Wraith(89)

‘An hour to get to Edinburgh?’ Gabriel jerked his head at a small copse of trees. ‘I told you I had a back-up plan. Did you think the roc dropped us here by accident?’

Oh. Okay. ‘I still think…’

‘We are going to Holyrood,’ he said firmly. ‘You owe me that much at least. We need to prepare for success, Saiya.’

I’d have kept on arguing but his eyes were flinty and cold. ‘Fine,’ I muttered. ‘But I’m not staying long.’

‘Suit yourself.’ He headed towards the trees.

I watched him for a moment. Our near-death experience hadn’t softened him in any way. Pushing aside the pain inside me, I went after him.

***

I tried not to stuff the entire pastry into my mouth in one go. It was a long time since I’d seen food like this. Tasty as it was, though, it didn’t make me feel much better.

Gabriel and I had reached Holyrood almost an hour ago. He’d been taken directly through to address the Parliament while I was left cooling my heels in an antechamber. I nibbled round the edges of the pastry and savoured the delicate filling. Five more minutes, I decided. Then I was out of here.

I was standing up and heading for the door when there was a cough behind me. A liveried guard smiled and I was finally beckoned inside. Feeling nervous, I walked through to an impressively large room where Gabriel, Rymark and numerous others waited. Power seemed to vibrate in the air. There was, however, no sign of the Prime Minister. Impatience gnawed at me and Gabriel’s grim expression didn’t help. His arms were folded across his chest, his biceps taut and his spine straighter than an army colonel’s. No prizes for guessing what Prime Minister James was planning, then.

I gritted my teeth, squared my shoulders and joined them. Rymark immediately stepped into my path, barring my way. From his expression, Gabriel had told him what I really was. ‘Move,’ I said tiredly.

He glared. ‘Make me.’

I shrugged, my shadow stepping away from my body. With one dark hand, I reached out to push him away. Before I connected, Gabriel was already there. ‘It’s fine, Rymark.’

‘She…’

‘Hush.’ Gabriel addressed me. ‘You should probably leave. Ange and Becky are around here somewhere. I’m sure they’d like to see you again.’

I tilted up my chin and met his dark eyes. ‘He’s going to do it, isn’t he? He’s going to destroy the city.’

His gaze shifted away. ‘There’s no choice.’

‘Bullshit!’ I exploded. ‘There’s always a choice! Don’t tell me you agree with this.’

A muscle throbbed in his jaw. ‘I do whatever my government commands.’

Ignoring Rymark’s appalled gasp, I moved closer to Gabriel. He still smelled so damn good. I shook my head to dissipate his musky, masculine scent from my nostrils. ‘Doing whatever your government commands is how things got into this mess in the first place. If you’d stopped the siege as soon as it began and got rid of the Gneiss and the Filits, we wouldn’t now be scrambling to save the country.’

‘Not everything is as black and white as you’d like it to be, Saiya.’

My eyebrows shot up. ‘It seems pretty black and white as far as you’re concerned.’ I punched my own chest. ‘I’m a wraith therefore I’m bad. You’re a Dark Elf therefore you’re good. He’s the Prime Minister therefore he can’t put a foot wrong. We—’

There was a cough from behind. I wouldn’t have bothered to turn but for the fact that Gabriel paled slightly. ‘Prime Minister,’ he muttered. ‘Saiya was just leaving.’

‘I am not!’ I clenched my fists furiously. ‘James, you can’t do this. You can’t destroy all of Stirling.’

Tired brown eyes met mine. ‘It’s not something I want to do,’ he said. ‘And don’t blame young Gabriel for this – he has tried very hard to persuade me otherwise. Just like he tried to persuade me to prevent the Filits from ruling Stirling as they did.’ He looked briefly at Gabriel. ‘I should have listened to you.’ He sighed. ‘Now we have no choice. The goblins have access to the Stone. As soon as one of them is anointed King on it, they will absorb its power and magic. The whole of Scotland will be theirs for the taking. We abandoned Stirling to her fate and the rest of the world will abandon us to ours. Before more people suffer as the people of Stirling have suffered, we must destroy all the goblins, both Filit and Gneiss. And we have to destroy the Stone of Scone. We have to obliterate Stirling. This is what power is – it’s making the hard decisions that no one else can.’ For the briefest moment, James’s eyes filled with tears. He swallowed and turned away.

‘No.’ I wasn’t even aware I’d said the word aloud until everyone looked at me. ‘You can’t do this.’

‘There isn’t any choice.’ James started walking away. Gabriel reached out to stop me but even he couldn’t hold me back.

‘There’s a boy in Stirling!’ I yelled after him. ‘He’s just a kid, probably hasn’t reached double digits yet. Just this week he was prepared to stand up to a full-grown man who could have killed him for the sake of three tiny tomatoes. His little sister needed food.’ The Prime Minister stopped but he didn’t turn around. I swallowed and continued. ‘There’s a woman in Stirling called Isabella Markbury who had enough wealth and power to hide behind and save herself but she risked her life to get Gabriel out. Her friends risked their lives to help us too. Ange was tortured because of the Stone but she still made it here with her daughter. She didn’t do it to save herself, she did it because she thought you could save Stirling. That knowing about the Stone of Scone meant you’d finally do something. There was a man called Marrock.’ My voice caught on his name. ‘When he learnt what was really happening, he sacrificed himself.’ Anger vibrated in my voice. ‘You can bet your regal arse he didn’t do it so you could kill an entire city. There are thousands of kids and Marrocks and Anges and Isabellas. You can’t kill them all.’