If Derrick were here, he could quickly search through the buildings for us. If he were here—
He’s not here, and you have to focus. I try to block out the doubts, the low noise of the others murmuring to each other. I search the city with my senses, risking a small pulse of power. It travels through the landscape, combing the quiet, brightly lit streets. There is no hum of electricity, no birds in the trees, no horses. Edinburgh is entirely silent.
If I were her, where would I go?
My powers continue their search through the miles of mazelike streets. Through the layers of buildings and the vast underground network of tunnels. She must be here somewhere.
When my power lingers on George Street, I sense something. Small. Subtle. Music?
The Assembly Rooms.
I open my eyes. “Follow me.”
I lead them past the shops in the direction of George Street. Past the beautiful houses of Charlotte Square; I keep my eyes straight ahead as we pass my old home. Don’t look at it. Don’t get distracted.
“Do you sense something?” Kiaran asks me.
“Music at the Assembly Rooms. It’s where I first saw her clearly. When I was taken back to the night my”—I can’t help but glance at Sorcha, my fingers curling into fists—“the night Sorcha murdered my mother.”
I had almost said, The night my mother died, but why mince words? There’s no need for politeness. Sorcha killed her. She knows she killed my mother.
Sorcha looks amused. “You certainly get straight to the point, don’t you? If I didn’t loathe you, I’d respect that.”
The city is quiet, eerily so. I remember when I went out at night, it seemed as if the city held its breath until the moment I stepped out of my garden gate. When I ran through the streets with my coat in the wind behind me, Edinburgh pulsed as if it were alive. I’ll never stop missing it; my heart is still here. It is a city of monsters, a city of secrets. No matter what happens, I keep ending up back here, right where it all started. It might be a hollowed-out hole in the ground in the human realm, but it still lives on through me.
The air is so still as we make our way past the empty shops on George Street. It’s rare that the city would be this quiet, this lifeless. I’m used to there always being a breeze. To the scent of hops and wood fires and a hint of whisky in the air.
But when I approach the Assembly Rooms, the chandeliers are all lit. The archways are illuminated, flickering with flames. From inside, I hear the melodic trill of violins playing a familiar song that stops me right in my tracks.
“Flowers of the Forest.” The song they played during my mother’s funeral. I didn’t attend—I couldn’t—but I stole out of the house to watch the procession at St. Cuthbert’s. I swear that song echoed all over the city.
“Kam?” Kiaran’s voice is soft.
“That song,” I say. “I know that song.”
I walk slowly to the entrance of the Assembly Rooms and push open the massive, heavy oak door. It’s completely empty inside. The music has vanished, as if I had imagined it. The dance floor is bare; our footsteps echo harshly across the hardwood. The only indication I had ever heard it was the soft resonance of the song in my ears, calling, beckoning. A message? From the Morrigan or her consort?
“Well, she’s not here,” Sorcha says, looking annoyed. “Any other suggestions? Maybe she’s gone to the pub.”
“Do you actively try to be such an irritating pain in the arse, or does it happen by instinct?” Aithinne asks.
“I’m simply wondering when I can take one of these humans, tear open her neck, and drink from it until the end of the world.” Sorcha eyes Aithinne. “Or you can fall on your brother’s sword and the rest of us will hope we live to make it out into an intact world.”
Aithinne presses her lips together and looks away. “I will. If it comes to that.”
“No you won’t,” Kiaran says shortly.
I shut my eyes and think. When I was in the mirrored room, the Morrigan used Lonnrach’s form to break into my mind. So if her consort was there hiding in the mirrors, she would have seen all my memories, not just of Edinburgh, but of my life here. Maybe the music was just a distraction for the Morrigan, or a message to me of where I first saw her.
Your memories showed a safe place. I hope you find something like that again.
Safe. Somewhere that’s safe. Where would I go if I wanted to be safe? If the consort saw this city in my memories, where would she go to hide from the Morrigan? There aren’t many places in this city where she would have seen me seek refuge. Just . . .
I have an idea.
I send a small pulse with my power again, searching just where I think she might be, and I find it. Small, barely noticeable, like a breeze rustling leaves. “I know where she is.”
I’m already starting out of the ballroom of the Assembly Rooms with Kiaran close behind. “The last memories from the mirror were of us in Edinburgh. She would have seen the place I felt safest from the fae and hidden there when the Morrigan created the city.”
“Where is she?”
I look at him. “My bedroom.”
CHAPTER 44
I SPEED BACK down George Street, barely registering the buildings on either side of me. I don’t check to see if the others are following. My frantic, frenzied pulse thunders in my ears and something about it only urges me faster. Faster. I don’t feel like myself. I feel like I did in the woods when Derrick found me, without any memories. Feral, savage. Desperate.
Find her. You’re running out of time.
A thundering crash to my left almost makes me slow down before I reach Charlotte Square.
“Kam!”
I look over. Just behind Kiaran the buildings are beginning to topple, as if struck by something massive. Debris smashes into the street. Powder from the stonework bursts into the air as I sprint past.
The Morrigan? No, it’s not the Morrigan. I don’t feel her power, not yet. The realm is coming apart.
I race across the thoroughfare and into the center of Charlotte Square. My home is silent as I approach. The last time I saw this place, it was dilapidated, a partial ruin left behind from the Wild Hunt. When I battled the mortair, Aithinne’s monstrous metal creation used by Lonnrach, the creature’s weapon completely obliterated it. The real Charlotte Square house is ash now.
I jump onto the pavement and bound up the front steps to the door. Kiaran joins me there with the others close behind. I hesitate and look back at Catherine, Gavin, and Daniel. “If the Morrigan comes,” I tell them, “don’t engage her. Let the rest of us handle it.”
Catherine opens her mouth as if to argue, but she only says, “Fine.”
Sorcha is about to speak when Aithinne cuts her off. “Don’t. My patience with you is very thin and I’m ready to stick you with the pointy end of my blade.” Aithinne looks at me. “Go on.”
It’s unlocked. I push my way inside, but the house is so empty and still. A distant rumble reminds me that this place could go at any moment just like the other buildings.