Fairest

Chapter 30

Niamh

‘I’m thinking of going through,’ Matt says as I make my way down the central aisle of the old church and into the side chapel.

‘Even if it means they’ll kill you for what you did?’

‘Even if,’ he says. ‘But I didn’t do it. At least then she’ll be free.’

‘Matt—’ I take his hand, and he squeezes mine.

‘Are you going to follow him?’ he asks.

‘He’ll not be happy.’

He turns and looks at me. ‘So, that’s a yes.’

I inhale, then stop and sit down in the front pew and look at the decoration around the windows. Carvings done by stonemasons, long dead. Perhaps for a thousand years or more. I’m struck by a sudden thought.

‘Are the Kinfolk immortal? Do you age like humans?’

‘Those of us who appear or can appear human, yes. Pretty much,’ he replies. ‘Why? Worried you’re dating a much older man?’

I laugh. ‘Cillian is definitely old enough. But that’s good to know.’

‘What do you think you can do at the Court, Niamh?’

‘I’m not sure,’ I admit. ‘I mean, I have no idea how your legal system works.’

‘Legal system,’ he scoffs. ‘It’s not so much a system as something determined by the whim of an old man – and some rather unpredictable and ancient magic.’

‘When I was coming here’—I pause, not sure what to tell him—‘I think there was magic helping me to get here, keeping me safe, but also preventing Cillian from killing me.’

‘What sort of magic?’

‘No idea. Whatever it was, it all seemed to be working in my favour. There was an old washerwoman who gave me directions, a thick mist that shrouded me from Cillian’s hunt and a white stag that gave its life so that Cillian would have a heart to present to Vittoria.

All of them led me here to St Marnox. And the only place we can go from St Marnox is back to the Court. ’

‘Hmm.’ He regards me. ‘You seem different today.’

My cheeks heat at the thought of why that might be, then I lift my hand to my chest and pause, feeling the emptiness around my neck. I’m shocked I haven’t noticed it before, but I suppose I’ve been focused on other things.

‘My—’ I look around me, as though my necklace just dropped off me somewhere here.

‘Your necklace,’ Matt says, and I turn to him. ‘It wasn’t in the garden,’ he adds, ‘I think Vittoria took it.’

‘She stole my necklace?’ I grind my teeth. ‘My mother gave me that.’

I get up, determination gripping me.

‘We should go. I don’t want my fate to be left in the hands of those who wish to condemn me. I should at least present my version of the events.’

‘Aye.’ Matt nods. ‘And I want to see Rose. If I can’t be with her, then I want to let her move on. Properly.’

‘She loves you, Matt. It’s only ever been you.’ I wish I could fix this for him, and for Rose. And maybe with me to defend him, there’s a chance.

He smiles sadly. ‘Do you need to take anything with you?’ he asks.

I shake my head. ‘No. But … how do we know when we’ll arrive.’

‘We don’t. Let’s just hope that wild, unpredictable magic that got you here, is ready to take you back there at exactly the right time.

‘I hope so,’ I murmur, though I don’t feel confident.

‘If it’s meant to be, it will,’ Matt says. ‘So let’s find out.’

I get up and he puts his arm around my shoulders and, side by side, we step up to the thin place.

Matt lets go of me, and presses his hands on an invisible barrier, whispering strange words as he pushes through.

I stick as close to him as possible, closing my eyes at the odd sensation that touches my skin as we move between the worlds—

And emerge into the middle of an underground cavern.

‘Welcome to The Unseelie Court,’ Matt whispers as our new reality takes form around us.

We’re surrounded by a column of light that reaches upwards from the floor.

I put a hand out to touch it, and it repels me with a buzz of energy.

I pull my hand back and look around the strange room.

It’s definitely underground, a large circular cavern surrounded by small intricately carved wooden alcoves.

I look up to see how high it is, but the chamber seems to go up forever into the darkness.

Looking back at the alcoves, I spot Vincenzo in one, sitting on a large throne. ‘So, he really is a king?’ I whisper.

‘He really is. And chances are, Cillian will be next. Except that—’ Matt stops, and his brow creases. ‘Oh.’

‘What?’

‘If he’s with you, he’d have to give up that. Maybe even being the Huntsman. Dammit.’ Matt kicks at the floor. I put out a hand to stop him when I see the way the Rialis are watching him.

‘You need to behave like you’re on trial,’ I say.

‘Niamh. We are on trial.’

Cillian walks towards us, placing his hands on the wall of light surrounding us. I echo his movement, prepared for the energy zap this time, but although our hands look like they’re touching, I can’t feel his. He smiles at me, then shakes his head.

‘You shouldn’t have come,’ he says.

‘We had to. We both had to.’

‘Matthew Muir,’ Vincenzo says, drawing our attention to the throne. ‘Isn’t this convenient? Are you ready to pay for your crimes?’

Matt looks at Rose, then smiles a gentle smile at her before he faces Vincenzo directly, meaning that I can no longer see his face. ‘I didn’t murder Chris, Vincenzo. I think you know that.’

‘I don’t want to hear his name pass your lips,’ Vincenzo snarls. ‘I should never have given you another chance. You, and your father, you’re scum. Traitors.’

‘No,’ says Matt calmly. ‘I’m ready to stand trial, Vincenzo, because I’m not guilty of the crime I was accused of. I won’t have any more of my life stolen from me in that place and to do that I have to place my trust in the Court.’

Vincenzo scoffs. ‘I am the Court, and I already know you are guilty. The evidence I presented before was enough to instigate a hunt. The Court—’

But Matt ignores Vincenzo and turns his gaze back to Rose and then he’s simply gone.

‘Where did he go?’ Vincenzo lurches from his seat but is pulled back down by Vittoria, who whispers to him.

‘We’re not here to discuss your son, Vincenzo,’ a younger man says, looking to the others for support. A couple nod in agreement, while yet another leans back in his seat and gives me a thumbs-up, clearly loving the spectacle.

‘You tried to kill me,’ I say, addressing Vittoria. ‘It should be you on trial and not me.’

‘Ridiculous! We’ve just watched the evidence. I had every right to seek vengeance for the deaths of my three Kin.’

‘So, you admit it, then?’

‘What?’

‘That those three men were Riali Kin. They worked for you?’

‘Yes. Low-level employees. I didn’t recognise them in the alley. It was dark.’

All around the chamber people mutter, and chairs shift.

‘See, those of us who were there’—I indicate Cillian standing next to Rose and Aiden, with Sean behind them—‘we know that’s not true. One of the men, Ed, recognised you at the time. Implied you’d been lovers – yet you claimed not to know him.’

‘I didn’t remember him,’ Vittoria snaps.

‘It’s funny, Cillian knows everyone who works for him, even the humans. He remembers their names. Rewards loyalty. And yet you—’ I pause and smile at her. ‘Well, I can understand why Cillian doesn’t feel you’d make a good queen, don’t you?’

The man who spoke earlier laughs, and the one who gave me a thumbs-up leans forward almost gleefully.

‘None of this changes the fact that in that lane you lifted a Kinfolk knife from the ground, held it up and stabbed a man, Kin, right through the throat with it.’

‘Kin who were attacking me. Kin who had drugged us earlier and planned to rape and kill me.’

There’s an energy in this place – I can feel it in the way the ground trembles under my feet, in the way the torchlight around the walls is growing incrementally brighter with each passing minute.

‘You’re human!’ Vittoria yells. ‘You cannot be allowed to kill Kin!’

‘I did not intentionally kill anyone, Vittoria,’ I state calmly. With every passing statement, I feel more sure about myself. ‘I can’t be guilty of murder if there was no intent to kill. Four years ago, you told me that you would never need a lawyer like me. But I think perhaps, you do.’

‘The videos show you buying the drink that drugged Rose.’

‘Buying them from your barman. In your establishment, Vittoria. I was not the only person to touch those drinks and you know it. There was another man, too, behind the bar. The one sitting behind your father now, in fact. I’d recognise that smile anywhere.’

I regret my words as soon as they leave my mouth. Mocking a scar is not something I’d normally condone but standing here, facing the woman who tried to kill me more than once – well, I suppose anger is a very normal, human response.

Something shifts in my head even as I think it, and a memory flashes into my thoughts.

The washerwoman by the stream. A feeling I had then of familiarity.

I spread my hands out in front of them and look at them, and for a moment they don’t really look like my hands.

I shrug off the ridiculous thought and catch Rose’s eye.

She’s staring at me, her lips parted, her brow furrowed.

‘It’s funny, that in the alley, I don’t even remember picking up the knife. I looked at it, it was lying on the ground, just out of my reach. Then Frank attacked me, and it was just suddenly in my hand – like magic.’

Vittoria smirks. ‘And how are you going to prove that?’

‘It’s a pattern, though. Isn’t it? And you said it yourself—’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘When we arrived. You said that it had been four years of you trying to kill me.’

Cillian’s head jerks towards her, and he glares at her. ‘What?’

‘What did you expect?’ Vittoria snaps at him. ‘From the very first moment you set eyes on her, you didn’t want me anymore. Me? When I have so much more to offer.’

‘The night my parents died,’ I go on, ‘a car followed them. Your car.’

‘I wasn’t anywhere near the accident.’ She sounds so sure, so confident, I almost believe her. But she must be lying. I know she’s behind it. ‘And all it did was push him closer to you. Until the next day, at least.’

‘You made a mistake, Vittoria.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. The only mistake I made was in not killing you myself.

But you always seemed so inconsequential and pathetic.

So easy to forget about until… Until something would happen, and then he’d notice you again.

Even a few weeks ago, when he finally proposed, it was the night he saw you at your graduation party.

He asked me because he wants so very much to be king that he can’t allow himself to be tempted by you.

And I knew that even if I was his wife, he would still want you more. ’

‘You think you have so much, Vittoria, and yet you keep taking from me. My parents, Cillian, my necklace.’

‘This?’

She pulls it from her pocket and flings it at me.

It hits the column and explodes in a storm of bright red light.

Those outside the column of light cover their ears, cowering from the explosion and the noise that follows.

A cacophony of voices all screaming, but the screaming fades until all I hear is many voices holding a single note in a beautiful harmony.

The light in The Unseelie Court grows brighter, and one of the dark alcoves starts to gently glow as the room begins to spin.

There’s still no sign of Matt, so I’m alone, spinning inside a column of light.

The faster I spin, the more the lights fade until the chamber falls into pitch darkness.

I feel cool air on my face, the gentle touch of rain and look up to see that the hill above my head has opened to reveal a night sky full of stars.

Power prickles across my skin. It passes over me and through me.

In front of me, I see my mother’s face. As she smiles at me, her eyes grow brighter, her hair deepens into a richer shade of chocolate, and her cheeks take on the colour and texture of the most delicate of pink roses.

My father puts his arm around her shoulders.

He smiles at me, then kisses my mother’s cheek.

They are both glowing – the same glow I have seen all around me here in The Unseelie Court. No, not the same. Not quite.

I reach out and touch the column, feeling the pulse of power within it.

So much of what I’ve witnessed around the Kinfolk and in the Underworld has been all about deception.

Glamour. Truths that cleverly masquerade as lies, and vice versa.

They all consider themselves experts in deception, but none of them has seen the truth that was right in front of them. None of them has truly seen me.

I place my palms flat against the light, and its power flows into me.

My awareness increases. I can hear the creatures moving in the earth that surrounds us, sense the millions of people’s lives in the city.

Feel the two worlds hovering, side by side, see the thin places where the veil between those worlds stretches and tears and allows people to pass through.

It moves through me, finding all the magic placed upon me by my parents.

And with the untangling of that magic, I remember the stories my mother whispered to me in the dark, everything she taught me about The Seelie Court in the hope that one day, one day we could return.

Voices speak in a language long forgotten, telling me how they hid me, how they had no choice.

Until the Blight is reversed, they will not be the only ones who are safer in hiding.

But for me there will be no more hiding.

I cover my face with my hands as the column stops spinning, feel the pulse of Glamour slide from the surface, revealing my true nature.

Drawing the last of the concealing magic from my face, I shake it from the tips of my fingers as I look up into Cillian’s confused face.

He reaches for me, and I step into him, lifting my face as he lowers his, his lips finding mine and breathing life back into my every fibre of being. The power flows, swirling between us. From me into him and back and when I see myself reflected in his eyes, they are no longer merely human.

‘Niamh,’ he whispers.

I am Kin.