I know now where Barrons ends and I begin.
When Barrons ended, I began.
Me.
Mac O’Connor.
Sidhe-seer that a certain Seelie Prince said the world should fear.
I kneel and kiss Barrons a final time.
I do not cover him or perform any ritual. It would be for me, not him. There is only one thing left that I will do for me.
Soon, none of this will matter anyway.
I had to be ripped in half to stop feeling so torn in two. Divided, never knowing who to trust.
I’m now a woman with a single ambition.
I know exactly what I’m going to do.
And I know how I’m going to do it.
3
After leaving Barrons’ body, I travel in the direction my guardian demon had been herding me. I believe he must have wanted me to go this way for a reason.
I trust him in death like I never did in life.
What a piece of work I am.
I follow the river for miles. As he disappears behind me, so, too, do I. With each step I take, I strip off another piece of myself. The weak parts. The parts that won’t help me accomplish my goals. And if they are the so-called human parts, oh, well. I can’t feel and still survive what I’ve got to get through.
When I am certain I am ready, I stop and wait for my enemy.
He does not disappoint.
“I thought you’d never get here,” I say, my voice husky from screaming. It hurts to talk. I savor the pain. It’s what I deserve.
The LM is still some distance away, concealed in the forest, but I see the shadows that move too sinuously to be cast by any tree.
“Come out.” I lean back against a tree, one hand in a pocket at my cocked hip, the other at my waist. “I am what you want, aren’t I? What you came here for. What all this is about. Why hesitate now?”