Page 155 of The Washwoman at the River’s End

He roars again, and flames shoot from his mouth, a trail of fire with heat so intense, sweat breaks out on my brow. The crackle of flames reaches my ears as the roof begins to smoke.

“You have to get help,” I say, turning back to the woman. “The houses here are too close together. If this fire spreads, your entire village will burn to the ground.”

“Ma!” she screams, darting forward, but I grab her arm and shake her.

“Listen to me! Do you have a warning bell?” I grab the woman’s hands.

She nods, eyes darting to the hallway once again. “By the cairn.”

“Go. Ring the bell, then hide behind the cairn. The Cutter is coming.”

“I can’t leave them!” she sobs, fighting against me to race toward the back of the house.

“I will get them out. But you have to go warn your village. I don’t remember the way back to the cairn. You have to alert everyone before this fire spreads and it kills every last person in this town.”

Her eyes snap wide, her mouth opening on a gasp, but she moves to the door. I run back to the window, where Athair still circles overhead, getting closer with every rotation.

“You swear to me you’ll get them out?” she asks.

“I swear it to you.” I wait until they turn. “Now! Run!”

She hesitates only a second, then, with one last glance toward the hall where her family sleeps, disappears. I do not waste a moment, racing to pound on every door in the hallway. “Fire! Wake up!” Footsteps sound as the woman’s family wakes, and five people stumble into the hall—two adults and three children, arms across their noses to block out the smoke growing thicker by the second.

“Marsaili!” the older woman screams. She meets my eyes. “Who are you? And where is my daughter? Where is Marsaili?”

“She’s waiting for you down the hill. At the cairn on the edge of the village. Go out the back, and stay hidden. The Cutter is here.”

The woman stiffens.

“Go now. You cannot let her see you.”

Without waiting to see if they listen, I dart out the front door, waving my arms in the air. “Looking for me?” I scream into the night.

Cailleach’s eyes lock onto me in an instant, narrowing into hate-filled slits. She shouts something I can’t hear, and Athair’s head whips to me. He banks, diving in my direction so fast, I barely have time to scramble back. The realm trembles as the enormous beast lands, smoke curling from his nose.

“You,” Cailleach says, a single word brimming with so much disgust it slides along my skin like oil. Her tone is sharp, as if I am the utter bane of her existence.

In my periphery, I see the woman’s family creep around the house, staying low to the ground. I step forward, trying to keep Cailleach’s attention on me.

“How did you find me?” I ask.

“Stop!” she orders, her eyes never leaving mine.

The tang of magic fills the air, prickling along my skin, and as one, the woman’s family freezes.

I hold my breath. “I broke into their home. They have nothing to do with this.”

Cailleach smiles, and it feels as if the world falls from beneath my feet. “Leig loisg iad,” she says. Let them burn.

“No!” I scream, rushing forward, but my voice is lost to the roar of fire leaving Athair’s gaping mouth. I drop to my knees, watching in horror as the woman called Marsaili’s entire family is engulfed in flames. Their screams ring out into the night, pure agony that stabs through my skin and seeps into my blood.

I will never, for as long as I live, forget this sound.

The smell of burnt flesh makes me retch as their cries fade into moans, then silence.

“Ma! Da!” A sob breaks through the quiet.

My heart drops with horror, plummeting into the very earth I stand upon.