killed by those bloody bastards we’ve been hunting all our lives.
“We must go and look for the King of Shadows. We must at least try and destroy him. Or we’ll be picked off one by one,” he murmured.
Winter touched Niall’s face. “I know.”
“I might not be back.”
“I’m coming with you.”
He turned to her in shock. “You can’t, it’s too dangerous! Please, Winter, stay on Islay. Wait for me.”
“Do you really think I’d be safe here? After what happened in this house? We’re all in danger, wherever we are. On land or in the water. There are no heirs left here, Niall. The nearest Families, as far as I know, are further north or down south in England, and I have no idea if they’re still alive. Islay is not safe anymore.”
“Probably, but it’s certainly safer than coming with us.”
“I’m not going to leave you,” she said. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and pressed her warm lips to his. They tasted salty, and there was the usual scent of fresh air and seawater coming off her skin.
Kissing her is like kissing a wave, Niall had time to think before all thoughts ebbed away. With her hands on him, and her lips on his there was no time to think, no time for anything but to wrap himself around her and dive into her warmth. He let his sorrow melt into her, he let his tears flow away, a river of sadness dissolving into the sea.
*
Dawn found them entwined, Winter’s silver hair on his chest, her soft breath in his ear. He opened his eyes to see her lovely face resting on his shoulder, her body against his. The sorrow for Mike’s loss invaded him again, but there was a little light of hope nesting in his heart now, that he would drink from her again and again, and that if night had to close on them forever, at least it would happen when they were together.
58
Blind
Pain is a secret society
That makes those who feel it
Kin
Elodie sat quietly, her hands in her lap. A frozen, still sky was pressing against her window, dotted with a million swirling snowflakes.
So that’s what it was. My hair standing on end every time Nicholas was around, those whispers that crawled in my ears and I couldn’t get rid of – that sense of unease, of danger – fighting with the evidence, the fact that Nicholas had saved my life. The fact that he could have killed me, twice, and he didn’t.
There he was, in flesh and blood, the man ultimately responsible for Harry’s death. The man who destroyed her life.
He was lying sleeping, curled up, as harmless as a child. He’d tried to get up, but had fallen on the floor, his legs giving way. He lay so still, so white, that for a moment Elodie thought he was dead – then she realized he had fallen asleep suddenly, like babies do. The torture he had suffered for hours, that terrible thing he’d called brain fury in his delirium, had left him half-dead and spent. And blind.
So this is the man who killed me.
There was nothing Elodie would have wanted more than to give Nicholas her poisonous kiss. It would have been an immensely stupid thing to do, of course – it didn’t take Elodie long to see that clearly, to turn her rage into a plan. The final plan. The time when everything would come together, and Nicholas would take them straight to the lair of the beast.
Elodie wetted a towel and washed the blood off his face, calmly. She’d never seen anyone bleed from their eyes before. She’d never seen anyone in so much pain. He had clawed at his own cheeks and bit his lips until they were shredded and bleeding. He’d bear the scars for as long as he lived.
Elodie had no sympathy for him, not even now, lying here a broken man. He hadn’t chosen to be born a monster, but he had chosen to do his father’s bidding, to kill and destroy for a long, long time. Until life had taken him to Sarah.
What is it about Sarah that enchants them all?
“Elodie?”
She jumped out of her skin. Nicholas was looking at her with black, shiny, unseeing eyes, so dark that the pupil fused with the iris. Elodie felt a wave of hatred, but didn’t betray any emotion. “You need to get up. We must go.”
He groaned. Immediately, he was sick by the side of the bed. “I’m sorry,”