, Kadamach. She’s quite exquisite.’

‘You shouldn’t underestimate her,’ he says calmly. ‘She’ll cut your throat.’

When Lonnrach studies me again, his gaze rakes me from my toes to my face, long and slow. ‘She looks tame enough now. But I always did love a Falconer in armour. Metal suits you best.’

Something snaps inside me. A torrent, a wave of awareness and everything comes rushing back.

Crimson suits you best crimson suits you best crimson suits you best crimson suits you best—

That’s all I need to break his influence. Wrath rises inside me with the strength of a surging storm. Kiaran’s powers strengthen it, intensify it, and the air around me becomes charged with it, mine and Kiaran’s combined. It crackles with electricity and when the first drops of rain hit my armour, they spark like bolts of discharge.

Lonnrach stares at me in surprise. I feel his mind in mine, enticing. Weakening. I snap our connection – and smile. In an instant, my blades are in my hands. ‘If I have something you want,’ I snarl, ‘you’ll have to fight me for it.’

I jump and swing my arm up, slashing him across the cheek. It’s a superficial cut. A warning. I smile as the blood trickles down his face.

Lonnrach’s eyes narrow. He speaks again, calmly, but this time he faces his army. ‘Destroy it all.’

Chapter 37

T
hey’ve been waiting for this. Lonnrach has barely finished speaking before a
cù sìth
leaps at me with teeth bared, enormous claws extended. I throw myself under it and whip one blade up. It slices deep into the beast’s left flank and blood splatters warm against my cheek.

There’s no time to make sure it’s dead. Horses surround me,
daoine sìth
raise their blades and
sluagh
circle above us, their piercing screams so stark amid the quiet.

Then a hand clasps mine. Kiaran.

There, amid the chaos, I want to tell him something. That I wish I had more time with him, or that I regret never saying just how much I care for him.

Kiaran nods, as if he understands, and turns from me. He slides his blades from their sheaths. I press my back to his and face in the other direction. We’re ready.

The horses surge forward and I leap and swing my blades. Metal clashes against metal, loud and deafening. The air is still and charged with power, surrounding us with glimmering, brilliant colours. Power slices through me with such force that my muscles protest and ache.

I ignore the pain and slash a
daoine sìth
, slam my fist into another’s face, dodge blade after blade. Fae-powered lightning strikes my shoulder and the current burns through me. Kiaran’s power swells inside me and when I hold out my blades, light erupts from them and slams into a group of
daoine sìth
.

Another stretches out his hand and vines break free from the ground, wrapping around my arms and feet. Power bursts from me. The plants disintegrate and fall, naught but ash.

I leap forward and slice the faery’s throat with my blade. Blood gushes onto my armour and into those tiny silver veins that run along the vambraces. The faery blood amalgamates with my armour. The rush from death is strong, a quickening energy that fills me up until I think I might burst.

My blades plunge through armour and slice into bone and sinew. I whirl on my toes and slam my metal fist into another faery’s gut. The force of my blow sends her flying, but she recovers and throws up her hands. Power crashes into me, quick and forceful enough to bruise my chest through the metal breastplate.

The taste of dry earth slides down my throat and I’m suddenly surrounded by flames. Fire burns through my armour and scorches my flesh. But Kiaran’s power is a current inside me and I feel it take over, healing and energising, resonating through the armour, through the faery blood that covers it, through my heart. I draw upon all that power and gather it together inside me, the strength of a storm, and hurl it at the wall of fire.

The flames dissipate around me and the savage part of me screams with victory.

The
daoine sìth
tries to throw more energy at me, but Kiaran’s power is too strong. I sheathe a blade to aim the lightning pistol at the faery’s head and shoot. So easy.

Surrounded by rain and bodies, I look towards the end of the valley, where the outskirts of the city stand.
Daoine sìth
are riding away from the meadow on horseback. Away from the battle and towards my home. I notice Gavin circling my flying machine there, watching to make sure the battle doesn’t spill into the city. I won’t give them the chance.

I sprint for the locomotive, holstering my pistol and touching my blades together so they revert to the star-shaped disc, which slides back into my breastplate. Once inside, I shove at a lever to open the weapons compartment, bringing out the sonic cannon.

As I feel around for earplugs, I shout, ‘Kiaran!’

‘Aye?’

He’s in the locomotive behind me, covered in blood and dirt. His eyes burn bright.

I toss him another pair of earplugs. ‘You’ll be needing these.’

I slip my own plugs snugly into my ears and heave the canon onto my shoulder and flip the intensity level all the way up. For a brief moment, I savour a silence so thick that no sound can penetrate it. The calm before a squall. The sweet sound of peace just before the chaos.

Then I aim for the faeries and pull the release. The contraption shudders in my hands and I watch them fall to the ground as the wave of sound hits them.

I turn and aim again to incapacitate the larger group, which is already pounding fast towards me on their horses. I pull the release again. When the sound pulse hits, they fall in waves as though something solid has crashed into them. The faeries closest to me lie twisted on the ground, bleeding from their ears.

I pull out my earplugs and smile at Kiaran. ‘Decent distraction, aye?’

Kiaran looks impressed. ‘I knew there was a reason I liked you.’

I nod to the incapacitated fae at the far side of the park. ‘Your kill or mine?’

‘Mine,’ Kiaran says. His smile is slow and terrifying. ‘Definitely mine.’

He leaps out of the locomotive and sprints toward the others. If I didn’t have so many enemies at my back, I would have gone with him.

Instead, I throw myself at a circling
sluagh
and plunge my blade into its neck. Cold mist erupts and ice adheres to my armour.

I rush my enemies again. It happens so fast, there’s no time to focus on any particular individual. When one comes at me, I kill it. Then another, then another. I use my explosives and rock and earth rain down on me. The meadow illuminates with power and the sky with flashes of light. Energy hits me and I endure the pain. I dodge, I slice.

I don’t know how many faeries I’ve killed. All that matters is the rush of energy as they die, the sheer joy of it. I slash my blades into the air and watch my borrowed power burst out of me. It slams into more bodies and the shrieks are deafening.

Kiaran’s abilities are intoxicating. The hunt should always be this way. The thrill, the victory. The fear. I need more.

‘Kam!’

Kiaran grabs me from behind, spins me to face him. I nearly lurch into his body, so drunk with power that nausea is beginning to cramp my stomach.

He puts his hands on my face and forces me to look at him. ‘Now,’ he says. ‘We’ve killed enough of them that the shield will hold a little longer. You have to go and activate the seal now.’

‘Now?’ I shake my head, trying to comprehend his words. The urge to fight is pulling me back into the fray again.

I briefly scan the meadow. Kiaran pulled me away just as the remaining fae were retreating to regroup, while those injured are still healing from their many wounds. Scraps of bloodied armour glint in the darkness. Kiaran and I cut through and slaughtered so many, their bodies litter the meadow.

God help me, but I
loved
it. What kind of person does that make me?

‘Kam?’

‘I can kill the rest,’ I tell him, dismissing the horror over what I’ve done. Now isn’t the time for guilt. ‘I can.’

‘No, you can’t.’ Kiaran’s eyes hold mine, so intense I don’t think I could look away if I wanted to. ‘My powers weren’t meant for you. If you hold them too long, they’ll destroy you.’

‘But—but what about—’

You. What about you?
My throat closes.

‘Don’t,’ he says. ‘You have to let me go.’

That’s what stops me cold, suppresses the urge to kill again. I can’t help myself. I pull him to me and kiss him desperately.

‘I’m sorry,’ I say. It’s all I can manage. ‘I’m so sorry.’ I kiss him again so hard, I think my lips will be bruised.

He takes hold of my shoulders, breathing hard as a flash of anguish, of regret, crosses his beautiful face. That look will haunt me for the rest of my days. ‘Go, Kam.’

‘But—’

‘Damn it, I said
go
!’

He pushes me away, his expression carefully composed again, battle-ready. I’ll always remember him this way. Strong, unyielding to the very end.

Against all of my instincts, I turn away and leave him there.

Chapter 38

I
won’t be fast enough, not with the faeries pursuing me on horseback. I sprint to the locomotive again, running so swiftly that I can barely breathe. I crash through puddles that soak through my boots. Rain slaps against my skin, cold and relentless. I leap over the bodies of fallen fae soldiers and try not to think about Kiaran’s fate if I manage to activate the seal.

Out of the corner of my eye, something dark and gleaming leaps at me. I hit the ground rolling. The
cù sìth
vaults above me and lands in the grass. Instinct takes me over. Blades I don’t remember drawing are already in my hands as I throw myself at the hound, slashing.

I don’t even pause to enjoy the kill. I’m on my feet and running through the meadow again. I hear galloping horses behind me and know I haven’t much time. The fae are beginning to recover.

Not much further to the locomotive. Every part of me aches with the effort to keep running. My legs burn. My throat is dry and every breath is agony.

I yank open the door and hop inside, already flipping the switches to start the engine before the door slams shut. ‘Quickly now,’ I whisper to myself, twisting the dial to enable the highest possible speed.

The engine purrs to life. Only then do I look back and see the fae on horseback heading straight towards me. I draw a blade, ready to fight again if I need to. But Kiaran is already there, leaping and cutting through the fae.

I return my attention to operating the locomotive, but it stalls. ‘Come on,’ I mutter, pushing the pedals with my feet.

‘Hurry, Kam!’

Kiaran’s power thunders around us. Power crackles across the meadow, a blinding, searing light that scorches my cheeks. I pump the lever, but again the engine stalls.

‘
Kam!
’

‘I’m trying!’

Just then, one of the
daoine sìth
on horseback reins in his mount and holds a palm out towards me, fingers splayed.
Oh, damnatio
—

Light bursts from his palm.

I throw the door open and dive from the locomotive, my body slamming into the ground. I yelp as my wrist cracks under my weight.

The locomotive explodes. I pull my knees to my chest and cover my head as scraps of glass and metal hit the ground. A large, sharp piece embeds itself into the ground right next to my face.

Get up, get up!

I push to my feet, ignoring the sharp pain in my wrist. Kiaran’s powers are already healing it.

Ahead of me, I see a metal horse without a rider. I race across the meadow and leap onto the animal’s back, settling myself astride in the saddle. The horse whinnies in protest and smoke rises from its nostrils. It rears, but I hold on tight to its fine golden mane. Kiaran’s powers stream from my fingertips, glowing brightly. The horse calms.