Read Strangeness and Charm: The Courts of the Feyre for Free Online

go after any of them?"
      "Thank you for making that a question," I said.
      She ruffled through the files and extracted one, handing it to me. "How about this one?"
      I opened the file to a picture of a middle-aged woman staring out of a passport sized photo. Her name was Angela.
      "I've seen this woman before."
      "You have?"
      "She was in the isolation cells below Porton Down. There were a bunch of people locked up in there. I got Raffmir to get me a key to let them out."
      A spray of blood spattered onto a glass wall as Raffmir's sword took the head from the nurse who brought us the key to the cells. Her head bounced down the corridor, right in front of me. Black blood ran down the glass leaving a dark smear in its trail. The smell of fear and death was in my nostrils…
      "Niall?"
      "Hmm? Sorry?"
      "You've seen her before?"
      "Sorry, yes. When I opened the door to the glass cell, she touched me on the cheek."
      I touched my face where she'd placed her hand. When she had reached out for me I had tried to push her away, but it had been like it was glued there.
      "You let her touch you?" Blackbird was incredulous.
      "I was helping her escape."
      She sighed. "You see what I mean now about not being ready."
      "She went all wide-eyed on me, started talking about brightness."
      "And there was brightness, wasn't there? You lit up everything in a five mile radius," said Blackbird.
      "Then she said something else: 'The sun will rise, and they shall fall'."
      "I beg your pardon?" Blackbird suddenly focused back on me.
      "It's what she said, just before she ran into the dark."
      "That's what Deefnir came out with, at the Highsmith's farm. He started blabbering about the felicitations of the Seventh Court and wanted to touch me." She put her hand on her stomach. "Amber wouldn't let him. Deefnir said, 'The son will rise and they shall fall'. I thought he was talking about our son."
      "I thought Angela was talking about the sun in the sky, she'd mentioned brightness. I thought I'd hear it before somewhere, but I couldn't remember where."
      "Kareesh."
      "What?"
      "When I took you to see Kareesh, on the day you came into your power. You bargained for your vision, but before she granted it, she said something. Evader of traps, bringer of hope – it ended with, 'the sun will rise and they shall fall', don't you remember? At the time I thought she was finally losing it, she never volunteers things – not usually."
      "I don't understand the connection. Why should Kareesh say the same as this woman – and what's Deefnir got to do with it?"
      "There's not enough in the file to tell us what's going on. They seemed to think she was a fantasist – they weren't sure she had any power at all."
      "But she said the same thing as Kareesh."
      "And she was touching you at the time. You're the link, Niall. You were there, both times."
      "But not when Deefnir said it."
      "But your son was there inside me. You thought it was the sun will rise, but maybe this woman was referring to your child."
      "What does it mean?"
      "I've told you before, Niall. Prophesy is fickle and uncertain. You can't rely on it. It could mean anything. Even those who see the future don't know what it means."
      "I've got to find this woman."
      "It won't be difficult. They've given her address. Apparently she's living there."
      Turning to the back of the file, there was a photograph of her in a raincoat leaving the front door of a house. Below it was a street map of Tamworth, along with her address.
      "Isn't she worried she'll be arrested?"
      "What for? As far as I can see she hasn't done anything, except maybe witness things that no one else knows about. If they were going to pick her up they'd have done it by now, so I expect they're leaving her for you."
      "I guess I'd better go and see if she's still there then."
      On the back of the dresser was a wooden stand,