by Helen Harper
I stiffened and Byron’s expression turned abruptly to alarm. ‘What is it?’
‘I can sense them,’ I whispered. ‘They’re coming.’
He whipped his head round. ‘I can’t see anything.’
The landscape behind us was utterly bare. I couldn’t even see the silhouette of Edinburgh any more.
‘Illusion wasn’t the only Gift I stole,’ I said urgently – and vaguely. ‘We don’t have long.’
For once, he seemed to believe me. ‘Can we make it?’
‘I don’t know. It’s an army of Fomori and the vanguard is close. We need to do something to keep them back long enough for us to escape.’
‘Where are they?’
‘Due south.’ I put my hand over his. ‘Can you find any magic inside yourself? Anywhere?’
‘There’s a trickle, nothing more.’ He shook his head in dismay. ‘Not enough to put up a decent defence.’
I ignored the surge of panic in my belly. ‘Enough for one fireball?’
‘Maybe. It’ll be weak. And I don’t know where to send it.’
‘Straight ahead.’ I pointed towards the city we’d just left. ‘They won’t know you’re using up all the magic you’ve got. It’ll throw them off and give us enough time.’
‘Or tell them our exact location.’ His expression tightened. ‘I can run. We can get to the Veil.’
I was adamant. ‘No, we can’t.’
If Byron hadn’t been in such a bad state, he would probably have refused me. But I had just rescued him and he had to trust me. He nodded and bit his lip. I felt him shudder. I shouldn’t be asking this of him while he was in this condition but I didn’t have a choice.
He drew in a deep, shaky breath and a little ball of fire sprang into life. It was weak but it was the perfect beacon. Like moths to a flame, I thought grimly.
‘That way,’ I urged, before he lost the energy or changed his mind.
Byron threw it out. The fireball arced into the air then sprang forward, lighting up the darkness. I had to hope it was enough. I needed some Fomori to follow us through the Veil.
‘It’s not going to do anything more than singe their eyebrows.’
It didn’t have to. ‘They don’t have eyebrows,’ I said. ‘Come on. Let’s get out of here.’
We turned and ran as quickly as we could. I prayed to whoever was listening that Byron’s magic had worked. I didn’t want an actual army, I only needed one demon.
The Veil drew closer. At one point, Byron started to lose momentum but I hooked his arm round me and we managed to keep going. Less than fifty feet from the Veil I finally heard them. Thank goodness.
‘They’re here!’ Byron croaked.
‘I know.’ I crossed my fingers, hoping that this would work. ‘But we’re almost home free.’
There were three of them of the winged variety, their huge leathery appendages helping them gain on us with unerring speed. One swooped over my head and I ducked just in time to avoid being yanked up into the air. It snarled and spun into a somersault.
‘Run!’ I shrieked as the demons landed behind us, their wiry bodies making the transition from air to land in a heartbeat. They pelted after us. Somehow Byron found the strength and, together, we surged towards the Veil.
There wasn’t time to take a breath. The three Fomori were almost close enough to touch us and I swear that I felt the scratch of curved claws snatching at the back of my shirt. ‘Hold on tight,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘We’re almost there.’
‘Fabulous,’ Byron gasped in response before the swirling clouds of the Veil made speech impossible. ‘Except they are too.’
Golden Boy had a made valid point. As I hauled him through, step after painful step, worry about what was coming next clenched at my gut. If this didn’t work, I was out of options. The trouble was that the alternative – certainly in the long term – would probably be far, far worse.
We fell out on the other side of the Veil, heaving in the fresh air. I heard Jamie shouting and, within seconds, Angus was by my side. ‘We have to get away from the Veil,’ I said, gasping heavily. ‘There are three demons coming through.’
I barely had time to register Jamie blanching before Angus took Byron’s weight from me and looked at me meaningfully. I nodded once and he looked away. Half stumbling, half running, we moved from the edge of the Veil towards the waiting cars, parked fifty feet away and shrouded in darkness. This would be a damn sight easier if it was daytime. Now we had no advantage against the trailing demons.
‘You take Byron in yours!’ Angus called to Jamie. ‘I’ll look after Integrity.’
Angus and I pulled ahead of the other two; with his limp, Byron wasn’t going anywhere fast. I twisted slightly; my toe caught on a stone and I went flying, taking Angus down with me.
‘Integrity!’
‘I’m fine,’ I called out, getting to my feet and helping Angus up. ‘Just get to the bloody car!’
Byron didn’t want to. I could see the desperation on his face. Fortunately for all of us, Jamie yanked him away, wrenching open his car door and ushering him inside. A heartbeat later, I heard a cacophony of snarls. The demons had joined us.
‘Integrity,’ Angus warned, his voice rising in panic.
‘Hang on,’ I told him. ‘Just hang on.’
A dark shape flew out from behind the nearest car. Chandra, her eyes glittering in the weak moonlight, stretched out her arm. In her hand was a gun with a long, lethal-looking barrel.
‘Sorry, Tegs.’ Her words rang out in the cold air and made even the demons pause. ‘It’s nothing personal. You understand that.’ She smiled and pulled the trigger.
Pain exploded in my chest; I hadn’t expected it to hurt so damned much. My world slid sideways and I collapsed. Dimly, I heard Byron shout. My gaze fell on him struggling to get out of the car. You idiot, I thought. Just stay put and everything will be fine.
Angus screamed my name. He fell to his knees beside me, his hands fumbling.
‘The demons,’ I whispered.
‘Don’t die, Tegs.’ He grabbed the lapels of my dark blouse. ‘Don’t you dare fucking die!’
With my peripheral vision, I spotted Chandra throw the three demons a nervous look before she spun on her heel and ran, escaping into the cold Highland night. The fashion-forward assassin knew when she was out-matched.
I coughed, tasting blood in my mouth. ‘Get out of here, Angus.’
He shook his head violently. ‘No.’
Everything was starting to feel hazy. Byron was still shouting and I heard a crackle as a fireball whizzed past my head. There was a shriek from the demons. How Byron had found the strength to call up his Gift once more, I had no idea.
‘He can’t kill them,’ I whispered. ‘Don’t let him kill them.’
Angus stared into my face then nodded. He leapt to his feet and waved his arms frantically at Jamie. ‘Get him out of here!’
I reached down into myself. A long, rippling shudder ran down my spine.
‘Integrity!’ Then, ‘Fuck off, Jamie!’ With more strength than I thought he could possibly have, Byron bounded over and collapsed beside me. I felt his hands on my face. His breathing was coming in short, sharp gasps and he started to moan. ‘No. No. You can’t. Integrity. Tegs, don’t do this to me. Don’t...’
Jamie’s arms pulled him backwards. ‘We have to go.’
‘I am not leaving her for those monsters!’ Byron’s cheeks were glistening and I realised that he was crying. Pain stabbed through me. Not for me, Byron. Don’t do that for me.
‘It’s too late,’ Jamie hissed.
Angus ran to his car as Jamie manhandled Byron away. In normal circumstances, he’d never have managed it; Byron’s body was built for strength and those muscles weren’t just for show. But he was weakened by his ordeal and our escape and he couldn’t put up a fight. When I heard the car door slam once more, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Two engines revved and headlights streamed onto my body. The
demons took their chance, loping towards me, cackling. The nearest one bent down. This was the most dangerous part. He prodded me with his finger, peering into my eyes and stretching a cold, bony finger to my wrist to feel for a pulse. There was the gleam of a blade. Shite. That wasn’t good.
‘Get away!’ I heard Angus yell. He hit the horn and his car lurched forward, making it clear that he’d run both them and me over if he had to. ‘Get back to where you came from and leave her the fuck alone!’
The demon stood up slowly. ‘Vern tack Adair. Var?’
‘Vas.’ His companions said in apparent agreement. They grinned, laughed ‒ and then turned and went back to where they’d come from. The Veil hissed and spat as it swallowed them, resenting the intrusion and welcoming them back at the same time.
Jamie gunned his engine, the tyres spinning as he reversed and speeded off. I could still hear Byron yelling at him to stop. Good boy, Jamie. Keep going and don’t look back. Angus did the same, following immediately in Jamie’s wake. I stayed where I was, less than fifty feet from the continuously sparking Veil. At last, I was completely alone. I was dead. Finally.
I didn’t move for a long time. To be honest, I was more worried that those damned demons would come back and chop off my head as a trophy than anything else.
‘Tegs?’
With difficulty, I propped myself up onto my elbows and squinted. Chandra, with Bob perched on her shoulder, came towards me. I rolled away, blinking as the illusion of my corpse started to fade.
‘It worked.’ I shook my head in amazement. Then I winced; I had a hell of a headache from the way I’d thudded down. And that was without mentioning my chest. ‘That bloody hurt,’ I complained to Chandra. I spat out a gobbet of blood.
She shrugged amiably. ‘It might have been a rubber bullet but it was still a bullet. It’s supposed to hurt.’
‘I can kiss it better, Uh Integrity,’ Bob piped up, puckering his lips.
I didn’t answer. Instead, I let Chandra to help me up to my feet.
‘Those demons were pretty scary,’ she said. ‘It’s just as well they left when they did. I don’t fancy my chances against one, let alone three.’
‘We got lucky,’ I agreed. ‘At least now they think I’m dead. But we should get out of here in case they decide to come back.’
Bob sniffed as we limped away. ‘I thought your Byron would have been more heroic. Ranting is one thing but he didn’t do anything helpful. If it had been me, I’d have done something. I’d have thrown myself in the path of the bullet. Then I’d have tackled the shifty assassin and...’
‘Hey!’ Chandra protested. ‘Who are you calling shifty?’
‘If the shoe fits,’ Bob dismissed. He flicked a disdainful look at Chandra’s footwear but, when he clocked her silver knee-high boots, his expression changed. ‘Nice,’ he said approvingly before returning to his original topic. ‘All Byron actually did was cry your name a few times and then start weeping. What kind of man sheds tears? Pah!’
Chandra and I exchanged looks. ‘The kind of man,’ she said icily, ‘who has a heart and is in touch with his feelings.’
Even through the Gift of Illusion, which made me appear dead, I’d seen the anguish in Byron’s face. I wished desperately that there could have been another way but we needed the breathing space that my supposed death offered. Aifric wasn’t going to stop trying to kill me, no matter what happened, and my luck would only have held out so far. Sooner or later he’d have hit his mark.
Now Byron would carry the news of my death back to his father – and his father would believe it because Byron had seen it with his own eyes. The three Fomori demons had, too. If what Aifric said was correct and they were attacking the Highlands because of my existence, they would now withdraw and leave everyone in peace. As far as the both the Highlands and the Lowlands were concerned, every single member of the Adair Clan was very, very dead.
***
We regrouped back at the mansion. Sorley was grinning from ear to ear. ‘It was perfect,’ he said, clapping his hands. ‘You should have seen it, Chieftain.’
‘Oscar-worthy,’ Angus agreed.
I leaned back against the reassuringly solid wall of the Adair house and smiled. ‘Tell me.’
‘The MacBains got here about midday. All they managed to do was start clearing out some of the rooms with Tipsania ordering them around like she was queen of the castle. We lit a campfire for them and Taylor opened up some of tins of beans...’
I groaned slightly. ‘More beans?’
‘They were well behaved, those MacBains,’ he said. ‘No farting.’
I rolled my eyes.
‘Anyway,’ Angus continued, ‘I came flying through right after I left you.’ He threw me a look. ‘I wasn’t faking my panic, those demons were seriously scary. I screeched about how you’d been killed and there were demons at the Veil, and the MacBains went into a blind panic.’
Sorley jabbed at his chest. ‘That’s when I stepped in. Told them that with the last Adair gone, we were claiming the land ourselves. The trolls were taking over and the MacBains could do nothing about it. They vamoosed before we could even shake our spears.’
‘I cried,’ Speck said proudly. ‘I rubbed Vicks under my eyes.’ In fact, his eyes were still streaming tears. With our apparent victory, however, he no longer seemed to notice.
‘Taylor?’ I asked.
‘I did exactly as you said. Made a big song and dance about how we were going through the Veil ourselves after the demons. We ran out at the same time as the MacBains, then doubled back when they’d all gone.’
Lexie bobbed her head. ‘If they look for us, they won’t find a thing. They’ll just assume we’ve been killed.’
‘And if anyone tries to investigate these lands, they’ll find an army of squatting trolls in their way,’ Brochan rumbled. ‘It was a good plan, Tegs. The last-minute inclusion of that lot worked perfectly.’
‘It’s not a permanent solution,’ I warned. ‘Sooner or later someone will discover the truth.’
‘Yeah.’ Taylor came up and put his arm round me. ‘But we’re all safe for now. The Fomori will stop attacking and Aifric will think he’s won.’
‘Except he won’t know what’s hit him,’ Lexie said, rubbing her hands together in glee.
My smile didn’t quite reach my eyes. I still couldn’t erase the look on Byron’s face when he thought I was dead. I’d find a way to reveal the truth to him and I’d just have to hope he didn’t hate me too much when he realised what I’d done. It was a necessary evil. Short of actually dying, I couldn’t think of an alternative.
‘It’s a shame the MacBains weren’t here for longer to help sort out this place,’ I said, gazing up at the high walls.
‘I can stay for a while,’ Morna said. She wagged her finger. ‘I’m not swearing fealty, mind, but I’ll help put some life back into this place.’
‘And we don’t need the MacBains now we have the trolls,’ Brochan said. ‘There are more than enough hands to get everything shipshape.’
Tipsania appeared in the doorway. May shuffled in behind her, with a shy smile on her face. Chandra’s eyes lit up. I knew exactly what she was thinking: there might only be one Fomori demon in the whole of the Highlands but if the wily assassin had her way, she’d be that demon’s fashion designer. Before I could say that we needed to keep May’s existence as much of a secret as mine, Tipsania spoke.
‘What are you cretins doing?’ she shrieked. ‘I’m not your slave! There are floors that need scrubbing and rooms that need to be emptied. Get a move on!’
Everyone turned and stared at her.
‘It’s four o’clock in the morning,’ Speck complained.
‘You’re up, aren’t you, Four Eyes?’
I winced. Tipsania still needed some work to become a functioning member of our tiny society. We’d get there though. Somehow we’d all get there. I couldn’t stay dead forever but for now everyone was safe. I had to separate the part of my heart
that yearned for Byron and focus on what we’d achieved. He was safe – and so was my country. We’d won the battle, if not the war.
Epilogue
Neither Jamie nor Byron said a word until they reached the outskirts of Perth. Jamie’s hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly the entire way that he had cramp but that was nothing compared to the pain that Byron was feeling. He ignored the blood which continued to seep through his clothes and the sapping weakness which drained his body. The physical pain was nothing and the cuts would heal. His power would return. Not everything else would, though.
Byron stared out of the window when Jamie stopped at a petrol station to fill up. This was all his fault. Integrity, with her laughing violet eyes and smile that would light up the entire country, was gone.
‘That MacQuarrie bastard,’ he ground out, when Jamie returned. ‘Coward.’ He cursed and his shoulders drooped. ‘So are we. We should have stayed. We should have done something.’
Jamie stayed silent for a long moment. ‘We couldn’t have done anything. You barely had the strength to lift your head and I have no useful Gift. Not against Fomori demons, anyway.’
‘She’s dead.’ Byron spoke in a strangled voice. ‘Integrity is dead.’
His friend gripped his hand, squeezing it tightly. He didn’t say anything else.
The gaping chasm inside Byron grew until he was overcome by a void of grief and pain. He kept seeing her face over and over again, that cheeky grin, the way she flipped her hair over her shoulder when she was trying to make a point. Her godawful jokes. He went over and over it in his mind. It had happened so quickly. Who the hell was that woman who’d shot her? What could he have done differently to prevent it from happening?
He clutched his head. It didn’t feel like she was gone but he’d seen her die right in front of his own eyes. He’d chase down that woman – and anyone else who’d had a hand in Integrity’s death ‒ and make them rue the day they’d crossed Integrity’s path. If he couldn’t have her, he’d have vengeance instead.